Talk:Portal 2

I've found the Icons for Source Flimmaker. They are persent in materials/vgui/tools/ifm. The Icons are very different than the one used in TF2 beta. -Snakey125 9:23 4/26/ 2011

Unused lines and so forth. More than what's outlined on the wikia page. Sarikuya 12:47, 24 February 2012 (EST)

Looks like a new type of gel was added and never used. It's some kind of reflection gel! I'll get around to playing with it on Authoring Tools whenever I get Portal 2 reinstalled. - Snakey125

If you go to this link you can download a decompiler for portal maps (.bps) so you can run them as .vmf files in hammer world editor, and check for any unused content. Works a lot better than just noclipping around a map, so you can actually see triggers and stuff. I'm pretty sure it works for all games with .bps maps, seeing as they all decompile back to .vms, and hammer provides support for any game map as long as it's a .vms file. -IGabx 18:28 10/9/2012



When I was roaming in hammer, I noticed the bombs at the booby trapped stalemate button in the boss battle were using the glass futbol texture... -IGabx 14:28 10/10/2012

"Unused" Rooms
I'm having serious doubts as to whether those rooms are actually "unused". The developers had to do some hacky stuff in order to work around Source engine limitations; for example, when Wheatley moves the motel room in the intro, the actual player character is moved into an empty, static placeholder room, so they can't die or fall out of the "real" room (where the camera is). I have a feeling the rooms shown in the article might be used for similar things. --BMF54123 18:41, 9 October 2012 (EDT)

Yeah but if they were to make a placeholder room like that, why would it be setup like that? Isn't one plain old room just fine? And why is there a big duplicate of it? -IGabx 19:24, 10/9/2012

Yeah the developers have all sorts of off screen stuff happen in boxes like those. Boxes to hold the bomb in TF2 MVM, Boxes to hold Breens head in Half-Life 2, 3D skyboxes of all sorts, ect. The problem I see is I cannot think of anything in the final level that would need to be put off screen. I guess I could crack open Hammer and check if anything is in there. If it turns out nothing is in those boxes, then yeah, it's left over development stuff and might as well stay on the page. EDIT: Looked at the new information put on the Portal page. Still going to crack the level open and check it out myself. --RandomGuardian 19:45, 9 October 2012 (EDT)

Found out that there's something called "sky_camera" pointing at the crates. I suppose you're right, it could be used. But I'm not sure if I remember seeing those crates anywhere in normal gameplay, so then again it might not be, unless I'm mistaken. EDIT: Alright, never mind. I can see it's used for a skybox, that's why there's a big duplicate in the background. I can't believe I didn't realize it. XD -IGabx 20:08 10/9/2012

A bit off topic of the skybox, but still on portal 2: I found a text file under /steamapps/common/portal 2/portal2 for split screen. I thought it was interesting since there's online, and that playing split screen on one computer would be kind of hard and pointless. Maybe it was for console editions though... -IGabx 20:34 10/9/2012
 * Split screen is still functional in the PC version and can be enabled with console commands:
 * http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1847904
 * --Dragonsbrethren 01:14, 10 October 2012 (EDT)

Hate to say it but I think there is a posibility they could be used. From what I could gather, the map has many other Path_Corner and other point based entity stuff. Some point to legit entity pathing but many of them are seemingly empty. They all have two things in common. The names all point to specific lighting conditions at certain areas, and most if not all the entity data is blank or default. So there are 2 things I can think of that would make sense. Theory A: The path_corner is used to index for easy finding. I assume this because naming lights changes the property of the lights and the path_corners have names associated with lighting. There are also path_corners found next to lights used in the level instead of out of bounds. Theory B: Some how in some undocumented feature the paths are redirecting the lighting when the game needs them. This is very unlikely, I used my tin foil hat for this idea. I will say it can hold some ground though. Why else would the dev team use textured brushes instead of nodraw like they usually do to hold the other entities? Could the lights be using the walls to create realistic lighting conditions? Also there is a third box with white-out walls and path_corner as well so this could have a bit of truth to it. Either way, something is in those boxes. It's a matter of if it could be interpreted as used or not. If A is the case though, we might as well check if the lights have duplicates in the level or are some how used in any other way. If they are used then I guess you could say the boxes are used and then case closed. If B is the case then case closed anyways. P.S. Sorry for the wall of text and I dont know what to say about the portal 2 console stuff. I know TF2 has data for the Xbox in the computer game files. Valve is just lazy like that I guess. --RandomGuardian 21:27, 9 October 2012 (EDT)

A friend of mine and I were discussing the unused area in the last chapter. There is a commentary node saying the battle was tougher originally. I would think it is a leftover from that battle. -Snakey125 21:24, 9 October 2012 (GMT)

That could be the case. Maybe there were trigger's for text and stuff for the harder battle that were hidden in there, but when the battle was scrapped, so were the triggers. But maybe the lights remained there for some reason. If it's not the battle though, here's what I also came up with: from what I can see, if there's a path_corner named after a light, it's close to it (like RandomGuardian said). But the type of light it's close to is like actual light, and not just the light bulb icon. And the path_corner near wheatley isn't exactly next to the light it is related to, suggesting there could be distance in between the path_corners and the light they're related to. Let's use an example of the many light's around the ceiling where wheatley is attached to. Let's also say that one of the path_corners out of bounds are related to those lights. They couldn't put the path_corner near the lights for the single reason that it's to darn bright to see anything. So they would put the path_corner a bit farther. They probably just put special texture around the path_corners because they're really important in some way, Like a major error would come up of missing lights or something, and they would want to know where the lights are in case of emergency. Either way, unless we find what those path_corners are related to, we'll never know. -IGabx 22:55 10/9/2012

And also, I think that nodraw textures work just like other textures, just the player doesn't see them or collide with them, because the player's told that they don't exist. You can walk through them, AND you don't see them, but that doesn't change the fact that they're still there. Maybe players can't interact with them but lights can. If the lights do interact with nodraw (which I will test sometime later), then there's no reason to get actual textures to create a realistic lighting condition. -IGabx 23:03 10/9/2012

Almost forgot to delete the last last article. The one that's really a skybox and is actually used. Deleting now! -IGabx 23:19 10/9/2012

Lighting origin rooms
One of the unique features of Portal 2's version of the Source engine is the ability to define an object's lighting according to an entity at a different location, as opposed to using the lights and objects immediately around the object itself. This is, in all likelihood, what those lighting_origin objects are doing (the attribute used to define this on an object is called, appropriately, "lighting origin"). Might be useful to figure out which objects they're actually being used by, although I unfortunately don't know of an easier way to do that than clicking around the room in Hammer and checking every object's lighting origin attribute.

Also, it's rather odd that they're set to be path_corners, as opposed to info_target, which is an entity that essentially exists only to define an external position for another entity (soundscapes use it a lot for placing positional sounds). Might just be a fluke on Valve's part, picking an entity at random to use, which they've been known to do. Will-T 14:41, 20 December 2012 (EST)

Error Sound
Should the "Oh, fiddlesticks! What now?" Error handler sound be added to this page? I don't see it used in the final game. I mean, I guess you COULD purposely crash it, but......Robotortoise 21:59, 20 August 2013 (EDT)
 * I don't see any reason why not, considering we document other error handlers (eg. Tecmo Bowl (NES)). -- Einstein95 (talk) 22:01, 20 August 2013 (EDT)
 * I've seen some videos that made the game's engine cry, but nothing that ever made it crash. If you can only use tools like Cheat Engine to make it crash, then crashes aren't part of the actual game. I know it's not exactly like that, but it doesn't matter: like Einstein95 said, we covered some other error handlers, and the truth is that that is an unused sound. Now, I know nothing about Half-Life (I'm afraid), but that sounds like something one of the engineers would say in-game. If so, I don't think there's any use in uploading the file, because it's a regular sound byte in a game that a lot of people know. Having the sound byte wouldn't really quench many people's thirst, and not uploading it would save the server on some extra space. {EspyoT} 06:28, 21 August 2013 (EDT)
 * After a quick google, it seems that it's used by Dr. Kleiner at the beginning of Half-Life 2. So, yeah, it wouldn't be the best to upload it, but it is worth mentioning on the page. -- Einstein95 (talk) 06:33, 21 August 2013 (EDT)
 * Ok then, don't hesitate in putting it up, then. {EspyoT} 07:19, 22 August 2013 (EDT)
 * Okay, uh...it seems as an .ogg file it's about 34 KB. I think that's not too much strain on the server, hmm? I'll add the text, and if you think uploading it is alright, I'll upload it as well.Robotortoise 20:09, 23 August 2013 (EDT)
 * Eeeeeehh... it's not the size per se... I don't know, it's just that every little upload eventually adds up (wasn't there a saying for that?). Then again, I guess it is kinda humorous, and for people like me, who never played it, it could have some interest to hear it. I suppose uploading it is fine. After all, uploads for audio that's region-exclusive are encouraged, so why wouldn't this be? {EspyoT} 07:31, 24 August 2013 (EDT)
 * Yay! Thanks. (On a related note, if you want to save server space, wouldn't deleted previously updated pictures be a better idea? If the pics are updated, they really don't need to have more then one or two revisions, I would guess. Robotortoise 15:32, 24 August 2013 (EDT)
 * Yeah. Well, only the system admins can tell us if the server is having space trouble, and what their options are. {EspyoT} 17:25, 24 August 2013 (EDT)

Face Poser
I found a file in Portal 2/portal2/gfx called "hlfaceposer". The only thing in it is a set of icons for some sort of menu. They are small, around 16x16 pixels, and are in .bmp format. Is there anything here, or is this nothing really important? CatchallRat682 22:09, 30 January 2014 (EST)


 * Okay so apparently that just comes with the sdk... does anyone know how to access it though, it could be a useful feature... maybe.--CatchallRat682 (talk) 15:42, 2 February 2014 (EST)


 * https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Authoring_Tools/SDK_(Portal_2) It's right on the main menu when you boot up the SDK. Teflon (talk) 15:51, 2 February 2014 (EST)

Unused Content Menu
I was just doing a little research when I came across a file in the Steam/Steamapps/common/Portal 2/portal2 folder called unusedcontent.cfg. When opened as a text file it comes up as a menu, so it is likely this was meant to be opened with a program. Does anyone know how to access this program, or what the program might be? CatchallRat682 13:09, 31 January 2014 (EST)

Unused Animation in Motel Room
The fold out chair in the video appears in the motel room part of the E3 2010 "You Monster" trailer. Could it be an early animation test for the furniture in the room? Iriscl (talk) 02:12, 29 March 2014 (EDT)