Portal gun theory

[Destron]

OK, keep in mind that
a) somebody might've already posted this theory, and
b) I may be getting my quotes and facts wrong. bear with me. :E

In HL2, Mossman noted that the Combine has to rely on local transportation once they're here, and can't teleport in an "in-and-out" fashion on the Earth (or, possibly, in our entire dimension). She also said that the teleport device that Eli and Kleiner were constructing "bounces the signal" from Xen back to Earth.
So, is it possible that the Portal gun actually makes portals that go from Xen and back?

Just a thought. Let me know what you think. :farmer:

 

[Ridge]

I dont recall hearing any reference to Xen during that chapter of the game...

 

[Sulkdodds]

I don't see why you'd think that.

On another note - Destron. Play WoW at all? On Earthen Ring?

 

[Narvi]

We've only ever used the ASHPD within Aperture Science. It might be relying on another portal generator within the laboratory.

 

[Operational]

It's not a bad theory concidering the only teleporters in Half-Life were inter-dimentional ones.

We've only ever used the ASHPD within Aperture Science. It might be relying on another portal generator within the laboratory.

Nice idea, but if and when Valve move the portal gun to other area's (like Gabe wants) this won't work unless its range is really big.

 

[Destron]

I dont recall hearing any reference to Xen during that chapter of the game...

I'm pretty sure Mossman was talking about it, I'll go back to that part in the game or check the audio files in the GCFs.

On another note - Destron. Play WoW at all? On Earthen Ring?

No, not at all. I don't own either of them.

 

[Destron]

OK, I found it. check this out.
http://destron5.googlepages.com/mossman_relay.wav

Mossman is saying that they're using Xen as a "slingshot" to do a quick teleport-and-back without entering it.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Yes. Mossman is talking about the Black Mesa teleport technology, extrapolated and developed by the rebels, which is unknown to the Combine - and which is entirely seperate from the Aperture Science 'portal' tech.

There's no reason to believe portal tech has anything to do with Xen. I don't know where you're getting that from. The transport technology of Black Mesa works completely differently to that of Aperture.

As for WoW, coincidence - you have the same name as a player I know.

 

[Para]

If we forget the other fluff about interdimensional portals etc. already on the HL universe I'd say we should first consider what Aperture's portal device actually is:

- obviously handheld
- creates unstable portal pairs, moving surfaces will break the surface of portal and thus shut it entirely
- seemingly not dependant on external power
- seemingly dependant on external controlling signals (for the one portal-portal on wall thing pairing and disintegration fields)
- provides instant (or possibly light speed, hard to say at these distances...) A to B portal pair to move through

In my opinion this sounds "merely" a worm hole generator. The nifty thing about creating worm holes (at least in theorized quantum physics research) is that once it's open, it stays open until either or both ends of the wormhole get disrupted. The opening part is a bit trickier one since it obviously needs huge amount of energy which a handheld device most likely can't generate on its own.

If I had to bet my money on gman's or some similar entity's intervention, it'd be on the power generating side. It would make sense actually, give Black Mesa which apparently is doing great on power generation the portal tunneling technology and give Aperture Science which apparently is doing great on portal tunneling technology the power generation technology and see who wins. Aperture's technology is obviously flawed too, merely because of the signal pairing which tells which portals are paired and when and how easily the portal/wormhole is disrupted while Black Mesa's portals are solid points on space which sort of suck in all the nearby things until it runs out of power.

In short, Aperture's technology works great in laboratory conditions but in outdoor environments technology that can be disrupted by wind blowing on grass or door slamming shut is clearly inferior to technology which connects points on space and transports items between the points, good example being the Magnusson device distributors. This may also be one of the main reasons why Aperture didn't get its funding since the people in charge saw that such technology wouldn't be useful in intended real world situations.