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SteamPipe update released - what does it mean for us?

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So it looks like an update for Portal has been released. It uses the Steampipe distribution system. I haven't tested Portal mods yet, but do we have to install them to another folder now? What about .vpk files? I know in Portal 2 it is very hard to modify existing content (portal gun texture, cube texture) because of .vpk. I always loved how easy was to override these files in older Source games. But it looks like now all of this is gone. Do you have any experience with the new update?

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vpk's aren't scary; the mods for left 4 dead 2 use 'em and they are great for custom content.
Unfortunately valve broke the addons folder in portal 2 for some weird reason. Afaik they only changed the gcf's to vpk's. And moved the game from /username/ to /common/

So I tried to launch several mods and all of them were broken. Then I tried to move one folder (I used Rexaura mod folder) and put it into steamapps/common/portal/custom (new path for custom stuff). What happens after that is when you launch Portal, it will override the files and Rexaura will load instead. But I haven't tried to install more mods at once.

I would really appreciate if anyone else could take a look at this.

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So, Fluppy, you're saying that the mods into SteamApps/sourcemods for Portal don't work anymore, right? Well, since Portal has changed from location, I think that it might be simply a problem in the paths that each od has into their GameInfo.txt files. Check that out, I can't do it myself right now, but I'll do as soon as I get back home (within 3 hours :p) and let you know, mate. :thumbup:

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also the appid *might* have changed.

UPDATE

(Partly) Good news! Good guy and the hero Josepezdj found this Steam discussion where you can find edited gameinfo.txt for some Portal mods. I tried to open their "Rexaura" gameinfo.txt edit and it looks like this:

Code: Select all
"GameInfo"
{
        game            "Rexaura"
        title           "Rexaura"
        type            singleplayer_only
        nodifficulty    1
        hasportals      1
        icon            "resource/icon"
        developer       "Ben Bryant (Mevious)"
        developer_url   "http://www.moddb.com/mods/rexaura"

        FileSystem
        {
                SteamAppId                              400
               
                SearchPaths
                {
                        game+mod                        |gameinfo_path|.
                        platform                        |gameinfo_path|.

                        // We search VPK files before ordinary folders, because most files will be found in
                        // VPK and we can avoid making thousands of file system calls to attempt to open files
                        // in folders where they don't exist.  (Searching a VPK is much faster than making an operating
                        // system call.)
                        game_lv                         portal/portal_lv.vpk
                        game+mod                        portal/portal_english.vpk
                        game+mod                        portal/portal_pak.vpk
                        game                            |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_textures.vpk
                        game                            |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_sound_vo_english.vpk
                        game                            |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_sound_misc.vpk
                        game                            |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_misc.vpk
                        platform                        |all_source_engine_paths|platform/platform_misc.vpk

                        // Now search loose files.  We'll set the directory containing the gameinfo.txt file
                        // as the first "mod" search path (after any user customizations).  This is also the one
                        // that's used when writing to the "mod" path.
                        mod+mod_write+default_write_path        |gameinfo_path|.

                        // Add the mod directory as a game search path.  This is also where where writes
                        // to the "game" path go.
                        game+game_write                 |gameinfo_path|.

                        // Where the game's binaries are
                        gamebin                         portal/bin

                        // Last, mount in shared Portal loose files
                        game                            |all_source_engine_paths|portal

                        // Last, mount in shared HL2 loose files
                        game                            |all_source_engine_paths|hl2
                        platform                        |all_source_engine_paths|platform

                }
        }
}

So what does this mean? Well it looks like we don't have to pack mods into .vpk, but we have to edit paths in gameinfo.txt.

You will have to add these two sections:

Code: Select all
                        game_lv                         portal/portal_lv.vpk
                        game+mod                        portal/portal_english.vpk
                        game+mod                        portal/portal_pak.vpk
                        game                            |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_textures.vpk
                        game                            |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_sound_vo_english.vpk
                        game                            |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_sound_misc.vpk
                        game                            |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_misc.vpk
                        platform                        |all_source_engine_paths|platform/platform_misc.vpk

and

Code: Select all
                        mod+mod_write+default_write_path        |gameinfo_path|.
                        game+game_write                 |gameinfo_path|.
                        gamebin                         portal/bin
                        game                            |all_source_engine_paths|portal
                        game                            |all_source_engine_paths|hl2
                        platform                        |all_source_engine_paths|platform

(Both of these go into SearchPaths section).

Read the discussion for more info. Feel free to post here your discoveries!

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SourceSDK is incompatible, so I'm having a go at getting the Alien Swarm SDK to work with my mod. Not coming along so great at the moment, but I'll get there eventually.

OK, I managed to do it... it's easier than before! :D

Once we have updated the game, Portal, all wehave to do is to launch the hammer editor directly without the tools launcher. We've got all tools into the bin folder:

Steam/SteamApps/common/Portal/bin

So go there and find your hammer.exe file and just execute it ;) It's very cute now: it asks you what game are you going to map for :D

(I haven't tried any compile or such... please try)

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Cool, that works. Building cubemaps doesn't work though, it saves everything as a TGA (this is in a mod rather than in the portal folder)

I think that this is similar as when the Portal2 DLC updates broke the cubemaps. From each DLC on, to be able to build cubemaps, it's required to have a copy of the map (and run THIS copy) here: from DLC1, your map needed to be into portal2_dlc1/maps folder, from DLC2 into portal2_dlc2/maps and so this will be like for future DLCs.

So, I bet this is somewhat what's happening here :D

Can you confirm where is the map you are trying to build cubemaps for?

I'll do some tests later today in order to go deeper into this as well.

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