How to set up Hammer to work with Portal 2 (Portal 2)

And so, we need:
Alien Swarm
Alien Swarm SDK
Source SDK
and Portal 2 itself
Next, we still need the latest GCFScape.

Let's start by installing GCFScape first. After installation, go to the root directory of the Portal 2 game (for those who do not understand what I mean, this is where you installed the game, i.e. >> steam / steamapps / common / portal 2), in it we go to the folder portal2, look for it (below) and open the pak01_dir.vpk file using GCFScape. Further, in this file you will find a bunch of folders, we only need two of them, namely materials and models, and here Alien Swarm comes into play, we unpack them (these two folders) into the folder >> steam / steamapps / common / alien swarm / swarm, we confirm the replacement of folders and files if required and that's it, in fact everything is ready! Alien Swarm SDK now has models and textures from the second portal, BUT ...

There is always one "but", and this time it is quite important.

But that's not all! It seems like we can already install models from P2, paint the walls with its textures, create test chambers, but how do you ask me to put, for example, a light bridge from the game, a laser, a transport funnel and other cool gadgets? To do this, we need a file with the code name portal2.fgd, after downloading this file, we have to place it, guess where you didn’t guess? Okay, push it here >> steam / steamapps / your account name / sourcesdk / bin / orangebox / bin. You will ask why we need to hide it so far from all eyes, and I will tell you why, then next to it (with the portal2.fgd file) there should be the same file, but responsible for Half-Life 2. After all the procedures, we need connect this file to the map editor itself.

And so, we launch the Alien Swarm SDK and no, we are not in a hurry to launch the Hammer World Editor, in the Utilities block, select the Edit Game Configurations item, in the window that appears, click on the Add button, in the next window that appears, enter the name of the game and indicate the path to it, i.e. ... >> steam / steamapps / common / portal 2 / portal2, don't mix it up. Next, click OK, select our game in the list and click OK again, after all the procedures, restart the SDK. And now we can open the Hammer World Editor. After starting, pay attention to the console (for those who do not know, this is a window with the name Messages located at the bottom of the editor), it should contain two lines (not counting a bunch of hyphens (-)), namely:

Search Path (GAME): the path to the steam folder steamapps common portal2
Search Path (GAME): the path to the steam folder steamapps common platform

If everything is the same for you, then rejoice, everything works for you (almost), if not, then read this text and delve into my words, you are doing something wrong. After this little check, we go to Tools> Options. And so, in the settings window that opens, we are looking for the Configutarion variable, next to the list, click on the Edit button, in the window that opens, click on the Add button, enter the name of the game and click OK, close the Edit Game Configurations window with the Close button. Now we select the game we created in the list. Below, in the Game Data files variable, delete the Alien Swarm file already there with the Remove button, then click on the Add button and specify the * .fgd file of the second portal, who forgot where we hid it, remind me >> steam / steamapps / your account name / sourcesdk /bin/orangebox/bin/portal2.fgd. Next, we put info_player_start in the Default Point Entity class variable, and func_detail in the adjacent Default Solid Entity class variable. Everything else is as follows:

Game Executable Dicertory - $ SteamUserDir alien swarm
Game Directoty - $ SteamUserDir portal 2 portal2
Hammer VMF Directory - $ SteamUserDir portal 2 content portal2 mapsrc you will save the source of the maps made in the hummer)
Prefab Directory - $ SteamUserDir alien swarm bin Prefabs
Next, on the Build Programs tab, select the game configuration we created and change only the last item, namely, where the already compiled maps will be saved, specify - $ SteamUserDir portal 2 portal2 maps (i.e. folder with maps in the game)

Done, great, but again, do not rush to act, create a new map or open an existing one if you have one and click on File> Run Map, or just F9 on the keyboard. In the window that opens, click on the Expert ... button below, then in the Compile / run commands list, uncheck the $ game_exe item (the last item), select the first one and on the right in the Parameters field instead of everything that is written there, insert -game $ gamedir $ path $ file and click on the Close or Go button! if you have a ready-made map, just click on one of the buttons.

Everything! About a miracle! Now, in addition to the model and textures, you have all the entities from the second portal!
Actually, you need this if you are really interested in creating your own maps and you have a desire to do it, but you also need to know how the hummer itself works, in fact, how it works in this topic is not discussed, but everything related to building maps for the second portal in this way and in general, ask here what we know, we will answer.

PS I did not find a pneumatic pipe in entities, either I was looking so badly, or it is done by using several different entities, which is most likely, because once you can see the action of such a pipe in the game.

PPS I also post the sources of all the original maps of the second portal, singleplayer and co-op.

PPPS Regarding the decompilation of maps, I can only say that it is unrealistic to do this with primitive methods, because decompilation there is very tricky, in general, whoever needs it, they will try different methods, if you suddenly find a valid one, post it here and I will put it in this modest tutorial.

Well, that's all, happy journey and success in your portal building

Source material.