BEEmod
Additional Signage
With the new signage customization system, a separate BEE Signs item is no longer necessary. However, the following suggested signage icons still do not exist in the current version:
- [ ] Companion Cube
- [ ] Cake
- [ ] Citranium (Aperture Tag)
- [ ] Rexaura HEP Deflector
- [ ] Rexaura Positronic Energy Orb
- [ ] Sendificator
- [ ] Futbol
- [ ] Fire Hazard (if #1073 or a similar item is made)
- [ ] Shredder (P2)
- [ ] Material Emancipation Grill
- [ ] Compressed Smoke Field
- [ ] Force Deflection Field
- [ ] Closed Solid Field
- [ ] Physics Repulsion Field
- [ ] Matter Inquisition Field
- [ ] Liquid Coloring Excision Field/Paint Fizzler
- [ ] Reflection Gel
- [ ] Bumbleball
Prototypes
Possible Sendificator Prototypes by Byzarru:
Possible Rexaura Deflector Prototypes by Byzarru:
Possible Positronic Energy Orb Prototypes by Byzarru:
Possible Material Emancipation Grill Prototypes by Byzarru:
Possible Futbol Prototypes by Byzarru:
Possible Compressed Smoke Field Prototypes by Byzarru:
Possible Force Deflection Field Prototypes by Byzarru:
Closed Solid Field Prototypes by Byzarru:
Original content
Summary
This is a suggestion to establish two additional signage items for BEE: BEESigns, and Connection Signage. In addition, signs should use the 8-positioning system light strips use, rather than the rotational system it currently uses.
- General Signage Adjustments
- Create new repository for new adjustments (Byzarru/BEE2-items)
- Add two new rows of icons to the current signage item
- 8-Positioning of signs (TeamSpen is looking into this)
- BEESigns (Byzarru and TheDarkBomber are working on sign prototypes)
- Create BEESigns item
- Finalize custom designs
- Make Clean textures
- Make Dirty Textures
- Make Old Style Textures
- Make BTS Textures
- Connection Signs
- Create Connection Signs item
- Make Clean textures
- Make Dirty Textures
- Make Old Style Textures
- Make BTS Textures
BEESigns
I'd like to suggest a new set of signage to accompany the standard set of signage. This set includes standard items not covered by the signage item, items from other mods, items exclusive to BEE, and fun, lighthearted icons. Textures for some items could be taken from the original Portal and the various mods, while others would need to be custom made (I made a few, posted at the end). This item could possibly be paired with the original signage for easy switching between sign sets. Like the original signage, BEE Signs feature arrows and they would work in the same way.
Listing
Items included in the new signage set include fun signs and custom items exclusive or included in BEE.
The Aerial Faith Plate is included because, although the AFP includes its own signage, it would be useful to direct players to nearby plates and it would be a useful prop to include with large AFPs.
Additions to current signage (Textures taken from Portal 1 or Portal 2):
- Aerial Faith Plate
- Cube Clean
- Laserfield
- Crusher
- HEP Hazard
- HEP Catcher
- Companion Cube
- Cake
BEESigns (Textures taken from mods or custom made):
- Citranium ^ (Ap:Tag)
- Portrait of a Lady (for Art Therapy) ^(P2)
- Rexaura HEP Deflector *
- Rexaura Positronic Energy Orb *
- Sendificator *
- Futbol *
- Turret Fire ^(P2)
- Fire Hazard (if #1073 or a similar item is made)
- Shredder ^(P2)
- Material Emancipation Grill *
- Compressed Smoke Field *
- Force Deflection Field *
- Closed Solid Field *°(TheDarkBomber)
- Physics Repulsion Field
- Matter Inquisition Field
- Liquid Coloring Excision Field/Paint Fizzler
- Cube Shower (as per #585)
- Specialty Gel
- Bumbleball
- Josepezdj's Mechanism Sign ^
(*) refers to custom icons being made/prototyped by Byzarru. ° refers to custom icons being made/prototyped by someone else. ^ refers to icons taken from P1, P2, or a mod
Connection Signs
In addition, I recommend a third signage set with all of the connection symbols as an alternative to the default antline/signage. Automatic signage is often clumsy, so a manual item will allow for strategic placement of connecting signage.
8-Positioning of Signage
Signs are meant to direct players to areas, objects, or actions while remaining aesthetically pleasing. With only four positions, each on the edge of a voxel, there are situations where this is difficult to achieve. I suggest having all signage items use the 8-positioning system (like light strips), which would keep the directions signs can point to while increasing the possible positions.
This is actually all made in PowerPoint! I do use Photoshop fairly often, though; I use PowerPoint for all of my graphics because PowerPoint is the only vector graphics app I have.
Strange, how do you get the smoothed lines? As far as i know, Paint causes a " Sawtooth" when you use some prefab lines.
@LautaroL20 You seem to be using MS Paint, which is a raster-only editor. PowerPoint is a vector editor (albeit a weak one) but exports to raster formats such as .png and .jpg. That's why PowerPoint has such clean lines.
@Konclan Paint.net is a raster editor. I need some vector in my life, and .wmf isn't useful to me.
I think this should be an entirely new item (as opposed to being part of an extended signage item), possibly grouped with the original Signage and a third set of signage that includes the connection symbols (which you can pair with antlines or clusters of items that are activated by a single output).
Note: Updated main comment.
I've re-listed 12 (previously Futbol) as "Specialty Fizzler", which covers all four custom fizzlers. It might be necessary to split it into individual signs (MEG, CSF, FDF, MIF, MTG, LCEF) to get the full array of effects, though I personally think that "Fizzler" should have a singular sign. Additionally, "Fizzler" and "Laserfield" can be used together to represent a Death Fizzler, as it is a combination of the two items already.
@Byzarru There should still be a Futbol signage though. Put it back as 17.
I'll just do some rearranging, then. Should there be separate fizzler signs or one catch-all? Also, I can put together some futbol signs. I'll try to get those done this week.
Edit: I've made the following changes:
- Futbol is now 10, positioning it near the Sendificator. The AFP has been moved to 11, replacing "Cube Shower".
- Material Emancipation Grill is now in slot 12. This should be used with Laserfield (13) to represent Death Fizzlers due to their function.
- The five fizzlers take up slots 17-21. Slots 22-24 have been filled.
I might also cobble up some fizzler pics, too.
@Byzarru They should be separate. My idea was that they would show what the fizzler did, for example the Matter Inquistion Field would show a person walking through, with the portals staying.
Here's what I'm going to try to depict (H/V represent orientation of fizzler in illustration): Compressed Smoke Field - Cube in or passing through fizzler. (H/V) Force Deflecton Field - Portals around fizzler. (V) Physics Repulsion Field - Cube resting on fizzler or being rejected by fizzler. (H/V) Matter Inquisition Field - Player passing through fizzler, portals intact. (V) Liquid Coloring Excision Field - Gel stopping at fizzler. (H)
@Byzarru I would like to make some prototypes for the signage. How do I use PowerPoint as a vector image editor?
I could also just use Paint.net, but that's not vector so they might not turn out as well.
The polygon tool:
You can edit points after you draw:
PowerPoint also supports Bezier curves:
The only vector formats PowerPoint exports in are .wmf and .emf, but the graphics come back a bit skewered. Things still look pretty clean in .png at the right scale.
This template has the cube graphic, as well as a square with the same gradient and size I made the prototypes in. temp.pptx
I could make signage have the 8-position rotation, but that would cause a slight issue - I have to make the item either have no collisions, or have the collision shape of light strips. That means for example you couldn't have two in the same block pointing in perpendicular orientations, and also not around other blocks.
And it was then I also realized that Portal 1 signs are framed and pop out of the wall. However, a lot of Hammer maps in the Workshop use signage with no collisions. Perhaps 4-position colliding and 8-position non-colliding signage could be variants.
Material Emancipation Grill.
Ed: A large portion of our discussion on this thread is about 'Fizzlers', so I think it is beneficial to refer to each fizzler by its technical name if each is to get a new icon.
I have a few new thoughts:
- @TeamSpen210, what do you think about additional signage? Could we get your blessing on this idea?
- There should probably be 25 slots on BEESigns, to keep the listing at a square number.
- Many of the items listed could just be text for BTS, but once the prototypes are finalized, they'll need to be skinned for Standard Clean and all the rest anyways.
- @Luke18033, what items do you want to try your hand at? I'm going to work on a few Futbol ideas tonight.
- After we're done posting prototypes for customs, I would like to start a survey (probably with Google docs) to see which icons people like best.
I definitely agree on the signage. I'll probably first put the Valve-made ones into the current item, and add a new item with all the shape connection signs (matching whatever the styles show).
I'd also recommend you extract the original sign textures from the VPK files, and take a look at them. For the number slots, remember that 1 & 2 can't be used since the timer goes ∞. For that I'd just change what shows on the model. The tables should probably be grouped into groups of four, since that's the row length.
@Luke18033, do you have any designs done? After there are proposals for all of the items, I'd like to get a poll made with all of the designs to determine which ones are actually going into the item.
@Byzarru Now that I think about it, making them with a vector editor doesn't make much sense. They would need to be in VTF format, and VTF doesn't support vector.