It's finally here, Portal 2: Community Edition is going to be entering OPEN BETA on April 17th 2026!On this date, everyone will be able to play P2:CE through...
It’s a graphical remaster of Portal 2 that’s mod-friendly and free (but requires the original game in your library). It uses an upgraded version of the Source engine called Strata Source, which also powers Momentum Mod.
I believe they just took Portal 2, put a newer engine under the hood and added a bunch of tools so that people can make mods way easier. One nice side effect is, that it now looks a bit better if you just want to play the campaign.
Yes, this is in fact true. However, after Portal 2, they kept on working on the engine for CS:GO, Alyx and CS2. That’s why those engines are a bit more modern and add new visual effects and also a lot of new capabilities. This mod uses a heavily modified engine of CS:GO for Portal 2, called “Strata Source”. Unfortunately, VALVe does not license Source 2 engine to third parties, as it seems, or else the would probably switch to this engine.
Edit: I was spreading inaccurate information and fixed this now. Thanks for pointing it out, @[email protected]
Oh, they switched to Source 2? I thought P2:CE was based on the CS:GO branch of the engine, which would still be Source 1. But I haven’t kept up to date with what they were doing, so maybe I’m wrong here.
I think the video I linked in the post would demonstrate the benefits better than me writing here. I agree that the look of Portal 2 has long-lasting appeal, but P2CE introduces improved lighting and graphics rendering inspired by Source 2 while still being Source 1. Otherwise, the improvements are mainly technical, like removing signature “Source spaghetti” engine limitations.
The real killer feature is that it reorganizes Portal 2 under the hood to be very mod- and custom campaign-friendly, so it will be the Portal enthusiast’s dream platform.
Honestly, not really. You’ll miss out on some of the backstory but nothing that would impact your enjoyment. You could watch a play through to get the details, it’s pretty short.
I don’t think it’s necessary, even from a story perspective (the game does a great job of filling in the blanks for you). It’s definitely worth playing Portal 1 though, it’s a fantastic game with perfect design even nearly 20 years later. I mean apart from engine and graphics tech, I don’t think the game could be improved upon much. Same is true for Portal 2.
Another thing about Portal 1’s story is that it’s barely there at all. Almost all of it is incidental to the puzzles, and the story that is there is either passive exposition from the antagonist, or some very minimal environmental stuff. With that in mind, you could easily get yourself up to speed on the story going into Portal 2 just by glancing at a one or two paragraph summary, maybe with a couple of screenshots (you could probably convey everything in the story in one sentence if you’re creative with the punctuation). Portal 2’s story is much more fleshed out and interesting, though.
Portal 1 is so old and undemanding that you could probably run it smoothly inside a VM even on a meagre PC. I don’t know what OS you’re running, but I presume it’s not Windows?
Yeah Linux, I did get it to work, it’s pretty cool
I’m impressed with some of the vfx, the fresnel style effect they put on the observation office windows is chefs kiss perfect. They do some other frame buffer stuff when the portal gun impacts that’s just very clever.
To add on to what silverchase said, I played 2 first and got the gist of what happened. I do recommend playing Portal 1 if you can get it working, but you won’t be lost without it.
Have you tried an older system? I got one to run well on a little 2gb netbook with an atom processor. But also never had a problem on any other system.
I was gonna make a comment about whether or not this is necessary since I’m not a huge fan of mostly cosmetic mods, but after watching the videos on the steam page I am a little more convinced.
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I didn’t have a problem with the original graphics and style. What does this improve?
I believe they just took Portal 2, put a newer engine under the hood and added a bunch of tools so that people can make mods way easier. One nice side effect is, that it now looks a bit better if you just want to play the campaign.
Portal 2 for its own engine seperate from portal 1 I thought.
Yes, this is in fact true. However, after Portal 2, they kept on working on the engine for CS:GO, Alyx and CS2. That’s why those engines are a bit more modern and add new visual effects and also a lot of new capabilities. This mod uses a heavily modified engine of CS:GO for Portal 2, called “Strata Source”. Unfortunately, VALVe does not license Source 2 engine to third parties, as it seems, or else the would probably switch to this engine.
Edit: I was spreading inaccurate information and fixed this now. Thanks for pointing it out, @[email protected]
Oh, they switched to Source 2? I thought P2:CE was based on the CS:GO branch of the engine, which would still be Source 1. But I haven’t kept up to date with what they were doing, so maybe I’m wrong here.
I was mistaken; you are right!
I think the video I linked in the post would demonstrate the benefits better than me writing here. I agree that the look of Portal 2 has long-lasting appeal, but P2CE introduces improved lighting and graphics rendering inspired by Source 2 while still being Source 1. Otherwise, the improvements are mainly technical, like removing signature “Source spaghetti” engine limitations.
The real killer feature is that it reorganizes Portal 2 under the hood to be very mod- and custom campaign-friendly, so it will be the Portal enthusiast’s dream platform.
Here’s a video from the P2CE channel that shows the lighting changes in a bit more detail.
I’m pretty keen to check this out tbh.
Do I need to pay portal 1 before 2?
Whenever I try and run portal 1 it hard crashes, and I have not spend the effort to debug it.
You’ll miss out on the plot of 1 that sets up for 2, but for gameplay, you would be fine. But if 1 crashes, you better hope 2 works well.
It’s like 40 min long, it’s worth it but maybe not if you have to debug
I finished it, maybe it’s 40 minutes long if you’re much better at video games than me lol
Honestly, not really. You’ll miss out on some of the backstory but nothing that would impact your enjoyment. You could watch a play through to get the details, it’s pretty short.
I agree. Play first portal 1
I don’t think it’s necessary, even from a story perspective (the game does a great job of filling in the blanks for you). It’s definitely worth playing Portal 1 though, it’s a fantastic game with perfect design even nearly 20 years later. I mean apart from engine and graphics tech, I don’t think the game could be improved upon much. Same is true for Portal 2.
Another thing about Portal 1’s story is that it’s barely there at all. Almost all of it is incidental to the puzzles, and the story that is there is either passive exposition from the antagonist, or some very minimal environmental stuff. With that in mind, you could easily get yourself up to speed on the story going into Portal 2 just by glancing at a one or two paragraph summary, maybe with a couple of screenshots (you could probably convey everything in the story in one sentence if you’re creative with the punctuation). Portal 2’s story is much more fleshed out and interesting, though.
Portal 1 is so old and undemanding that you could probably run it smoothly inside a VM even on a meagre PC. I don’t know what OS you’re running, but I presume it’s not Windows?
Yeah Linux, I did get it to work, it’s pretty cool
I’m impressed with some of the vfx, the fresnel style effect they put on the observation office windows is chefs kiss perfect. They do some other frame buffer stuff when the portal gun impacts that’s just very clever.
Iirc adding
-vulkanto the game options worked for me, might be worth a shot.I’m running on Linux and it compiles vulkan shaders, but I’ll give this a try and check out protondb
Oh, the game mostly works, but I got to a test that they told me is impossible.
You’re not yet thinking with portals ;)
If I remember correctly, that’s Glados trolling you. None of the puzzles are impossible to complete as long as the game is running properly.
This did get the game to launch, then I had to disable vsync because it was causing bizarre frame insertions several frames later.
Thank you!
To add on to what silverchase said, I played 2 first and got the gist of what happened. I do recommend playing Portal 1 if you can get it working, but you won’t be lost without it.
played 2 first as well, due to it just being way funnier than 1 imo
Portal 1 is in many ways better. Even without the second, its worth playing.
its very light on story if you want to skip anyway
I would. They are both short games so it’s a no brainer honestly.
Have you tried an older system? I got one to run well on a little 2gb netbook with an atom processor. But also never had a problem on any other system.
sounds like a good opportunity to replay the game :)
I was gonna make a comment about whether or not this is necessary since I’m not a huge fan of mostly cosmetic mods, but after watching the videos on the steam page I am a little more convinced.
Anyone have any mod recommendations for someone who just wants to screw around with portals but not actually play the game?
Portal 2’s level editor
that’s cool
I guess it’s time for anothet playthrough!