Portal 2

Portal 2

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

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.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Steam Workshop for Portal 2

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		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).
Steam		Portal Bundle also available.

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.
Roll cage	Pre-order only
Paint job	Pre-order only
Antenna topper	Pre-order only
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.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Use -novid command line argument

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\portal2\cfg\ <path-to-game>\portal2_dlc2\cfg\ <path-to-game>\update\cfg\
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 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.
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
Go to Options, Keyboard/Mouse, and set Allow Developer Console to Enabled. Press ~ to toggle the console. Type in bind w "+forward; cl_fov xx", replacing xx with the desired FOV, and press ↵ Enter. OPTIONAL: Type in viewmodel_offset_y 6 and press ↵ Enter. This moves the portal gun's position further away. 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

Disable bloom

Use the +mat_disable_bloom 1 command line argument

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 gamepad settings.

In-game key 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

DualShock 4 controllers		Officially supported via Steam Input.
DualShock button prompts		Both DualShock 4 and DualSense prompts.
Light bar support		Static, Blue or Orange depending on last active portal
Connection modes	Wired, wireless

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.

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Official controller preset(s)
Steam Controller button prompts

Audio

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 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
Brazilian Portuguese				Added in latest updates.
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]
Go into game options. Enable the developer console. Press ~. 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
Go to <path-to-game>/portal 2 Open splitscreen_config.txt with a text editor Look for "aspect" "8 by 9" string 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)

VR support

3D modes	Native	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

"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. Download the DirctX End-User Runtimes (June 2010). It contains DirectX 9.0c. Run the downloaded installer. Tell it to extract the necessary files to a folder of your choosing. Go to the folder where the extracted files are located. Run DXSETUP.exe as administrator. Install it. The extracted files from step 3 can now be safely removed. They are no longer needed. Reboot the computer.

Flickering white grainy graphical artifacts on some surfaces

In seemingly rare cases on some specific surfaces, textures can show flickering white grainy graphical artifacts.

Use -vulkan command line argument
Suggested that this happens due to an old Nvidia driver bug causing problems with projected textures that are used by the game. Seems to happen only on rare occasions, but especially at first room of chapter 2.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c
OpenGL	2.1	OS X and Linux only.
Vulkan		Use -vulkan Command line argument. Works via DXVK translation layer.
Shader Model support	2, 3

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows			""
macOS (OS X)
Linux

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]
Launch the game From the main menu select Options Select the Keyboard tab Click the Advanced button Check the box next to Enable developer console (~) 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

• HD Loading Screens
• Remastered GLaDOS or Source 2 GLaDOS
• HD Portals with Hands

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

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)