Floor button

← Portal Level Creation

This tutorial will show step-by-step how to create the floor button, a test element commonly seen throughout the Portal test chambers. The floor button is activated by a weighted storage cube being placed on it, or when a player stands on it, and it can be used to trigger other test elements such as doors, platforms and elevators.

Construction

Base Brush

Base Brush

Create a 128L*128W*8H brush and tie it to a func_detail. Texture the sides of the brush with signage/hazard_orange_03b texture the top with concrete/concrete_modular_floor001a, and texture the bottom with tools/toolsnodraw.

Corner Overlays

Corner Overlays

Place four overlays with the texture signage/overlay_button_accent on top of the brush. Position them in the corners and rotate them so they look like in the picture on the right.

Button Model Bottom

Button Model Bottom

Create a prop_static entity and set its World Model to models/props/button_base_reference.mdl. Position it in the middle on top of the base brush. Rotate it so that the sign with a box and an arrow on the rim of the button faces the way the player will enter the room.

Brush Door

Brush Door

Create a 60L*60W*8H eight-sided cylinder textured with tools/toolsnodraw above the base brush, in the same place as the button base prop. Tie this brush to a func_door entity, go to the flags tab to make sure that all flags are unchecked and then set the following keyvalues:

Property Name	Value
Name	floor_button_door
Speed	25
Delay Before Reset	-1
Move Direction	90 0 0

Button Model Top

Button Model Top

Create a prop_dynamic entity. Set its World Model to models/props/button_top_reference.mdl, set its Pitch Yaw Roll (Y Z X) to the same as the button base prop's and set its Parent to floor_button_door. Finally, position it in the same place as the base prop, except the origin of the button prop should be 2 units above the origin of the base prop.

Pressed Trigger

Pressed Trigger

Create a 48L*48W*2H brush textured with tools/toolstrigger. Tie this brush to a trigger_multiple entity and set its Name to floor_button_trigger_player. Go to its flags and make sure Clients is the only flag that is checked.

Next create a 8L*8W*2H eight-sided cylinder brush, also textured with tools/toolstrigger in the same place as the floor_button_trigger_player brush and tie it to a trigger_multiple entity. Set its Name to floor_button_trigger_box and make sure only the Physics Objects flag is checked. Next, set its Filter Name to filter_boxes. If you have created a box dropper in your level, you should already have this entity, but if you don't, create a new filter_activator_name entity with the Name filter_boxes and set its filter to the name of your weighted storage cube.

Now add the following outputs to floor_button_trigger_player:

	My Output	Target Entity	Target Input	Parameter	Delay	Only Once
	OnEndTouchAll	floor_button_door	Close		0.00	No
	OnEndTouchAll	floor_button_trigger_box	Enable		0.00	No
	OnStartTouch	floor_button_door	Open		0.00	No
	OnStartTouch	floor_button_trigger_box	Disable		0.00	No

Next, add the following outputs to floor_button_trigger_box:

	My Output	Target Entity	Target Input	Parameter	Delay	Only Once
	OnEndTouchAll	floor_button_door	Close		0.00	No
	OnEndTouchAll	floor_button_trigger_player	Enable		0.00	No
	OnStartTouch	floor_button_door	Open		0.00	No
	OnStartTouch	floor_button_trigger_player	Disable		0.00	No

Interaction Sounds

Interaction Sounds

Create two ambient_generic entities near the button.

Set the following keyvalues on the first one:

Property Name	Value
Name	button_down
Sound Name	Portal.button_down
SourceEntityName	floor_button_door

Set the following keyvalues on the second one:

Property Name	Value
Name	button_up
Sound Name	Portal.button_up
SourceEntityName	floor_button_door

Next, add the following outputs to floor_button_door:

	My Output	Target Entity	Target Input	Parameter	Delay	Only Once
	OnClose	button_up	PlaySound		0.00	No
	OnOpen	button_down	PlaySound		0.00	No

Lighting

Lighting

Create a light entity in the middle of the base prop, 8 units above the base brush. Set the following keyvalues on it and the button should now be finished, ready to be implemented in a map:

Property Name	Value
Brightness	251 159 57 30
BrightnessHDR	251 159 57 20

Implementation

The floor button in-game

Place the button where it should be in the map. Add the outputs that should fire when the button is activated. The outputs that should be fired when the button is pressed should be the OnOpen output on floor_button_door, and similar the OnClose output when the button is released.