trouble with portals

[Kratos]

Im having a hard time getting portals to work. I mean I can go in one way but not the other. Can anyone help me?

[lordmstic]

You have to make a link going each way

Thats all.

[Linque]

Actually, that's not true. Once the portals are linked, they should work both ways.

I too had this problem with one portal I made. Whenever I'm about to create a entrance to somewhere, immediately after I create the portal I playetest to see that it works both ways without a hitch, so that I won't have to edit it later.

Try some different portal pieces or place the pieces in different angles. It might be a bit tricky but so far I've gotten most of the portals to work OK.

[~V~]

Portals can be tricky - some things to keep in mind.

• Use Snap to Grid when placing the above ground entrances so that the angles will line up with the underground piece.
• Make sure the direction of travel is the same for both the above ground and underground piece. In other words from the default camera if the entrance is oriented to the north east, make sure the underground entrance piece is oriented the same direction.
• Also make sure the portal tool is linking with an ID number in both fields.

[Linque]

Okay, I'm at a loss here. I have two exactly the same portal combinations. One of them works, the other doesn't. Both are snapped to the grid.

The terrain object is

records\underground\naturalcave\greece\naturalcave\greecedngentrance_c01_ext.dbr

The underground feature is

records\underground\greece\naturalcave\greecenatcave.dbr
-> Features -> GorgonCave_IntEntrance01

Here are images of the problem:
Portal Problem 1
Portal Problem 2

The terrain map where that cave leads works just fine as well, so that's not a problem. I can reach the portal from both sides, so there's not a problem with impassable terrain. The cave/terrain is displayed on the other side, but the character won't go through, no matter what.

Help would be very much appreciated.

[EyEwitness]

I had a similar problem when putting a cave entrance on the left side of a map, i think it may be trying to make you walk up the cliff outside the exit as it apears when you get close to the cave exit. if your careful with the clicking you may be able to get out of the cave by just clicking on a visible bit of grass outside instead of holding the button down. At least thats how I got around the problem in my cave.

I've had no problems with cave entrances on the top or right side of a map, I guess its because your not trying to make your character walk up walls when exiting these.

What I can't get working are floor entrances. I have tried several, and the portal works, but there is no smooth transition between the cave and the surface, you just apear on the surface, and the inside of the portal stays black (but works fine)?!

Any one made a properly working floor portal?

[Linque]

We need Developer information on both of these accounts. I've had the same problem as you with the floor entrances. Didn't bother trying to solve it as I was just testing things.


EDIT:
I finally got my portal working. I tried it once more by rotating 90 degrees so that it now faces the same direction as my other entrance. It's a bit unfortunate that the portals only work in certain directions.

I tried facing them this way before, but that time I used a different Underground feature and it didn't work. I guess some of the features might be broken as well.

[EyEwitness]

I've had some success with floor portals.

Using babylontemp_Entrance_stairs02 and one of the surface objects (natural cave\greece\floorentrance i think) it worked, in all directions!

Its worked with a few other underground features from other sets, but only the ones with pilars at the top of the stairs, which looks a bit odd when you first enter as these pilars grow out of the floor!

I guess it has something to do with the portal tool, not being able to pick up a portal at the top of the stairs unless there is some kind of arch/wall to mark it out.

(also, quite alot of the underground features don't seem to work for me)

[apricot507]

does someone have a list of sets which work well together so that the portal entrance and exit work properly?

This is the best I got so far:

[apricot507]

I think the black hole of doom at portals may be a graphic card issue, because I noticed that even in the original game the portal turns black at one point or another. And also because it hasn't yet been mentioned as often, if at all, around the forums. I can't believe EVERYONE is not even slightly bothered by this maybe little but nonetheless annoying problem.



In this case it happens when the character is very close to the portal and the zoom is almost at maximum. The closer the character is to the portal at this point, the more the rendering of the cave entrance disappears.

So I guess I will be the first to start the list.
I have found that undergroung\naturalcave\greece\naturalcave\greeced ngentrance_a1_ext.dbr works with Greecenatcave_FEATUREENTRANCE from underground\naturalcave\greece\naturalcave\greecen atcave.dbr without much disappearence unless fully zoomed when the entrance on the terrain map is set facing SE
The same doesn't work too well if the entrance on the terrain is set facing SW