The impossible space? SPOILERS

[Asuka]

On my 2nd run this time with commentary and very early on they explain some of the level design etc. He mentions a impossible space and that there is only 1 left over in the game, the Valve employee challenges us to find it. Anyone find it yet>?

 

[deathcheckedin]

On my 2nd run this time with commentary and very early on they explain some of the level design etc. He mentions a impossible space and that there is only 1 left over in the game, the Valve employee challenges us to find it. Anyone find it yet>?

what's an impossible space? Sorry if the answer is obvious, my brain is fried at the moment

 

[Asuka]

I'm not sure, i think its something to do with linking the world together to make sense. Meaning during a loading screen or elevator sequence everything would come together in a way that would be possible. There is apparently 1 "impossible space" left in the game.

 

[StarBob]

No idea... someone let me know when whatever it is we're looking for has been found.

 

[toshak_fox]

When they started the dev process they had to do a lot of tweaking which resulted in endless amount of work - remapping levels etc. So they started to 'think with portals' - just linking the needed levels with big portals, and when everything was done properly, they made it solid geometry (without portals and other impossible stuff). From what i understand.
It could be some room that is bigger from inside than the outside or... i dunno... like you exit a big hall through the door and find yourself in a field, exiting a small toilet in the middle of that field xD Makes sense, right?)
again, it should be without any loading screens, elevators or 'hubs'

 

[DEATH eVADER]

I imagine it would be one of the spheres in the old facility

 

[coheedswicked]

Ya I was wondering exactly what they meant by that as well. I was thinking they meant that one door was actually still a portal instead of a door and so if u noclipped through the wall next to it you would not end up where you might think...

 

[96crisadi]

Spoiler

The impossible space is at the end of the game .

 

[ducklord3000]

Ok, I think I know where this space is. The first time through the game, after entering the space in question, a part of my brain was like, "wait, can there really be this big empty space here?". Remember when you open the huge circular door that's like 50 feet tall and you enter the even larger chamber with the huge spheres? Finally, remember the way you progress past that part, by portaling through a partially bent and broken door that's not bent enough to actually walk through? The next area you find yourself in, I think, is the impossible space. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Lanthanide]

Ok, I think I know where this space is. The first time through the game, after entering the space in question, a part of my brain was like, "wait, can there really be this big empty space here?". Remember when you open the huge circular door that's like 50 feet tall and you enter the even larger chamber with the huge spheres? Finally, remember the way you progress past that part, by portaling through a partially bent and broken door that's not bent enough to actually walk through? The next area you find yourself in, I think, is the impossible space. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

You're wrong. The bit you're describing is where you first enter testing shaft 9. The corridor that you're talking about takes you up through the reception area with the carpet, couches, portrait of Cave and the trophies for shower curtain selling / government contracts awarded to Aperture. When you exit this reception area, you arrive back into the big room you just left - it's not a separate room. In front of you is the scaffold-like elevator shaft that takes you up closer to the first testing sphere.

To clarify what 'impossible areas' they are talking about, there are 2 ways this can happen, although they are both essentially the same: a room which is larger on the inside than it appears from the outside, or a room whose interior geometry would overlap/intersect with other neighbouring rooms, and is therefore impossible to exist in the configuration shown.

I don't know what the area is myself, but I'd expect it would be probably be one of the 'set-piece' areas that they did not want to re-shape for it to fit into the rest of the level.

 

[[Dragoon]]

I suspect the best way to find the impossible room would be to fly around in noclip mode looking for unconnected rooms floating off in the distance.

 

[96crisadi]

Spoiler

This "impossible space" you're all talking about is right at the ending of the game.
The levels themselves are really linear, and even in those areas you guys mentioned as being "impossible spaces" there HAS to be some logical explanation.

I'm just talking about the most obvious one

[END OF SPOILER]

 

[Gerard91]

I think I found out what it is.

Spoiler

When you are fighting with this British-accent robot at the end of the game the ceiling brakes at one moment and you see the sky with moon. Eventually after the fight you get up inside a lift and from what you can see there are countless floors above the GLADoS chamber. It's logically impossible to see the moon from GLADoS chamber since there should be other chambers or eventually tons of dirt above it. Someone could say that maybe there is a vent or something that connects this chamber to the surface but ending scene doesn't show any particular hole in the ground above the facility only fields everywhere.

 

[blackout]

I think I found out what it is.

Spoiler

When you are fighting with this British-accent robot at the end of the game the ceiling brakes at one moment and you see the sky with moon. Eventually after the fight you get up inside a lift and from what you can see there are countless floors above the GLADoS chamber. It's logically impossible to see the moon from GLADoS chamber since there should be other chambers or eventually tons of dirt above it. Someone could say that maybe there is a vent or something that connects this chamber to the surface but ending scene doesn't show any particular hole in the ground above the facility only fields everywhere.

Spoiler

I think those were two different rooms, and In case you have'nt been following, his name's Wheatley.

I think they may be refering to the secret room under the moon at the end.

 

[BlazeXploder]

I agree with the hole in glados' chamber not showing other floors, and also: You fall a LONG way down, you couldnt have gone all that way back up in such a short time.

 

[Schru]

I remember reading on Steam Users' Forums that there is a special connecting portal used near the end, when Wheatley smashes a test chamber into a catwalk you're on. There is a hole in the bottom of that chamber and you have to portal your way into it; if I remember correctly, that hole is in fact a portal-like entity through which you can shoot your portal into another area, which acts as the interior.

 

[kupocake]

As someone said earlier, they're referring to an overlap or a Tardis-style room of impossibility, not the flexible reality of being able to shoot a portal at the moon (or the fact that the GlaDos chamber is apparently several hundred metres underground according to the ending, despite the clear line of sight you had with the moon). I got the impression that engine tricks (like skyboxes, the 'dummy' hotel room in the opening map etc.) don't count (not sure if Schru's is under that - happen to have a screenshot of the area?).

Best example of the 'impossible space' for Half-Life vets would be the Surface Tension chapter, where, if you map it all out, the booby-trapped rocket facility is floating above the iconic cliff map. So I would have thought that the overlap would be between two loading zones (and since Portal 2 has very few loading corridors, it would be very easy to find overlaps, in theory).

 

[Schru]

No, I haven't even verified it myself yet, though I do suppose that the "portal" trick might have been necessary there for technical reasons, like with the motel room ride.

Regarding possible overlapping of maps, I think that the amount of loadings placed in lifts actually makes this category very implausible, because in theory you could be traveling long distances in the pneumatic vents in between areas.

 

[ríomhaire]

I remember reading on Steam Users' Forums that there is a special connecting portal used near the end, when Wheatley smashes a test chamber into a catwalk you're on. There is a hole in the bottom of that chamber and you have to portal your way into it; if I remember correctly, that hole is in fact a portal-like entity through which you can shoot your portal into another area, which acts as the interior.

This is correct. It's when Wheatly rolls a room in front of you and GLaDOS points out that it's an obvious trap and inside he ambushes you with the defective turrets. When you portal your way in you're actually brought to a separate area of the map (the room is actually bigger on the inside too) and when you go out the door you're brought back to the main are of the map. It uses world portals. See some cool examples of world portal here.