Portal Speed Run

Description

Author's comments:
This is the first speedrun I've ever completed. I've worked on parts of HL2DQ, Half-Life Source, Half-Life 2 Episode 1 with others, and personally worked on Half-Life 2 Episode 2, Condition Zero Deleted Scenes, and Portal. I've watched tons of speedruns and TAS's, so I was really excited to get something of my own finished. I hope you all enjoy it.

Tricks/Glitches:
Basic:

Peek-a-Portal:

Discovered by: Many people

Description: You can keep moving portals without actually changing the location of the portal you keep 'peeking' from.

How to execute: Place a portal (I'll call the blue portal) on a wall in an area that you can just walk through that portal. Come out to the other side and shoot that side's portal (the orange portal) to a distant location. Move quickly back to the other side (blue side) while the portal (orange) is traveling to hit the surface. Now, the blue side shows the new location. Most people prefer this method over the 'Portal Standing' method, because it is easier to execute.

When used: Escape 01, Escape 02

Portal Standing:

Discovered by: Many people

Description: You can stand in between portals and use them as a ledge to stand on, while still moving by shooting more portals.

How to execute: Basically, when you are in between 2 portals, and shoot the portal color of the opposite side you are on (say you are standing on the blue side, and then shoot an orange portal), you have to move toward the other side (orange side) right after it hits the wall, to be able to stay in between portals, and, to be able to shoot the next portal, be completely on that side (orange side to shoot the blue). Continue doing this, and you can stay in the portals. It works best if you are crouching, because when you shoot the next portal, the game tries to push you out of the portal you are standing in; although, it can be done standing up.

When used: Chamber 10, Chamber 15, Chamber 18, Chamber 19, Escape 00

Other notes: This is a variation of the 'Peek-a-Portal' method.
Advanced:

Accelerated Back Hop (ABH):

Discovered by: Hlook

Description: This allows you to move at a ridiculous speed. You gain a large amount of speed per jump.

How to execute: Jump forward, and while in mid air, spin around, hold crouch and press jump repeatedly (I use a program called AutoHotkey to press jump repeatedly). If you don't want to use the program, bind mwheeldown and mwheelup to +jump, and just keep scrolling. Make sure never to let go of crouch, and don't press forward or backward, or it won't work. You can also do this just completely backwards, without the first forward jump and spin. The amount of speed you gain is based on the initial jump and on how fast you can repeatedly jump.

When used: Many places throughout the speedrun


Portal Bumping:

Discovered by: nubSawace

Description: The second portal can be placed on a surface that is on the same plane as another surface, despite objects, walls, or anything else between them, but only up to 32 units away from the first portal.

How to execute: Place a portal (we'll use the blue portal for this one) on the side of a wall, floor or ceiling that has a portal-able surface on the same plane as this surface. There may be a thin wall, object, or any other obstacle between these surfaces (we'll use a wall for this example). Aim on the blue portal towards the edge that is facing the wall. You'll see the orange side of your crosshair light up (which means you are able to shoot an orange portal). Shoot the orange portal, and it'll come out on the other side of the wall. It's pretty simple to do. It just requires a place that you are able to do it at.

When used: Chamber 15, Chamber 16, Chamber 17, Chamber 19, Escape 01

Edge Glitch:

Discovered by: volt

Description: Using the edges of a portal, you can either end up on the other side of a location or see into the other location's area.

How to execute: Place a portal (blue) near an edge of the area you want to 'see' or end up in. I put quotes around 'see', because you don't actually see into the other room, but the game thinks you are, because you are able to shoot portals into that area. Place the other portal (orange) near an edge, either vertically or horizontally. Many places do not work, but I've found the horizontal ones work best on thinner walls. Move as close as you can to the edge of the orange portal. Depending on the situation, you'll either be able to move your crosshair around, and be able to aim at places you couldn't previously, because the game thinks you are aiming into the other area. Otherwise, you will come out into that area (usually if the edge that the blue portal is against is thin, like a door or glass).

When used: Chamber 18, Chamber 19, Escape 01

Other notes: I used the edge glitch on Chamber 18 to come up out of the floor in the next area, skipping the cube activated door. On Chamber 19, I use it in one of the side rooms to be able to aim into the room you normally need to travel down one of the tubes to end up in. After shooting a portal at that green box (but in the other room, I'm aiming it at the floor), I just back up into the portal at the wall and end up in the next room. On Escape 01, I use it to go through the glass in the last room you normally use the rocket to break the glass. It didn't allow me to fully make it all the way through the glass, so I shoot the one portal along the wall that is close to me to 'pop' me into the next room.

Acute Angle Glitch:

Discovered by: djcj

Description: It places you at the wrong coordinates for where the exit portal should be.

How to execute: You place a portal on the slanted walls in the turret room of Escape 01. Then you place a portal somewhere on the floor somewhere else on the map (it has to be on the floor for some reason). If you walk into the one on the slated wall, you will be teleported to another location in the map based on a distance it sends you from the location of the slant portal.

When used: Escape 01

Other notes: The only things I can figure out so far are these facts: (Note: cl_showpos will show you're position in the level) -The X distance the ground portal is away from the slant portal determines both the X distance (by some unknown calculation) AND the Z distance (also by some unknown calculation). -The X direction the top of the ground portal is facing determines which Y direction you will travel. If it is facing the positive X direction, you will travel to the correct Y position you normally would by using portals. If it is facing the -X direction, you will travel the Y in the opposite direction from the slant portal.
Level Descriptions:

Note: The time per level is not exact, so that is why they do not add up to the total time. All the timings for the maps begin as soon as the level loads (including the first map).

Chamber 00-01:

Time: 2:09

Comments:

Chamber 02-03:

Time: 1:09

Comments: I could have gotten the gun a bit quicker, but the perfect shot and run-through to the door was perfect, so I used that for 03. 04 isn't even a chamber, because it's so short. I got the shot perfect and the run to the door well also.

Chamber 04-05:

Time: 1:05

Comments: Chamber 04 took me like two and a half hours. I had to keep getting the timing right and the orientation to grab the cube, put it through the portal and place it on the button. Then, the shot against the wall has so much variability, and so did the ABH down the hall. I didn't make it into the portal on the first jump after getting the cube, but placement and the ABH was perfect, so it should make up for the lost half a second. 05 wasn't as annoying, but it still was annoying. Tell me why they would make Oval portals that you need to take Cubes through and place on a Circle on the floor? The shapes get all crazy messed up. I got perfect placement on this one, but the ABH into the other room could have been better.

Chamber 06-07:

Time: 00:45

Comments: 06 was pretty cut and dry. I didn't ABH because you end up flying past where you have to jump. In this take, I got completely fluid jumping into the portal, the landing and into the elevator. I could have jumped 1 less time before turning into the floor portal. 07, I thought i would never get it that perfect. I seriously had so much difficultly landing on the elevator platform correctly. I was sort of amazing when I perfectly ABH'ed into the elevator. I don't think it's possible to improve that.

Chamber 08:

Time: 00:23

Comments: I could have saved like 3/10ths of a second on the first guardrail, but other than that, the jump was good, the landing was good, and entering the elevator was good.

Chamber 09:

Time: 00:25

Comments: I get hung up on the edge of the emancipation field for like .5 seconds, but I had a great portal setup under the door (the fastest I've seen), and good in-and-out into the next room. I get stuck sideways for a second, but it doesn't matter since I cannot go into the elevator yet anyway.

Chamber 10:

Time: 00:30

Comments: I could have shot the floor portal a bit farther, and the jump out of the portal could have been improved. The speed felt right for the peek shot, and the ending fling. So, this probably could have been a second faster with perfect floor portal exiting. Also, I didn't look up right away at the movable wall piece, which wasted a second for it to trigger.

Chamber 11-12:

Time: 00:57

Comments: 11 went extremely well. I got the timing for the jumps and everything I wanted. I even got the correct placement for the portal in the hallway after you press the button. I used a bit of my ninja skills to not have to run down that little hallway. I believe it was faster to do so. I could have saved about 2-3 seconds if I would have placed the orange portal in front of the gun platform, jumped and hit the button before it fully came up, and swam into the portal, while shooting the blue portal into the hallway. For Chamber 12, you'll see I don't ABH fast at the start, because I loaded from an autosave, so I had to try to get the speed again. The falls onto the floor and then shooting the portals after I hit the floor went great. The portal onto the moving wall-part could have been like 2/10ths faster, which I had gotten before, but not on this take. The cube toss was really lucky. I've gotten it before to stay on the button, but it fell off just as I ABHed through the door. Also, the ABH was great, except for not making the final step, which probably cost at least .5 of a second, but I probably couldn't do it any better than what I got.

Chamber 13:

Time: 00:23

Comments: This went pretty well. It could be faster due to floor portal placement and a quicker throw but everything else went decently well. It's about 9 seconds if you time it like you would for the challenges. The record for the challenge level is 7 seconds... but that's so perfect that I couldn't hope to achieve that.

Chamber 14:

Time: 00:18

Comments: If you are confused why I am able to walk through the door, the door on that level is broken. You are also able to walk back through it after it closes. I had to save as soon as the level loaded from chamber 13, because the autosave here is too far past the area to be able to launch yourself. It still became a problem, because you can't shoot a portal the second you load from a save, so I had to just keep walking forward and shoot as I went along. All and all, it's about a 4 second run if you were to time it compared to the challenge record. The current record is 3 seconds, but that is also quite difficult to do, so 4 was fine with me.

Chamber 15:

Time: 00:36

Comments: Yeah... so, I don't think it was super obvious that this was super segmented. I had to split it into 6 parts, because of how ridiculous the stuff was. So for the SDA time, that added 3 seconds to this. It's about 24 seconds for challenge timing. I thought this route would save a bunch of time, but the segmentation wastes a bunch of seconds. The fastest is currently 20 seconds for the challenge time, so I wasted a lot of time with the initial portal bump and segmentation.

Chamber 16:

Time: 00:27

Comments: I could have made up some time at the second floor portal, just because I didn't move my hand down fast enough. I think I could have saved another half a second when throwing the turret into the other one. I could have walked into some of the floor portals, but if I needed to move forward, jumping forward is faster than walking, so I just would jump out of instinct. So, with these few errors, I probably could have saved a full second or two, but otherwise, it turned out well.

Chamber 17:

Time: 00:55

Comments: This turned out really well. The first area where you have to climb up the wall using the companion cube can be done at any pace, since I have to wait to block the orb from the first hallway. When you ABH up steps, you will practically glide up them, which I used in the second orb hallway. I could have used a different route which may have saved some time by forward jumping down the first hallway, instead of waiting and ABHing. I haven't tested if this was faster, though, but I believe it could have saved about 2 seconds. The companion cube placement onto the button could have been faster, but the rest of that end section turned out really well. I got a great throw into the furnace (after using the gliding concept to get to the cube on the button faster) and an awesome ABH into the elevator. All and all, it turned out to look pretty fluid and great time for the level.

Chamber 18:

Time: 00:52

Comments: This went AMAZINGLY well. I really can't spot many places for improvement in this one. I got all the shots and jumps I wanted.

Chamber 19:

Time: 00:37

Comments: It took me nearly 8 hours over the course of 3 days to complete. Well worth it, though. The time is amazing for this map, considering it's such a long map. I had to redo segment 1 because of a route change in segment 2. I also had a couple of route changes in segment 3. This was the first time I've had route changes while I was running the level. This map also has the 'broken elevator' glitch that is featured in Chamber 14 (you save before the door opens, and when you load, you can walk through the door before it opens). Some of the shots needed to be pixel perfect, such as in segment 2 and segment 3. I am very pleased at how this Chamber turned out. Not much room for improvement as far as I could see.

Escape 00:

Time: 00:30

Comments: This map is mostly based on really good timing. I know that sounds strange, but, in short, it means that some segments had to end where or when I needed them to. I could have ABHed faster on the first ABH, but it still turned out fine since it mattered more on the second ABH (so I could make it to be on the moving pump in time for the next segment). It just happened that if you stopped at that green metal girder, then when you made it into the room with all the pumps, you can clearly see the wall to portal at it. I think the last segment could have been a bit faster ABH-wise, but you couldn't have saved that much time to make it worth it.

Escape 01:

Time: 00:42

Comments: Lots of quick shooting tricks used in this one. I couldn't see too much room for improvement other than a few movement mistakes, but everything else worked out rather well. I used a new method for getting to the balcony in the turret door opening room, by using a peek-a-portal and fell from my last portal location.

Escape 02:

Time: 00:53 (when the last core is incinerated)

Comments: I used a different route to get to GLaDOS in the hallways, and it seems to save a few seconds compared to the other methods I've seen. I found an awesome way to go across that long bridge, if I wouldn't have used the route that involved shooting the portal beside the door. Other than that, everything else turned out great. The boss room you can do at your own leisure because you need to wait for GLaDOS to drop the first (last in this case) core.