Schmerm
04-01-2001, 04:05 PM
Here I'll show you how to make one of those see-through portals like the one in the Karnak level, where you teleport back to the ankh pool. It will be a simplified version (no teleporter yet, just the viewing part), but should give enough information so you can apply it to more complex situations.
This assumes you have basic knowledge of the Serious Editor, like creating rooms/primitives and adding entities and changing their properties.
Step 1: Creating the geometry
1) Fire up SEd and open a new map. Create a conus primitive, this will be our first room. Give it dimensions 8x16x8 and check the Room flag. CSG-Add it to the world.
2) Press H to turn off lighting, so you can see your room. Texture the room however you like, it's not important.
3) Open the Entities browser thingy, and drag a MovingBrush into one of your views. This will be our "viewer" brick. While the movingbrush is still selected (it should be right after you create it), press the Conus primitive button. Give it dimensions 4x1x6, no Room flag, and position it at one end of the hallway-like room we already have, resting on the ground. CSG-Add it.
4) This finishes the geometry for our first room, and now we have to make the second room to warp to. Create another Conus primitive, dimensions 16x16x8, room flag turned On. Position it away from your first room. Now instead of Adding it like with the other primitives we've made, press the Link Layers button (or press L) to create this room as its own seperate entity. Texture it however you like, preferrably different than the first room so you can see a difference.
Step 2: Creating the entities
1) Add a playerstart entity in the first long room we made. You gotta start somewhere right?
2) Add a MirrorMarker entity (the one that looks like a brown mirror thingy), place it in the second square room, somewhere in the middle, and halfway between floor and ceiling.
3) While the MirrorMarker is still selected, press D to drop a marker in that location. The marker will be the actual viewer entity. It's currently the MirrorMarker's target, and whatever is the MirrorMarker's target becomes the viewer entity. This means you can probably target moving objects with the MirrorMarker and get a steadily changing view. Anyways...
4) Move the mirrormarker INSIDE the MovingBrush we made earlier. It has to be at its EXACT same coordinates, or weird stuff happens (try moving it sometime). Press Q on the MovingBrush and the MirrorMarker to find/set the right coordinates if you have to.
5) Select the MovingBrush in entity mode, and set its 'Mirror 0' property to the MirrorMarker. This registers the mirrormarker a possible mirror viewer for the movingbrush.
6) In Polygon mode, select all the faces of the MovingBrush entity and press Q. In the Polygon tab, select the MirrorMarker under the Mirror selection list. In the Shadow tab, check off Full Bright (and Don't Cast if you don't want it to cast shadows). Finally, in the Texture tab, set the Blend mode to Blend (Shade and Add work too), and reduce the Alpha of the texture to a very small value. The alpha can be set with the color box second from the right. A value of 20 or so is good.
And that's it! Press T to test your level, and you can see the MovingBrush now views into the other room. If you see any red splotches while viewing the other room, fiddle around with the position of the Marker in the second room. You can change the viewing angle by rotating the Marker or the MirrorMarker (the Marker is preferred, because it makes more sense).
Feedback?
This assumes you have basic knowledge of the Serious Editor, like creating rooms/primitives and adding entities and changing their properties.
Step 1: Creating the geometry
1) Fire up SEd and open a new map. Create a conus primitive, this will be our first room. Give it dimensions 8x16x8 and check the Room flag. CSG-Add it to the world.
2) Press H to turn off lighting, so you can see your room. Texture the room however you like, it's not important.
3) Open the Entities browser thingy, and drag a MovingBrush into one of your views. This will be our "viewer" brick. While the movingbrush is still selected (it should be right after you create it), press the Conus primitive button. Give it dimensions 4x1x6, no Room flag, and position it at one end of the hallway-like room we already have, resting on the ground. CSG-Add it.
4) This finishes the geometry for our first room, and now we have to make the second room to warp to. Create another Conus primitive, dimensions 16x16x8, room flag turned On. Position it away from your first room. Now instead of Adding it like with the other primitives we've made, press the Link Layers button (or press L) to create this room as its own seperate entity. Texture it however you like, preferrably different than the first room so you can see a difference.
Step 2: Creating the entities
1) Add a playerstart entity in the first long room we made. You gotta start somewhere right?
2) Add a MirrorMarker entity (the one that looks like a brown mirror thingy), place it in the second square room, somewhere in the middle, and halfway between floor and ceiling.
3) While the MirrorMarker is still selected, press D to drop a marker in that location. The marker will be the actual viewer entity. It's currently the MirrorMarker's target, and whatever is the MirrorMarker's target becomes the viewer entity. This means you can probably target moving objects with the MirrorMarker and get a steadily changing view. Anyways...
4) Move the mirrormarker INSIDE the MovingBrush we made earlier. It has to be at its EXACT same coordinates, or weird stuff happens (try moving it sometime). Press Q on the MovingBrush and the MirrorMarker to find/set the right coordinates if you have to.
5) Select the MovingBrush in entity mode, and set its 'Mirror 0' property to the MirrorMarker. This registers the mirrormarker a possible mirror viewer for the movingbrush.
6) In Polygon mode, select all the faces of the MovingBrush entity and press Q. In the Polygon tab, select the MirrorMarker under the Mirror selection list. In the Shadow tab, check off Full Bright (and Don't Cast if you don't want it to cast shadows). Finally, in the Texture tab, set the Blend mode to Blend (Shade and Add work too), and reduce the Alpha of the texture to a very small value. The alpha can be set with the color box second from the right. A value of 20 or so is good.
And that's it! Press T to test your level, and you can see the MovingBrush now views into the other room. If you see any red splotches while viewing the other room, fiddle around with the position of the Marker in the second room. You can change the viewing angle by rotating the Marker or the MirrorMarker (the Marker is preferred, because it makes more sense).
Feedback?