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 Vulkan ray tracing support[Note 1], DLSS, DLSS Frame Generation and more detailed models with support for physically based rendering[3] by utilizing NVIDIA’s RTX Remix AI-assisted modding tool. Released on December 8, 2022.[4][5] |
|
Essential improvements
Skip intro videos
- Has currently no effect on the latest version of Portal.[7]
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. Avoid touching this panel in the Portal with RTX DLC.
- 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 |
|
7.1, 5.1 surround sound, 4 speaker surround. 7.1 output may require DirectSound3D restoration software. |
Subtitles |
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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. |
Royalty free audio |
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Localizations
Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
English |
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Belarusian |
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Fan translation, Steam Workshop. In testing stage. |
Simplified Chinese |
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Traditional Chinese |
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Czech |
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STEAM. Fan - sub dub |
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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Hebrew |
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Fan localization by Hebrew Adventure. Details here. |
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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Brazilian Portuguese |
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Added in latest updates. |
Brazilian Portuguese |
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AI-voiced. |
Russian |
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Slovak |
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Fan - dub sub Prelude |
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[17]
|
- Find Portal in the 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
Missing crosshair
cl_drawcrosshair 1[citation needed]
|
- Open the console in-game (Default key is ~).
- Input
cl_drawcrosshair 1 to show the crosshair. Similarly, cl_drawcrosshair 0 can be used to hide it.
Notes
- The console might need to be enabled in the game 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 the 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 from the archive into <Steam-folder>\steamapps\sourcemods\ .
- Launch the game.
|
Other information
API
Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
Direct3D |
9 |
Has compatibility levels for Direct3D 8 cards. |
OpenGL |
2.1 |
OS X and Linux only. |
Vulkan |
|
Undocumented officially. Enable Vulkan for base game using the -vulkan command line argument, however it's enabled by default when playing the Portal with RTX DLC.[18] Works via DXVK translation layer.[19][20] Windows[21] and Linux only.[citation needed] |
Shader Model support |
2, 3 |
|
Executable |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
Windows |
|
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|
macOS (OS X) | |
|
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 |
|
Interface |
VGUI2 |
|
Input |
SDL |
|
Cutscenes |
Bink Video |
Used for startup intro video only. |
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 the relevant Valve Developer wiki page for further information and a list of useful Source engine command line arguments.
Disable the radios from the Portal 2 ARG ("Transmission Received" achievement)
- Before Portal 2 was announced, Valve ran an ARG that cryptically hinted at a sequel through an update in Portal. For users who have already completed the game, 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 other than to obtain the achievement itself, the audio that these radios play to alert you to their presence may be distracting. These radios can be disabled with a command.
Disable via console[22]
|
- To enable the console, follow these intructions.
- Type
portal_disable_radios 1 into the console.
Notes
- Won't take effect until the next map is loaded.
|
Disable via autoexec.cfg [23]
|
- For the Portal RTX mod, use the
portal_rtx\cfg directory instead of the portal\cfg directory.
- Head to
<path-to-game>\portal\cfg .
- If
autoexec.cfg does not already exist, create a new txt file named autoexec and change the txt part to cfg .
- Open
autoexec.cfg with a text editor.
- Type
portal_disable_radios 1 and save the file.
Notes
- This will ensure the radios are disabled at game startup.
|
Disable via Steam Deck UI (PC)[24]
|
- Right click on Portal in the Steam Client and click properties.
- Add
-gamepadui to the launch options and launch the game.
- Click on options and set
Post-game radios to disabled (use ← or → arrow keys).
Notes
- Will keep setting after removing
-gamepadui from the launch options.
- Using
-gamepadui on Portal RTX completely breaks the game.
|
Portal with RTX lower presets
- Portal with RTX DLC has very limited options to lower the graphical settings for the added ray tracing features. This results in limited performance on (older) ray tracing capable hardware.
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.
- The same as above, but in a form of a bonus maps, like in the original Xbox Live Arcade release.
- Doesn't includes bonuses from original mod, like The Flash Version Mappack or GLaDOS Voice Map.
- Includes Portal: Still Alive For PC 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.
Various fixes
System requirements
Windows |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
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 |
- Windows 2000 was previously supported, but as future updates for this game and Steam occurred; the support was dropped, even with retail copies. Support for Windows XP were also dropped with 2022 Steam Deck update.
- Must be run without Steam to play on 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
- ↑ Thus requires a GPU with Vulkan support and
VK_KHR_ray_query
Vulkan extension support.[2]
References