This page is for the 2007 puzzle-platform game. For the unrelated 1986 game, see Portal (1986).
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.
General information
- GitHub Issue Tracker for Portal and other Source-based games
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
- 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.[1]
Monetization
Microtransactions
DLC and expansion packs
Name |
Notes |
|
Portal with RTX |
Brings full DXR and Vulkan ray tracing support and "entirely new art evocative of the original" by using NVIDIA’s RTX Remix AI-assisted modding tool. Also adds DLSS 3 support. Coming November 2022.[2] |
|
Soundtrack |
Available for free. |
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Essential improvements
Skip intro videos
- Has currently no effect on the latest version of Portal.[3]
Forced resolution allows in high resolution without shrinking the HUD\menus. Supersampling anti-aliasing is also possible.
Game data
In-game general settings.
Configuration file(s) location
- This game does not follow the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.
Save game data location
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.
- 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.
Audio
Audio feature |
State |
Notes |
Separate volume controls |
|
Over-all game volume and separate music slider. |
Surround sound |
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7.1, 5.1 surround sound, 4 speaker surround. 7.1 output may require DirectSound3D restoration software. |
Subtitles |
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Closed captions |
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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 |
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Simplified Chinese |
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Traditional Chinese |
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Czech |
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Danish |
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Dutch |
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Finnish |
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French |
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German |
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Hungarian |
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Fan localization by YinSasin (incl. Dubbing, Subtitles, Graphics). Download here |
Italian |
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Japanese |
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Korean |
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Norwegian |
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Polish |
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Portuguese |
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Russian |
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Spanish |
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Swedish |
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Turkish |
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Fan translation. Download here |
VR support
Enable Oculus Rift support[9]
|
- 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.[10] Windows[11] and Linux only.[citation needed] |
Shader Model support |
2, 3 |
|
Executable |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
Windows |
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macOS (OS X) | |
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This 32-bit-only macOS game does not work on macOS Catalina (10.15) or later. |
Linux | |
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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.
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Mute the Radios but easier[citation needed]
|
- Download this file.
- Extract
portal folder into <path-to-game> .
- Launch the game.
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Mods
- Ports over 14 Xbox Live Arcade exclusive bonus test chambers (and "Challenge" versions of them), which were based on Portal: The Flash Version Mappack, over to the PC-version with improved lighting and various improvements.
- Also includes the original Portal: The Flash Version Mappack, made by Hen Mazolski.
- Also includes a mockup of the cut escape ending of the Still Alive bonus chambers. And adds the “GLaDOS Voice Map” by Hen Mazolski.
- Includes Portal: Still Alive campaign.
- Additionally adds few new models and normal maps for some objects, re-implements a missing Glados voice line, over 70 materials have been given new or unused reflections and the viewmodel and playermodel have received updates as well.
System requirements
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 |
Notes
- ↑ While it partially works on XInput/Legacy Mode, it's best suited for Steam Input API mode.
References