[Tutorial] The Portal Glitch Bible

Avatar
Siiig
98 Posts
Posted May 15, 2009

Would ask for this to be stickied, or deleted if for some reason no one likes it.

Portal, based on the half-life 2 engine, is one of the greatest games of this generation, and many would argue of all time. The game is fun, challenging, and can be played for long hours at a time. The games uniqueness brings about a number of glitches that are used by both speed runners and casual players alike.

I'm putting this list in order of ease of use, and I'll include demos in chambers from the original game.

**Portal Bumping:** Portal bumping is probably one the most useful of all portal glitches, as it has a tendency to be over looked by map makers. Portal bumping is when you use a portal placed on a surface, to force a second portal through an otherwise un-passable object or surface.

**Portal Standing:** Portal standing is another very simple technique that you might have never realized you used! Portal standing, simply put, is when you shoot a new portal while standing in the old one. Crouching actually makes this a lot easier (I find) because you move less while crouching. Again, check out the demo if your unsure what I'm talking about.

**Portal Peeking:** This is a quite a bit like standing, except instead you use an already placed portal to shoot the next one, without actually being where you were...that's one hell of a sentence. You would use this technique if you want to have a portal between two places that you can't physically see.

**Accelerated Back Hopping (ABH):** This is a very common speed running technique that comes from the HL2 engine. You achieve ABH by bunny hopping backwards, some people claim you need to do a 180 in the air, but this is not the case. When you ABH, you don't hold backwards (S in most cases), and the bunny hopping aspect comes from either a script or manual input.

**Item Climbing:** This one is hard to explain, but in essence, it stems from the fact that you can stand on items. It's achieved by standing on an item, jumping, while in the air, grabbing the item (so it comes up to your feet), jumping off of it again, and repeating. Scripts are very commonly used for this feat.

**Edge Glitching:** Edge glitching is another example of forcing yourself places. Instead of portals, this time were forcing ourselves places. Basically, you have the edge of a portal up against a wall, and the equivalent edge of the other portal on an edge. You approach the second portal from the side, and you have the ability to shoot a portal into the room...or lack there of on the other side.

REALLLY STUPID GLITCH
To use this glitch, you need to go to the console and type 'kill'. You will instantly win the game. ~By Pestchamber

Demos: They are named for what they represent.

http://files.filefront.com/13758574

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4PFC6Y7Z

I didn't include info nor demos on OOB nor the Save/Load perspective glitch (since I frankly don't know how the save/load glitch works, and this site has a hatred of OOB). I will add though, that youtube is your best bet for either of them.

[Updated with a new mirror]

Advertisement
Registered users don't see ads! Register now!
Avatar
Mek
459 Posts
Posted May 15, 2009
Replied 6 hours later

Siiig wrote:
**Portal Standing:** Portal standing is another very simple technique that you might have never realized you used! Portal standing, simply put, is when you shoot a new portal while standing in the old one. Crouching actually makes this a lot easier (I find) because you move less while crouching. Again, check out the demo if your unsure what I'm talking about.

I know this technique under the term "Portal Tunneling" which seems more recently used

Thank you for the demos

//aaah, I am getting "Your download has failed. There were no available download servers.
Click here to try your download again."
Would you mind posting a mirror on some more reliable server?

Avatar
compherm
58 Posts
Posted May 15, 2009
Replied 1 hour later
I would classify portal standing and portal peeking as tunneling, based on how they are described. Portal standing to me would be when you have two portals placed on a wall, such that neither are on the ground, and you can stand in between portals (on a surface that is not really there). You can then use this to tunnel.
Avatar
pestchamber
614 Posts
Posted May 15, 2009
Replied 4 hours later
If we post any glitches will you add them to the main post?
Avatar
Siiig
98 Posts
Posted May 15, 2009
Replied 3 minutes later
These are the primary engine based glitches, I don't think it would be good to post like... chamber specific ones? But hell, if you guys want that sure I'll do it.

And is that what the hell you guys have been talking about with "portal tunneling"? I've never herd it called that until I discovered this website.

Avatar
p0rtalplayer
1,366 Posts
Posted May 15, 2009
Replied 1 hour later
I laughed my head off in chamber 15 when I got all the chairs

I cannot manage to do ABHing. Do you need to be holding something? if so, would a security camera work?

Avatar
jrlauer
545 Posts
Posted May 15, 2009
Replied 2 hours later
I always heard Portal Peeking refered to as Portal Popping. Same thing I guess. I don't know if I would consider that a glitch though. It takes time for a portal to travel to the surface you shot it at and to form. If a player can re-enter an existing portal before that happens "Pop back through" why would it be a glitch?

Avatar
PortalFan77
432 Posts
Posted May 15, 2009
Replied 2 hours later
Love these exploits.
Avatar
Siiig
98 Posts
Posted May 16, 2009
Replied 1 hour later

p0rtalplayer wrote:
I laughed my head off in chamber 15 when I got all the chairs

I cannot manage to do ABHing. Do you need to be holding something? if so, would a security camera work?

Nope, your most likely having trouble with the bunny hopping part. You need to jump again before you actually hit the ground, try binding jump to your down mouse wheel. (bind mwheeldown +jump).

jrlauer wrote:
I always heard Portal Peeking refered to as Portal Popping. Same thing I guess. I don't know if I would consider that a glitch though. It takes time for a portal to travel to the surface you shot it at and to form. If a player can re-enter an existing portal before that happens "Pop back through" why would it be a glitch?

It's arguable. A glitch is anything the dev's didn't "intend" for you to do. Peeking and Standing are generally considered one in the same, and Standing is a glitch. shrug

pestchamber wrote:
If we post any glitches will you add them to the main post?

Pest, out of curiosity, what did you have in mind?

Avatar
pestchamber
614 Posts
Posted May 16, 2009
Replied 4 hours later

Siiig wrote:
Pest, out of curiosity, what did you have in mind?

Nothing. But if any of us found a glitch which is not listed in the main post and we go like

REALLLY STUPID GLITCH
To use this glitch, you need to go to the console and type 'kill'. You will instantly win the game.

(ofc something serious)

Would you add it to the main post?

Avatar
Siiig
98 Posts
Posted May 16, 2009
Replied 3 hours later

pestchamber wrote:
Nothing. But if any of us found a glitch which is not listed in the main post and we go like

REALLLY STUPID GLITCH
To use this glitch, you need to go to the console and type 'kill'. You will instantly win the game.

(ofc something serious)

Would you add it to the main post?

Sure, why not =p

Avatar
Naulziator
104 Posts
Posted May 17, 2009
Replied 1 day later
Portal Standing (tunneling) is best used when using a cul-de-sac with a low ceiling (crouch). When you stand up (into the portal), you can portal yourself across walls and ceilings.
It's not featured in the original chambers, but it is used excusively in a custom map (Other Chamber 8 )). A portion of my map will feature this, likely with some timed death traps to make the player sweat a little.

Warning: This particular trick does not work well for people who get gaming motion sickness.

Avatar
pestchamber
614 Posts
Posted May 26, 2009
Replied 8 days later

Siiig wrote:
Sure, why not =p

Haha i can't believe you added it!

Avatar
Kingpin
34 Posts
Posted Dec 02, 2009
Replied 6 months later
May want to add Accelerated Forward Hopping (AFH) to the list too.
Avatar
nibbler234
20 Posts
Posted Mar 13, 2010
Replied 3 months later
How can I view the demos?
Avatar
hanging_rope
435 Posts
Posted Mar 13, 2010
Replied 54 minutes later

nibbler234 wrote:
How can I view the demos?

To play a demo, put the demo file in c:/sprogram files/steam/steamapps//portal/portal
Then launch portal, open the console (~) and type in playdemo <demo_name>

Avatar
again
47 Posts
Posted Apr 14, 2010
Replied 1 month later
i've stumbled upon an odd glitch in some of my recent portal antics.
basically, you place a portal on the floor and the other one somewhere else (don;t know if it matters...) and then jump into the floor portal, but just before you hit it, crouch, and instead of falling through the portal you just bounce up in the air above the floor portal a couple feet. i doubt it would have any usefulness, and i can't recreate it at will (can't figure out the timing that does it consistently...), but its a glitch.
Avatar
hanging_rope
435 Posts
Posted Apr 14, 2010
Replied 4 hours later

again wrote:
i've stumbled upon an odd glitch in some of my recent portal antics.
basically, you place a portal on the floor and the other one somewhere else (don;t know if it matters...) and then jump into the floor portal, but just before you hit it, crouch, and instead of falling through the portal you just bounce up in the air above the floor portal a couple feet. i doubt it would have any usefulness, and i can't recreate it at will (can't figure out the timing that does it consistently...), but its a glitch.

You cannot do this consistently, like a lot of portal glitches.
It is just a thing that occ\urs when you go through a portal slightly wrong and it does that type of thing.
Another such glitch occurs if you jump through a portal in a particular way it causes the player to be shot out of the portal as if they had been flung, but much more powerfully than a normal fling. (I hope that made sense...)

You could possibly recreate this, but probably not intentionally.

Sorry for any spelling mistakes, I have jet lag

Avatar
hanging_rope
435 Posts
Posted Aug 19, 2010
Replied 4 months later
What is that? Is that the file that was refrenced at the beginning of this post? (That's what it looks like)
Avatar
m1dy
9 Posts
Posted Aug 31, 2010
Replied 12 days later
It'd be a good idea to sticky this.
Advertisement
Registered users don't see ads! Register now!