It's finally here, after months and months of getting no where, I've got it at least started. The Portal 2 Pre-release/Beta Pack is a texture, and aesthetic pack that recreates the look and feel of Portal 2 we saw back at E3 2010 - PAX 2010. I've seen a lot of beta/pre-release maps that use the stock textures and looks and it does not do the justice!

What is included?

- New Metal Walls.
- Shinier dirty walls.
- Beta looking Observation rooms.
- Portal 1 Observation Rooms.
- Beta light strips.
- Green Goo
- Screenshot samples
- Portal 1 Button Switch
- Vscripts that swap out the Portal 2 turret and Portal 2 Button switch to the Portal 1 version.
- 2 Example maps by Kyo and Me.
- Whirls for the Portals. (Need VPK override)
- Different glass texture for the Portal Door. (Need VPK override)

(NOTE: I still need someone to find a way to get the sick figure to show on the portal door. He is in the model itself, but the glass texture needs to only show him.)

Q & A

Q: Why did you do this? There is a reason why Valve changed stuff.
A: Because I'm one of those people who love what Valve does not release a tad more on what they do end up shipping. I'm sure there are mappers who feel the same way.

Q: Is this an override?
A: No, it's separate. All the textures are under the folder "betapack". To ship your map, just pakrat (or include) that folder, and the models and material/models folders included.

Q: Does it include instances?
A: Yes

Q: Does it include the vmf of the sample maps?
A: No

Q: Can I help with anything?
A: Sure, feel free to contribute to anything and I'll add it to this package.

Special thanks to Kyo for testing the pack and allowing me to ship the map with this!

File Name: portal2_betapack_1.4_11.11.14.7z
File Size: 16.52 MiB
Click here to download Portal 2 Pre-release/Beta Pack

Sorry for the double post, but here are screens:







Again, there are more samples in the file. Enjoy.

Awesome, I've really missed this look. cant wait to play with it myself, thanks!

I'm one of the mappers that feel the same. Also, I'll be able to make both beta styled maps and the original portal style because I don't have the game to port things. Have you thought of porting the Portal 1 autoportal emitter model?

yishbarr wrote:
I'm one of the mappers that feel the same. Also, I'll be able to make both beta styled maps and the original portal style because I don't have the game to port things. Have you thought of porting the Portal 1 autoportal emitter model?

Yeah, I'll find that model Winston made me for Blue Portals a while back. That one supports two skins if you wanted it to use two skins. Again, I need to find it and I'll ship it with the next update. Plus, fix up's of some of many Valve's old game play instances are on my list.

Also, quick question. What would unpaintable surfaces look like?

reepblue wrote:
yishbarr wrote:

I'm one of the mappers that feel the same. Also, I'll be able to make both beta styled maps and the original portal style because I don't have the game to port things. Have you thought of porting the Portal 1 autoportal emitter model?

Yeah, I'll find that model Winston made me for Blue Portals a while back. That one supports two skins if you wanted it to use two skins. Again, I need to find it and I'll ship it with the next update. Plus, fix up's of some of many Valve's old game play instances are on my list.

Also, quick question. What would unpaintable surfaces look like?

I don't know, I guess it's a specific colour but that's just what I think. Also, it seems like prop_button doesn't hold animations for different models, because I tried the sample maps and the animations don't look good.

Edit: The beta vac vents don't have textures, they're just white, and there's a download for them somewhere in the "Other files" category.

Yeah, the animations don't always work. Use this in your outputs:

OnPressed -&gt; !self -&gt; SetAnimation down<br />OnButtonReset -&gt; !self -&gt; SetAnimation up<br />

If you want, I can make it an instance so it automatically these outputs..

Anything that required VPK overrides have been ignored for now. I only included the particles and the glass for the door only "just because". The goal of the pack was to keep it small enough so even big maps can still fit on the workshop or sites with a file size limit. Unlike the observation rooms, not all maps will have the vactubes.

Looks awesome!

For a non-paintable wall...hm...maybe some sort of red/orange/golden metal, to look different from the black non-portalable metal.

For unpaintable areas,I usually just put grating over a surface recessed 32 units. But that's just me.

Also, the pack appears to be missing VTFs for the 'glasswindow_refract02' textures. Is it supposed to be like that? I get the checkerboard when I try to use them.

srs bsnss wrote:
For unpaintable areas,I usually just put grating over a surface recessed 32 units. But that's just me.

Also, the pack appears to be missing VTFs for the 'glasswindow_refract02' textures. Is it supposed to be like that? I get the checkerboard when I try to use them.

I was only asking what the unpaintable textures would look like because if you look at some older instances, there was gonna be unpaintable surfaces.

All the glasswindow_refract02 textures are there. They only appear checkered in Hammer, but will work in-game. It's normal, it also did this in the Portal 1 tools.

Refract-shaded textures show the checkerboard behind them most of the time, don't worry about it.

Reepblue: how would those surfaces work? Trigger_paint_cleanser over the surface?

These look fantastic, especially the green slime texture. Better than the slime textures in the final game IMO

FelixGriffin wrote:
Reepblue: how would those surfaces work? Trigger_paint_cleanser over the surface?

%nopaint in the vmt.

Shane wrote:
These look fantastic, especially the green slime texture. Better than the slime textures in the final game IMO

Thanks. A lot of people agree that the green slime is better. But it does not fit in the destroyed or old aperture scenes tho.

Gonna ship out v1.2 sometime this week. This will include the autoportal frames, more instances, and another map by Kyo. Maybe I'll throw more stuff vpk overrides and such.

I don't know if it's a good idea, but BTS doors use the portal 1 turret door model.

reepblue wrote:
Gonna ship out v1.2 sometime this week. This will include the autoportal frames, more instances, and another map by Kyo. Maybe I'll throw more stuff vpk overrides and such.

Wow, I'm almost Valve bad. It's Friday. Time to update!

New with v1.2

Quote:
- Added Autoportal frames
- Added map: e3_kyo_crushermap_redux
- Added new instances!
-- portal cleanser
-- laser field
-- paint cleanser
-- All in one paint dispenser

yishbarr wrote:
I don't know if it's a good idea, but BTS doors use the portal 1 turret door model.

Have a picture or something? I don't know what you are talking about.

That is just the Portal 1 Door frame. A model hex/vpk override can fix that.

I may work on Portal 1 model fixes. Since some of them have broken vmts for the placeholder a3/F-Stop stuff.

Actually, I was talking about the turret attack door used instead of the current bts vertical door. But they used that too.

yishbarr wrote:

blablabla, somethingsomethingelse...

Edit: The beta vac vents don't have textures, they're just white, and there's a download for them somewhere in the "Other files" category.

LOL you're reffering to mine, right? here: Portal 2 Beta styled vac tubes.

tile wrote:
yishbarr wrote:

blablabla, somethingsomethingelse...

Edit: The beta vac vents don't have textures, they're just white, and there's a download for them somewhere in the "Other files" category.

LOL you're reffering to mine, right? here: Portal 2 Beta styled vac tubes.

Is it ok if I include that in this package? Thinking it would be a good idea since I wish to make this the ultimate beta package.

reepblue wrote:
tile wrote:

yishbarr wrote:

blablabla, somethingsomethingelse...

Edit: The beta vac vents don't have textures, they're just white, and there's a download for them somewhere in the "Other files" category.

LOL you're reffering to mine, right? here: Portal 2 Beta styled vac tubes.

Is it ok if I include that in this package? Thinking it would be a good idea since I wish to make this the ultimate beta package.

EDIT: oh crabs, it looks like a lengthy reply i made in code brackets ended taking a vacation... TO THE BURMUDA TRIANGLE. UP it goes in smoke, then, i guess...

You did not seem to answer my question.

reepblue wrote:
You did not seem to answer my question.

well, that's weird... i did, but my post ended up blank. bummer, concidering that i included a lengthy list of thing i though were awsome in the beta as a bonus. my answer was, yes, you can! i'd love it if you did.

Ok, I'll take a look and update the pack. Thanks.

EDIT:

I don't think 'pure white' will work like it would on other things like the beta Portal 1 box dropper. it does not seem right and in the video it looks like it uses the UV map produced from the modeling software rather then the "no vtf listed (pure white)" look. Think of it like some of the models in Alien Swarm. Sure, pure white, but there is some darker areas in the texture. If some one can get or produce the UV skin, that would be great!

If you are an author of a beta texture and you would like your skin to be included, feel free to PM me or respond in this thread.

Also I may convert the package to a full DLC folder. This way, you can build and play beta styled maps without effecting Portal 2.

reepblue wrote:
Ok, I'll take a look and update the pack. Thanks.

EDIT:

I don't think 'pure white' will work like it would on other things like the beta Portal 1 box dropper. it does not seem right and in the video it looks like it uses the UV map produced from the modeling software rather then the "no vtf listed (pure white)" look.

yeah, i figured as much.

reepblue also wrote:
...and this is the quote where i said something about a dlc folder and tile agreed, then told me that he'd be happy to contribute any beta styled thing he made in the future...

If this is the ultimate P2 betapack, I don't know if it's possible but these models and skybox look great. I'm really disapointed with Valve for giving up on something like this.

look what i found!

http://theportalwiki.com/wiki/GLaDOS_vo ... utbol_game

this page has a BUNCH of portal 2 beta glados stuff on it toward the bottom.

EDIT: also, how to i use the vscript in my map?

yishbarr wrote:
-Picture-

I just love all the models, but i think you could rebuild the whole thing ^^

We may be able to EXACTLY remake the beta if we check some stuffs, I really want someone to also help, I'm gonna test maps and projects i guess.

Chilius03 wrote:
We may be able to EXACTLY remake the beta if we check some stuffs, I really want someone to also help, I'm gonna test maps and projects i guess.

I wish i could play a build of every beta version of portal 2 all the way through. that'd be AWSOME.

tile wrote:
I wish i could play a build of every beta version of portal 2 all the way through. that'd be AWSOME.

Not really.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vboI7UUziHk

Anything EXCEPT for that. But this is mainly about chambers more than this.

I wouldn't. Most of the chambers were just improved for the final game. It would be nice to play one beta from quite a while back, to see the things they removed, but most of the betas would just be slight changes to everything.

The beta was good because the maps looked better, (They were more colourful in my opinion) but this bossfight was a WIP, and the other E3 maps looked finished. So, if I would be able to get maps from Valve, I would take the puzzles without much else. I would also like it to have the same models, textures, fog, etc. (Can anyone recommend keyvalues for beta style bts fog? I can't get it right).

true, the very early stuff wouldnt be that good aside from seeing what it was going to be like, but i'd love to play all the nearly-done stuff. reading the old april gameinformer that portal 2 was in, valve seems to have lied in a few places. i quote the lies here:

"valve doesnt intend to elaborate on the half life 2 connection because of tonall differences between games."

then what is the borealis' dry dock doing in there?

"organic elements and clinical settings provide a pleasing visual contrast."
"the extansive damage to the test chambers is too much for glados to repair un-aided, but she refuses to delay resuming her tests. This means she will begrudgingly allow you behind the scenes of aperture laboratories to reach the next test."

uh...no. she didnt. and the themes aren't mixing like that like i'd hoped.

"...so the labs RECONFIGURING is going to play a much bigger role in the game itself."

Visually, i can see the lab reconfiguration a little bit. walls repair and that, but it doesnt really play any bigger role than portal 1's piston panels did. i expected things like the room transforming from one shape to another practically, or the whole floor sinking downward while a wall moves to make a ledge. all i got was the same thing as portal 1- a panel coming out of the wall to angle upwards and provide a fling.

Caden wrote:
Not really.

[Video here]

Might have worked if instead it was "Press Space to say "Yes.""

tile wrote:
Game Informer wrote:

Valve doesn't intend to elaborate on the Half-Life 2 connection because of the differences between games.

then what is the borealis' dry dock doing in there?

Maybe it's there because Portal still takes place in the same universe as Half-Life and Valve didn't want to completely separate them from each other?

tile wrote:
Game Informer wrote:

Organic elements and clinical settings provide a pleasing visual contrast.

themes aren't mixing like that like i'd hoped.

What do you mean? I, and plenty of others, think that Valve did a great job at mixing those themes. How do you think they could have done better?

tile wrote:
Game Informer wrote:

The extensive damage to the test chambers is too much for GLaDOS to repair un-aided, but she refuses to delay resuming her tests. This means she will begrudgingly allow you behind the scenes of aperture laboratories to reach the next test.

uh...no. she didnt... i expected things like the room transforming from one shape to another practically, or the whole floor sinking downward while a wall moves to make a ledge.

Or things like dozens of robotic arms reconstructing the entire floor of a test chamber, tile by tile, as you walk underneath them and are then lifted up into the newly built room?

Only once in the game. It was meant to be a common thing.

yishbarr wrote:
Only once in the game. It was meant to be a common thing.

I would pay for a mod which does this to all PTI maps.

Well, that kind of defeats the purpose of PTI.

yishbarr wrote:
Only once in the game. It was meant to be a common thing.

I was expecting this to be in the game. but it wasnt. so there's that

Habzs wrote:
yishbarr wrote:

Only once in the game. It was meant to be a common thing.

I was expecting this to be in the game. but it wasnt. so there's that

indeed. probably the most disapointing part. if people like the guy who amde factum solus can do that, why didnt valve?

tile wrote:
if people like the guy who amde factum solus can do that, why didnt valve?

The only reconstruction you see in Factum Solus is shit-tons of tiles falling off walls and landing in infuriatingly inconvenient places. Portal 2 has panels repairing themselves, parts of walls shifting into place, new, clean tiles coming in and replacing decayed ones. Factum Solus doesn't have anything on Portal 2.

Also the reason it isn't a common occurrence is because its annoying as hell when it is. Valve doesn't just cut stuff from their games for no reason.

Caden wrote:
Also the reason it isn't a common occurrence is because its annoying as hell when it is. Valve doesn't just cut stuff from their games for no reason.

It's not annoying for me, and I doubt anyone would find that annoying. Valve didn't cut them, just made it occur very little times in the game, probably because it was a mess to do in Hammer.

But they did do it. They probably just cut it. You know that room that actually entirely reshaped itself instead of a few panels here and there.

since we've shifted from this pack to portal 2 ingeneral, i'll shift us back by posting this:

Portal 1-ish door skin

portal 2 beta had portal 1 doors, but portal 1 doors are kindof ugly. here's my solution to that problem.

Ehh, true. I would've preferred the early stickman doors though.

yishbarr wrote:
Ehh, true. I would've preferred the early stickman doors though.

link to image plz? i'd like to see that.

Haven't checked this, but what's the update?

Is this beta pack dead?