Talk:List of useful Portal models

I'm making a Portal mod, and I want to make my own test chamber signs. How would I go about "altering" the models so that, say, I could add the flinging icon to the Test Chamber 01 sign, or add my own icons? —Yar Kramer 16:49, 17 Jan 2008 (PST)

Firstly, you shouldn't change any content inside the official GCFs (in this case, portal content.GCF). What you can do is open up that GCF file (using GCFScape or similar tool) to extract the models you wish to alter (in this case, one of the group of files inside "root\portal\models\props_animsigns"), and start by changing their file names (so they will not be loaded instead of the (original) ones in the GCF!!). Then, you can create your own files based on the ones you extracted. After doing so, be sure to place them in the correct folder (i.e., for the Test Chamber XX sign files, the folder would be "%SteamInstallDir%\Steam\SteamApps\portal\models\props_animsigns").

As to how you change the files themselves, you'll just have to read about it elsewhere here on the wiki, since it's out of my grasp of knowledge! Start by extracting the files and researching about their file types, that should give you enough information to understand what each file is, and how to edit/create it. --Etset 02:27, 18 Jan 2008 (PST)

Heh, yeah, I know how to get stuff out of the GCFs. It's just that, well, what I didn't know is, as you say, beyond your graps of knowledge. ;) —Yar Kramer 13:01, 18 Jan 2008 (PST)

Oops! *ashamed* Sorry for the lecture then... To make up for it, I did a bit of research and found this article, and I was interested by this part, so I went to look in the materials folder, inside portal content.gcf, using VTFEdit. What I found was each of those tiny icons that you were referring to initially (the flinging icon, for example), at "root\portal\materials\signage". So I'm thinking that the whole sign is not made up of just one "texture", but rather a "base" texture, with all those "icons" on top of it. Have you tried opening up the sample portal map (the one that came with the latest SDK update:testchamber_a_05) in Hammer? Perhaps you could see how the sign in that level is being made and conclude something right there! :) Hope this helps! --Etset 14:15, 18 Jan 2008 (PST)

I actually disocvered the base-dexture thing separately, whoops ... Also, I used a BSP decompiler to decompile a number of maps to give me hints on how to make my own, and the sigsn are all just one prop_dynamic with the model set to a given models/props_animsigns/signage_numXX.mdl. No way to examine a model's textures directly, either. So I guess we're back to "altering the model directly" again. —Yar Kramer 14:50, 19 Jan 2008 (PST)

Hmm...I though I had read that you could see the textures a model uses... was it with HLMV? There must be a way ... In any case, if you decompiled the maps already, try seeing how the prop_dynamic entity that makes up the sign is triggered into "lightening up" when the player approaches. You might gain some information there. --Etset 15:00, 19 Jan 2008 (PST)

PS: just discovered that VDC user Remmiz has a few portal maps available for download. If you check out his website, you can see some pictures of the second map (remmizchamber2), in which he also used those signs you want! Maybe you could study his map and get in touch with him. :) Let me know if you achieve your goal! --Etset 17:33, 19 Jan 2008 (PST)

The lighting-up thing is just a trigger_once that triggers a logic_relay changes the "skin" of the sign, just like how with the "metal box", skin 0 is a Weighted Storage Cube, and skin 1 is the Weighted Companion Cube. So skin 0 is ... just blank, skin 1 is the first frame where it's just lighting up and everything's blank including the number, and so on, and the logic_relay just changes the skins in succession. That said ... I just may try talking to Remmiz about this ...

It's too bad they didn't just have some sort of "npc_chambersign" or something, with the number as an attribute on it, and with the icons as flags ... though I suppose this would make adding your own icons harder ... —Yar Kramer 20:46, 19 Jan 2008 (PST)

Emergency Incinerator

I'm working on some levels and need the Emergency Intelligence Incinerator, but its not where its supposed to be! any ideas ( Indrora 09:22, 6 Apr 2008 (PDT) )

this might be a little late, but umm... Creating an incinerator, here ya go--Fire Tock 10:49, 6 Oct 2008 (PDT)

Deletion

Agree, it's really not needed because models are named well for the most part, and at least currently it's not very usable. Pinsplash (talk) 17:56, 11 July 2018 (UTC)

Why isn't it deleted my now? Yes, it should be deleted. --Mandrew (talk) 06:05, 29 August 2019 (UTC)