Portal Loads, but there's no main menu!

[heatwave21]

it's a font bug, people.

Find an application called font book on your Mac. open it, and search for a font called Tahoma. When I searched for it, some of the different styles of the font were turned off. Select the fonts that are disabled, then click the empty checkmark box at the very bottom of your window. Portal menus should work just fine now!

Alternate Solution:

The current temporary fix is to disable anti-aliasing.

Alfred of Valve advised to use this method:

- Right click the game in Steam and choose "Properties"
- Click "Launch Options" on that first tab
- Add "+mat_antialias 0" to that text edit box that comes up
- Hit okay and launch the game.

Two days ago, after downloading portal, everything worked fine, albeit the game took about a minute and a half to load.

Today (and yesterday), Portal loads (at the same speed) but the main menu is missing!
I click play within Steam, and after a few seconds, Portal opens. the valve/source logos show up, and then I am presented with a blurry image of the first chamber, with a loading indicator in the bottom right (as expected). After about a minute and a half, the blurriness goes away, the camera starts to move back and forth, the music starts playing, but there's no main menu!

It's not invisible, clicking where the menu would have been yields nothing. It's just plain gone!

My Computer:
17 inch Macbook Pro (non-unibody), Mac OSX 10.6.3
2.6Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 667Mhz DDR2 SDRAM
GeForce 8600M GT

[jaasum]

It is there, you just can't use the mouse, you have to use the arrows. You can get the game to start, but there is still no text anywhere. I didn't play it because it was having some display issues. I'm just going to sit back and wait until they fix this. Free game, I won't get to irritated about it. Luckily they have fixed the games I have paid for.

[heatwave21]

Well, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one experiencing this. Hopefully it get's fixed soon.

[Elfabaa]

I think I am having the same issue. What is happens for me is the game seems to be stuck on the loading screen, its blurry, and its constantly flashing (like a strobe light).

At the same time I have noticed that it appears like my downloads aren't finishing....the latest patch I've downloaded 70.7 out of 71.1 mb, and I can't seem to get that last .4 mb to download.

[JasonM]

Can you guys post your system configs, particularly the GPU?

-Jason

[Elfabaa]

I'm on a Macbook

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
Graphics: Intel GMA 950

I've played other games such as World of Warcraft (up to the latest expansion) on it with no problem.

[heatwave21]

I'm on a Macbook

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
Graphics: Intel GMA 950

I've played other games such as World of Warcraft (up to the latest expansion) on it with no problem.

You don't meet the graphics card requirements.
...NVIDIA GeForce 8 or higher, or ATI X1600 or higher...

Thanks for looking into this, Jason.

[heatwave21]

*Bump*
For the sake of anyone else with this problem.

[Strigoi]

I have a 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro 15" mid 2007. With an 8600 GT 256MB graphics card. In Windows everything runs fine. 60FPS+ everything on High, but in Mac OS X the game loads and the room becomes nice and crisp. The text of the menu doesnt show. No text shows up at all. I can use the keys to go to the invisible menus and lauch the game, but it doesn't give me text either. Changed reso from 1440x900 to 1280x800 in system prefs. Nothing happened. Please fix.

[heatwave21]

I have a 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro 15" mid 2007. With an 8600 GT 256MB graphics card. In Windows everything runs fine. 60FPS+ everything on High, but in Mac OS X the game loads and the room becomes nice and crisp. The text of the menu doesnt show. No text shows up at all. I can use the keys to go to the invisible menus and lauch the game, but it doesn't give me text either. Changed reso from 1440x900 to 1280x800 in system prefs. Nothing happened. Please fix.

Did you read the red text in my first post?

[Recon Echo]

Excellent resource and accurate answer! Thank you for helping in this matter!

[MurdocUSA]

I'm having the exact same problem, game loads just fine but the menu boxes have no text.

I'm on a PC. I don't have specs because I'm on my laptop atm


EDIT: FIX
Ok, really easy fix guys. All I did was install the Tahoma font into my windows/fonts folder, fixs everything. I don't know why my PC was missing that font but getting the font off the web should be easy.

[boojum99]

As of the most recent update yesterday, my main menu has also gone invisible. I have Tahoma installed, and it wasn't disabled. There was a duplicate copy of it, so I tried removing one of the duplicates; no luck. (Perhaps I removed the wrong one?)

Specs: Macbook Pro, 2.4GHz intel core 2 duo, 10.5.8, GeForce 8600M GT. Hmm, I seem to have the same machine as ionlygreat.

[Kyle6477]

As of the most recent update yesterday, my main menu has also gone invisible. I have Tahoma installed, and it wasn't disabled. There was a duplicate copy of it, so I tried removing one of the duplicates; no luck. (Perhaps I removed the wrong one?)


I wouldn't remove anything from your font book unless you really know what you're doing.

Post your specs here and wait for further communication from Valve.

[ionlygreat]

I have the exact same problem. Played Portal for the first time yesterday, and everything was great. Then, when I reopened the game, the menu became invisible. I disabled tahoma, removed duplicates, uninstalled it, downloaded it and reinstalled it ... restarted my computer. Nothing worked.

Specs: Macbook Pro, 2.4 GHz, running 10.5.8, Intel Core 2 Duo, GeForce 8600M GT

[Helical_Scan]

Same has happened for me. I played Portal a few times and then I had to force quit it for some reason and since then it has had this bug. None of my Tahoma fonts are disabled. I disabled and re-enabled the fonts and I re-installed Portal, but no luck
Specs:
Macbook Pro Non-Unibody
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2 Gb 667 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM
Running OSX 10.5.8
GeForce 8600M GT

[Duret]

Same problem as a number of the previous posters. Reinstalling didn't work. Font solution didn't work.

MacBook Pro 15" non-unibody
Mac OS X 10.5.8
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
GeForce 8600M GT

[swiftelf]

Same issue for me, also once u get past the Valve Logo it gets really nasty with some Image scrambling it looks like but I can't take a screenshot of it, i tried to no dice.

Mac OSX 10.5.8

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro3,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per processor): 12 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.6 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP31.006C.B05
SMC Version (system): 1.25f4

[Duret]

Yes, I also noticed that image scrambling.

[mandelbrot325]

Yep, have the same problem. I sent a message to Steam, and here's what they responded with today:

Thank you for contacting Steam Support. Make sure you try reinstalling and verify the font is correctly enabled in your Font Book. If you have done this try the following: This issue might be caused by corruption in your extracted game files. Please note: The following process will erase any custom mods and saved games you may have. It is strongly recommended that you copy your game files to another location to back them up before proceeding. To force the download of new game files: - Exit Steam then go into ~\Documents\Steam Content\common\ and delete the folder for this game. - Restart Steam and follow the link below to validate your cache files: Title: Verifying Game Cache Files (GCF) Link: http://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2037-QEUH-3335 - Try launching the game Let us know if you encounter any difficulty with this process, or if you have any further questions.

I went through all of this, yet the game still has no menu.

I also have the same problem with duplicate fonts. I went and resolved the duplicates, but all that did was turn off the fonts. Not much help there, as the game still had no menu.

[Duret]

I don't see how this solution would work for me considering I installed the game on a new hard drive with a new installation of OS X by Apple. Steam hasn't been on this system before and I have no saved games.

[randomproxy]

Having the same problem as the rest of these folks. Installing the font hasn't helped.

MacBook Pro Non-Unibody
OS X 10.5.8 (9L31a)
Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.2 GHz
4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
GeForce 8600M GT

[marcklee]

I've got the same problem as the rest of you, with the strange scrambled-graphic screen before the startup screen comes up with no visible menu. I had logged 12 hours playing the game when the problem appeared this morning.

Is there any chance this problem is connected to the Portal update that Steam sent out today? (Though I can't even tell if my copy of Portal was updated -- anybody know if there's a way to tell? I do have my preferences set to automatically update, but I wasn't aware of anything downloading.)

I've written them about the problem too -- complete with screen shots -- but I've had no answer yet.


MacBook Pro
OS X 10.5.8
Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.4 GHz
4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
GeForce 8600M GT

[ionlygreat]

Ditto with the image scrambling

[boojum99]

I've also gone and deleted all the Portal files and reinstalled from scratch, and still have the same problem. I also have the glitchy image before the game starts that others have described - ironically, sometimes the glitchy image looks like the game screen *with the menu*. I think it's taunting me.

[xMr.Orangex]

You know what's funny, unlike PC, Macs genearally operate the same and are made with near equal parts (unless you have an older model). Yet, like PC, seems like each person is different.

I haven't had one problem since I downloaded Steam for Mac.

[Fletwin]

Same problem here, seems to be a Mac Book Pro thing, was hopeing for new ARG and instead this, maybe Apple are also Aperture rivals... or something....... ok that was just a stupid thing to say. See I clearly need a game of Portal to wake my brain up. Damn it..

[redroste295]

Same problem here but on PC. Tried installing fonts, but that didnt work.
Running
i7-920
Ati5770 (DX11)
6gb tri channel ram
Win 7 Pro 64bit

[Colkadome_2]

I have the same problem too. It seems to jump directly to the menu instead of fading in, and all the windows and text is gone. The thing is though, when I manage to start a new game using the arrows and enter, all the windows pop up for the duration of the loading screen, but then never come back.

[redroste295]

Just found out how to play the game (Still with out text) this is the menu, to navigate you arrow key then enter. Imagine the menu. Will do until they fix the text problem

Anymore info on how to fix it. Still have no text (On PC)

http://ahkong.net/images/portal/3d/level-00/portal-3d-001.jpg

[thirddoor]

I've also gone and deleted all the Portal files and reinstalled from scratch, and still have the same problem. I also have the glitchy image before the game starts that others have described - ironically, sometimes the glitchy image looks like the game screen *with the menu*. I think it's taunting me.

Me too!

Verified the game files, did the Tahoma install/enable thing as well.

MacBook Pro
OS X 10.5.8
Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.4 GHz
2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
GeForce 8600M GT

[ionlygreat]

I managed to start the game using redroste295's method (though I'm not always able to do this). I had to press up and down a few times and then hit return and hope for the best. It's definitely playable, with the exception of the missing crosshairs to aim where to place a portal. I guess that disappeared along with the menu.

[swiftelf]

Same problem here, seems to be a Mac Book Pro thing, was hopeing for new ARG and instead this, maybe Apple are also Aperture rivals... or something....... ok that was just a stupid thing to say. See I clearly need a game of Portal to wake my brain up. Damn it..

Read my post a few posts up from yours and You'll see its not just a Mac Book Pro , I use a Mac Pro not a laptop, and its on PC's as well.

[Fletwin]

Apologys, I noticed your post after I replyed and failed to edit.
Bizarre that this issues hitting such a variety of players, wish we could work out what the common denominator is.....

[swiftelf]

I've found the problem i think, having customised your video settings just did it to me in Half Life 2. Same issue, also Half Life 2 has a lot of frame rate issues even though I know my computer can handle the starting cutscene in Half Life 2.

[buchan]

Apologys, I noticed your post after I replyed and failed to edit.
Bizarre that this issues hitting such a variety of players, wish we could work out what the common denominator is.....

The common denominator would appear to be 10.5.8.

I'm experiencing this issue on a 10.5.8 box, but works fine on a 10.6.3 MBP.

[heatwave21]

I have the exact same problem. Played Portal for the first time yesterday, and everything was great. Then, when I reopened the game, the menu became invisible. I disabled tahoma, removed duplicates, uninstalled it, downloaded it and reinstalled it ... restarted my computer. Nothing worked.

Specs: Macbook Pro, 2.4 GHz, running 10.5.8, Intel Core 2 Duo, GeForce 8600M GT

No, you need to enable duplicates. Like, right now, in my font book, I have yellow triangular caution signs next to all versions of Tahoma. It wants me to disable duplicates, but if I do, Portal's menus will become invisible again.

[Fletwin]

No, you need to enable duplicates. Like, right now, in my font book, I have yellow triangular caution signs next to all versions of Tahoma. It wants me to disable duplicates, but if I do, Portal's menus will become invisible again.

So you downloaded a second duplicate set of Tahoma and that fixed the problem?

Sorry if I've got the wrong end of the stick, but I've trying to fix this on and off since 7am UK time, neurons arnt exactly firing at Barry Allen speeds...

[boojum99]

No, you need to enable duplicates. Like, right now, in my font book, I have yellow triangular caution signs next to all versions of Tahoma. It wants me to disable duplicates, but if I do, Portal's menus will become invisible again.

I hadn't messed with my fonts at all when the menus went invisible. I had two sets of Tahoma at the time. While removing duplicates didn't fix the problem, putting the duplicates back didn't seem to fix the problem either.

(Since someone else mentioned the portal gun cross-hair vanishing, I'm wondering if there's both a font issue (for people without Tahoma) and a z-buffer issue. Not that I really have any idea.)

[buchan]

So you downloaded a second duplicate set of Tahoma and that fixed the problem?

Sorry if I've got the wrong end of the stick, but I've trying to fix this on and off since 7am UK time, neurons arnt exactly firing at Barry Allen speeds...

If it worked before an update it's clearly a bug with the client (maybe just on 10.5.8 now?). Wait for the one man army, rbarris, to resolve it.

[Fletwin]

If it worked before an update it's clearly a bug with the client (maybe just on 10.5.8 now?). Wait for the one man army, rbarris, to resolve it.

Fair enough, here's hoping... Still going to hold off on d.loading HL2 till this is sorted.

[inasimplerhyme]

I have the same problem and I'm running 10.6.2 on a Mac Pro. I just downloaded a Steam update, but it didn't help. I haven't tried reinstlaling anything yet, since it doesn't appear to have worked for anyone. I did disable duplicate fonts in Font Book, but no go.

10.6.2
2 x 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 120

[jbrgn]

Bummer. I was looking forward to playing the advanced maps. Guess I'll wait for them to fix this.

[thirddoor]

Just tried it on HL2: Episode One... same issue. Loads fine, no menu. (sigh)

[heatwave21]

If you clicked the "resolve duplicates" menu item in font book, you're doing it wrong.

I fixed my Portal menus by making sure that all copies of Tahoma were enabled. "Resolve duplicates" does exactly the opposite. With multiple copies of Tahoma enabled, my Portal menus reappeared.

I'm repeating myself because some of you missed the point of the red text I posted earlier. This worked for me, but that's not to say that it will work for you. SInce I'm not having any other issues with Portal, there's not much more I can tell you.

[inasimplerhyme]

Just downloaded the Portal update that addresses the font issue and it still doesn't work. But it's not just the menu. If you use the arrow keys and select what is probably LOAD GAME, that window doesn't pop up either, though it's there. You can click where it's supposed to be and the game will load. But after that, my Portal scope is also invisible, so I can't be sure where I'm aiming.

[SuicidalSnowman]

Just throwing my two cents in, also on a MacBookPro 10.5.8, fully updated, my Steam and Portal are also fully updated. All my Tahomas are turned on, and likewise I cannot see the menu. Previously my Portal worked fine, but I am suffering the same problems. If I can provide any other details I would be happy to provide.

[boojum99]

There's an update listed as of this evening:
Fixed fonts sometimes not displaying when the game is loaded (Mac)
Fixed crash on launch in rendering subsystem (Mac)

Sadly, my menus have not returned. :(

[mandelbrot325]

Same here. All fonts are enabled. Everything is up to date. Still no menus.

Also running MacBook Pro 10.5.8.

[BravePumpkins]

The current temporary fix is to disable anti-aliasing.

Alfred of Valve advised to use this method:

- Right click the game in Steam and choose "Properties"
- Click "Launch Options" on that first tab
- Add "+mat_antialias 0" to that text edit box that comes up
- Hit okay and launch the game.

[marcklee]

I too have just loaded the Steam update that the notes indicate will resolve the issue, and I too have seen no resolution of the issue: The problem persists just as stated by me and others in this thread.

Ah! But BravePumpkins' fix (from Alfred of Valve) above HAS resolved the issue! Well, somewhat. Now my sound seems to be messed up -- not as smooth -- and the whole performance is much more jerky. Which I suppose would stand to reason if you're messing with the antialiasing. So this is definitely a temporary fix, as it makes the experience much less fun.


MacBook Pro
OS X 10.5.8
Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.4 GHz
4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
GeForce 8600M GT

[boojum99]

Awesome! +mat_antalias 0 fixes it for me.
Thank you!

[Phazon_Fiend]

I'm having the same problem. Ever since today's releases and updates, I can no longer see the menu in both Portal and Half-Life 2. I'm using Mac OS X 10.5.8 (9L31a).

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.30f1
Serial Number (system): QP8180G40N4
Hardware UUID: 9A00DECE-0102-5E58-8A17-A531B2FDA623

Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS
VRAM: 512 MB

[thirddoor]

The current temporary fix is to disable anti-aliasing.

Alfred of Valve advised to use this method:

- Right click the game in Steam and choose "Properties"
- Click "Launch Options" on that first tab
- Add "+mat_antialias 0" to that text edit box that comes up
- Hit okay and launch the game.

OMG, worked for me too. Thanks!!

[inasimplerhyme]

The current temporary fix is to disable anti-aliasing.

Alfred of Valve advised to use this method:

- Right click the game in Steam and choose "Properties"
- Click "Launch Options" on that first tab
- Add "+mat_antialias 0" to that text edit box that comes up
- Hit okay and launch the game.

This worked for me too!!

[kyle2k5]

i used the fix to disable anti-aliasing, and it worked. went into the game, reactivated it to make sure that was the problem and sure enough it caused the menu to disappear (both 2x and 4x).

i am still getting the weird graphical glitches between the opening valve logo and the main menu, though.

[antipholus]

MacBook Pro OS X 10.5.8
Intel Core 2Duo, 2.66GHz
4GB 1067MHz DDR3
GeForce 9400M
I have no main menu either. Portal, Steam, and my mac are all up to date. It's not Tahoma. The temporary fix "+mat_antalias 0" makes the menu appear, but at the cost of jerky video and sound that comes and goes.
I don't know what else to try; hopefully with enough feedback, there'll be a better solution.

[Outinthedark]

The current temporary fix is to disable anti-aliasing.

Alfred of Valve advised to use this method:

- Right click the game in Steam and choose "Properties"
- Click "Launch Options" on that first tab
- Add "+mat_antialias 0" to that text edit box that comes up
- Hit okay and launch the game.

Thanks this worked for me as well. Blew through the game yet again on my Mac. This game never gets old.

[ionlygreat]

The current temporary fix is to disable anti-aliasing.

Alfred of Valve advised to use this method:

- Right click the game in Steam and choose "Properties"
- Click "Launch Options" on that first tab
- Add "+mat_antialias 0" to that text edit box that comes up
- Hit okay and launch the game.

Yes, that worked!

[marcklee]

Is anyone else besides antipholus and me experiencing horrible sound dropouts and jerky movement through the environment with the antialias solution? This can't be the final solution for this issue. Technically, I can play the game, but I'm not going to play it much if this is the experience I have all the time.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm happy that we got a sort of a fix for the issue. But, if anyone from Steam/Valve is reading this: are you guys working on a more permanent solution that will restore the game to the experience we had before this bug popped up?

Thanks ...


MacBook Pro
OS X 10.5.8
Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.4 GHz
4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
GeForce 8600M GT

[boojum99]

I do also have the sound dropouts now; I hadn't originally been sure whether it was caused by the anti-alias fix or if it was due to other non-game issues on my machine, but it does sound like it's not just me.

[rippinblaise]

Even after steam released the update that was supposed to fix this, i still have this problem, none of the menus show up for me, even when i type +mat_antialias 0 did nothing for me, the menu still doesn't show up
and several textures are missing
such as the portal gun, the storage cube, the buttons, and the bed that shows up in the first scene

Specs:
13.3" Macbook, Mac OS X 10.5.8
1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Intel GMA 950

[antipholus]

Looks like the latest update has fixed the problem. Menu appears; sound is consistent; and video isn't jerky.
Here's a sincere "thank you." Can't wait to start playing again.