problem: buttons & triggers (elevator) Created 17 years ago2006-12-31 10:06:25 UTC by vbSteve

hi,

I have an elevator in my map without doors, but doors on each floor ("elev_dr_top" & "elev_dr_bottom"). the elevator itself is a func_train ("elev") that moves between 2 path corners ("pth_elev_a" & "pth_elev_b"), on each floor there is a button (unnamed) to call the elevator to the floor.

Inside the elevator there is another button (you see one, but it's actually a normal brush, the real button is invisible and is on both floors, triggering different triggers)

for each floor I planted 2 trigger relays, the triggers on the upper floor are called "elev_go_down" and and those downstairs "elev_go_up"

when elev_go_down is triggered (with the door button of the ground floor or the elevator button on the upperfloor), the doors on the upper floor closes and the elevator goes down.
same happend the other way (to call the elevator up)
Also i should mention that when the elvators reaches a path_corner, the path_corner triggers the doors of that same floor, forcing them to open.
(IE pth_elev_a triggers elev_dr_top and pth_elev_b triggers elev_dr_bottom, using the "Fire on Pass" properties of the path_corners)

Until now everything works like it should be. Now here comes the problem:
When the elevator is already at the upperfloor, a player can still use the door button (on the upperfloor) to call the elevator up, which trigger elev_go_up, but the elevator is already up, so what happens:
instead of the doors (elev_dr_bottom) to close, they open. it will also trigger the "elev", forcing the elevator to go down. when the elevator is down, the path corner "pth_elev_b" triggers "elev_dr_bottom", forcing them to close again.

So the elevator is down, but the doors are closed. This should not happen. because, if i call the elevator back up, the doors downstairs open again and when the elevater arrives at the top, the already open doors at the top will close back.

If I could some how disable the door buttons, I can prevent this from happening. My question: How can i disable func_button entities to enable them back later?

another problem I'm having is a lightning problem: I have a lamp and a ligh_spot entity beneath it to emmit light. It emmits light, but still it's like the light is not comming from the lamp, as it is still dark.

The screenshots below might give you a better view on the probs:
Elevator doors front with door button
Elevator doors front with door button, doors open and elevator
Inside elevator with elevator button (on the right), doors closed
Inside elevator with elevator button (on the right), doors open
Elevator view in dev Valve Hammer Editor

Lightning WH Int. (Notice the lights on the ceiling, as they emmit light, but appears to be too dark to be a light source.)

That's all, hope you guys have some solutions
Thx in adv!

PS: allow the screenshots to load, it might be a bit slow cuz the server pc puts all its bandwidth to the half-life server which is currently full.

Yes, you can disable entities.

Once you've read that article, note that you can also change the state of a multisource master with an env_global entity, which is probably more usefull in your situation: just have two env_globals for every multisource, one that sets its state to 'on', and the other to set its state to 'off'. You can also tell an env_global to set that state to it's target multisource when the level starts, which is usefull for initializing the situation.

all brush based light sources will continue adding light from wherever the brush was placed at the beginning of the map, not where it is crurrently, so in other words, brush based light cant move, at least to my knowledge, you can use smoke and mirrors, based on that the train wont block the light

Oh, I didn't notice that question.

That's not the problem here though, inuendocrash. spot_lights only shine in one direction, so while the floor gets lit, the lamp itself doesn't. Add another light entity, set it to a small radius (either a very large, or very small faloff value, I don't exactly remember which) and put it close to the lamps. The lamps will now be lit, which surely will look better.
Adding a env_glow or env_sprite entity close to them, to add a light halo, can further enhance the effect bytheway. It's easy to spoil this effect by overusing them though.