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We have our map, 4 rooms, a model and a few detail brushes in each room, even a weapon in one.


Great! Now lets remove the junk that we dont need. All we want are structural brushs.
1.) Meshs, any patches, stuff like that, to the compiler its detail but its not really shown in the editor as so. Press "Alt R" and "Alt 3".
2.) Models, including spawns, Triggers, trees, ect... Press "Alt 2".
3.) Detail brushes, these are all but what you want the portal to encompass, generally all but the ceiling, walls, and floor. Press "Ctrl d".

It should like like so:


Now our map is prepped to portal, lets get started.
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In this room there is a door and nothing else.
1.) Fill the doorway with "portal_nodraw".
2.) On the OUTSIDE face of the portal assign the "portal" texture.
3.) Since were going to put one on the otherside as well, shrink it so theres room for another portal brush liek the one we are making.



Congrats, you have made your first ****tioning portal it gets harder but the basics are the same. Do the other room like it and the door on the other side.

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Lets move on to the neighboring room. This one has no ceiling. You should have the door already done as its the same as the other rooms.

1.) Fill the top ridge with the "portal_nodraw" texture so its flush with the very top like the picture.

2.) Assign the OUTER face of the brush with "portal" texture.
3.) Do the other room the same as this one.


We are done in the editor! Lets compile and play it. Im sure you have played your own map and know what to do to play it if you got to portaling.

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Ok, this may get confusing but once you play it it will be easier to see.

Our starting is in the enclosed room, if you try to look into the other room on the other side of the wall you should not see anything as in this picture.


When you start to move, the INSTANT you see into the next room the STRUCTURAL brushes are seen, this is why its important to detail brushes. Hence why our lamp and detail trim isnt showing.


Standing in the door between the 2 open rooms you can see into each portal. You can see everything in the 2 closer portals but NOT the detail brushes or models in the enclosed rooms because they are behind that wall.


To prove that all portals are working I put another lamp on top of the enclosed rooms so that noone can see it no matter where they are. However, using "NoClip" we acn rise and see that it is infact there, the portals have decided that it cannot be seen by the player so it isnt drawn until we rise out of oru portals. Even outside our portals where there are none, we cannot see the stuff that is behind walls.


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Notes:
1.)Don't worry about detail brushes, models, or meshes going through the portal brush. Those are hidden for a reason.
2.)NEVER have a "portal_nodraw" brush have more than 1 "portal face. That is bad and I do believe it won't work. (99% on this)
3.)I leave a small space between portals in doorways because if I don't then the compiler tells me there are overlapping portals, but they DO still work.
4.)I would be happy to help you but the best way to learn is to try it yourself, get stuck? Try to fix yourself, still stuck? SEARCH the forums, STILL stuck? Then you may contact me, just don't overwhelm me please. I prefer PM's, if we are still having issues ill give you my AIM or Xfire.
5.)While in-game, to show the poly's being drawn by your portals open the console "~" and type in "r_showtris 2", "0" is off.