Update - March 11th, 2024

Portal 2: Community Edition - March 11th, 2024 Update

Additions (16)

• Added a status indicator for validity of autosave paths in the Hammer options dialog
• Added an overlay plane when using Hammer's Clipping Tool
• Added 'buildambientcache' concommand to pack ambient light cache into BSP
• Added 'enable' key to 'mounts.kv', to allow entries to be selectively disabled
• Added new launch arguments, '-display' to select which monitor the game will start on, and '-adapter' to select which GPU the game will render with
• Added new VProf UI, perf counters UI and VProf report generator UI. The old VProf tree UI has been removed in favor of the new UI
• Added 'packed_files_list' to view files packed into the BSP
• Added PBR parallax dithering to smooth out the appearance of layers
• Added 'strata' and 'vgui_green' themes for ImGui
• Added support for AVX/AVX2 (and other modern x86 extensions) in VRAD. If your processor doesn't support it (or if you pass '-noavx'), it will fallback to a more generic version of VRAD
• Added support for continuing demos recordings after disconnect (Requires 'demo_autorecord 1')
• Added support for Ogg and FLAC audio files
• Added theming support for ImGui
• Allowed custom models on 'prop_wall_projector', 'prop_tractor_beam', 'prop_personality_core', 'prop_glass_futbol_spawner', 'prop_glass_futbol', 'prop_glass_futbol_socket'
• Fixed Schrödinger cube trying to create its particle each time it was updated
• Running in tools mode will now display '' in the window title

Fixes (43)

• Added '$usecolor' to 'paintblob' shader. Allows settings '$color' and '$alpha'
• Fixed a bug causing 'ambient_generic' to not use the correct source entity when played using the Toggle input
• Fixed a bug preventing 'ambient_generic' entities without the 'Start Silent' flag from playing
• Fixed a crash on exit related to in game videos
• Fixed a rare crash related to triggers failing to access gamerules
• Fixed a rare crash related to view PVS
• Fixed an issue in Legacy UI where changing your persona with a large amount of friends could cause the game to hang
• Fixed 'BecomeShortCircuit' forcefully dropping the held entity, even if it's not a monster cube
• Fixed 'black' shader not respecting fog like it should
• Fixed certain datamodel files not loading on Linux
• Fixed console spam on vehicle 'ent_text'
• Fixed console spam relating to the portal gun
• Fixed crash when creating a prefab in Hammer
• Fixed crash-on-exit in most utilities on Linux. This was a harmless crash, but annoying nonetheless
• Fixed CSM fading out unintentionally on PBR brushes
• Fixed displacement carve normal direction combobox not having expected entries
• Fixed DX11 swapchain creation failing in some cases
• Fixed dynamic game mounts when running under WINE
• Fixed file lookups on Linux occasionally failing
• Fixed Hammer 3D view selection not working properly with instances
• Fixed Hammer model browser stretching
• Fixed incorrect lighting on PBR shader in some cases
• Fixed issues with horizontally moving platforms in certain maps
• Fixed LightmappedReflective combo error
• Fixed materials being used for ropes and anything else simultaneously sometimes not being drawn (e.g. on surf_arcade)
• Fixed models in Hammer getting randomly colored when the entity didn't have 'rendercolor' KV
• Fixed occasional crash when breaking a turret
• Fixed occasional MaterialSystem deadlock when loading maps
• Fixed packing of certain files into VPKs with 'vpk.exe'
• Fixed Particle Editor crash when adding a new operator
• Fixed PBR parallax using texture coordinates from the layer below the correct one
• Fixed some objects not rendering in Hammer 2D views
• Fixed tools mode closing/swapping input when scrolling with the mouse
• Fixed 'trigger_changelevel' not working for HL2 maps (Thanks AlexEpisode!)
• Fixed vehicles crashing if their script is null
• Fixed VGUI 'movie_display_screen' trying to create a video material every frame when it fails to load
• Fixed Wheatley's flashlight in 'sp_s2_bts3'
• Fixed window size bug on Linux
• Fixed WVT and PBR materials not rendering properly when used on displacements
• Load 'gameevents.res' and 'modevents.res' from the MOD search path instead of GAME. Previously, custom folder and workshop addons could unintentionally break things
• Re-enable '$depthblend' in SpriteCard shader
• Use non-native file selector for instances when running Hammer under WINE
• Use the Strata icon for the engine instead of the old Chaos icon

Improvements (30)

• Added new categorization method for ImGui windows. Should be easier to navigate now
• Cleaned up some console spam
• Commands and ConVars marked as 'notindemo', but still present in older demos, can no longer be executed by demos
• Controller glyphs in VGUI menus are now based on controller Steam detected
• Creating displacement from brush entities in Hammer will now move the solid to world
• Hammer entity properties dialog will now set origin when creating brush entities
• Hammer Texture Browser now stores state of its filters
• Hid some potentially buggy debug console commands
• HLMV link mode now syncs light state and colors
• HLMV now uses the same audio system as the game. This allows sound operators and more to function correctly
• Improved behavior of 'vpk.exe' on Windows
• Improved compile times on models with large amounts of flexes
• Improved Hammer Entity IO stability
• Improved L4D1 and ASW model compatiblity
• Improved loading times for when using many search paths
• Improved performance when resizing the game window
• Improved support for MP3 audio files by replacing minimp3 with libsndfile
• Load 'dsp_presets.txt' from MOD path
• Load 'particles_manifest.txt' from MOD search path. This is to prevent workshop addons overriding it. The additional BSP-packed 'particles_manifest.txt' is unaffected by this change
• Marked most commands related to saving, loading, connecting, disconnecting, or map changing as 'notindemo'
• Merged 'client.dll' and 'client_legacyui.dll'
• Removed brickbat ConVars
• Removed 'npc_assassin'
• Removed the launch argument '-debugstartupscreen'
• Removed the requirement on 'materials/console/startup_loading.vtf' and 'materials/vgui/portal2logo.vtf' files
• Replaced most Hammer MFC message boxes with Qt message boxes
• SAPI phonemeextractor can now actually extract phonemes
• Static prop ambient light cache is now stored automatically, and '-storeambientcache' has been removed
• The ambient light cache is now rebuilt for changes in map revision
• The ambient light cache version has been increased to 3

VScript (5)

• Added ImGui based VScript consoles for server and client, for debugging purposes
• Added 'CBasePortal' with the following methods: 'GetPartner' 'GetPortalNumber' 'GetHalfWidth' 'GetHalfHeight' 'IsMobile' 'IsOpen'
• Added 'CPropPortal' (Inherits from 'CBasePortal') with the following methods: 'SetActivatedState' 'Resize' 'Fizzle' 'NewLocation' 'SetLinkageGroupID' 'GetLinkageGroupID' 'GetFiredByPlayer'
• Added global 'FindPortalByID' to find portal by linkage ID and number, respectively (1=primary, 2=secondary)
• Fixed a VScript crash related to bad function calls with default arguments

Panorama (10)

• Added 'GameInterfaceAPI.GetCurrentMap()'
• Fixed crash when 'ContextMenuFadoutTime' is undefined
• Improved Panorama stability and logging
• Removed the 'Chaos' prefix from any Panorama panels that had it. 'ChaosHud' is now 'HUD', 'ChaosMainMenu' is now 'MainMenu', and so on
• Removed the 'Chaos' prefix from any Panorama events that had it. 'ChaosFrameUpdate' is now 'FrameUpdate', 'ChaosShowIntroMovie' is now 'ShowIntroMovie', and so on
• Renamed 'chaos_hud_menu_show' command to 'hud_menu_show'
• Renamed 'chaos_hud_menu_hide' command to 'hud_menu_hide'
• Renamed 'chaos_hud_menu_reload' command to 'hud_menu_reload'
• Removed 'ChaosPopupManager' from Panorama. Use 'PopupManager' instead
• Removed 'ChaosTooltipManager' from Panorama. Use 'TooltipManager' instead