Bethesda designer makes Portal level

by Justin McElroy on Nov 5th 2007 10:54AM

It's no secret that the hearts of Joystiq are almost exclusively the property of Portal. Sure, we have dalliances with other games, but we always know on which side our digi-bread is buttered. So it's a comfort any time we hear we're in good company, like today when we learned that Bethesda level designer Daryl Brigner had cranked out his own custom map for the game called "Ren Test 2." You can download the files here and see the download instructions here.

After spending a few minutes with the map, we can report that it is pretty difficult. It's also pretty brilliant, with a few mechanics not used in Valve's game that we don't even want to ruin for you here. If you're a Portal junkie who's hard up for a fix, you need to download this now.

Source

Tags: bethesda, Bethesda-Softworks, orangebox, PC, portal

Reader Comments (45)

does anyone else get a warm feeling inside when a developer makes free content for someone else's game?

Orange Box has touched everyone's hearts. Particularly Portal and TF2, though.
Fanart, papercrafts, custom plushes... All in the name of Companion Cube.
And for Halloween, MANY dev teams dressed up as the TF2 classes. LucasArts, Volition, Nihilistic, EA LA, etc....

I love Portal with every part of my body, including my pee pee.

Is Source available as an SDK? Can people easily mod their own portal levels?

You bet your ass it is, though I don't know how easily one could make a Portal level.

The Source 2007 SDK has not yet been released (although it will be soon), but there is a way to make Portal maps using some workarounds.

http://www.portalmaps.net/mappingtips.php?file=How%20to%20setup%20hammer%20for%20Portal

Ooo, be back in an hour to report how much I sucked at this level.

*obligatory post about fapping to the Companion Cube*

The companion cube is the only male character in that game....

So, I should have used fapping over instead of fapping to. Sue me!

the companion cube is whatever you need the companion cube to be

At least they can still play Crysis, i don't think the xbox360 and ps3 can do that due to their lack of power Slaziman :)

(Cryteks words on the power thing not mine)

Crysis is an unfair comparison really, it is meant to the THE top of the range graphics. Its meant to look totally bad ass. A fairer game would be unreal tournament which runs great on any system.

aww that reply was meant for the reply chain below =\

Xbox 360's XNA is a piece of crap. If Portal gets a strong modding community, I'll have to buy the PC version too.

Yeah this is why PC > console. Also graphics. And free online gaming. And superior controls.

And this:
http://www.helium.com/tm/662922/chaos-darkness-internal-speakers

Hell yes. Have fun turning 180 degrees in half a second, controller users!

@Geist

What? Its definitely obvious that the pc platform is infinitely more flexible than any console but what the hell kind of statement is that. You can easily adjust the sensitivity of the controller on any shooter. I play a few shooters on the pc using my 360 controller and to be honest, yes sometimes I am the "pwner" and sometimes I am the "pwnee" but in general it seems that the gap between kb/m vs analog sticks has gotten alot closer.

Controls are a matter of preference, PC Fanboys.

Perhaps my statement was a little...gruff. But still, the way the analog joysticks and mice work are two different ways of control. It's not just about sensitivity or speed, but about the level of control.

Oh, and 'Hello', there's a reason that the PC version of Shadowrun had to have gimped mechanics when it came to playing against console users.

If you believe on an even playfield that joystick is comparable to M/KB you are delusional.

Yeah! PC! I just love having to upgrade it every year so that I can actually play games that are coming out. Because I have the money to do that!

If you've got the money to burn, I'm sure it's nice getting to buy all those FPS's and RTS's and... ??

MMORPG's?

...

The top three best games ever are on the Xbox 360 too? And I don't need a 1000$+ rig?

...

I see.

+1 to the fact that joysticks no matter how you adjust the sensitivity can never match the speed and accuracy of the mouse/keys.

sry deluded kids. Consoles are great, but for FPS, PC=win in the controls department.

True, but consoles win in the value and convenience department. Paying less for the same graphics and not being held hostage by nVidia (or ATI if you swing that way...) for drivers every time a goddamn game comes out FTW

Agreed. The level of control a mouse/keyboard offers when playing a FPS can never be rivaled using a joystick. There's just no arguing that.

It does suck having to upgrade your PC every 3-4 years to stay ahead of the curve. But if done wisely you can stick to only a few components (processor, vid card), and the price can be comparable to getting a new next-gen console. The benefit is you get to use it for doing work as well if applicable.

Every 3-4 years? No matter how much you spent on your computer even 2 years ago, you won't be playing Crysis at max settings. 3 years ago? MAYBE at low settings.

Could anyone give an idea of what the level is like (for console players)? I would really like to know what kind of gameplay is being thought up with portal dynamics... good ol' thinking with portals. mmm mmm

rotating room

I can't get the level to load. I select it on the load level creen and press load and nothing happens/ Anyone else having any difficulties?

hah, i found this level yesterday completely by accident, and spent a lot of time messing with it after that

An excellent puzzle, and I recommend everyone who has played Portal on the PC to give it a try. It's more difficult than anything found within the actual game, including Advanced, IMO.

The gimmick is a rotating room, which is quite well-done. The hardest part of the puzzle is an energy ball deflection, which has a very elegant (though complex) solution. However, due to the rotating room mechanic, the hit detection on the walls is quite iffy, and many people are solving it by "getting lucky" and managing the send the energy ball every which way until it kind of glitches and activates the sensor. Do yourself a favor and solve it for real; there is no need to set off the ball at anything other than right angles.

The only other complaint is that apparently the designed used non-standard surfaces, and sometimes a portal will not stick to a surface it should stick to. This is rather rare, though, and not a deal-breaker.

I highly recommend this! Go for it. And don't give up.

I can't get the effing energy ball into the tube...I assume there is a correct way to do this other than the aformentioned "getting lucky" but i'll be damned if i can figure it out....

Try the door after you hit the high switch. The answer to the weighted sphere will become apparent when you get to the next room.

To those of you having problems getting the map to run:

The problem could be that you didn’t extract the files with the “retain file structure” (or something like that) check box checked. Here are how the files should be extracted.

within your “username”/portal/portal/maps folder.

-ren_test2_readme.txt
-graphs (Folder)
---RenTests (Folder)
------ren_test2.ain
-RenTests (Folder)
---ren_test2.bsp
---ren_test2.bns

Alternatively:
-Make sure you have the console enabled by going to Options/Keyboard/Advanced, and check the “Enable Developer Console” checkbox.
-Then hit the tilde key,”~”, and type “map ren_test2? without the quotes, and hit enter. Then the map should load.

Good Luck!

I played this map around 3 weeks ago but didn't really like it. Some of the wall sizes make for odd Portal placement. Hopefully that'll be fixed with the Source 2007 SDK release.

the most important question is...

do we finally get the cake at the end?

Just beat it, and it was amazing.

But no still no cake...

*SPOILERAGE!!!*

No cake but not "pretty difficult"

got energy ball after 2 attempts, its easy to guide the energy ball to the initial room, then from there its easy to get it out to the cage after you put the right portal in the right place before rotating the room again.
You just need a fresh energy ball so it can last enough while you get out the initial room , get back to the rotate button, activate it and get back to the energy ball to portal it to the cage.

I lost lot of time in finding the first switch to change the inclination on the first platform, lol, i never saw the button.

Very nice map!!!
now i need more. >:(

*Spoiler Warning*

When you got to the end and went back into the elevator did everything go black but without saying you'd completed the level or anything?

All I could see was my reticule but I was still in control and the map didn't say 'completed' or anything like that.

yeah , you end in the elevator and thats it!! no cake no final song, if your read the "readme" xD it says the level ends when you open the elevator door.

Best Regards!!

Nice Level, very hard. I think I have it figured out, I just can't get the timing on the energy ball. Still Kinda disappointing though, not what I thought from the pic. We need a real Escher lever, now that would be fun and could really get mind bending.

i actually just used the metal ball to bounce the energy ball into a portal above me, that sent it into the room with the receiver.

Is there a way to download this game for free onto your PC?

Bethesda designer makes Portal level

Reader Comments (45)

Posted: Nov 5th 2007 11:02AM (Unverified) said

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