The true potential of rotating portals

Portal 2 players are supposedly great at spatial reasoning, but not all ways to apply orientation and rotation in community puzzles are equally well known. We explore some well-known and less known uses here and learn a few puzzle design principles in the process.
Discord server: / discord
Portal 2 video essay playlist: • Portal 2 video essays
Check out my second channel for music and gameplay videos: / @mikeastro2
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
Links to the maps that I show or discuss in the video in order:
- ''Hugging Sunlight'' by Alfe5: steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...
- ''Islands'' by: steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...
- ''My example map'' by me: steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...
- ''Brass Boulders'' by Libbybapa: steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...
- ''Component'' by nerdlingnation: steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...
- ''Orientation'' by me: steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...
- ''Creative reasoning'' by me: steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...
- ''Layers of Cognition'' by Narkodes: steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...
- ''Wraith'' by me: steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...
- ''Greasiest Doorknob'' by Libbybapa: steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...
- ''Twist 'n' Wiggle'' by Narkodes: steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...
Are you a new player looking to start playing and making some good maps? Consider checking out the following links.
RedSilencer's ''Introduction to the Workshop'' collection:
steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...
My ''Reliquiae'' collection:
steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...
''No elements'' connection to learn about momentum and portal preservation:
steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...
Thumbnail made by theCCguy. Huge thanks to them!
Their workshop: steamcommunity.com/id/theccguy
Music: made by me.
I often upload my music on my second channel, linked above.
There's also / mike-daas-1 and mikeastro.bandcamp.com/.
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
02:35 - The basics
03:53 - Light bridges
06:37 - Other applications
09:10 - Sightlines and map design
13:25 - Outro

[@ldidok]

I guess there's an interesting discussion going on with "should things that a player has never seen be in a map". And my thoughts are: yes. Just because an unexperienced player might not understand what's going on, doesn't mean that we have to be tied by what valve did on a very surface level with the campaign. The game has so much to offer, and we should as a community introduce players into those elements even if that means them having to check the solution, to find out new moves that they might be unaware.

[@Buglin_Burger7878]

Valve taught the player and prepped them for the mechanics. Just dropping these in as puzzles without any indication you need to know this technic leads to people feeling cheated. With minor edits such as a simple "Check" room to get to the main then it becomes fair. It is an easy fix... that just requires some effort. Think of how Blue Gel was taught to the player by having an situation you were forced to bounce on it. Teaching the player basics is what makes good puzzles. Having someone waste 1-2 hours solving something impossible only to realize they need to know an exploit without any indication sucks.

[@ldidok]

@@Buglin_Burger7878 While your idea is fair for a campaign, imagine having to make a tutorial room in the map for every single mechanic or concept the player is unaware off. Also, by adding a tutorial room you're already spoiling the fact that the move will be present there. It's not fun for someone who has some experience into the game, I guarantee. I wouldn't like to go over tutorial rooms for things I already know every time I load a new map. I had to watch a solution for a couple of maps to learn concepts I was unaware off. Big deal.

[@mochapoke3100]

I agree completely with the caveat that it's probably a good idea to include an explanation for mechanics that a person new to mods might not understand ( perhaps spoilered just so people don't have to know what techniques to use if they don't want to) . I wouldn't say you SHOULD be required to do so but I think it's a good idea to include somewhere just in case. It's possible the player might quit without reading that but hey better than not having it

[@9nikolai]

@@ldidok Most (if not all) of the official Portal 2 maps have a wall at the start that shows what concepts are being utilised in the map. It only makes sense to have something like that for fan-made maps too. And in my personal opinion, if you need to google the solution to learn the concept required to solve it, then it's such a badly designed puzzle that it's basically just password protected rather than being an actual puzzle. A puzzle is about figuring out the order of operations, in which you must be introduced to the different possible operations in order to be able to solve it. Can't have a sentence without words, can't have a forest without trees, can't have a puzzle without a crucial piece.

[@ldidok]

@@9nikolai Portal 2 maps have a wall that only indicates elements you're going to use. Faithplates, lightbridges, etc. They don't indicate how will you have to use them. They won't tell you if the map uses portal orientation, cube stacks, etc. A puzzle's difficulty is created through 2 main components. Logic and creativity. Logic is as you perfectly described, figuring out sequences. Creativity is linked as how flashy (yet reasonable, consistent) each move is. Some moves, you have to see them at least once in a real puzzle, to be able to spot them. I wished there was a perfect way to make a map, so that both new and experienced players could enjoy them. But that's just not possible. You need to learn the ropes the hard way for a few hours and from then on you'll be ready to enjoy countless hidden gems. I do really appreciate videos like this, nonetheless.

[@kip258]

I like your idea to use narrow portal surfaces at an angle to prevent placement from certain shot angles, but in my experience I believe it may not always be the best option, depending on the context of the map. Narrow portal surfaces are a white surface that the player can clearly see from where they are on the other side of the map and players that aren't familiar with the innerworkings of portal's portal placement behavior will get confused as to why the white surface they're clearly hitting isn't allowing a portal. Players will immediately leave your map if they feel cheated (I've has my own play testers do this to me!), thus, I believe glass blocking a wall to be the best option. It just requires a little time and thought be used in your map's design.

[@colororb4105]

IIRC, there are lots of unused messages in the game for level editor loading screen tips. One of them is actually a message suggesting not to use portal orientation as part of a puzzle solution because most players don't know that portals even have orientations. It's probably best to save portal orientation solutions for expert difficulty levels, or have something simple at the beginning of the level to introduce the idea to the player. If Portal 3 ever gets made, I hope Valve properly teaches the player about orientation and uses it in the puzzles

[@Mikeastro]

The point of these videos is to bring these kinds of subtle ideas more to light so that a greater number of people can enjoy, think and play around with them!

[@colororb4105]

@@Mikeastro Yeah I agree! Sorry if I sounded like I didn't like the video, it was really interesting and I learned a lot. I have a few ideas for puzzles now! I just thought it was interesting how different yours and Valve's opinions on portal orientation are. Valve seems to see orientation as a mistake or problem of some kind.

[@Mikeastro]

@@colororb4105 No worries my man! I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed the video :D

[@Buglin_Burger7878]

@@Mikeastro Or you could introduce them to the mechanics in the level in a small room with just that as opposed to the video. The video doesn't fix the issue. Teaching the player fixes the issue so they don't try to waste time solving something near impossible otherwise.

[@LeeSmith-cf1vo]

I'm really enjoying this series, even thought I've barely played any Portal games for quite some time. However - I would argue that 7:56 is bad design. If making the wrong choice can kill or trap the player like that. Instead it should simply put them back 1 or 2 steps - so that it's meerly a nuicance

[@nerdlington7655]

Heyo I'm the creator of the map at 7:56. Thanks for your criticism. In this case I made sure to include some good autosaves so the player only gets set back 1 step, really, if they die there.

[@tuwubah]

@@nerdlington7655 great design!

[@saplingarcher7713]

@@nerdlington7655 Out of curiosity, did you originally know that the orientation of the portal mattered there? Or was that an unintended result of the design? Cause when I saw it I thought the correct solution seemed more natural imo, so figured the incorrect - and deadly - answer could just be an oversight. This isn't really meant to be criticism though, so sorry if saying it could be an "oversight" sounds negative. It's an interesting design to a puzzle! :D

[@nerdlington7655]

@@saplingarcher7713 Yes, the use of the orientation mechanic was intentional.

[@saplingarcher7713]

@@nerdlington7655 oh ok interesting! ty!

[@HugoBDesigner]

1:07 - Sick burn 🔥 11:40 - I personally would avoid this sort of implementation for two main reasons: the first being that some players are just not aware that portal orientation (or, in this case, the orientation of the _player_ in relationship to the surface) is something that matters (and unless the puzzle is designed around orientation, then it might feel deceitful); the second being that, in some situations, portal placement helpers will override the shooting angle variable in such a way that it won't matter where the player is firing their portals from, since the game will autoadjust it for them (this isn't too common in narrow surfaces, I admit, but it's still common enough to be wary of). Great video as always!

[@Mikeastro]

Thanks for watching and for the insightful comment! I only partly agree with the first reason because we like to use many tricks that many players are not familiar with (e.g. ghost cubes, null portals, etc.) So it comes down to your audience; do you make maps for experienced players or for most players? I agree that if your answer is the latter, I would advice against it. The second is a sad truth; because of placement helpers, many narrow portal surfaces that should not accept a portal, suddenly will. It kind of overshoots the function of a placement "helper" though; enabling otherwise impossible shots. Getting used to this heavy reliance on portal magnets is not too desireable imho but it has definitely been creeping into our thinking

[@Buglin_Burger7878]

@@Mikeastro Except your maps appear for everyone and need to be designed with a check in mind. Remember someone can spend 1+ hours trying to solve the puzzle needing one of those exploits. A small room where you need the exploit to leave can double as a tutorial to make it a mechanic (good game design) as opposed to just asking the player to do the impossible. It took some players years to learn these exploits sometimes, design levels with that in mind. Making 100 people happy isn't worth upsetting 100 more. Instead make 150 happy and only have 50 feel confused. Then in 1-2 years when this check becomes the norm people can see the check and immediately leave if they dislike it making it all 200 are happy.

[@ShadowlessDeath47]

@@Mikeastro Things like null portals just requires thinking outside of the box, no additional information about the mechanics of the game. That's the primary difference. Things like orientation require knowledge of mechanics that are never given to the player in a tutorialized way like the base game. So I definitely agree it should only really be used if your map is based around portal orientation.

[@Mikeastro]

@@ShadowlessDeath47 Hmm it definitely took me a while before I realised that e.g. moving angled panels killed portals

[@Splitcyclewastaken]

@@Mikeastro That's actually Valve's fault. During the glados sabotage section with wheatley the devs decided they wanted moving walls to use so you could do the laser and cut the pipes that way. This is not how the laser has ever worked in portal or portal 2 before that part of the game, and in fact they had to make those panels specially to allow it, because that wasn't possible within their own rules. In doing so they confused many players. I actually got stuck on that segment for a very long time because I'd played the first game, which teaches you very early on that portal surfaces will fizzle your portal if they're moved, and then I came to portal 2 and I'm pretty sure they reinforced that early on, but then require you to use a moving portal exactly Once, undermining what was already taught. The fact that _Any_ movement of a surface, even changing angles or traveling a straight line, has been shown to kill portals, and then suddenly it doesn't. . . Not great.

[@samevans4834]

8:54 This rotation is called "holonomy", and it's a useful thing to consider in other puzzle games with more traditional non-Euclidean geometry, like Antichamber and Hyperbolica. My mind was absolutely blown when you used it, though! :)

[@MagicGonads]

A lot of people don't realise that being non-euclidean is a simple as the space not being simply connected (but allowing paths to pass through colliders), such as with a portal or any mechanism of teleportation (regardless of if it's an intentional mechanic that the player uses). Although it only counts as holonomy if it forms a group, and just teleporting to a fixed orientation would not form a group (or maybe just form a trivial group). So almost every game is really non-euclidean because of warp points in their level design, but not so many of them have holonomy. In this case it is holonomy because the object is in continuous motion along geodesics and receives a consistent rotation.

[@mika_tastrophe]

Great video as always! I personally am a bit divided on using floor portal surfaces instead of making them only accessible from some angles by manipulating geometry or using glass, especially when it comes to floor surfaces because those are often just barely visible and it's difficult to correctly assess what their size and orientation is. An additional problem is that it always feels a bit annoying to walk in and out of floor portals, wall portals appear "smoother" in a way. As other comments already pointed out, this might make maps frustrating or confusing for newer players. I like the mechanic of portal orientation a lot nonetheless and wish I had more ideas utilizing it to spice up my puzzles a bit, and I'll definitely keep them in mind for future maps. (The study in the beginning was very interesting as well, maybe Lumosity should just purchase a license or something for Portal 2 and just make their users play that - it seems to be doing a much better job)

[@nicrule4424]

I clicked on this expecting to learn about some mod that lets you rotate portals. Instead I got an in depth look at utilizing a specific element of puzzle design. This is the kind of deep dive into design I keep expecting channels like Game Maker's Toolkit to do. Really cool. Thanks!

[@mattcy6591]

I want a portal orientation variant where the actual map gravity changes directions depending on the orientation you come out of the portal.

[@taube637]

hmm, interesting. could you technically respawn a cube to fall into a portal placed on a 45° platform, and have the second portal orientated on the floor, to allow the cube to cross a gap and fall onto a button?

[@Mikeastro]

Most certainly!

[@OfflineOffie]

Wow, I never knew custom Portal 2 maps looked this beautiful, varied and advanced... I might just have to play the game again!

[@think_of_a_storyboard3635]

good luck trying to find an actually good puzzle on the workshop, though.

[@4cqker]

Good to see this stuff being talked about. I've made over 50 portal maps and a lot of them have interesting/unique stuff, and I did a whole series where you have to think about portal rotations. I thought it was very much unknown and a bit inaccessible, but here you are exposing the mechanics

[@generalzapp548]

Mod idea: a mars surface, they are red like mars rocks. And portals can be placed on them but only for a short time before they explode into a repulse, sending stuff flying. And a new type of incinerator wall thing, but this one will close only the portal that you choose to shoot at it. Want your orange portal gone but still want a null blue portal? Shoot an orange portal at the new grill to close the orange one.

[@FluxLemniskat]

I really enjoyed the video and hope it makes more people aware of the enormous potential of portal orientation for puzzles. Big thumbs up for your tireless effort and dedication to create these videos. I have to vehemently disagree with some of the critical comments against using portal orientation. Some talk about how Valve has never used it and therefore it is bad. But honestly, the workshop would then be completely uninteresting - cube respawns and other common concepts would also be obsolete. There would be nothing charming anymore, because Valve's own levels are and were tutorial-esque beginner levels and don't even come close to exhausting the potential of elements etc. Also, statements like this are based on the assumption that Valve did a good job of establishing concepts and solutions. But they only managed to do that mediocrely, which is why even then you couldn't take some of the ideas for granted, since they simply weren't forced in the campaign. I find it almost embarrassing to call portal orientation misleading and non-tutorialized and the like. When you enter a map with white floor surfaces for the first time in the main campaign, you can study the behavior of portals on floor surfaces (or on the ceiling) at your own pace. Letting the player experiment and observe in a white room is probably the best non-verbal and most intuitive tutorial Valve has set up. The player is encouraged to test, and as I said, this can be done very easily. It is virtually the most basic idea of portals itself. There is no other element involved in order to grasp that core concept.

[@JitenderKumar-tn8dd]

please never stop making these videos

[@LiamTolentino]

Another clever use of portal orientation with light bridges I've seen was this one map that used light bridges to redirect the player's trajectory in the air (I think it was called Above Aperture). The first chamber in the map that used this was one with a faith plate that launched the player to the exit door. In between the faith plate and the exit, there is a floor portal surface which you can use to place a light bridge, and depending on the angle you place the portal, the bridge will redirect you to the right or left of your faith plate trajectory allowing you to reach the cube and button. If I recall correctly, the chamber right after this one uses the same concept but with repulsion gel so you can reach ledges at sharper turns. I don't think I've seen any other map use this concept and I'd love to see more map makers try to use it :)

[@indifferentiable]

Orientation of portals like other unintended mechanics is interesting as what can be expected for puzzle solver to know. Tutorialisation and clear cut constraints are needed, unless you want "think outside of the box" solution that can be exceedingly arbitrary depending on player's knowledge. Portals generally have helping angles for convenience, which would teach against this kind of solution. At the same time for example with sideways light bridge (on 90 degrees angle) a use of bunnyhopping could be possible. Although bunnyhopping is a skill-based unintended mechanic (and so almost never expected from player) while other weird mechanics can be premeditated, I think any mechanic for a puzzle should be prefaced with sufficient knowledge to solve the puzzle. Sometimes Portal 2 maps might omit necessary information to solve the puzzle for the uninitiated. While being clever solution for experienced player, it can be an unnecessary expectation for the others imo.

[@columbus8myhw]

"Angled lasers = no fun" Angry Jonathan Blow noises (I'm thinking of the sun temple light puzzles from The Witness, which are a similar idea)

[@Pengochan]

The sideways lightbridges can also serve to stop cubes or players flung by catapults. Turrets can block a path as effectively as a gap as long as the player has no means to kill them, so the basic idea remains: have that lightbridge in the correct orientation to cross some obstacle.

[@Guhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

I love how most subtle puzzle mechanics take advantage of a short transition from one major stage to the other. There’s a cube, there’s a fizzled cube for a second, and then there’s no cube. There’s no portals, then there’s one closed portal for a few seconds, then there are two portals.

[@comicalbanana]

so, i VERY rarely click on Recommended videos that aren't from channels i already watch, but i super love the Portal series and game design video essays, so i decided to give it a shot. and turns out, this was super interesting! a really neat deep dive into a very specific facet of puzzles that change the way players think and a good guide on how to utilize it in a satisfying way. i was entirely oblivious to the community chamber-making scene for Portal 2 before now but i'm definitely gonna check it out! thanks for the sick vid!

[@DerFinder]

7:48 dude I thought I was going insane, until I realised that I didn't catch that he shot that portal in another rotation, as I was thinking about something else

[@danielskrivan6921]

I just recently made my first test chamber, in which I play with this mechanic a lot with a light bridge aimed at a portalable ceiling. However, instead of playing with it for low-high, I play with it in 3 ways: 1) vertical off of a wall to shield from turrets, 2) horizontal off of a wall to use as a walkway, and 3) at angles off of the floor and ceiling to do bank shots for energy balls.

[@MRFAB1]

There's also another use for the lightbridge : You can make the lightbridge come out of the side of the portal to create a wall, which is useful against turrets or to block yourself from a faith plate fling.

[@Mikeastro]

I mentioned this with a wall of text :]

[@MRFAB1]

@@Mikeastro Whoops my bad, I didn't play slow ascent, I was only listening and not looking to not spoiled myself

[@SK-by6qd]

It’s also possible to bunnyhop to keep yourself from falling off of a sideways light bridge, although it’s very hard and shouldn’t be used for any map that’s intended for casual players.

[@STANNco]

12:00 personally i think this isn't too clear of a design, unless you are very familiar with the portal mechanics. From an angle the white surface looks normal, so it's frustrating that you are not able to make a portal on it from an angle. Imo it's better to obstruct a clear wall entirely with glass or other so there's 0 question about it

[@iMorands]

the greatest orientation test comes from the hydra coop campaign

[@bengregg2632]

Honestly, this concept reminds me of "Portal Surfing" from the Sixense MotionPack DLC, which not only allowed you to grab Portals and move them, but also rotate them (even on walls where Portals default to vertical). Now that a mod is out to make the DLC more accessible (to those with SteamVR compatible controllers) I hope more people explore how it can be used as I feel there's definitely potential for it when mixed with the puzzle concepts shown in the video (for example, a puzzle with a mix of full-tiles and half-tiles to limit which Portals you can rotate and which you have to place instead, or a Hammer map with a portalable 90 degree curve approximately three-quarters of a tile thick that enforces 180 placement, but allows players to rotate the Portal 90 degrees by moving them along the curve).

[@spki4524]

I've noticed that this is one of the main mechanics that I actually didn't try to utilise that much in my own maps. Silly considering I've already played Greasiest Doorknob where pretty much half the reason as to why its design is so damn elegant is because of its use of portal orientations lol, more maps need to start doing that. Small nitpick, couldn't those narrow surfaces at 12 minutes into the video be achieved via light strips on both sides of the surface? Doesn't require BEE either and it seems more elegant to me than two disabled lightbridges. Though I do believe light strips take up more space on a surface than lightbridges placed like that, so the surface might be harder to shoot (can't use portal magnets w/o BEE either :p). Ok either way, cool video.

[@Mikeastro]

I believe light strips could also work but would make it very hard to place the portal

[@mika_tastrophe]

Light strips in default puzzlemaker have func_portal_bumper entities at their edges, so portal surfaces with two on either side become impossible to shoot unless you edit the item's instance in hammer. I've tried this many times before installing BEE2 and it has consistently prevented portal shots, I always wondered why until I learned more about hammer a couple years later.

[@nerdlington7655]

Hey it me. Nice video; really great to get these ideas out and get people playing this game as a puzzle game again. I have had an idea for a puzzle involving portal orientation for a long time but never was able to finish it. After watching this maybe I'll give it another go.

[@NOCKSCITNEY]

10:00 - PTSD Intensifies Yet another fantastically insightful video Mike. It's great to watch a video like this which is able to make the viewer think straight away about how the techniques can be applied. Already looking forward to the next :)

[@Kellestial]

I thought this was going to be a speedrunning video… but this is fine too, thx yt algorithm

[@nak_attak]

The portal 2 Motion dlc on ps3 takes the concept of rotating portals to the extreme. It's literally one of the the core concepts of the game.

[@solutionchanneliguess2899]

Not much to say on this one, I'm afraid, but like null portals, portal orientations are one of those (near) 'intrinsic' mechanics of portal placement, which makes them very interesting. It is probably for the best that portals cannot be naturally reoriented on vertical surfaces, but I sometimes wish that they would rotate to face the player on angled surfaces that are intuitively closer to being level with the floor/ceiling, e.g. a 30-degree panel surface on the floor. Then again, maybe that would lead to some nasty angles indeed, haha.

[@dunste123]

I never thought about angled lazers like that. That was a fun mindgame

[@calmelbourne]

6:35 You say you didn't discuss sideways light bridges because they only function as turret shields, but they also function as jump blockers, when you want to stop yourself flinging past somewhere you want to go (or avoid landing in a pit). That is at least semi interesting

[@IroAppe]

This video really shows me, that there should be way more orientation inside Portal puzzles. Because: NO: - With the lasers I've cheated. Back early I had problems imagining how the laser behave, and I've only memorized the exact situations since then: Flat wall on wall, or on a 90° angle. If you gave me a panel anywhere in between, that could move around and change to strange angles, I couldn't predict it. Unless I had time, would point my finger towards the entry angle, then imagine myself turn around to the angle of the second portal, and then use where my finger points to figure out where it now goes. But there isn't an intuitive understanding that gives me that answer without thinking within a second. - WIth the jump through the portal I also had to think. - And I can't just visualize how the cube floating through the portals rotates either. I have to actively figure it out. Turns out that I'm good at visualizing the point-to-point connections with portals. But I'm underdeveloped in visualizing out the angles. I wish there were way more puzzles with that, because I really want to learn an intuition for angles with portals. Because it seems to be a whole another aspect of portals that I haven't considered once thus far.

[@Josiah100x]

"portal 2 portal surfing" very illuminating

[@NIMPAK1]

I got the quiz wrong at the beginning, but now I think I have a much better understanding portals. I always just thought about portals as holes, instead of them having an up, down, left and right side to them. So if you point a laser that's pointing towards the left side of a portal, it's going to come up the right side of the other portal.

[@Soneone.]

new Mike Dass Portal 2 mechanic video, time to rethink me entire (novice) way of making test chambers! great video as always, Mike

[@Sadiquecat]

Video was made and sufficiently lit :D Thank you !

[@klaus.sfc01official30]

Great video thanks for giving me ideas for my new map :)

[@ChaosNe0]

I see people are discussing whether to use niche (=rarely used/known) mechanics and want to add my opinion: Seeing how it works seema novel, which is always good. Unknowing players will probably feel cheated, though. Does that mean we have to limit what we could do to the weakest link in the chain? Of course not. We, as a community, could declare difficulty or rarity categories and them with all the moves we know, then use this abstraction as an indicator to whether a beginner player should brace themselves with a particular testing chamber or whether solving should be well in their capabilities. Another option would be to create and recommend a series of test chambers (maybe part of a map-collection or even a mod-campaign) so that everyone can be introduced to advanced mechanics and get accustomed to them before encountering them in community maps. Or, as a third option, we could just declare the problem at hand as a problem if perspective, meaning new players should not get frustrated but get curious. I personally think that's a tall order to ask of an audience largely consisting of younger people, especially as there's noone around to act as a role model for that line of constructive thinking, or at least in the specific context of playing Portal 2. In conclusion, I'd like to play whole campaigns of highly advanced mechanics, even if it's just to look back and perceive my growth I'd not have noticed by the alow increase in challenge the campaign had provided.

[@camerson1313]

I still remember the very first map I played that utilized a sideways portal: Decay Part 2 by BanJaxe. That’s still one of the best map packs ever from PTI’s first year, which introduced a whole bunch of cool new ideas. I don’t really consider portal orientation to be a good core map concept; it’s more of a supplement to what should be the main puzzle. Like to prevent certain placements, or to make bottom portal laser hit top catcher (which can also be done with 2 opposing reflection gel covered angled panels in the same voxel). Then again, I’ve only made a handful of maps that barely use it, and they’re all mostly silly. I’ve found it to be more useful for comedy than puzzles. Perhaps I just haven’t thought about it much; there is still much potential to be unearthed.

[@Guschdel1]

Thank you, that was very informative.

[@Jackson-ub1uv]

I always used lights to make narrow portal surfaces

[@nightrous3026]

Imagine if you could rotate wall portals

[@GLad.d]

"add a narrow portal surface" Idont got portal 2 mods

[@TheMazarineIsReal]

Always a joy when you upload

[@leovitiello7424]

Once more a very well made video about an interesting subject! I wonder if you're considering making a more "general" video essay about puzzle making principles in P2 some day... I'd like to see that. Only time will tell ;)

[@__Rusty]

I loved my monthly dose of 'How TF do people even come up with these ideas' Thanks :D

[@nixel1324]

12:00 would lights also work? I feel like disabled light bridges might make players expect them to turn on at some point.

[@Mikeastro]

Good question! One light would also work, but two would prevent the player from placing a portal, sadly

[@toast207]

Wake up, new Mike Daas video. Love your stuff dude.

[@Noxis6864]

Super video dude!

[@micahplays4939]

6:59 best shown in main game old aperture conversion gel intro

[@xaytana]

Has there been a mod that allows for portal rotation based on player input? I'd be curious to see how much the core concept of Portal can be expanded upon if manipulated orientation becomes part of the puzzle. Plus horizontally oriented portals on a vertical surface could allow for some extra functionality, such as making a light bridge a barrier or a bridge while sharing the same source, some interesting things with rotations could be accomplished, etc., though this may have limited functionality without additional components that utilize it. Another interesting concept would be mirrored portals, reflection plus translation rather than just translation, that could flip object/path orientation, though again limited without additional components that could utilize it. Additions like these could be akin to multiplayer's four portals or Reloaded's additional portal type, but only if the additional transformations are built upon.

[@TChapman500Gaming]

For some reason, floor/ceiling portal rotation is something I've almost never paid attention to. Must be because of the bad workshop maps and the fact that whenever it does matter in the campaign, Valve sticks a trigger to correct misaligned portals.

[@ashhh2198]

nice video, also good music

[@DownDance]

Nice video!

[@iika_a]

These videos are super underrated.

[@ultimatequeenofdeath666]

i mean hey, free cake is free cake...

[@DoctorTex]

Anyone remember the Sixaxis pack? Where you could actually move portals across surfaces without constant shooting them? I miss that one.

[@Azure_Gust931]

8:56 interesting mechanic!

[@luckyperga]

You videos are a gift

[@LUVVEOUS]

Nice music bro

[@Konclan]

I’m surprised you didn’t talk about the Adhesion Gel map that rotates portals, though understandable since thats an invented mechanic. Loved the video!

[@Mikeastro]

Thanks for watching! I considered it but ultimately decided not to talk about it because it's not "vanilla" P2. I also had to cut a bit about the interesting interplay between sendificators and cube orientation because many people would have no idea what the sendificator is. Maybe in a future video though!

[@alacer8878]

Man, I know the point of this video is to discuss subtle and interesting uses for portal orientation in puzzles, but *damn* if the music you make isn't also great. I'd honestly pay you to make me music.

[@Mikeastro]

Thanks man, that honestly means a lot to me

[@alacer8878]

Good! I'm glad. Your content is great.

[@joshuasmith6909]

Hah, I’m gonna remember that Luminosity test.

[@TheAmazingHerosquad]

Man, these videos make me feel like a portal amature

[@BustyCatbot]

The fact that I got that orientation question wrong despite playing so much Portal and Portal 2 shows how much of a god damn idiot I am, and how much I don't deserve an internet connection

[@Mikeastro]

Hahaha don't be too hard on yourself >_

[@BustyCatbot]

@@Mikeastro I decided to watch the video in a bad mood for some reason and got self destructive, appreciate the comment though, great video! Pushing Portal's mechanics further than they've been pushed before!

[@JusFoNo]

8:50 clever af

[@ziggyzoggin]

1:14 no, that makes perfect sense, not a surprise to me atleast

[@WhtSqurl]

7:39 I got this wrong because, I imagined the blue portal being place the other way around. So if blue is backwards from how you put it, yellow would also need to be backwards. Having them placed the way you did it, made it more confusing for me.

[@mathmachine4266]

I assumed you were talking about a portal on an actively rotating surface. Similar to the debate about a portal on a moving surface.

[@cubehamster]

Hi Mike, I send an email to the email that was shown on your youtubepage. Do you still use it?

[@Mikeastro]

I do! Every once in a while I check it, but I haven't in a while because I've been travelling. I'll check it again soon!

[@cubehamster]

@@Mikeastro Nice, looking forward to your reply.

[@user-khan005]

Guessing the next video will be about bootstraps lol

[@Buglin_Burger7878]

These are cool in concept, but I can see the major issue. Portal made it clear when you need to connect stuff by it being clearly visually connected such as flinging puzzles being over gaps and light puzzles also being over gaps. The issue is you need to mechanically rotate quickly without indication you need to. This is the issue with most of the exploits, you need to do something stupid yet smart and need to have super precise control over portal locations to prevent the map from breaking in half. Without something indicating to the player they can do this we run into major issues of map design.

[@guilhermerafaelzimermann4196]

How does one make the thin portal surfaces? Do you need a mod for that? I've had portal 2 before and i've only ever seen those used in maps made with the hammer editor (which i will not even attempt to touch with my laptop) and i've messed around a lot in the level editor

[@Mikeastro]

You need BEEMod for that; an easy google search will lead you to it. Most experienced puzzle designers use it!

[@rhyanvalk7897]

2:16 G E K O L O N I S E E R D

[@tastetherainbow4600]

What's the level editor mod you use? and in order to play levels using the mod do you have to download it?

[@Mikeastro]

It is called "BEEMod". You can play levels made with it without installing it yourself

[@tastetherainbow4600]

@@Mikeastro thx

[@chefordalejo]

I can’t drag content / sample into my playlist on Mac? Anyone know how to fix

[@Squishen]

How do you mod the level editor like that?

[@Mikeastro]

You have to install a mod called ''BEEMod''. If you google it, you should find it quickly

[@RatRattus]

11:53 i cant find the "beemod" could you put a link or something like that please, thx

[@Mikeastro]

It should be the first result if you just google that phrase, but for your convenience: github.com/BEEmod/BEE2.4/releases

[@TheGameBoyss]

1:23 dutch :)

[@TheGameBoyss]

plus the recognisable accent

[@Mikeastro]

@@TheGameBoyss It's persistent :'D

[@ethanhawksley9097]

Sounds to me like a good basis for Portal 3!

[@Jan12700]

5:00 Song?

[@Mikeastro]

It's an unreleased song of mine for a puzzle game I started to develop last summer, but I haven't had time to continue working on it for various reasons. Maybe some day though!

[@eduardog3000]

How are you about to make a video about portal orientation without mentioning the Sixense MotionPack?

[@Mikeastro]

I don't think I'm familiar D:

[@neeonlight]

@@Mikeastro Basically, it was a dlc released in 2011 designed to showcase a special motion controller (Razer Hydra). Thanks to the unique hardware new game mechanics were introduced, one of them being the ability to freely rotate portals into any orientation.

[@kkard2]

i failed 1:20 so hard that it's embarrassing

[@Sadiquecat]

You're not alone xD

[@SpielSatzFail]

Yeah that's also one of my weaknesses in Portal 😅

[@MagicGonads]

I recently played "Portal Reloaded" and thought of it as a mirror (as that third portal acts that way), so I got it wrong. In this case you have to imagine passing through the mirror then orienting the other side to match the portal facing away from the wall, makes it clear.

[@Antnest_]

neat your dutch

[@AleksShar_Studio]

Oh? hello!

[@ckinggaming5bucketmadness766]

I’m not intelligent enough for any of this

[@LUVVEOUS]

Portal community can't die

[@TS_Mind_Swept]

11:52 Or, if you just use hammer, which removes all restrictions of the pti editor (still not sure why it's so limited..), then you can do it wherever you want

[@Ledabot]

This has taught me that portals should be circular

[@HuskyObscura]

Haha my mom works at FSU

[@pupelflash]

666 likes and 2 Dislikes. Thank the lord I saved this video with one click

[@Portal2Player]

haha

[@Nogardtist]

the problem with portals you need to create a door that cuts space trough a wormhole that dont conflict with dynamics of singularity spaces and it dont happen in reality or we dont have record of it the only closest thing to a wormhole is blackholes but its mass alone gonna literally stretch you apart and its one way trip and a death sentence at once to fix that you probably can with alternative dimensions where you enter a temporal field and exit another fixing the problem of space in 3 moves enter while and exit and existing in 3 spaces at once acting like a temporal filter for paradox but chances of that is basically 0 and remains a science fiction where it belongs and before you say alternative universes and time travel the chances of these happening is basically 100% since you can lose to infinity the chances eventually will happen cause they suppose to since it dont that means it cant be cause its never suppose to be if it does then no law of physics been broken and it worked like it suppose to

[@oreotrollturbo]

I can't like the likes are 9/11

[@duartevilelas9688]

Cool video👌 (watch in 1.25 speed. thank me later)

[@efari]

the boring voice made me leave. sorry

[@Mikeastro]

np