User:Dr. Orange/Floor button

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.

Creation

Step 1

The base brush

Create a 128w*128l*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.

Step 2

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.

Step 3

Button base prop

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.

Step 4

The door brush

Create 60w*60l*8h 8-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 and set the following keyvalues:

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

Next, go to the flags section and make sure that all flags are unchecked.

Step 5

The button prop

Positioning of the button prop

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.

Step 6

The trigger brushes

Create a 48w*48l*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 8w*8l*2h 8-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
	OnTrigger	floor_button_door	Open		0.00	No
	OnTrigger	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
	OnTrigger	floor_button_door	Open		0.00	No
	OnTrigger	floor_button_trigger_player	Disable		0.00	No

Step 7

The ambient_generic entities

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 ambient_generic:

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

Step 8

The light entity

Create a light entity in the middle of the base prop, 8 units above the base brush. Set the following keyvalues on it:

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

The button is now finished and ready to be implemented in a map.

Implementation

The floor button in-game

Step 1

Place the button where it should be in the map.

Step 2

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 the OnClose output when the button is released.

See Also

• Button (Portal 2) - Portal 2 variant
• Creating a switch - Pedestal button