Portalcraft

Real Minecraft inside Portal 2

Build with Minecraft blocks, fight Minecraft mobs, knock them through your portals and into the goo,
and earn about 30 Portal-themed achievements, all inside the Portal 2 campaign.

What is it?

Portalcraft runs the real Minecraft: Java Edition right next to Portal 2 and draws it into every Portal 2 frame. Minecraft blocks and mobs stand on Portal 2's floors, hide behind its walls and stay in place while you move, so the two games feel like one. You play Portal 2 as usual, and whenever you like, you switch to Minecraft's hand and build.

Features

• 🧱 Build anywhere. Mine and place any Minecraft block in the Portal 2 campaign. Each level keeps its own Minecraft area, so your builds are still there next time.
• 🐷 Real Minecraft mobs. Animals and monsters spawn on Portal 2's floors and roam the test chambers.
• 🌀 Thinking with portals. Mobs, items, arrows and lit TNT fly through your portals and keep their speed.
• ☣️ Toxic goo dissolves any mob or item that falls in.
• ❤️ Survival mode. Your hearts are your Portal 2 health: falls and turrets hurt, potions and golden apples heal, and Aperture sends supply drops.
• 🏆 About 30 achievements with a Portal twist, shown the Minecraft way.
• 🎨 Creative mode with every block in the game, and flying.

Screenshots

Your Minecraft inventory, inside Portal 2	A Minecraft cow in the Portal 2 campaign
Achievements and build mode	Aperture supply drops in Survival

What you need

• Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit)
• Portal 2 on Steam
• Minecraft: Java Edition on your own Microsoft account, with the official Minecraft Launcher
• About 1 GB of free disk space, and a graphics card that can run both games at once

Install

1. Download Portalcraft-1.1.0.zip from the latest release and extract it (right-click → Extract All).
2. Close the Minecraft Launcher if it's open.
3. Double-click Install Portalcraft.cmd. If Windows says it protected your PC, click More info → Run anyway.
4. Check the Portal 2 folder it found, tick the box and click Install. Setup adds a Portalcraft installation to your Minecraft Launcher, with its own game folder, so your own worlds aren't touched.

Play

1. Start Portalcraft from its desktop or Start menu shortcut (not from Steam).
2. Your Minecraft Launcher opens. Choose the Portalcraft installation next to the Play button and press Play. The launcher warns that the installation is modified: press Play again.
3. Minecraft loads and hides itself, then Portal 2 starts. Pick Continue, New Game or a chapter as usual.
4. When you quit Portal 2, Minecraft saves and closes by itself.

Key	What it does
B	Build mode on/off (Minecraft's hand ↔ the portal gun)
Left / right mouse	In build mode: mine / place blocks and use items
1-9, mouse wheel	In build mode: pick a hotbar slot
E	Pick up (looking at a cube, turret or button up close), otherwise the Minecraft inventory
F	Portal 2's "use", always
I	Minecraft inventory, always
G	Switch between Survival and Creative
L	Achievements
Double-tap Space	Fly (Creative)
/	Minecraft commands

There's more in HOW_TO_PLAY.txt inside the zip.

Good to know

• Portalcraft starts Portal 2 offline with cheats allowed (Minecraft's damage needs them), so Portal 2's Steam achievements don't unlock during Portalcraft sessions. Portal 2 started normally from Steam is unchanged.
• Don't use it for online co-op.
• While you play, Portal 2's folder holds two extra files (ReShade). They're taken out again when you quit.
• To uninstall, close the Minecraft Launcher, then go to Settings → Apps → Portalcraft → Uninstall. It asks whether to keep your Portalcraft world and takes the Portalcraft installation out of your launcher.

Building from source

Everything Portalcraft is made of is in this repository:

Folder	What it is
minecraft-mod/	The Minecraft half: a Fabric mod for Minecraft 26.3 (Java)
portal2-addon/	The Portal 2 half: a ReShade add-on (C++) and the effect that draws Minecraft into Portal 2's picture
installer/	Setup, the launcher, the uninstaller and the art maker (PowerShell), plus the texts in the zip
make-package.ps1	Builds the release zip from all of the above

1. Install JDK 25 and Visual Studio with "Desktop development with C++".
2. Put ReShade 6.8.0's include folder (crosire/reshade, tag v6.8.0) in portal2-addon/third_party/reshade/include, then run portal2-addon/build.cmd.
3. Run powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File make-package.ps1. It builds the Minecraft mod and writes dist/Portalcraft-1.1.0.zip.

Portalcraft's own code is public domain (CC0).

Credits

• Minecraft is © Mojang Studios / Microsoft and Portal 2 is © Valve. Portalcraft is a fan-made mod, not affiliated with either, and it includes no Minecraft or Portal 2 files.
• Fabric Loader and Fabric API by FabricMC (Apache 2.0) and ReShade by crosire (BSD 3-Clause), downloaded from their official sites during setup.
• Curious how it works? Read the Portalcraft write-up on Universal Modder.