What determines the orientation of a portal?

Dan

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I've noticed that portals have a distinct up and down. Is that just relative to what's up when you shoot it. For example if you walk into a portal in a wall and come out of the ground you would be lying down parallel to the floor and get pulled back into the portal right? But if you ran into the portal really fast you might have enough momentum to escape it. Would your view instantly snap around to the new coordinate system, or would you slowly spin so that your feet face down? If so what determines how long it takes to get turned around to the new "down"?

Another example. Rememer where the turret was bobbing up and down out of the floor in the video. If that was a person, they'd be upside down half of the time. So if you come out of a portal upside down, what determines which way you would rotate to get your feet facing down again? Would the player do a front flip? Would he just live the rest of his life upside down? Maybe someone who played Narbacular Drop could answer.
 
In part of the film you see the player self-right when going into a portal that comes out in another angle. I guess it's done automatically.
 
yeah, i'm sure they self-right themselves relative to the proper orientation of the level automatically...
 
what if you're upside down, what determines which way you spin.
 
from a coding standpoint, the player probably either spins in a predefined direction, merely flips without actually moving (no animation, just instant rotation), or (and i doubt this) spins in a random direction.
 
from a coding standpoint, the player probably either spins in a predefined direction, merely flips without actually moving (no animation, just instant rotation), or (and i doubt this) spins in a random direction.

Can't they use the phisics engine and let the player choose how to turn using the mouse?
 
what if you're upside down, what determines which way you spin.

Does it really matter?

The point is, is that the devs already have this figured out and we don't have to worry about it... Ignorance is bliss :)
 
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