Portal BTS - Tutorial - Breaking Ladders

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Introduction

This guide will teach you how to create breaking ladders from Portal. The purpose of breaking ladders is to get the player curious and to look up, according to a developer commentary node.

Ladder Rungs

The Ladders

Create multiple prop_dynamic entities and enter the following properties:

Property Name	Value
Name	ladder1_rung1
Collisions	Not Solid
World Model	models/props_bts/ladder_01.mdl

Note:For the second rung piece, you will name it ladder1_rung2, the third piece will be named ladder1_rung3, and so on.

The Holes

Ladder Holes

Put info_overlay entities where the stairs connect to the walls and set the material to decals/concrete/shot1.

Resize the overlay to 12*12

Try to make each hole texture randomized for the detailing.

Making the Ladders Fall

Physics Converter

Create a phys_convert and enter the following properties:

Property Name	Value
Name	phys_convert_ladder1_rung1
Entity to convert	ladder1_rung1

Go to Flags and check Convert As Debris

Copy and paste these entities.

Note:For the second phys_convert, you will name it phys_convert_ladder1_rung2, the third piece will be named phys_convert_ladder1_rung3, and so on. Same applies to the Entity to convert

Triggers

The Triggers

Create a 2w*26l*2h brush with the trigger texture and tie it to a trigger_once

Enter the following outputs:

	My Output	Target Entity	Target Input	Parameter	Delay	Only Once
	OnStartTouch	phys_convert_ladder1_rung1	ConvertTarget	<none>	0.00	No

Copy and paste these triggers and make sure the are put in a reasonable spot the the ladder props. Don't forget to change the outputs though.

Making Portals Break Ladders

Portal Detectors

Create a 2w*24l*2h brush with the invisible texture. Tie it to a func_portal_detector.

	My Output	Target Entity	Target Input	Parameter	Delay	Only Once
	OnStartTouchLinkedPortal	phys_convert_ladder1_rung1	ConvertTarget	<none>	0.00	No

Make sure the Portal Detector touches the wall and also make sure that every ladder has a func_portal_detector.

Detailing

Detailing Ladders

These ladders can be tilted. The holes are still in reasonable position. So basically the ladder is already broken.

Some ladder pieces can be missing but still make sure you have the hole textures.

See also

• Portal Level Creation