Anonymous edits have been disabled on the wiki. If you want to contribute please login or create an account.

Difference between revisions of "Portal 2"

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
(Move an issue to correct section)
(→‎Split-screen co-op: Removed long-uncited instructions on allowing KB+M controls during split-screen co-op.)
Line 494: Line 494:
 
===Split-screen co-op===
 
===Split-screen co-op===
 
{{ii}} As of November 20, 2012, splitscreen mode has been officially added for Standard Co-Op.<ref>[https://store.steampowered.com/news/9423/ Portal 2 Update Released - Steam News for Portal 2]</ref>
 
{{ii}} As of November 20, 2012, splitscreen mode has been officially added for Standard Co-Op.<ref>[https://store.steampowered.com/news/9423/ Portal 2 Update Released - Steam News for Portal 2]</ref>
{{ii}} If you'd like to use a keyboard/mouse for Player 1 and a controller for Player 2 in Windows, follow these instructions:
 
 
{{Fixbox|description=Input joy_remap_player_for_controller1 2|ref={{cn|date=July 2016}}|fix=
 
# Open the [[#Console commands|console]] in Portal 2
 
# Input <code>joy_remap_player_for_controller1 2</code>
 
# Play
 
}}
 
 
{{ii}} If you'd like to use a keyboard/mouse for Player 2 and a controller for Player 1 in OS X or Linux, follow these instructions:
 
 
{{Fixbox|description=Use in_forceuser to switch keyboard and mouse to player 2|ref={{cn|date=July 2016}}|fix=
 
# Make sure your controller is connected beforehand
 
# Open Portal 2
 
# Open the [[#Console commands|console]]
 
# Start a coop game <code>ss_map mp_coop_start</code>
 
# Run the following commands <code>sv_cheats 1</code> then <code>in_forceuser 1</code>
 
# Keyboard/mouse is now controlling player 2 and the gamepad is controlling player 1.
 
# Play
 
}}
 
  
 
==VR support==
 
==VR support==

Revision as of 15:37, 1 December 2022

Portal 2
Portal 2 cover
Developers
Valve Corporation
Engines
Source
Release dates
Windows April 19, 2011
macOS (OS X) April 19, 2011
Linux June 17, 2014
Reception
Metacritic 95
IGDB 92
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Platform, Puzzle
Art styles Realistic
Themes Comedy, Sci-fi
Series Portal
Portal 2 on HowLongToBeat
Portal 2 on IGDB
Portal 2 guide on StrategyWiki
Portal 2 on MobyGames
Portal 2 on Wikipedia
Subseries of Half-Life
Portal 2007
Portal 2 2011
Portal 2 Sixense Perceptual Pack 2013
Aperture Tag: The Paint Gun Testing Initiative (unofficial mod) 2014
Portal Stories (series)
The Lab 2016
Bridge Constructor Portal 2017
Moondust 2018
Aperture Hand Lab 2019
Aperture Desk Job 2022

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

Key points

Built-in level editor with Steam Workshop support.[1]

General information

Steam Community Discussions
Steam Workshop for Portal 2

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Icon overlay.png
All copies of Portal 2 on PlayStation 3 come with a Steam key (can only be activated on accounts that have logged into Portal 2 on PS3 before).
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Portal Bundle also available.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
All versions require Steam DRM.
Soundtrack is available for free as DLC and on the official website.

PlayStation 3

The PlayStation 3 version includes a single-use product key for Steam.
Can be linked to a Steam account, which allows cross-platform multiplayer with Steam players, access to your Steam friend list (chat, invites, etc.), Steam Achievements, and Steam Cloud save-games (PlayStation 3 saves are not compatible with other versions).

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Peer Review Free, included in latest update. Requires completion of the original co-op missions.[2]
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Roll cage Pre-order only
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Paint job Pre-order only
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Antenna topper Pre-order only
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Sixense MotionPack The official DLC is incompatible with current builds of the game, and is now unavailable. To play, use the Sixense MotionPack DLC Preservation Mod.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Use -novid command line argument[citation needed]

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\portal2\cfg\[Note 1]
<path-to-game>\portal2_dlc2\cfg\[Note 1]
<path-to-game>\update\cfg\[Note 1]
macOS (OS X)
Linux
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System Location
Steam <path-to-game>\portal2\SAVE\

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud
Approx. 1 GB available.

Video

In-game general video settings.
In-game general video settings.
In-game advanced video settings.
In-game advanced video settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Hor+
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Crosshair scales poorly with resolution larger than 1280 pixels wide, making them too small in very high resolution.
Field of view (FOV)
See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Up to 16 samples.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Up to 8x MSAA. Nvidia users can acheive OGSSAA hybrid modes combined with TrSSAA using flag 0x000000C0.[3]
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Double and triple buffered.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
Capped at 300 FPS. Frame rate cap can be changed by changing fps_max in the developer console. To uncap FPS or cap FPS higher than 300 you must first set sv_cheats = 1 before using fps_max. sv_cheats = 1 will also disable achievements.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
HBAO also available with flag 0x00000014.

Field of view (FOV)

Enter console commands[4]
  1. Go to Options, Keyboard/Mouse, and set Allow Developer Console to Enabled.
  2. Press ~ to toggle the console.
  3. Type in bind w "+forward; cl_fov xx", replacing xx with the desired FOV, and press Enter.
  4. OPTIONAL: Type in viewmodel_offset_y 6 and press Enter. This moves the portal gun's position further away.
  5. Every time you load a map, press w to change the FOV to the desired value.

Disable motion blur

Use the +mat_motion_blur_percent_of_screen_max 0 command line argument[5]

Disable bloom

Use the +mat_disable_bloom 1 command line argument[5]

Run at monitor's refresh rate

Use the -refresh  command line argument, followed by the desired refresh rate.[citation needed]

Cap frame rate

Use the +fps_max  command line argument, followed by the desired frame rate.[citation needed]

Input

In-game general controls settings.
In-game general controls settings.
In-game gamepad settings.
In-game gamepad settings.
In-game key map settings.
In-game key map settings.
In-game button map settings.
In-game button map settings.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Perpetual Testing Initiative level select menu is buggy but workable.
Full controller support
To make controller vibration work, download an updated version of the SDL2 file and replace it with the one in the Portal2\Bin folder. SDL This works for any Source engine based game.
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Has separate sliders for horizontal and vertical sensitivity.
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration
Use X1nput[6]
PlayStation controllers
Officially supported via Steam Input.
PlayStation button prompts
Both DualShock 4 and DualSense prompts.
Light bar support
Static, Blue or Orange depending on last active portal
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes Wired, Wireless (Bluetooth)
Tracked motion controllers
Sixense controllers with the Portal 2 Sixense Perceptual Pack
Button/gesture prompts
Generic/other controllers
Both Switch Pro Controller and Generic Gamepads are supported through Steam Input.
Button prompts
No generic DirectInput-type prompt, types of button prompts shown the the game depends on Steam Input settings.[7]
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M
Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Official controller preset(s)
Steam Controller button prompts

Audio

In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Over-all game volume and separate music slider.
Surround sound
7.1, 5.1 surround sound, 4 speaker surround[8] The option for the 7.1 surround sound might be missing, type snd_surround_speakers 7 to fix this issues.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Open console and type snd_mute_losefocus 0 to Disable, snd_mute_losefocus 1 to Enable
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
For unknown reasons, the localization has the effect of breaking phrases or overlapping one phrase with another. To fix this, follow the instructions
Spanish
Swedish
Thai
Turkish

Disable in-game voice chat

Disables in-game voice chat to allow using other voice chat services instead.
Disable voice chat[citation needed]
  1. Go into game options.
  2. Enable the developer console.
  3. Press ~.
  4. Type in voice_enable 0.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
2 Co-op
Two player split-screen
LAN play
2 Co-op
Use sv_lan command.
Online play
33 Co-op
Supports crossplay with PS3. You can play with up to 33 players with the Portal 2: Multiplayer Mod.

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP
Open the console (~) and enter connect followed by the IP and port.

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 27014-27050
UDP 3478, 4379-4380, 27000-27030
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Split-screen without bezels

Portal 2 split-screen mode was meant to be played on a single 16:9 screen only. If you have a different setup then, the image could not entirely fit the monitor(s).
Edit split-screen aspect-ratio[9]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>/portal 2
  2. Open splitscreen_config.txt with a text editor
  3. Look for "aspect" "8 by 9" string
  4. Change it accordingly to your actual aspect ratio divided by 2

Notes

If you are interested to horizontal split-screen aspect ratio, you should look instead for "aspect" "32 by 9" string (remember that you need to multiply by 2 the aspect ratio now)

Split-screen co-op

As of November 20, 2012, splitscreen mode has been officially added for Standard Co-Op.[10]

VR support

3D modes State GG3D Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision
Use Helix Mod: Portal 2 for better support.
TriDef 3D
iZ3D
vorpX
G3D, DirectVR
Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Issues fixed

"Visual 2005 Runtime" error

Install Microsoft Visual Runtime Libraries[citation needed]
  1. Visit Microsoft Visual Runtime Libraries
  2. Download and install the files provided
  3. Run the game

"Portal 2 Failed to create D3D device" error

Install DirectX 9.0c[citation needed]
Happens when DirectX 9.0c (in which DirectX 8.1 is included) is not yet installed on the system system.
  1. Download the DirctX End-User Runtimes (June 2010). It contains DirectX 9.0c.
  2. Run the downloaded installer.
  3. Tell it to extract the necessary files to a folder of your choosing.
  4. Go to the folder where the extracted files are located.
  5. Run DXSETUP.exe as administrator.
  6. Install it.
  7. The extracted files from step 3 can now be safely removed. They are no longer needed.
  8. Reboot the computer.

Freezes and stuttering on Mac

Disable joystick support[citation needed]
  1. Find Portal 2 in your Steam Library
  2. Right-click the game name
  3. Select Properties
  4. Select Set Launch Options...
  5. Input -nojoy
  6. Press OK and launch the game

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0c
OpenGL 2.1 OS X and Linux only.
Vulkan
Use -vulkan Command line argument.[12] Works via DXVK translation layer.[13]
Shader Model support 2, 3
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
""
macOS (OS X)
[11]
Linux
[11]

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok Heavily modified variant.
Audio Miles Sound System
Cutscenes Bink Video Used for startup videos, in-game movies, and movies applied to surfaces.
Multiplayer Steamworks

Console commands

Games running on the Source engine can utilize Source Engine Console Commands for various tasks.
Enabling the console in Source games[citation needed]
  1. Launch the game
  2. From the main menu select Options
  3. Select the Keyboard tab
  4. Click the Advanced button
  5. Check the box next to Enable developer console (~)
  6. Click Apply

Notes

Some commands may first require you enabling sv_cheats. You can do so with sv_cheats 1.
Users without a US keyboard could experience some problems.

Launch options

View the relevant Valve Developer wiki page for further information and a list of useful Source engine command line arguments.

Mods

System requirements

Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 7, 8.1, 10
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz
AMD Athlon 64 X2
System memory (RAM) 2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 8 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI Radeon X800
Nvidia GeForce 7600
Intel HD Graphics 2000
128 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible
Shader model 2.0b support
Sound (audio device) DirectX 9.0c compatible
Windows XP and Vista were previously supported, but as future updates for this game and Steam occurred; the support was dropped, even with retail copies.
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.6.7
Processor (CPU) Intel Core Duo 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 8 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI Radeon HD 2400
Nvidia GeForce 8600M
Intel HD Graphics 3000
Linux
Minimum
Operating system (OS) Ubuntu 12.04
Processor (CPU) Intel Dual Core 2.8 GHz
AMD Dual Core 2.8 GHz
System memory (RAM) 2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 8 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI Radeon HD 2600/3600
Nvidia GeForce 8600/9600 GT
OpenGL 2.1 compatible
Sound (audio device) OpenAL compatible
Other (Graphic Drivers: Nvidia 310, AMD 12.11)


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References