Portal

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

Portal

Developers
	Valve Corporation
Portal with RTX	Nvidia Lightspeed Studios
Publishers
	Valve Corporation
Retail (The Orange Box)	Electronic Arts
Russia	Buka Entertainment
Portal with RTX	Nvidia
Engines
Original	Source 2007
Current	Source 2013 Singleplayer
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	Realistic
Themes	Sci-fi, Contemporary, North America
Series	Portal

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) release 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

Article on the official Valve Developer Community wiki

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. (-game portal_rtx for the RTX edition)[citation needed] Portal Bundle also available. The Linux port requires the Steam Linux Runtime 1.0 (scout).

Soundtrack is available for free with purchase here.

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

Demo

A demo is available from Steam.

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
Portal with RTX	Brings full Vulkan ray tracing support, DLSS 4 with Multi-Frame Generation (MFG), DLAA, Ray Reconstruction, DLSS Frame Generation and more detailed models with support for physically based rendering by utilizing NVIDIA’s RTX Remix AI-assisted modding tool. Released on December 8, 2022. Require GPUs that supports Vulkan Ray Tracing.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Use -novid command line argument

Peixoto's patch

Has currently no effect on the latest version of Portal.

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

System	Location
Steam	<path-to-game>\portal\cfg\
Windows	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Source\portal\Settings

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

Save game data location

System	Location
Steam	<path-to-game>\portal\save\ <path-to-game>\portal\cfg\config.cfg <path-to-game>\portal\save\bonus_maps_data.bmd

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud		1 GiB 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.

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 or via Gamepad UI) 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.
High-fidelity upscaling		DLSS 2.5 Supported only when playing Portal with RTX DLC.
Frame generation		DLSS Frame Generation Supported only when playing Portal with RTX DLC.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Double buffered
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Capped at 300 FPS. Frame rate cap can be changed by changing fps_max in the developer console. Framerates of 1000 and above will cause issues without sv_cheats set to 1. Engine tick rate is fixed at 66.666 Hz. See High tick rate to increase the internal update rate to match the output FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		Rendered image uses SDR color space. In-game HDR option refers only to HDR Rendering.
Ray tracing (RT)		Full Ray tracing when playing the game through Portal with RTX DLC.
Color blind mode		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

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

High tick rate

All elements except mouse movements and character animations are locked to a 66.666 Hz update rate and are then interpolated to match the output FPS. This allows the game's physics to remain completely consistent at all frame rates (both higher and lower) without needing to implement a complex frame rate independent physics engine at the cost of slightly less smooth experience at very high rates.

This value has a lower bound of 0.1 and a higher bound of 0.001 (between 10 and 1000 FPS).

Increasing the internal update rate limit will also make the physics (especially object physics) much more intense. At the maximum value, after objects spawn in a map, they might start violently bouncing all over the map, having continuously higher and higher acceleration until they inevitably go out of bounds, making the level unbeatable, or heading straight for the player, causing a death. This is nondeterministic, meaning that the behaviors change all the time. Restart the map if objects are missing.

Modify with Cheat Engine

Install Cheat Engine and attach the game process. While engine.dll is selected in the memory search range, search for the following in rounded (extreme) mode, while Executable, Writable and CopyOnWrite is set to Don't Care and the Fast Scan option disabled: 0.0150000 as a float. Change every value to 1/FPS (e.g. 0.006944444444 for 144 FPS or to 0.003333333333 for 300 FPS). Save the cheat table. Temporary solution. The saved cheat table must be used and its values changed with each launch.

Input

In-game key map settings

In-game mouse/gamepad settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse acceleration
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		While menu controls can be partially navigated with any major controller types, in-game controls may not work. To ensure Controller Support works properly: head over to Options > Keyboard/Mouse and enable [Gamepad] and save..
Full controller support		Native since 2022 update, use -gamepadui Command line argument to enable Gamepad UI. By default, this will also enable Vulkan, which can cause the game to crash on incompatible hardware. If enabling the Gamepad UI is desired on systems with GPUs that does not support Vulkan, use -dx9 alongside -gamepadui in order to force the game to launch with DX9 mode instead of Vulkan, while having Gamepad UI enabled. For older version of the game (or some third-party mods) please use this X360 Gamepad UI mod instead, however keep in mind that it does not include the latest patches for the game, which fixes various bugs.
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts		In-game button prompts will not be shown during gameplay, but will be shown if using Steam Input API.
Impulse Trigger support

DirectInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers		DualShock 4, DualSense, DualSense Edge
PlayStation button prompts		In-Game button prompts will not be shown during gameplay, but will be shown if using Steam Input API.
Motion sensors support
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes	Wired, Wireless (Bluetooth), Wireless (DualShock 4 USB Wireless Adapter)

Nintendo controllers

Tracked motion controllers

Other controller(s)		Both Nintendo Switch Pro Controller and Generic Gamepads are supported via Steam Input API
Additional button prompts		Nintendo Switch Pro Controller button prompts are supported via Steam Input API

Additional information
Button Prompts		For older version of the game (or third-party mods that don't support the Gamepad UI), use Controller UI Mod to get a choice of button prompts such as Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3/4, Switch, and more.
Controller hotplugging
Input prompt override
Haptic feedback		Supported via Steam Input API. If using the old version or 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.
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Steam Input prompt modes		SIAPI Button Icons
Steam Deck button prompts
Steam Controller (1st gen) button prompts
Motion sensors support		Camera (SIAPI Game Action)
Official controller preset(s)		DualSense (shared with Xbox, DualShock 4 and Nintendo Switch controller types), Steam Controller and Steam Deck.

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.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Arabic				Fan translation by Arabization Horizon. Doesn't support the RTX version.
Belarusian				Fan translation, Steam Workshop. In the testing stage.
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Czech
Czech				Fan translation; text, dub
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Hebrew				Fan localization by Hebrew Adventure; download.
Hungarian				Localization by Pink Sunset Studio. Download here. Fan localization by YinSasin (incl. Dubbing, Subtitles, Graphics); download.
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish				Polish lector [1]
Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese				Added in latest updates.
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation with AI dubbing; download.
Russian				Later updates broke the voiceover's timings, resulting in voice lines not playing properly, with some of them being completely absent as well. A fan patch fixing this issue is avaialble.
Slovak				Fan translation; text, dub, Prelude
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish				Fan translation; download.

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 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

The game might default to DirectX 8, causing portals to be rendered without effects.

Run the game in DirectX 9 or higher[citation needed]
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. Works via DXVK translation layer. Windows and Linux only.[citation needed]

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 Physics	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 enabling sv_cheats, it can be done with with the command sv_cheats 1. Many servers will not allow playing 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 their presence may be distracting. These radios can be disabled with a command.

Disable via console
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
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)
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. On Portal RTX, -gamepadui must be used along with -dx9, otherwise it would break the renderer.

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.

Workaround: add more (unofficial) presets[citation needed]

Mods

Portal: Still Alive For PC

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.

Still Alive as Bonus Maps

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.

Quality of Life Mod

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

• Subtitles Overhaul - Fixes wrongly subtitled lines, missing subtitles and incorrect punctuation.
• Fixed Elevator Beam + Other Fixed Particles - Fixes the elevator beams along with other particle-related errors in the game.
• Flipped Security Camera - Flips security camera models to not be upside down anymore.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

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
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	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
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	4 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 8 series ATI Radeon X1600 Intel HD Graphics 3000

References

Verified by User:Scottvordem on 2023-01-16

Verified by User:Scottvordem on 2023-01-16

Verified by User:Scottvordem on 2023-01-17

An in game option to toggle these radios exist only in the Steam Deck UI