QUAKE 1 TELEPORTER BOX FOR QUAKE 2 -- By Christopher D. Reimer

This guide will show you how to create a basic Quake 1 teleporter box for Quake 2 that can be integrated into your own map as an alternative to the standard Quake 2 teleporter platform and provide interesting escape mechanism for "hopeless" player traps.

1. Create a large room and place your player start and a few lights.

2. Create a 88x64x80-sized box and make it into a room with one unit-wide (eight pixels) walls.

3. Move the front wall that will be the entry wall for the teleporter box into the box by one unit (eight pixels).

4. Apply a texture (e.g., AWATER) to the entry wall, and bring up the surface property dialog box from the editor to make active *only* these settings: "Warp" "Mist" "Translucent"

5. Highlight the outside walls of the teleporter box, and bring up the surface property dialog box from the editor to make active *only* this setting: "Slick"

6. You will need to change the editor's grid to "1" to do steps 7 through 10.

7. Highlight the bottom wall of the teleporter box, and carefully move the back edge downward from eight pixels to one pixel to create a slanted brush. This will force the player to slide into the teleporter if they don't run into the box.

8. Create a misc_teleporter and give it this info: "target" "telepad"

9. Position the misc_teleporter platform into the teleporter box, aligning the edge of the platform against the back and side walls, halfway into the floor. The entry wall *must* be one unit (8 pixels) from the edge of the platform, and the bottom wall should be slanted into the middle portion of the platform.

10. Double check all the brushes of the teleporter box to ensure that the misc_teleporter is tightly sealed to prevent external light from illuminating the inside of the box and making the misc_teleporter visible through the entry wall.

11. Create a misc_teleporter_dest somewhere and give it this info: "targetname" "telepad"

12. Compile the map, run Quake 2, and run your player into the teleporter box.

EXAMPLE MAP

The example map (Q1TBOXQ2.ZIP) has three teleporter boxes created using the above method with different textures (AWATER, PIPE1_3 and TLAVA1_3), and the fourth example is a teleporter box hidden underneath a layer of slime (texture SEWER1_300) as part of a trap with an escape mechanism.

NOTES ON TEXTURES

LIGHT -- Some textures (e.g., AWATER and TLAVA1_3) have a light surface property clicked on by default. While you can still use the texture with the light surface property still turned on, it will illuminate the inside of the teleporter box and making the actual teleporter platform visible.
One of the reasons to build the teleporter box is to get away from the generic teleporter platform, and leaving the interior of the box darken effectively conceals the teleporter platform. Don't display any light entities or super-bright light textures against the entry wall since it will shine through the texture.

DAMAGE -- Some textures (e.g., SEWER1_300 and TLAVA1_3) have a special surface property (Slime and Lava, respectfully) that inflict damage on the player.
Depending on the purpose of the teleporter box, this surface property can either be active or inactive.
For the teleporter box with the TLAVA1_3 texture, the Lava surface property was inactive to permit the player to pass through without damage. The SEWER1_300 texture had the Slime surface property active to inflict damage since it is part of a trap that a player can get into but can also escape by falling into the teleporter box hidden underneath one section of the slime.

TYPES -- You will have to experiment with different textures to get a feel of what will work and what won't work. Unfortunately, the standard Quake 2 textures don't have the the teleporter textures found in Quake 1.
Custom or converted textures will be needed to emulate the Quake 1-style teleporters.
Sky textures should work in theory to create a window that the player must absolutely jump out of (and into the hidden teleporter box) to escape a trap, but have proven difficult to implement sucessfuly.

Christopher D. Reimer  13 April 98