Discuss interesting possiblities of tele-portals in game play
Author
ive been trying to recreate some aspects of Valve's Portal and Prey's portal system to see what effects i can get. imagine using a dynamic portal system ie any number of portals could connect to any other portals. what tricks could you accomplish with the physics aspects of portals? what would happen if there were two portals connecting to one? duplication? death? what other possibilities could turn up?
Two portals cannot connect to one without breaking some 'rules'
I like to think of portals as a 'smooth' transition of space with a discontinous border separating the passage from normal space(wormhole)
meaning the transform from one side to the other is a 1-to-1 function
thus multiple portals leading to a single destination violates this; you can do this effect, but it won't be a literal 'portal' just a teleporter effect
so for your question... you can program it to do anything you want, duplicate, death, etc
there are no physics to be followed
personally, i think entering one side and popping out at two places simultaneously causes a number of game design and playability issues...
which probably indictes it's not a good idea...
similarly, just killing the player for entering is bad level design, generally you don't punish the player trivially
I like to think of portals as a 'smooth' transition of space with a discontinous border separating the passage from normal space(wormhole)
meaning the transform from one side to the other is a 1-to-1 function
thus multiple portals leading to a single destination violates this; you can do this effect, but it won't be a literal 'portal' just a teleporter effect
so for your question... you can program it to do anything you want, duplicate, death, etc
there are no physics to be followed
personally, i think entering one side and popping out at two places simultaneously causes a number of game design and playability issues...
which probably indictes it's not a good idea...
similarly, just killing the player for entering is bad level design, generally you don't punish the player trivially
Interesting portal options:
Orientation --
Mirror -- not done in many models
Stretch/Shrink -- alice in wonderland
One way portals, or Two way only
Deterministic, or not
Portal length (portals don't have to be infinitely thin)
Transparent, or not
...
A portal could be viewed as an arbitrary space transformation. After going through a portal, the world could be rotated, skewed, scaled, reflected.
Such changes may or may not apply to the world physics. Imagine if going through a portal reentered the same level, but now down was left (for anything that went throught the portal). Other portals would result in you leaving at a different angle, but gravity would still pull you down.
It would, at the very least, allow for some intersting levels. And diabolical puzzles. :)
Orientation --
Mirror -- not done in many models
Stretch/Shrink -- alice in wonderland
One way portals, or Two way only
Deterministic, or not
Portal length (portals don't have to be infinitely thin)
Transparent, or not
...
A portal could be viewed as an arbitrary space transformation. After going through a portal, the world could be rotated, skewed, scaled, reflected.
Such changes may or may not apply to the world physics. Imagine if going through a portal reentered the same level, but now down was left (for anything that went throught the portal). Other portals would result in you leaving at a different angle, but gravity would still pull you down.
It would, at the very least, allow for some intersting levels. And diabolical puzzles. :)
Author
Quote:Original post by NotAYakk
It would, at the very least, allow for some intersting levels. And diabolical puzzles. :)
that reminds me of the part of the portal video where the voice says "the following is impossible" where the player fires 3 portals in succession and launches himself clear across the map. VERY cool!
i do have to agree with the multiple portals connecting to one or vice-versa. it would be bad level design to kill the player. it would also be next to impossible (somebody may figure it out) to render both portals on one.
im loving this
Quote:Original post by adam17
that reminds me of the part of the portal video where the voice says "the following is impossible" where the player fires 3 portals in succession and launches himself clear across the map. VERY cool!
Eh, what video is this?
Heres a fun one
suppose you have a 2*2meter portal map to a 1*1meter portal
so you walk into one, but pop out of the other one at half your size - everything looks big now
now walk to the orignal portal (normal walking, not backwards thru portal)
and step through again.. now youre even shorter...
There's a potential here for some kind of squeeze through tunnel/ jumping height puzzles, if you can shrink or grow via portal transforms...
suppose you have a 2*2meter portal map to a 1*1meter portal
so you walk into one, but pop out of the other one at half your size - everything looks big now
now walk to the orignal portal (normal walking, not backwards thru portal)
and step through again.. now youre even shorter...
There's a potential here for some kind of squeeze through tunnel/ jumping height puzzles, if you can shrink or grow via portal transforms...
Those Portal teasers got me thinking about using a Portal Projector: a gun that projects a portal in front of you, allowing you to carry it whereever you go, absorbing items and enemies as you walk into them.
Anyway, this thread made me think about something else: what if a portal closes when an object intersects it? Should the object be cut in half - which sounds quite reasonable, but technically more difficult - or continue to move? Or should some sort of anomality be triggered? :)
As for multiple portals connecting to a single portal, how about... duplication and merging? Not the most straight-forward solution, and very odd when applied to players (how are you going to control, or even view, two characters, or who gets the most input influence on the merged character?). But for objects, it could give some funny results and even be used to solve particular puzzles. Making copied objects unstable and unmerging merged objects after some time could solve a few issues created by this mechanism.
And I think the idea of using portals to transform the world rather than only creating connections within this world is interesting at least... makes me think about parallel universums, and 'alpha universe' players running straight through 'beta universe' players, in the same physical area but in multiple versions of it. Odd...
Anyway, this thread made me think about something else: what if a portal closes when an object intersects it? Should the object be cut in half - which sounds quite reasonable, but technically more difficult - or continue to move? Or should some sort of anomality be triggered? :)
As for multiple portals connecting to a single portal, how about... duplication and merging? Not the most straight-forward solution, and very odd when applied to players (how are you going to control, or even view, two characters, or who gets the most input influence on the merged character?). But for objects, it could give some funny results and even be used to solve particular puzzles. Making copied objects unstable and unmerging merged objects after some time could solve a few issues created by this mechanism.
And I think the idea of using portals to transform the world rather than only creating connections within this world is interesting at least... makes me think about parallel universums, and 'alpha universe' players running straight through 'beta universe' players, in the same physical area but in multiple versions of it. Odd...
Author
Quote:Original post by yckxQuote:Original post by adam17
that reminds me of the part of the portal video where the voice says "the following is impossible" where the player fires 3 portals in succession and launches himself clear across the map. VERY cool!
Eh, what video is this?
the one that valve put out: portal at ign
suppose you have a portal floating mid air
and you try stepping through it but forget to pick your feet high enough off the ground to clear the lower edge
do your legs get sheared off?
and you try stepping through it but forget to pick your feet high enough off the ground to clear the lower edge
do your legs get sheared off?
Author
Quote:Original post by Anonymous Poster
suppose you have a portal floating mid air
and you try stepping through it but forget to pick your feet high enough off the ground to clear the lower edge
do your legs get sheared off?
i like it but too difficult. i first thought of letting the player trip running through it. if their falling in the direction of gravity (like falling through a portal in the ceiling) it could put him into a vomit-inducing spin and crash like a ragdoll. then he has to get up and dust himself off. hehe
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