Giant Fan (Portal 2)

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January 2024

The Giant Fan is a Behind the Scenes decoration used in co-op. The fan in the game is purely decorative and, is used to "push a lot of air". Use the fan with Pneumatic diversity vent, Maintenance lifts, catwalks, and test chambers for the BTS scenes.

Creating a Giant Fan

1. Select the new brush tool on your left, on the toolbar to your right change Cube -> Cylinder using the drop down menu. Next set the Number below that, to 18.

Step 1

2. Next draw a 1056 x 1056 cylinder, make it at least 220 units thick.

Step 2

3. Push it into the wall that you want to put a fan in, the top should be slightly protruding with the wall. Right click and press carve.

Warning:The carve tool creates unstable and "messy" geometry when used with complex objects.

Workaround:Use the arch primitve instead, remember to tie it to a func_detail.

4. Place down three props; Three static, one dynamic. the dynamic prop will be the fan itself, search for "Fan" in the model browser, it is the white, huge one. The other two parts will be the fan rims, and supports. position these in a way that you see fit. Name the dynamic prop in any way you like, preferably in a way indicating it is used for the fan blades (for instance : "fan_blades").

5. In order for the fan to spin; create a small 10 x 10 brush, (tools/toolsodraw texture), and press Ctrl + T to tie the brush to an entity. Make it a func_rotating, in the flags tab, check the axis box that corresponds to your fan direction. x -> horizontal and y/z -> for vertical. Next, move this brush to just behind the center of the fan blades. At last, to name this entity in a way preferably indicating it is used to make pther entities rotate (for instance : "fan_rotator").

6. In order for the blades to spin, they have to be parented to the func_rotating. This can be done by typing the name of the fan's rotator into the prop_dynamic's parent field, this will cause the fan to rotate in-game.

Warning:func_rotating will not rotate forever. You can use the Vscript snippet given in its dedicated page to circumvent this bug.

7. The last step is to add a sound.In the func_rotating's properties, add a sound to the "Sound when moving" field.