https://www.pcgamer.com/portal-2-desolation-is-giving-the-classic-puzzle-game-a-huge-graphics-overhaul/

Skip to main content (*) ( )
 PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES
[ ] Search
[                    ]
Subscribe
      
UK
US
Canada
Australia
 
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
Why subscribe?

  * Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag
  * Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  * Issues delivered straight to your door or device

 
From$10.99
View

  *  
  * News
  * Reviews
  * Hardware
  * Indie
  * Best Of
  * Magazine
  * Forum
  * More
      + Podcasts
      + Meet the team
      + Newsletter Signup
      + Community Guidelines
      + Affiliate Links
      + About PC Gamer

Popular

  * Elden Ring
  * Tiny Tina's Wonderlands
  * Fortnite
  * GDC 2022
  * Destiny 2
  * Steam Deck

PC Gamer is supported by its audience. When you buy through links on
our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

 1. Home
 2. News
 3. Puzzle
 4. Portal 2

Portal 2: Desolation is giving the classic puzzle game a huge
graphics overhaul

By Jody Macgregor published 27 March 22

It's a fan game featuring an original singleplayer campaign.

  *  
  *  
  *  
  *  
  *  
  *  
  *  
  * Comments

Audio player loading... 

Portal 2: Desolation is a fan project that's currently in
development, a whole new singleplayer campaign in the Portal setting.
It's basically a community-made Portal 3, or at least Portal 2.5,
being made "in tribute to Valve's Iconic series", as Emberspark Games
puts it. The developers have spent the last year getting Desolation's
graphics to look slick, which has meant totally replacing the Source
Engine's rendering and lighting pipeline.

While Portal 2 already looked nice, its lighting was baked-in via a
separate editor once levels were laid out, and the results could only
be seen after maps were compiled. Any changes to light sources meant
recompiling again, which is a time-consuming process--especially as
maps get bigger and compile times expand. 

The Desolation team have added real-time a lighting system so that
lighting can be edited as they go. It does look nicer too. I think
the most impressive part of the whole showcase, which you can watch
above, is when the red lights of turrets illuminate pipes and other
surfaces as they flicker over them.

The Desolation team also did a lot of work to improve surface
rendering, reflections, and more. Their goal was to ask, "How would
Aperture Science look if it got the same treatment City 17 did for
its upgraded representation in Half-Life: Alyx?" I'd enjoy a Portal
game even if it didn't look shiny, but this work is still pretty
impressive and certainly answers the question they set out to ask.

Desolation's campaign will feature original characters and locations,
and be set years after the events of Portal 2. It will apparently
feature "hours of tightly-paced puzzle solving, driven by an epic new
narrative." That's a heck of a promise, but let's cross our fingers
and hope the Desolation team can live up to it. Check out their
website for more info.

Jody Macgregor
Jody Macgregor

  *  

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to
use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist
who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody
also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed
Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue,
GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the
bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first
article for PC Gamer was published in 2015, he edited PC Gamer Indie
from 2017 to 2018, and actually did play every Warhammer videogame.

See comments
Load Comments
PC Gamer Newsletter

Sign up to get the best content of the week, and great gaming deals,
as picked by the editors.

[                    ] [                    ]
[ ] Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands
[ ] Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or
sponsors
[Sign me up]
Thank you for signing up to PC Gamer. You will receive a verification
email shortly.

There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.

By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions
and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.
Recommended
 
[missing-im]
Fortnite is better without the forts
 
[missing-im]
The worst, most f**ked up enemies in Elden Ring
HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

 1.  
    Razer gaming laptop, the Razer Blade 15 in white.
    1
    Best Razer gaming laptop deals
 2. 2
    The best mid-tower cases in 2022
 3. 3
    The best PC fans in 2022
 4. 4
    The best gaming projectors in 2022
 5. 5
    Best mechanical keyboards in 2022

 1.  
    A grey-bearded man with a big gun
    1
    Tiny Tina's Wonderlands review
 2. 2
    Beyerdynamic MMX 100 review
 3. 3
    Thrustmaster T248 racing wheel review
 4. 4
    Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin review
 5. 5
    Ghostwire: Tokyo review

PC Gamer is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and
leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  * About Us
  * Terms and conditions
  * Privacy policy
  * Cookies policy
  * Advertise with us
  * Accessibility Statement
  * Careers

(c) Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY
10036.