Restore Custom Test Chambers

[Makira]

Hello,

I just upgraded my PC and reinstalled Portal 2. I used Gamesave Manager to restore my custom maps, however they aren't showing up in the game. I have tried to manually move, what I assume are the map files, but nothing seems to be working.

Can anyone help me get my maps back?

Thanks!

[Metroturnip]

Um do you still have to original portal 2 folder somewhere?

[Makira]

No, I have reinstalled Windows. I assumed the Gamesave Manager would correctly backup the maps. There are a bunch of files in a "My Maps" directory, but when the software restores them to where they were, they don't show up in Portal 2. :/

[Makira]

I also thought that Steam Sync would put the maps back, and it does seem to have synced some files, but still, no love in game.

[Metroturnip]

Um what I found when I had to copy my maps from 1 computer to another was there was 2 folders I had to copy files from and the were puzzlemaker under maps and then puzzles in the portal 2 folder so if you can find these folders and try and recognize what the files look like that might help, and I do believe that steam cloud only save single player saves.

[tyduncanson]

I have a similar problem, I made my custom maps on another computer, I copied the map .bsp files to the same folder I got them from, and when I try to access them on the map maker, they simply don't show up. Can I get some help?

[TeamSpen210]

The .bsp files aren't really important, you need to backup the .p2c files for the Puzzlemaker to load your custom maps. If you don't have them you'll basically have to recreate the maps.

[Torchiest]

Had this same issue, and the discussion here gave me some clues. The folder you want is this:

(your steam library folder)\steamapps\common\Portal 2\portal2\puzzles\(your Steam ID #)

Just copy that whole thing from the old PC/drive/whatever to the new one.

[TΞSTzor]

I did exactly that @Torchiest, but nothing happened. The maps don't show up in-game. Is there any way to restore the maps? The folder I copied included only .bsp files. Is this the issue? Can I override this somehow? It is very important for me to restore these as soon as possible.

[Torchiest]

Yeah, if you're trying to copy from an old drive/folder, it should have had the .p2c files in it. Make sure you're checking the right location if you use multiple drives for your Steam library.

[TΞSTzor]

Just for the record, I managed to reopen my levels. As I stated above, I have only the .bsp files (that is the compiled versions of the maps).

So the good news is that they were still editable, but the bad news is that you can only edit them using Hammer, which I know for some people will be troublesome.

This is how I did it:
- I downloaded BSPsource from this link: http://www.tophattwaffle.com/downloads/ (BSPsource official website, http://ata4.info/bspsrc/downloads.html , was down for some reason)
- Extracted the files and run the bspsrc.bat.
- Add > (select all the <mapname>.bsp) > Decompile > (Select the location you want to save the decompiled versions of the map) > Save
- When it is done, close the BSPsource output window and the BSPsource.
- Download Portal 2 Authoring Tools (Library > Tools).
- Open it and go to Hammer World Editor.
- Go to File > Open and select the .vmf files you created by decompiling the .bsp files.
From that point you need to know how to use Hammer in order to edit your maps.

From the little google search I did, there is no way yet to edit them in Portal 2 editor. I searched for a way to recreate .p2c files from .vmf via Hammer, or any other tool, but there wasn't any.

So, if you want to save your maps so that you can edit them again in Portal 2 editor you need to save .p2c files as well (in fact I believe .p2c files is all you need). I 'm not sure about where they are located, but they are either in
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Portal 2\portal2\puzzles\<userid>\
or in
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Portal 2\portal2\maps\puzzlemaker\<userid>\
so, good luck with that :D

[TeamSpen210]

It's not really possible to convert vmfs back into P2C files, the best way would be to recreate the map from observation. In addition, decompiling maps isn't an exact process; there is likely to be several errors or other issues which might prevent compiling the map, or cause problems. Much of the data isn't saved in the BSP.

[TΞSTzor]

I 'm afraid I dont't really have a choice. My latter maps were very complex, so recreating them would be extremely painful. If there are any errors I guess I will just try to fix them in the process.