A Portal 2 mod that’s been in the works for several years is Portal 2: Desolation. It’s a fan-made mod that features a brand new campaign, a new model for shooting portals, new characters, and more. From the looks of it it’s set to be the community’s version of Portal 3, set years after the events of Portal 2 (I wonder if J.K. Simmons will re-prise his role as Cave Johnson).

One major update has occured to this mod – the team behind Portal 2: Desolation has updated the Source engine to include real-time lighting, as well as improved reflections and surface lighting. Previously, the Source engine only used baked-in lighting, and could prove to be a time-consuming process when recompiling any maps. The result of this overhaul means better visual quality and faster development and testing.

It had been nearly a year-and-a-half since EmberSpark’s last progress report, back in December of 2020. That’s how much work it took to re-implement the lighting and the graphics overhaul.

Unfortunately the release is “still a number of years away” according to EmberSpark’s FAQ. If you’re familiar with the Source engine though and want to get involved with the development of the mod, you can fill their Google form.

I’m really looking forward to trying this mod out when it does become available.

Cover image credit: EmberSpark’s website