Portal: Prelude 1.1.5 (archive version) file

Installation:
Extract to sourcemods folder. Open gameinfo.txt inside the Portalprelude folder. Underneath Filesystem there should be a section called FileSystem:

replace it with this:

	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

		}
	}
}

────────────────────
WHY PORTAL: PRELUDE DON'T RUN ON MAC OS
────────────────────

I've been investigating with a mac-user friend for 4 hours what could be going wrong with Portal on Mac OS to prevent Portal: Prelude from running and the news are half bad and half good.

The bad news is that Valve lied to us (again) when they said the Mac version of Portal was a "native versions rather than emulation" and that "PC and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step" [source]. The Mac version is very different than the PC version in the way that it partially drops the support for third party mods. I don't know if this was intentional and if they're aware of it, but it sucks bad. If you want to express to disappointment, you should directly email Valve's CEO and tell him: gaben@valvesoftware

The good news is that it's still possible to make Portal: Prelude run under Mac OS using a few extra steps I'm going to explain.

────────────────────
PROCEDURE TO MAKE PORTAL: PRELUDE RUN UNDER MAC OS IN 3 STEPS
────────────────────

First, install Portal and Portal: Prelude. You should put Portal: Prelude content in the /Users//Documents/Steam Content/sourcemods/portal prelude folder. Watch out though, because they said this location was going to change soon. If you encounter a problem while unzipping Portal: Prelude it's because there is something wrong with the default Mac OS un-archiver. Using the unzip command-line tool works just great. I don't know what's wrong but I'll try to re-upload a version that was created under Mac OS for what it's worth.

Then problems arise. The Mac OS version seems to drop the support of the -game parameter and thus, the support of third party mods in an elegant manner. Also, it seems that it drops the support of spaces in folders, thus, "portal prelude" is not recognized anymore. What you have to do is to create a symbolic link in another location to make Portal aware that new content is available. For this, you have to open Terminal (using Finder for example) and type the following commands:

cd "/Users/[your Mac OS username]/Documents/Steam Content/[your Steam username]/portal/"
ln -s "../../sourcemods/portal prelude" portalprelude

This will tell Portal that new content is available next to him but not how to use it, this is the next step.

When this is done, restart Steam and Portal: Prelude should appear in you games list. Beware though, this shortcut won't work. Basically, as they dropped the support of third party mods, you'll have to tell Portal to use Portal: Prelude content instead of having another standalone game besides it. The way to do this is weird, but works.

1. Open up your Steam games library
2. Right click on "Portal" and click Properties
3. Open up the "Set Launch Options" dialog
4. Type this in the field: -game portalprelude -dev
5. Launch Portal and it should launch Portal: Prelude instead

So far it looks like this method works at a 100%, I didn't play the whole game though but we had everything working from cutscenes, voices, subtitles, gameplay, and such. If you want to play Portal again, simply remove the -game portalprelude -dev from the launch properties.

────────────────────
TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
────────────────────

Now on a more technical side, I'm totally unsure WHY the hell you have to launch the game in developer mode (-dev) for it to work, but we never managed to make it work without it. We are also sure there are probably ways to do this differently. We investigated a few things, like the open command of Mac OS combined with the command line options of Steam. Basically, we tried this:

open -a steam -applaunch 400 --args -game portalprelude -dev

It works perfectly, but only when Steam isn't already launched. Mac OS seem to catch the call and prevent it when Steam is already running. We don't know how we could bypass this. We also elaborated on the Steam Browser Protocol to make it launch Portal with Portal: Prelude content like this:

open steam://run/400 -game portalprelude -dev

But so far, the Steam Browser Protocol doesn't seem to be able to deal with parameters, so we gave up.

If you are knowledgeable enough, maybe you'll find a more elegant solution to this problem. We hate the current solution because it forces you to switch between Portal and Portal: Prelude and you can't have both working at the same time. If you do find a more elegant solution, please post it on our forums : Portalprelude.com