General Half-Life 2/Effects
description
Creating the blue energy forcefields seen in HL2.
keywords
combine, gate, force, field, forcefield, blue, shield.
At various points throughout HL2 you will have witnessed the blue combine forcefields that block off areas, but allow a soliders to pass through it. We will be looking at creating one of those now and fortunately they are nice and easy to make.
First thing we need to do before going anywhere is to create somewhere to put the forcefield. You can have it covering any distance but it must have at least 192 units clearance in height.
Here is the area I have prepared for our gate:
Once you're happy with the setup we can begin by adding in the two edges of the gate. You will need to add a prop_static at each side and use the two following models:
models/props_combine/combine_fence01a.mdl
models/props_combine/combine_fence01b.mdl
The only difference is they both face opposite directions.
The next stage is to create the actual forcefield itself, this will prevent the player moving through. To do this create a thin brush (1 unit is fine) and make it as high as the forcefield props. Take some time to line it up with the props and when you've done that apply the forcefield texture to both sides, which happens to be:
effects/combineshield/comshieldwall2
There a are a few there but I chose this one, it doesn't make a huge difference to the look.
Once you've created the brush tie it to a func_illusionary by pressing CTRL-T and choosing it from the list. This will allow objects such as combine soldiers and bullets to pass through. To stop the player passing through we need to add a brush of the same size and texturing it with the playerclip texture, found in the texture browser. Also be sure to give it a name in the properties section, I chose combine_gate
Last part of this is to make another brush of the same size and covering it in the trigger texture, tie this to a trigger_multiple but leave the properties for a moment. You may want to extend this brush so it pokes out either side of the forcefield somewhat, as this will be triggering the sound made when the player touches the forcefield.
Ok so the gate is now essentially complete, but for that extra touch we need to add some sounds. Go ahead and add two ambient_generic entities near the forcefield:
In the first one add the following information:
- Name: <Doesn't need one>
- Sound Name: ambient/machines/combine_shield_loop3.wav - Just a general looping sound for the gate.
- SourceEntityName: combine_gate - This makes the gate appear to generate the noise.
Leave all the flags unticked as well.
Open the other ambient_generic and add these properties:
- Name: gate_noise
- Sound Name: ambient/machines/combine_shield_touch_loop1.wav - This is the buzzing noise when the player touches it.
- SourceEntityName: combine_gate - This makes the gate appear to generate the noise.
Only the Start Silent flag is required.
Last thing to do is to tell our trigger_multiple to turn the buzzing sound on and off when the player touches the forcefield. Do that by using the below outputs.
That's it, everything should work just fine. The texture even fades out as you move away, easy.
Download Example Map
Blink
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