General Half-Life 2/Entities
description
Runs you through the process of moving the player from one map to another.
keywords
level, change, transition, transitions, info_landmark, trigger_changelevel.
I will be taking you through the simple process of making a player transfer to another map via a seamless transition. What this means is the player will walk through a trigger, the loading text will appear and then the player will end up in the 2nd map.
When we say seamless what is meant is two areas in each map that are identical, that way the player thinks they are in the same envirnoment, but just a new map.
What you will need to begin with is two maps and an area in each map that is identical. A popular way to do this is via an "S-bend" corridor. This means that once you have finished designing it you can copy it into the new map and delete what is behind the player after the load (and out of his vision) and carry on building the new map. Let's have a look now:
Ok, what we have here is the S bend corridor in Map 1, we will be moving the player into Map 2 shortly. Now once you had finished constructing this corridor you will be ready to add the entities:
As you can see, in Map 1 the area in front has a blank wall and in Map 2 the area behind has a blank wall, you should be able to guess where the level change will take place.
Now, in Map 1 you will require a trigger_changelevel and also an info_landmark. Place the changelevel entity at the end of the corridor, but not to far so that the player can see round the corner, otherwise he would see the blank wall and this would stop it being seamless.
Place the info_landmark in about the centre of the corridor, and about 16 units off the floor will be fine. This is a reference point for the level change and should be in the exact same position in both maps.
Set them up like the below:
Once this is done you will need to change a few properties, first let's open up the trigger_changelevel.
Name: You won't need to fill this for a standard level change, this is so the entity can be enabled/disabled etc.
New Map Name: This is the map you are sending the player to, in this example Map 2 will be where he is going. (Don't use spaces in .bsp names, this is just as a guide)
Landmark Name: This is the name of the landmark that you placed, this will have the same name in both maps, so for now call it lm1
Now once that is done you are set to go with the level change, but we also need a map for the player to arrive in, so select the whole corridor, entities as well, and then copy into Map 2:
Ok, I have moved the trigger_changelevel to the other end this time, this is so that if the player decides to go back it will load him into Map 1 again.
Open up the trigger_changelevel again:
Name: You won't need to fill this for a standard level change, this is so the entity can be enabled/disabled etc.
New Map Name: This will now be Map 1
Landmark Name: And keep this lm1 still.
And that's pretty much it for the basic change.
Remember that there HAS to be a trigger_changelevel in both maps, regardless of whether the player is going back or not. Just move it out the way if the latter appiles.
Blink
.. But there's one more problem for me. When my npc "barney1" reaches the other map, the scripted_sequence's won't work. Did my barney1 get his name changed?