Portal 2 custom maps will be interesting

[ríomhaire]

A feature they added to the maps for Portal 2:
Part 1
Part 2

 

[Sloth]

All our minds will turn to pudding...

 

[PorkPi]

I'm not quite sure what this is. So it's like you have a regular doorway or opening but it's actually a portal that leads to a different part of a map instead of having the whole map connected in one piece?

 

[Damic]

The Matrix is here

 

[Tenebrais]

I assume this is what the developer commentary was talking about when it mentioned building all the rooms separately and using portals to connect them so they could restructure them easily. The thing that now appears only once in the actual game when the geometry isn't really possible.

 

[Lobster]

There used to be a mapping-mod for the original Half-Life that let you mess with world portals, it led to loads of great custom maps.

The actual technique has existed for as long as 3D game engines have, its odd that we never see anyone using it for anything cool.

 

[Lanthanide]

Lobster is right, this isn't anything new or revolutionary.

Duke3D actually have a level that made use of this. There was a central square room with a ring of corridors around it, like this:

-----------------
|               |
|   ---------   |
|   |       |   |
|   ---------   |
|               |
-----------------

The central area was directly open in to each of the corridors, so you could just walk in. As you walked around the outer corridors, you were seamlessly teleported to different areas in the map, and the central room you were looking at changed. So it had the appearance of there being 4 rooms all existing in the same space in the centre as you walked around.

That was in 1996.

Here's a video of the level: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVDXcwRGQLk

 

[AtomicSpark]

INCEPTION.

 

[ríomhaire]

I don't remember that Duke3D level but I remember an UT level with a world portal in the basement that moved you to higher up in the level. I know it's not actually a new thing but the idea of it being combined with Portals in a puzzle environment is awesome and I believe this is new for the Source engine. By the way, the place it's used in Portal 2 is

Spoiler

When Wheatly lays a trap for you with the defective turrets the room that rolls in front of you that you must Portal into is bigger on the inside. There's actually a world portal in the base and at the door. When you're inside it you're in a different part of the map.

 

[Banana]

This looks ridiculously mindblowing