Portal 2 engine branch

Portal 2 engine branch

In-game screenshot of Portal 2, running on Portal 2 engine branch.

Developer(s)

Valve

Release date(s)

April 18, 2011

Platform(s)

Windows
macOS
Linux (2014)
Xbox 360
PlayStation 3

SDK

Portal 2 Authoring Tools

Forks

Titanfall branch (heavily modified)

Predecessor

Alien Swarm engine branch

Successor

CS:GO engine branch

Improved shadow mapping in Portal 2.

Blob particles in Portal 2.

The Portal 2 engine branch was introduced with Portal 2 in 2011. It was forked from the Left 4 Dead engine branch between Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, with some elements added on from the Alien Swarm engine branch (which it succeeded). It was superseded by the CS:GO engine branch. With the release of Portal 2, this marks the first time Source engine was ported to PlayStation 3, since the release of The Orange Box.

Note: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive used to be on the branch that debuted with it, but as of Counter-Strike 2's official release, which upgraded the game to Source 2, and renamed Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to Counter-Strike 2, this make Portal 2 engine branch the latest Source 1 branch with newest features (alongside Team Fortress 2 branch) that still being actively maintained by Valve.

Features

New since the Alien Swarm engine branch is:

Improved shadow mapping

The entity env_projectedtexture is significantly improved. Compared to previous implementations, it has higher default resolution, better edge filtering and support for the caching of shadows from static objects.

Video playback on materials

Added support to render Bink Video in-game on surfaces, used for elevator screens in Portal 2.

Blob particles

A particle renderer that renders blobs of liquid, used for paint gel in Portal 2. A similar blob particles system are originally present in Source 2007 or Source 2009, but was disabled in code.

World portals

World portals that can seamlessly link together separate parts of the world. This feature is exclusive to Portal 2 engine branch

Sound operators

For defining complex audio behaviour.

Finished water debris flow

The base texture water flow feature from The Alien Swarm engine branch has been finished, with flowed normals now distorting color lookup and the flow map's alpha channel controlling color map opacity.

Tools

Hammer new features

DotA Camera - restrict the camera to be in the DotA orientation and distance from the ground. Likely included because Valve likely used Portal 2 Hammer to create Dota 2 maps (during it's development), or simply was mistakenly (or for whatever reason) backported to Portal 2 Hammer.

PS3 exclusive features

Official PlayStation 3 Support

PS3 is now officially supported by Valve. Unlike the PlayStation 3 port of The Orange Box, which was outsourced to Electronic Arts (EA), which ended up suffering from occasional frame drops and other technical issues as Valve had difficulties utilizing the SPEs cores on the PlayStation 3 at the time. The PlayStation 3 version of Portal 2 takes advantages of SPEs cores on the RSX processor, allowing for better performance. Of little use to modders, needless to say.

MLAA anti-aliasing

Post-processing effect used to reduce stair-step (aliasing) effect on geometry and transparent textures, while having less performance impact compared to MSAA.

Steam integration (Steamworks)

PlayStation 3 version of Portal 2 features Steam integration. Achievements are synced with both PSN and Steam, and PlayStation 3 users were able to complete co-op levels with Steam friends. Steam services on PS3 were shut down in 2016.

PlayStation Move support

Portal 2 on PlayStation 3 supports PlayStation Move motion controller.

Availability and usage

List of games that runs on Portal 2 engine branch.

See also:  Category:Portal 2 engine branch games

• 2011 Portal 2
  • 2012 Portal 2 Sixense Perceptual Pack (delisted)
  • 2015 Portal Stories: Mel
  • 2021 Portal Reloaded
  • 2022 Portal Companion Collection ( Run On Portal 2 engine branch And Modified Source 2013 Singleplayer )
• 2011 Dino D-Day (formerly Left 4 Dead engine branch).
• 2013 Tactical Intervention (delisted)
• 2013 The Stanley Parable
• 2014 Consortium (delisted)
  • Replaced by Unreal Engine 4 remaster named Consortium Remastered. However the 2014 version of the game is still available if you purchase the Remaster or Consortium VR.
• 2015 The Beginner's Guide
  • Based off The Stanley Parable engine.
• 2016 INFRA
• TBA PUNT

A third-party, heavily modified version of this engine used for Titanfall & other games by Respawn Entertainment, called the Titanfall branch, is also available, and it is used on the following games:

• 2014 Titanfall (delisted)
• 2016 Titanfall 2
• 2019 Apex Legends

Source code and SDK Base for these branches is not available. However, authoring tools exist for custom content.

• Portal 2 Authoring Tools