I'm a huge fan of Portal, and found out recently about this site. I've downloaded a few maps, and on most of them, a message will appear before playing it, and black and pink checkerboard patterns will appear on some surfaces, making it impossible to navigate. There will also be areas where if you move in front of the area, images will be "smeared" across the area, like when you noclip to far off the map.

An example of this is in this map.
http://forums.thinking.withportals.com/viewtopic.php?t=789

These maps look really enjoyable to play, so any answers would be helpful.

firemario1 wrote:
I'm a huge fan of Portal, and found out recently about this site. I've downloaded a few maps, and on most of them, a message will appear before playing it, and black and pink checkerboard patterns will appear on some surfaces, making it impossible to navigate. There will also be areas where if you move in front of the area, images will be "smeared" across the area, like when you noclip to far off the map.

An example of this is in this map.
http://forums.thinking.withportals.com/viewtopic.php?t=789

These maps look really enjoyable to play, so any answers would be helpful.

Are you using a legit version of portal?

Duffedwaffe wrote:
Are you using a legit version of portal?

Straight out of the Orange Box.

Here are a few examples of what I see in game. (sorry for the size)

Are you sure that developer 1 or 2 or 3 isn't set? That looks like some sort of wireframe developer mode.

As for the materials, are you sure that you've followed the proper installation instructions for custom maps such as where to place the material files? Try posting the console log when you start up the map, there should be a bunch of red lines that say something about missing materials.

"Laggy Floor" looks like your video drivers are out of date.

The laggy floor is the combinaison of a missing texture that renders like nodraw and a missing something else. It's a diagonal wireframe that displays when a texture is missing (no need for developer mode) but i forgot in what case.

Hurricaaane wrote:
The laggy floor is the combinaison of a missing texture that renders like nodraw and a missing something else. It's a diagonal wireframe that displays when a texture is missing (no need for developer mode) but i forgot in what case.

Usually when you're using an invalid shader or a shader that was not meant to be used on that kind of surface. Stick with LightmappedGeneric, UnlitGeneric and VertexLitGeneric.

Maybe something that was included in the .rar file may help? I was looking through the materials, and I have no idea what to do with them.

Make sure when you unzip the file you keep the directory structure and follow the install instructions. Normally you unpak the entire archive into the SteamApps\portal\portal folder. So the contents of the materials folder in the pak would go into the materials folder on your disk.

You might also check to make sure you have the latest version of your video drivers installed. There is a remote possibility your current drivers or your card can't handle the textures.

Hum, Steam tells you when your video drivers are outdated.
But I doubt that it's his problem, my video drivers are 18 month old, and I have no problem running everything Steam-related.

Tigger wrote:
Make sure when you unzip the file you keep the directory structure and follow the install instructions. Normally you unpak the entire archive into the SteamApps\portal\portal folder. So the contents of the materials folder in the pak would go into the materials folder on your disk.

That did it!

I was just importing all the files straight to the Maps folder.

Thanks! And now onto the game itself...

I have a similar problem when I play some maps, mainly for specific textures used in the PMK Map Pack, such as the blue and red door textures in one of the bonus maps. Its not a huge problem, but it kinda ruins the atmosphere of the game.