My portal doesn't work on my mac

[✪Alhambra]

Hi guys....
i just bought portal on my mac...
and unfortunately it didn't work, my specifications are:
OS X El Capitan
2.4 Ghz intel core i5
4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB
any suggestion??
btw it works perfectly fine on the first launch but it stopped working at the Demo after i went out from the lift and going to the other room...
please help me...

[Chocolate_Signs]

I've been having the same problem with freezing and not responding on my mac as well. I've been wondering if its anything to do with the OS installed and the latest version Portal not being compatible, i'm currently running 10.11.2 on my mac.

[Calmly Frenetic]

OS X El Capitan may well be the problem. For another developer (Two Tribes), all four of their games have stopped working on that particular operating system.
Anyone want to guess whether Valve or Apple will be the first to resolve the issue for Portal?

[Levdr]

I bought Portal 1 & 2 recently and am playing it for the first time. After learning the mechanics of the portals, the puzzles are not too difficult. But controls on my Mac Pro with El Capitan are just really bad. I use the keyboard and mouse. Perspective is off. It's hard to be just level and look straight forward. It's like I'm way too close to Chell. A simple thing like walking through a portal is often impossibly hard already. I tried different settings but to no avail. I'm now in chamber 15 and the moving platforms cannot be done this way. I understand how it works and how to do it, but I simply have too little control to move about quickly enough to make it through the corridors, so I'm stuck there.

I never had these kinds of problems with other platformers like Braid or Fez or Limbo and such and I'm surprised Portal does so poorly on my Mac in this respect. I went to Youtube to see if others had the same problem and saw that people had much much better control than I have.

If anyone has a suggestion, I'd welcome it!

[Calmly Frenetic]

Originally posted by Levdr:

Perspective is off.

Can you post a screenshot to show how it looks?
It might help to increase FOV (field of view) to maximum. It can be adjusted in Options, Video, Advanced... (If it is already at maximum, set it lower, OK/Apply, then set it to maximum again.)
There are also settings for mouse sensitivity that might help with control.

[Levdr]

The problem is that a screenshot won't tell much. It's moving around that's hard. I use the arrows for left and right, forward and backward and a and s keys for turning left and right. But moving around is jerky and there's just so little control as I don't turn enough or go too far. And I can't see where I'm standing, so I fall off of things quite a bit.
The good news is that I finally made it through the moving platforms of chamber 15. But it's a real struggle. I tried what you suggested, but it didn't make a difference. Hopefully Portal2 will do better with the controls...

Thanks for your reply. Much appreciated.

[Calmly Frenetic]

Originally posted by Levdr:

I use the keyboard and mouse.

Originally posted by Levdr:

I use the arrows for left and right, forward and backward and a and s keys for turning left and right.

Your first statement sounded right. The second, not so much.

Portal is more like a fps (first-person-shooter) than those 2-d platformers you mentioned. Turning and looking up/down (aiming) should be done with the mouse, as well as shooting portals (and whatever you want to assign to the 3rd-button/scrollwheel).

[Levdr]

I do use the mouse for looking up/down, for aiming and shooting portals. Moving around using the mouse gives me even less control but that could also be because I'm not used to using a mouse for moving around in games. The scrollwheel on my Apple Mouse stopped working about three months after I bought it.

But it's not just movement. I don't know, I just seem to be too close to everything. When I'm in the elevator going to the next test chamber e.g. I'm like up against the doors. I feel like I should zoom out, but can't. On Youtube vids people just have substantially wider views which makes it quite a bit easier to move around. Even their blue/orange portal icon (you know, the thingy you aim with) is much smaller than mine.

I tried taking screenshots just now but for unknown reasons, they turned out a solid black. Never had that happen before.

[Calmly Frenetic]

Originally posted by Levdr:

I just seem to be too close to everything.

That still sounds like an issue with FOV.
Try using the developer console to enter these commands:
sv_cheats 1
fov 90

If that still doesn't help, enter the command: find fov
and look through the other related parameters that could be adjusted.

[jaded_sound]

I just bought portal 1 & 2 bundle today on my macbook pro (latest OS). Im having exactly the same problem. Portal 1 is very buggy. Seems to have an issue with audio. First time i started the game, i couldnt hear the robot while in the cell. Second time i started the game i could hear the robot but then when entering the elavator most audio cuts out. then after exiting the elavator the game freezes up. If the game freezes in fullscreen mode their is no way of closing. Have to force the mac to turn off. Also just pressing quit at any point in the game makes the game freeze :(
Portal 2 seems to work fine. Any way of contacting the developers about this?

[jaded_sound]

Ok, i found what the problem was. I install all my games to an external hard drive to save space on my internal hard drive. But portal 1 is very buggy when installed to external hard drive. Works perfectly when installed to internal hard drive. I hope this gets fixed.

[Chocolate_Signs]

Oh awesome thanks, I store mine on an external hard drive as well so it might be my problem too.

[jaded_sound]

yep probably is. Just out of curiosity, what external hard drive do you use and what format is it? Im wondering if its a product or format issue. I use a seagate external hard drive which is formatted to fat32.

[Chocolate_Signs]

Seagate exFAT, I go between both PC and Mac

[jaded_sound]

Ok thanks, so it could be seagate or format issue. As we are both using seagate and FAT.

[Chocolate_Signs]

It could be yea, I've moved all my games to PC desktop and just use that now, much better for games, I dont have to worry about frying my Mac laptop so I'm not as bothered by it as I was when I was using Mac