weapon_portalgun

weapon_portalgun is a point entity available in Portal series.

Class hierarchy
CWeaponPortalgun
weapon_portalgun.cpp

This is the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, the main item used throughout the series. Before being picked up, it can fire portals and is often placed on a pedestal. It can be used to pick up physics objects that weigh up to 85kg.

As with all weapon entities, the portal gun will continue to exist after being picked up, but have its targetname cleared. Using VScript, point_entity_finder, or simply by pointing outputs at the weapon_portalgun classname, a portal gun being carried by a player can be made to fire portals automatically, or change which portals it can fire using AddOutput.

The portal gun can be obtained with the give_portalgun command (only in ), and upgraded with the upgrade_portalgun command.

Bug:If a portal has been fired and this weapon is dropped into a trigger_portal_cleanser via a trigger_weapon_strip, the game will crash. This is fixed in Strata.   (tested in: , )

A weapon_portalgun firing.

Note:A weapon_portalgun firing on its own will not target info_placement_helpers (even ones with Force Placement enabled).

Spawning with a portal gun

In Portal 2, players may automatically recieve a portal gun on spawn in certain cases, which vary between singleplayer and co-op.

Singleplayer

Valve's singleplayer transition VScript (transitions/sp_transition_list.nut) will always give the player a dual portal gun on spawn in non-default maps. This script is included in the arrival_departure_transition_ents instance, but it also gets automatically added to the map if the map name starts with sp_. If you don't want the player to spawn with a portal gun in a standalone map, the easiest way to work around this is to add a trigger_weapon_strip in the elevator shaft, which removes the player's gun before giving them a new one if desired. If you're making a mod, you should instead modify the singleplayer transition script to include your mod's maps instead of the default ones, which will allow you to specify which portal gun the player has in each map.

Internally, if the map name starts with sp_, the game checks for a logic_script called @transition_script on load. If one doesn't exist, it creates a new logic_script called failsafe_transition_script and sets it to run transitions/sp_transition_list.nut. Note that the Entity Scripts keyvalue is not checked on the original @transition_script entity, so this can be used to prevent the transition script from running at all - place the entity in Hammer and give it that name, but leave the entity scripts blank. It may be useful to create a modified version of the arrival_departure_transition_ents which uses this method to get rid of the script entirely, since standalone maps don't really need it.

Co-op

In cooperative mode, players will spawn with portal guns by default. This is done in code, not VScript like in singleplayer. To prevent players from spawning with portal guns, any entity named supress_blue_portalgun_spawn (for Atlas) and/or supress_orange_portalgun_spawn (for P-Body) must be present in the map. These work independently from each other, allowing a portal gun to be given to one player only, and are checked on every respawn, so they can be Killed to enable portal guns on respawn, or spawned from a point_template to disable portal guns on respawn mid-map.

If you want players to pick up portal guns partway through the map, the easiest way to handle this is to give these names to the weapon_portalguns themselves. Picking up a portal gun automatically clears its name, allowing that player to spawn with a portal gun on every subsequent respawn.

Note:There is a keyvalue on info_coop_spawn and a global state that both pertain to spawning with a portal gun, but neither appears to do anything; the method above must be used.

Keyvalues

Can Fire Portal 1 (CanFirePortal1) <boolean>

Can this portal gun create blue portals?

Can Fire Portal 2 (CanFirePortal2) <boolean>

Can this portal gun create orange portals?

Show PotatOS ([todo internal name (i)]) <boolean> (in all games since )

Does this portal gun have PotatOS on the end?

Bug:Non-functional. Instead, use the AddPotatosToPortalgun input of logic_playerproxy or the command upgrade_potatogun to show PotatOS.  [todo tested in?]

Starting Team ([todo internal name (i)]) <choices> (in all games since )

Which team this gun originally belongs to. Will decide which portals it fires before being picked up.

• 0 : Single Player
• 2 : Orange
• 3 : Blue

Name (targetname) <string>

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

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

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.

BaseFadeProp:

Start Fade Dist (fademindist) <float>

Distance at which the entity starts to fade.

End Fade Dist (fademaxdist) <float>

Max fade distance at which the entity is visible.

• If start fade is <0, the entity will disappear instantly when end fade is hit.
• If end fade is <0, the entity won't disappear at all. (This is the default behavior.)

The values will scale appropriately if the entity is in a 3D Skybox.

Fade Scale (fadescale) <float>

If you specify so in worldspawn, or if the engine is running below DirectX 8 (DX7 in ), props will fade out even if the fade distances above aren't specified. This value gives you some control over when this happens: numbers smaller than 1 cause the prop to fade out at further distances, while those greater than 1 cause it to fade out at closer distances. Using 0 turns off the forced fade altogether. See also the QC command $noforcedfade.

Flags

Start Constrained : [1]

Note:Prevents the model from moving.

Bug:Unparenting unconstrained weapons will corrupt its position.  [todo tested in?]

Deny player pickup (reserve for NPC) : [2]
Not puntable by Gravity Gun : [4]
Disable pickup sound : [8]

Inputs

ChargePortal1

Does charge up effect for mounted portal gun.

ChargePortal2

Does charge up effect for mounted portal gun.

FirePortal1

Projects portal 1 (blue) onto a wall in the facing direction of the gun.

FirePortal2

Projects portal 2 (orange) onto a wall in the facing direction of the gun.

FirePortalDirection1 <angle>

Fires the blue portal in the specified direction.

Bug:Using this input in Portal 2 will crash the game.  [todo tested in?]

FirePortalDirection2 <angle>

Fires the orange portal in the specified direction.

Bug:Using this input in Portal 2 will crash the game.  [todo tested in?]

HideWeapon  !FGD

If this weapon is being held, hide the worldmodel and/or viewmodel via EF_NODRAW. Weapon will still be useable. The weapon will become visible again if the holder is to switch between weapons in their inventory.

Outputs

OnFiredPortal1

Fires when the first (blue) portal is fired.

OnFiredPortal2

Fires when the second (orange) portal is fired.

Weapon:

OnNPCPickup

Fires when an NPC picks up this weapon. (!activator is the NPC.)

OnPlayerUse

Fires when the player +uses this weapon. (!activator is the player.)

OnPlayerPickup

Fires when a player picks up this weapon. (!activator is the player.)

OnCacheInteraction

Fires when the player 'proves' they've found this weapon. Fires on: Player Touch, +USE pickup, Physcannon pickup, Physcannon punt.