Portal

This page is for the 2007 puzzle-platform game. For the unrelated 1986 game, see Portal (1986).

Portal

Developers
	Valve Corporation
Engines
	Source
Release dates
Windows	October 9, 2007
macOS (OS X)	May 12, 2010
Linux	May 2, 2013
Reception
Metacritic	90
IGDB	80
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Platform, Puzzle, Shooter
Art styles	Stylized
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.

Portal is a singleplayer first-person platform, puzzle and shooter game in the Portal series.

General information

GitHub Issue Tracker for Portal and other Source-based games

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Steam		DRM-free when launched directly from the executable with -game portal command line argument.[citation needed] Portal Bundle also available.

A demo is available.

Soundtrack is available for free with purchase here.

Does not include the 14 bonus levels present in the Xbox 360 arcade version. However, modders ported over the levels, and have released them.

Monetization

Type	Notes
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

Microtransactions

Type	Notes
No microtransactions	Game does not contain microtransactions.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Still Alive	Xbox 360 exclusive containing 14 extra levels, modded into the PC version. Avaliable via Quality of Life Mod or Portal: Still Alive For PC
Soundtrack	Available for free.

Essential improvements

Quality of Life Mod

Adds Xbox 360 exclusive Still Alive DLC into the main game, reimpliments missing voice lines, textures and normal maps.

Peixoto's patch

Forced resolution allows in high resolution without shrinking the HUD\menus. Supersampling anti-aliasing is also possible

Skip intro videos

Use -novid command line argument[citation needed]

Game data

In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Steam	<path-to-game>/portal/cfg/

This game does not follow the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System	Location
Steam	<path-to-game>/portal/save/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud		Approx. 1 GB available. Settings will sync too, except graphics settings.

Video

In-game general video settings.

In-game advanced video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD			Some text may be too small, see this thread.
Field of view (FOV)		Values between 75° and 110° (up to 120° using fov_desired) horizontal can be set via ingame slider. For higher values use this guide.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		For newer versions, update then set to "Run in a window (No Border), otherwise set launch options to -windowed -noborder
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Up to 16 samples.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Up to 8x MSAA and up to 16x QCSAA. SGSSAA available with flag 0x004010C1.
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.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		Rendered image uses SDR color space. In-game HDR option refers only to HDR Rendering.

HBAO also available with flags (increasing in strength from left to right) 0x00000014, 0x0000002C, 0x00000006 and 0x00000008.

Input

In-game key map settings.

In-game mouse/gamepad settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Use Controller UI Mod, (recommended for older version/non-Vulkan cards, optional for Steam Deck/2022 versions) for a console style menu that can be navigated with a controller. Use the console command exec 360controller to automatically setup Xbox controller support (if not already configured at startup). Later versions (including the "beta/deck_test" branch) added Steam Input API support and Controller-centric UI (Vulkan supported card required, otherwise use the X360 UI mod) designed for both Steam Deck and any Gamepads. Gamepad UI can be enabled with -gamepadui Command line argument.
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts		Supported via Steam Input API.
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers
PlayStation button prompts		Supported via Steam Input API.
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes	Wired, Wireless (Bluetooth),

Tracked motion controllers

Generic/other controllers		Both Nintendo Switch Pro Controller and Generic Gamepads are supported via Steam Input API
Button prompts		Nintendo Switch Pro Controller button prompts are supported via Steam Input API

Additional information
Button prompts		Use Controller UI Mod (for old version only) to get a choice of button prompts such as Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3/4, Switch, and more. Otherwise use Controller-centric UI with Steam Input API.
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback		Supported via Steam Input API. If using the old version/Legacy XInput mode: you can bring back Controller rumble by download an updated version of the SDL2 runtime binary (choose Runtime Binaries x86) and replace it with the one in <path-to-game>\bin. This works for any Source engine based game.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

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. 7.1 output may require DirectSound3D restoration software.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		"Silence the audio while the game window is in the background" check box
EAX support		Set snd_legacy_surround 1 in console, 4 speakers in options, and use DSOAL for binaural HRTF mixing.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Hungarian				Fan localization by YinSasin (incl. Dubbing, Subtitles, Graphics). Download here
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish				Fan translation. Download here

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		G3D, DirectVR Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Headsets
SteamVR		This game might be playable with the Revive Compatibility Layer (compatibility list).
Oculus VR (LibOVR)		See Oculus Rift.
Windows Mixed Reality		This game might be playable with the Revive Compatibility Layer.

Devices
Tracked motion controllers
Traditional controller		See Input for details.
Keyboard/Mouse
Novint Falcon

Oculus Rift

Enable Oculus Rift support
Find Portal in your Steam Library Right-click and select Properties Choose Set Launch Options... Add -vr and press OK. Close the window and relaunch the game

Issues fixed

Black and purple textures and giant red models

See Missing models or textures.

Game crashes when going through a portal (Windows)

Run the game in DirectX 9 or higher[citation needed]
If the game is running on a version below DirectX 9 it may crash when entering a portal.

Missing crosshair

cl_drawcrosshair 1[citation needed]
Open the console in game (Default key is ~) Input cl_drawcrosshair 1 to show your crosshair. Similarly, you can use cl_drawcrosshair 0 to hide it. You may need to enable the console in the settings

Portals are rendered incorrectly or lack any effects

Run the game in DirectX 9 or higher[citation needed]
The game may have defaulted to DirectX 8, causing portals to be rendered without effects. Add -dxlevel 95 to the game's launch options to run the game in DirectX 9, then remove it after running the game once or your in-game video options will keep resetting back to the defaults.

"Node Graph Out of Date. Rebuilding..." error in Still Alive levels

Download pre-built graphs[citation needed]
Download this file. Extract Portal-StillAlive folder from the archive into the <Steam-folder>\steamapps\sourcemods. Launch the game.

Screen Tearing

-refresh 60[citation needed]
You may experience Screen Tearing while you play, or your game may also look slow for your screen refresh rate (for 60Hz+ monitors), if it's the case for you, you can either turn on Vsync or add -refresh [your Screen refresh rate] as a launch argument, in order to solve this issue. Vsync can cause input lag in some cases.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	6, 7, 8, 8.1, 9
OpenGL	2.1	OS X and Linux only.
Vulkan		Undocumented officially. Enable Vulkan using -vulkan Command line argument. Works via DXVK translation layer. Windows and Linux only.[citation needed]
Shader Model support	2, 3

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)			This 32-bit-only macOS game does not work on macOS Catalina (10.15) or later.
Linux

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok	Heavily modified variant.
Audio	Miles Sound System
Input	SDL
Cutscenes	Bink Video	Used for startup videos and in-game movies.

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. Many servers will not allow you to play with cheats enabled, or will disable them upon entering the server. Users without a US keyboard could experience some problems.

Launch options

View this Steam Support Article regarding launch options as well as the relevant Valve Developer wiki page for further information and a list of useful Source engine launch options.

Enabling a launch parameter[citation needed]
Find the game in your Steam Library Right-click the game name Select Properties Select Set Launch Options... Input your selected launch options and separate each command with a space Press OK Launch the game

Mute the radios from the Portal 2 ARG (Transmission Received)

Before Portal 2 was announced, Valve ran an ARG that cryptically hinted at a sequel through an update in Portal. The update added a radio to find in every single level and carrying them all to the end to be vaporized caused them to emit shrieking noises. These noises could be decoded into pictures that seemed to hint at Portal 2, which was later confirmed. Since the ARG serves no purpose anymore, the audio that these radios play to alert you to their presence may be distracting. To mute these radios and achieve a near-vanilla Portal experience, follow these steps or download a file.

Mute the Radios[citation needed]

Go to <path-to-game>\portal\ Create a folder named custom and open it Create a folder named mute radios inside the custom folder and open it Create a folder named sound inside the mute radios folder and open it Create a folder named ambient inside the sound folder and open it Create a folder named music inside the ambient folder and open it Find a replacement .wav file such as this empty one from wc3c.net and copy it into the music folder Rename the .wav file to looping_radio_mix.wav Launch the game.

Mute the Radios but easier[citation needed]
Download this file. Extract portal folder into <path-to-game>. Launch the game.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 1.7 GHz AMD Athlon XP 1700+	Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz AMD Athlon XP 3000+
System memory (RAM)	512 MB	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	4 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 3 ATI Radeon 8500 128 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.1 compatible	Nvidia GeForce 7900 ATI Radeon X1900 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9 compatible

Must be run without Steam to play on XP and Vista.

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.5.8
Processor (CPU)
System memory (RAM)	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	4 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 8 series ATI Radeon X1600 Intel HD Graphics 3000