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

Portal 2

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Portal 2
Portal 2 cover
Developers
Valve Corporation
Publishers
Valve Corporation
Russia Buka Entertainment
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, Cross-game bonus
Microtransactions Time-limited
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Platform, Puzzle
Art styles Realistic
Themes Sci-fi, North America, Post-apocalyptic
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
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.
Owners of the PlayStation 3 version were previously able to redeem a single-use product key for Steam as well as link their game to a Steam account, which allowed 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). However, Valve dropped support for PlayStation 3 in 2016 and shutdown the servers without warning on May 22, 2018.[2]

Monetization

Type Notes
Cross-game bonus 7 specific hats obtainable in Team Fortress 2[3] can (if the player owns the hats in Team Fortress 2) be used in Portal 2's co-op modes.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Peer Review Free, included in latest update. Requires completion of the original co-op missions.[4]
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 Included in the limited edition of the Razer Hydra motion controller. (Which is now discontinued.) The DLC is incompatible with the latest builds of the game, and requires the Sixense MotionPack DLC Preservation Mod to make it work on the latest game builds.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Use -novid command line argument[5]

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
Hor+
Ultra-widescreen
Hor+
4K Ultra HD
Crosshair scales poorly with resolutions larger than 1280 pixels wide, making it too small in very high resolutions.
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.[6]
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.
"Laptop Power Setting" enables a 30fps limit
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[7]
  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[8]

Disable bloom

Use the +mat_disable_bloom 1 command line argument[8]

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[9]
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
Razer Hydra with the Portal 2 Sixense MotionPack DLC.
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.[10]
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[11] 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. How to change the game language.
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
Ukrainian
Added in updates.
Ukrainian
Fan localization with dubbing and texture replacement. Steam Guide

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
Formerly supported 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[12]
  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)

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

"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.

Flickering white grainy graphical artifacts on some surfaces

In seemingly rare cases on some specific surfaces, textures can show flickering white grainy graphical artifacts.[13][14][15][16][17]
Use -vulkan command line argument[15][18]
Suggested that this happens due to an old Nvidia driver bug causing problems with projected textures that are used by the game.[15][17]
Seems to happen only on rare occasions, but especially at first room of chapter 2.[14]

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0c
OpenGL 2.1 OS X and Linux only.
Vulkan
Use -vulkan Command line argument.[20] Works via DXVK 2.0[21] translation layer.[22]
Shader Model support 2, 3
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
[19]
Linux
[19]

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

  1. News - Portal 2 Perpetual Testing Initiative Begins May 8 - last accessed on May 2023
  2. https://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/topic/300749-platinum-unobtainable-servers-shutdown-22052018/
  3. Portal 2 - Team Fortress Wiki - last accessed on 29 March 2023
  4. gaming.stackexchange.com - last accessed on May 2023
  5. Verified by User:Mine18 on 2022-12-23
  6. https://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=9559666&postcount=3606
  7. Permanent FOV in Portal 2 and Change Portal Gun Position - YouTube - last accessed on May 2023
  8. 8.0 8.1 https://steamcommunity.com/app/620/discussions/0/133258593395350927/
  9. X1nput 2.0 - Xbox One Controller Impulse Triggers on (almost) any PC game - last accessed on May 2023
  10. Verified by User:Fudgesiclesxd on 2022-08-13
  11. Portal 2 EAX sound fix for sublime sound - Steam Users' Forums (retrieved)
  12. Widescreen gaming blog post on Eyefinity in Left 4 Dead 1
  13. Camera bug and weird flickering - Youtube - last accessed on 2022-12-21
  14. 14.0 14.1 Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2022-12-21
    Tested on first few levels of the game and especially the beginning of Chapter 2. Could only reproduce it at the Chapter 2 beginning room. Saw it on the texture where the laser pointed at and also on the black tiles near the walls close to the exit door of the Chapter 2 level. Tested with latest Nvidia GPU drivers and thus while using dedicated GPU.
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 [Portal 2] Security camera's lens and behavior bug #391 - ValveSoftware/portal2 - GitHub - last accessed on 2022-12-21
  16. Portal 2 artifacts in recent drivers #310 - ValveSoftware/portal2 - GitHub - last accessed on 2022-12-21
  17. 17.0 17.1 [Portal 2] Graphical artifacts with Nvidia #315 - ValveSoftware/portal2 - GitHub - last accessed on 2022-12-21
  18. Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2022-12-21
    Setting the game to use the DXVK layer through the -Vulkan argument indeed fixes the flickering issue.
  19. 19.0 19.1 Verified by User:Mastan on 2021-02-19
  20. Portal 2 - Update - last accessed on May 2023
  21. Portal 2 - Update - last accessed on 2023-05-20
  22. A big Portal 2 update has been released which includes a Vulkan renderer and lots of fixes for Linux! - last accessed on May 2023