Portal 2 - Laser Edge Glitch

So, Brex presented a problem for Dual_Lasers, and I succeeded in resolving it... by discovering another glitch! That makes 2 glitches I've discovered on sp_a2_dual_lasers so far, the Laser Switch Glitch and now the Laser Edge Glitch.

It seems that if you get the laser to go through the edge of a portal, it has the potential to ignore parallel surfaces. In this case, at the start of this video, the laser is technically above the surface of the ceiling. You'll see throughout the video that it varies how much of the laser can be seen while in-bounds.

Logically, this glitch makes sense, since the laser beam itself is only 2 dimensional, which means it can exist on the same plane at the ceiling. The laser receptacle apparently can be interacted with if the laser is on the same plane (or above) the ceiling for whatever reason. You'll also see that the laser can hit the receptacle from in-bounds while being parallel to the surface, but it doesn't do anything, which is what I was originally trying to do before I discovered this.

This video is what I made after discovering it, so it is not edited. You'll see I figure out that if I shoot the center of the one dot on the wall, I can reproduce it easily. I also took note of the position of the blue portal on the opposing wall. I do stuff like this so I can review the demo if I need to if I have trouble doing the glitch again. I'll have to look for places to try this glitch out on other maps. Enjoy!

Note: In an unrelated map, I realized that sp_a2_pit_flings is the MOST BROKEN MAP in the game. It is such a dumb map. I might release a video showing all the glitches on it.

[PortalCooperation]

Nice find! I spent a fair bit of time trying to get the laser to hit the receptacle that way, but couldn't get it to work. My only concern with this glitch on this map, is that in a perfect, timescaled world, it would certainly be faster, but since the other route is so fast, you would have to place these portals extremely quickly, and it looks like they both have to be exceptionally precise. I'm not very confident that this trick will be practically usable vs. the other route in real time.

[kaga]

In portal 1, there was one trick that took him hundreds and hundreds of tries in order to do a proper speedrun, and he still devoted to doing it.

[PortalCooperation]

I'm not sure how you mean. In either mode, using this glitch comes with the challenge of placing two perhaps pixel-perfect (or nearly) portals with extreme speed, lest it be slower than the other route. It may be the case that considering the time it would take to properly aim at the two very specific spots, the other route may be faster for practical purposes if it's a human being playing. This problem would exist both in challenge mode and in the normal game.

[ShuckleShellAnemia]

It might hit the ceiling. I think the reason the other laser can go out of bounds is because it's on the same plane as the ceiling, so it's not at an angle where it can legally "collide" with it.

[PortalCooperation]

Think of it this way: Let's say that the traditional route (Let's call it route A) can get you a time of 12 seconds if executed perfectly, and this route (route B) can get you a time of 11.5 seconds if executed perfectly. Even though route B is faster when timescaled, it may actually be the slower route in real time due to the limitations on human ability. It's possible to do route B, and it's possible to do it *reasonably* fast, but probably not *fast enough* to beat route A in real time.

[trevdude]

As you said in earlier videos the portal is necisaraly a square and that's how the edge glitch works in the first portal so that's probably why that happened

[PortalCooperation]

Yeah, I have done my share of extremely difficult stuff to save half a second, too. The thing is, I'm just not sure about making these shots quickly. We'll just have to see how difficult they turn out to be when trying to make them fast enough to beat the other route. I'm not saying it will definitely not be practical, but I certainly have my doubts.

[PortalCooperation]

Continued: Humans are imperfect, and that is going to play a huge role when comparing this route to the other one in real time. They are very close. It doesn't matter that you can shoot the portals as fast as you want (almost). These portals seem nearly pixel-perfect, so to make two of them in the amount of time necessary is going to be incredibly improbable. Transgenic even took time to aim at least one pixel perfect portal shot in Portal Done Pro, if you want a relevant example.

[PortalCooperation]

Thousands, actually. And there are things in Portal 2 which have taken me thousands of tries. But that is not the point in this case. I could pull off this trick in a relatively short amount of time, but the problem is that it may not be humanly possible to do it fast enough in real time to make it a faster route than the one currently being used.

[ShuckleShellAnemia]

I was thinking of single-segment speedrun vs. challenge mode records. In a single segment speedrun, you want to cut a little bit of speed in certain areas to take the "safe" option; in challenge mode, someone will try one way over and over until they get it done perfectly, as the record stays up forever (or until someone beats it). I guess what I mean is, do you think someone will use this technique to get that ever-so-slight edge on the time in order to beat the record, through trial-and-error?

[andreasfr]

Because what portal 2 needs is more glitches...

[PortalCooperation]

It's not as simple as saying it's not worth the number of tries. The problem is that this route is up against another one which is very close. The amount of time it will take to even remotely aim these two portals could very well cost this route its efficacy in real time. The number of tries is just a factor.

[Nemesiss]

Lol'd at the note. I'd love to see you break pit flings.

[TunnelRat]

If one person or a group of people work on a complete speed run of Portal 2, I would want each chamber to be done in one segment. If someone used, for example, the Button Save Glitch in a speed run, that would not be, in my opinion, a legit run. A speed run should follow the same rules as challenge mode runs.

[TunnelRat]

You like it slow and steady vs. fast and furious?

[ShuckleShellAnemia]

Do you think it would be more useful in challenge mode?

[Rolokke]

Hey! make the video on sp_a2_pit_flings please! i would definitively watch it

[moosemooseson]

if you put the lazer at an angle through the top of portal, will it fly off outside the map? or something?

[Vykori]

please to the sp_a2_pit_flings glitch run through! :)

[LANCrewofficial]

I think that it's not a REAL edge glitch... it's just... the Portal itself is larger than the Portal we see. We place the Portal we see, but the Physics are for the real Portal! So it goes through the brushes to the trigger!