Switch Combination for Beginners

Mapping related threads and questions go in here!
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Pixelworker
Posts: 35
Joined: 09 Aug 2013, 17:17

Post » 14 Aug 2013, 19:12

Hello, Stabyourself Community!
I have been playing on Mari0 a lot - especially the level editor appealed to me - so I'm pretty much of a pro at Mari0, even if I'm pretty new to the forums - this is my second post, apart from the 'Bowser Science' Mappack. Speaking of which, in this mappack appear many switch combination techniques I'd like to share. I took the liberty of reading lovechild's switch tutorial, but it confused me a bit before I got its message, much like some of the members who replied him (Mainly because he didn't provide any screenshots) - What is pretty sad because he had some good ideas. So I'm not going to make the same mistakes. Four Part Plan is this: One. Informative Descriptions. Two. Downloadable One Level-Mappack which shows all of the techniques I'll describe. Three. Tons of Screenshots for you; leading directly into part four: Spoilers, so you can read the topics you're interested in without being blinded by uninteresting screenshots.

1. Perma-Buttons
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The name of this first, simple technique, is self-explaining: Before the button is pressed, it sends out a negative signal. Once the button is pressed, it keeps on sending out a positive signal, even if the button is released again. This works as follows: The button doesn't affect the door itself, but a negator which controls a hardlight bridge on wich a weighted storage cube is placed.
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Once the button is pressed, the hardlight bridge is turned off and the weighted storage cube falls on another button, which controls the door.

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This is permanent. Leaving the first button only turns on the hardlight bridge again, and therefore, won't affect the door. Of course, you can use a different input and a different output, e. g. a laser receptor which permantly turns on a hardlightbridge or something else.
2. Logical And-Connection
This works with the fact that lasers cannot get through closed doors.

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So, like you see, the door isn't connected to either of the buttons, instead it is depentend from a laser receptor with a laser directly pointing at it. This laser is blocked by two doors, though. Each door is connected by a button or another input. Only if all inputs are positive, all doors open and the laser can activate the receptor and open the first door. There is a little delay though; when the last input turns positive it takes a few milliseconds until the door opens. This is because activated doors take a short time before being open. I don't think that there are negative effects created by this, though.

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By the way, it's possible to add more inputs and more laser blocking doors to create an And-Connection for three, four, etc. inputs.
3. Logical Or-Connection
It is actually kinda easy to make an Or-Connection.

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Just put one laser for each input, one after the other, and all pointing at a receptor. Each Laser is connected to an input, buttons with timers, for example. When one of the inputs is positive, one of the lasers is activated and makes the laser receptor send out a positive signal, no matter which laser is turned on. This can be used to create emergency exits, so players cannot lock themselves. In the example mappack, the timer of the emergency button is set on 1, so the player is only capable of leaving the room, without gaining any advantages. Again, it's very easy to create an Or-Connection with more than two inputs, just add more lasers and inputs. Also, you can create a seemless And-Gate by negating the inputs of the Or-Gate.
4. "The Alternator"
"The Alternator" sends out a positive signal for an adjustable amount of time, then a negative signal for an adjustable amount of time, then a positive signal, then a negative and so on. This works with a self-eliminating laser. Just link everything which should get the alternating signal with the laser receptor.

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This works as follows: The laser points directly at a receptor. This receptor is linked with a timer, this timer is linked with a negator, this negator is linked with another Timer, and this timer is linked with the laser. On default, the laser is on and the laser receptor sends out a negative signal. When it touches the receptor, the signal is negated by the negator and would turn off. But there's a timer between the laser and the negator, and because the positive signal of the negator just turned negative, the second timer comes into account, so it takes a while before the laser is shut off. When the laser is finally turned off, the positive signal of the laser receptor turns negative and the first timer is activated. When the countdown expires, the laser is activated again and everything starts from the beginning.
You can control the duration of both the negative and the positive signal: the first timer controls the length of the negative signal, the second timer controls the length of the positive signal.
PART FIVE! HERE COMES THE DOWNLOAD LINK FOR THE EXAMPLE MAPPACK!

Well, I'll stop quoting Wheatley and just note at last, that I know this features will come with SE. But I think until SE is released, knowing this basic techniques can really help on Portal Maps.
Last edited by Pixelworker on 18 Oct 2015, 21:15, edited 3 times in total.

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Qcode
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Post » 14 Aug 2013, 19:16

...
Last edited by Qcode on 21 Oct 2021, 18:35, edited 2 times in total.

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Pixelworker
Posts: 35
Joined: 09 Aug 2013, 17:17

Post » 14 Aug 2013, 20:07

Qcode wrote:Just for some reference, there's some more combination stuff in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3033
Well, at least I didn't find "The Alternator" there...

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Superjustinbros
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Post » 14 Aug 2013, 20:55

Great tutorial, Pixel!

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