Prop tractor beam

An excursion funnel in Portal 2.

Entity description

Emitter for a tractor beam.

Excursion funnels are a puzzle element of Portal 2 that work like tractor beams. Objects (like turrets and cubes) and players that touch blue funnels slowly drift away from the emitter, unaffected by gravity. Players can remove objects and themselves from the funnel but can not move against the flow.

Some funnels are connected to buttons. When activated, these funnels reverse direction and turn orange, drawing things towards their emitter instead of pushing things away.

Like bridges, walls, and lasers, funnels can be extended through portals.

Keyvalues

Name (targetname) <string>[ Edit ]

The name that other entities refer to this entity by, via Inputs/Outputs or other keyvalues (e.g. parentname or target).
Also displayed in Hammer's 2D views and Entity Report.

See also:  Generic Keyvalues, Inputs and Outputs available to all entities

Parentname:

Parent (parentname) <targetname>

Specifies a movement parent. An entity will maintain its initial offset from its parent. An attachment point can be added to the end of the name, separated by a comma.

Pitch Yaw Roll (Y Z X) (angles) <QAngle>

This entity's orientation in the world. Pitch is rotation around the Y axis, yaw is the rotation around the Z axis, roll is the rotation around the X axis.

Render in Fast Reflections (drawinfastreflection) <boolean> (in all games since )

If enabled, this entity will render in fast water reflections (i.e. when a water material specifies $reflectonlymarkedentities) and in the world impostor pass.

Linear Force ([todo internal name (i)]) <float>

Linear force to apply to objects in the beam.

Inputs

Parentname:

SetParent <stringRedirectInput/string>

Move with this entity. See Entity Hierarchy (parenting).

SetParentAttachment <stringRedirectInput/string>

Change this entity to attach to a specific attachment point on its parent. The entity will teleport so that the position of its root bone matches that of the attachment. Entities must be parented before being sent this input.

SetParentAttachmentMaintainOffset <stringRedirectInput/string>

As above, but without teleporting. The entity retains its position relative to the attachment at the time of the input being received.

ClearParent

Removes this entity from the the movement hierarchy, leaving it free to move independently.

Reflection:

DisableDrawInFastReflection  (in all games since )

Turns off rendering of this entity in reflections when using $reflectonlymarkedentities in water material.

EnableDrawInFastReflection  (in all games since )

Turn on rendering of this entity in reflections when using $reflectonlymarkedentities in water material.

SetLinearForce <floatRedirectInput/float>

Set the linear force applied to objects in the beam.

Enable

Turn the beam on.

Disable

Turn the beam off.

Creation

Each funnel consists of a prop_tractor_beam and a player clip in front. Funnels often have a light in front of them for a soft blue glow (with an approximate brightness of 50 120 250 50) but not when the beam is reversible because it conflicts with the orange colour of the funnel.

External links

• Example map using this tutorial. VMF included.