Gel-related console commands

Portal 2 comes with a huge amount of console commands related to gel. Nearly every aspect of gel can be changed: the colors, the speed, the size, and how much blobs morph together.

Note: "Paint bomb" refers to prop_paint_bombs. "Paint blobs" refers to gel in the form of a continuous stream. Paint bombs actually render as a packet of 20 (paintbomb_draw_num_paint_blobs) individual gel blobs, so some blob commands may apply to them as well, usually only for visual variables.

Particularly interesting commands: bounce_paint_color, paintblob_gravity_scale, portal_paint_color, r_paintblob_blr_cutoff_radius, paintblob_isosurface_box_width, r_paintblob_highres_cube, r_paintblob_wireframe, speed_paint_color, sv_paint_detection_sphere_radius, sv_press_jump_to_bounce, bounce_paint_min_speed, sv_speed_paint_max

ConVar/Command	Parameters or default value	Parameter Type	Effect
bounce_paint_color	0 165 255 255	Red Green Blue Alpha	Color for repulsion gel on brush geometry. Requires a new map to be loaded or the current map to be saved and reloaded before taking effect. Does not change color for gel in midair.
bounce_paint_min_speed	500	Units per second	Minimum speed to give to an object that bounces on repulsion gel.
bounce_paint_wall_jump_upward_speed	275	Units per second	Amount of upward velocity to add to an object when bouncing sideways on repulsion gel. 275 results in the player bouncing about 384 units before the player returns to the same height due to gravity.
cast_ray_paint			Attempts to spawn a small amount of repulsion gel wherever the player looks, and returns the classname of the entity that the player was looking at. Requires developer 1 in the console before taking effect.
cl_debug_paint_ammo_bar	0		Unused. See weapon_paintgun.
cl_draw_paint_bomb_with_blobs	1	0 disables, 1 enables	Makes paint bombs render as packets of blobs. Implies that there is/was some alternate method of rendering them.
cl_draw_projected_wall_with_paint	1	0 disables, 1 enables	Enables rendering paint splats on projected_wall_entitys.
cl_group_paint_impact_effects	0		To do: Effect description.
cl_paintable_projected_wall_texture_wrap_rate	64	World units	If cl_draw_projected_wall_with_paint is enabled, this will stretch or squeeze the wavy light bridge texture, and any gel textures on it. It doesn't seem to affect[Confirm] how accurately gel will land onto a light bridge (64 unit squares).
debug_paint_client_blobs	0		Probably related to draw_paint_client_blobs. No effect.[Confirm]
debug_paint_impact_effects	0	0 disables, 1 enables	Displays how many paint splatter particle effects currently exist.
debug_paint_sprayer_cone	0	0 disables, 1 enables	Draws the location and spread radius of info_paint_sprayers. Also shows the spawn location and angle of individual paint blobs.
debug_paintable_projected_wall	0		Seems like it would give information on gel applied to projected_wall_entitys. No effect.[Confirm]
debug_paintbomb_explosion	0	0 disables, 1 enables	Draws a cluster of lines showing all the directions that gel was launched in when paint bombs explode.
debug_player_paint_shoot_pos	0		Probably related to weapon_paintgun. No effect.[Confirm]
draw_paint_client_blobs	0		No effect.[Confirm]
draw_paint_isosurface	1	0 disables, 1 enables	Enables gel blob and bomb rendering.
draw_paint_splat_particles	1	0 disables, 1 enables	Enables gel splatter particle effect rendering.
ent_create_paint_bomb_erase			Creates a cleansing gel bomb where the player is looking.
ent_create_paint_bomb_jump			Creates a repulsion gel bomb where the player is looking.
ent_create_paint_bomb_portal			Creates a conversion gel bomb where the player is looking.
ent_create_paint_bomb_speed			Creates a propulsion gel bomb where the player is looking.
erase_color	0 0 0 0	Red Green Blue Alpha	Seems like it would change the color of surfaces that are erased of gel. No effect.
erase_visual_color	255 255 255 255	Red Green Blue Alpha	Seems like it would change the color of cleansing gel. Color only applies to the smudge screen effect seen when the player is hit by gel.
mat_dynamicPaintmaps	0	0 disables, 1 enables	Probably related to mat_dynamiclightmaps. No effect.[Confirm]
mat_paint_enabled	1	0 disables, 1 enables	Enables gel rendering on brush geometry.
max_sound_channels_per_paint_stream	7	Arbitrary number	Confirm: Max number of sound mixer channels a paint_stream may use?
paint_cleanser_visibility_look_angle	60	Degrees	No effect. weapon_paintgun used to react to the visibility of trigger_paint_cleansers in some way.
paint_cleanser_visibility_poll_rate	0.5	Seconds	No effect.
paint_cleanser_visibility_range	1000	World units	No effect.
paint_color_max_diff	32		"The maximum difference between two colors for matching." [Clarify]
paint_impact_accumulate_sound_distance_threshold	128		To do: Effect description.
paint_impact_count_to_max_adjusted_volume	5		To do: Effect description.
paint_impact_count_to_min_ adjusted_pitch_after_full_volume	5		To do: Effect description.
paint_impact_particles_distance_threshold	20		To do: Effect description.
paint_impact_particles_duration	0.2		No effect.[Confirm]
paint_location_distance_threshold_square	25		To do: Has some kind of visible effect?
paint_max_impact_particles	50		No effect.[Confirm]
paint_min_impact_particles	20		No effect.[Confirm]
paintblob_air_drag	0.1	To do: ?	How fast gel blobs can flow through air. If the air drag is too much, gel will behave like a thick jelly.
paintblob_draw_distance_from_eye	18	World units	How close to the player camera a gel blob can be before it is not visually processed. Hiding very close blobs prevents them from blocking the player's view.
paintblob_gravity_scale	1	Arbitrary number	Multiplier for the effects of gravity on gel blobs only. Universal gravity is determined by sv_gravity.
paintblob_isosurface_box_width	8	To do: It is not Hammer units.	Rendering size of gel blobs and blobs in bombs.
paintblob_lifetime	1.5	Seconds	If paintblob_limited_range is enabled, gel blobs will be erased completely after this amount of time.
paintblob_limited_range	0	0 disables, 1 enables	Tells gel blobs to erase themselves after a certain amount of time, determined by paintblob_lifetime.
paintblob_max_radius_scale	1	Arbitrary number	No effect.[Confirm]
paintblob_min_radius_scale	0.7	Arbitrary number	No effect.[Confirm]
paintblob_minimum_portal_exit_velocity	225	Units per second	Minimum speed gel blobs will have after crossing a portal. Blobs below this speed will be boosted to it.
paintblob_radius_while_streaking	0.3		To do: Effect description.
paintblob_streak_angle_threshold	45	Degrees	Angle of impact below which streaking can occur.
paintblob_streak_trace_range	20		"The range of the trace for the paint blobs while streaking."[Clarify]
paintblob_tbeam_accel	200	Units per second per second	How fast gel blobs speed up to the speed of a projected_tractor_beam_entity (funnel). Check the linear force in prop_tractor_beam if this doesn't seem to do anything.
paintblob_tbeam_portal_vortex_circulation	60000	To do: ?	How fast gel blobs rotate inside funnels, when near portals.
paintblob_tbeam_vortex_accel	300	Degrees per second per second[Confirm]	How fast gel blobs speed up to the speed of paintblob_tbeam_vortex_circulation.
paintblob_tbeam_vortex_circulation	30000	To do: ?	How fast gel blobs rotate inside funnels.
paintblob_tbeam_vortex_distance	50	World units	Gel blobs this distance away from the start or end of a funnel will spin similar to paintblob_tbeam_portal_vortex_circulation.
paintblob_tbeam_vortex_radius_rate	100		To do: Has some kind of visible effect?
paintblob_update_per_second	60	Times per second	To do: Some kind of movement code?
paintbomb_blobs_max_streak_speed_dampen	800		To do: Effect description.
paintbomb_blobs_max_streak_time	0.2		To do: Effect description.
paintbomb_blobs_min_streak_speed_dampen	500		To do: Effect description.
paintbomb_blobs_min_streak_time	0.1		To do: Effect description.
paintbomb_draw_blob_speed_max	80	Units per second	Maximum speed of gel blobs moving within a gel bomb. When changed, only newly created bombs will show the change.
paintbomb_draw_blob_speed_min	50	Units per second	Minimum speed of gel blobs moving within a gel bomb. When changed, only newly created bombs will show the change.
paintbomb_draw_max_blob_radius	0.8	Arbitrary number	Maximum render size of gel blobs in bombs. When changed, only newly created bombs will show the change. Seems to have an upward limit? To do: Multiplies size of paintblob_isosurface_box_width?
paintbomb_draw_min_blob_radius	0.6	Arbitrary number	Minimum render size of gel bomb blobs. When changed, only newly created bombs will show the change. To do: Multiplies size of paintblob_isosurface_box_width?
paintbomb_draw_num_paint_blobs	20	Arbitrary number	Number of blobs to comprise a single gel bomb. When changed, only newly created bombs will show the change.
paintbomb_draw_sphere_radius	25	World units	Distance to spread all the gel bomb blobs out to. Note that this will not scale the blob oscillation speed.
paintbomb_explosion_radius	100	World units	Maximum distance of a surface from a gel bomb that is paintable when the bomb explodes. Note that far distances will not be consistently painted, unless To do: ? is increased.
paintbomb_horizontal_angle_split	8		To do: Effect description.
paintbomb_streak_speed_max	250		To do: Effect description.
paintbomb_streak_speed_min	150		To do: Effect description.
paintbomb_vertical_angle_split	8		To do: Effect description.
paintsplat_bias	0.1	Decimal Percent	When using paint_sphere, how much to bias random alpha noise toward the edge of the sphere.
paintsplat_max_alpha_noise	0.1	Decimal Percent	When using paint_sphere, extra alpha noise put into splats along with Alpha Percent (alpha_percent).
paintsplat_noise_enabled	1	0 disables, 1 enables	Enables paint_sphere using alpha noise.
player_paint_shoot_pos_forward_scale	55		Probably related to weapon_paintgun. No effect.[Confirm]
player_paint_shoot_pos_right_scale	12		Probably related to weapon_paintgun. No effect.[Confirm]
player_paint_shoot_pos_up_scale	25		Probably related to weapon_paintgun. No effect.[Confirm]
portal_paint_color	128 128 128 255	Red Green Blue Alpha	Color for conversion gel on brush geometry. Requires a new map to be loaded or the current map to be saved and reloaded before taking effect. Does not change color for gel in midair.
portal_test_resting_surface_for_paint	0	0 disables, 1 enables	If any portals are placed on a previously unportalable surface by means of conversion gel, automatically erase the portal if the conversion gel disappears for some reason.
r_hidepaintedsurfaces	0	0 disables, 1 enables	Disables rendering of gel on brush geometry. The effects of gel will still apply. Objects such as cubes are not affected.
r_paintblob_blr_cutoff_radius	5.5	To do: Not Hammer units	Size of gel blobs, including ones inside gel bombs. Warning: Scaling this seems to also scale the number of verts used by gel blobs, which can be much more expensive than paintblob_isosurface_box_width! To do: What exactly is the difference between these two commands?
r_paintblob_blr_render_radius	1.3	To do: Not Hammer units	Changes ONLY the size of gel blobs, including ones inside gel bombs. Unlike other commands, it will not scale the effect of blobs morphing together.
r_paintblob_blr_scale	1	Arbitrary number	Scale for r_paintblob_blr_cutoff_radius and r_paintblob_blr_render_radius.
r_paintblob_calc_color	0	0 disables, 1 enables	"Just interpolate colors"[Clarify]
r_paintblob_calc_hifreq_color	0	0 disables, 1 enables	"Experimental hi-freq colors"[Clarify]
r_paintblob_calc_tan_only	0	0 disables, 1 enables	"Calculate Only Tangents"[Clarify]
r_paintblob_calc_tile_color	0	0 disables, 1 enables	"Shows color of the tile"[Clarify]
r_paintblob_calc_uv_and_tan	1	0 disables, 1 enables	"Calculate UVs and Tangents"[Clarify]
r_paintblob_debug_draw_margin	0	0 disables, 1 enables	"If tiler is disabled, whether to draw the margin."[Clarify]
r_paintblob_debug_draw_tile_boundaries	0	0 disables, 1 enables	"Whether to draw outlines of all tiles."[Clarify]
r_paintblob_debug_spu	0	0 disables, 1 enables	Use "SPU code"[Clarify]
r_paintblob_display_clip_box	0	0 disables, 1 enables	Displays boxes around portals that have gel blobs near them. To do: More information. What do the line colors mean? What is the area they define?
r_paintblob_draw_isosurface	1	0 disables, 1 enables	Enables gel blobs clumping together. If this is disabled, gel blobs will render as individual droplets.
r_paintblob_force_single_pass	0		0 makes gel render in two(?) passes. To do: why? 1 makes gel render in a single pass.
r_paintblob_highres_cube	0.8	Arbitrary number[Confirm]	How round gel should look. The closer to 0, the closer to a perfect sphere. 0 disables rendering however, because it would cause the renderer to attempt to make infinite vertices. Be careful, as extremely low values are very expensive.
r_paintblob_mainview_highres	1	0 disables, 1 enables	Makes main view (not through portals) render blobs in normal quality. Functions independently from r_paintblob_otherviews_highres.
r_paintblob_material	-1		To do: Unclear exactly what this is meant to do. 3 causes a texture glitch (must be a memory issue). 4 makes gel black. 5, 6, and 7 make gel blobs flicker and possibly render in the wrong positions.
r_paintblob_max_number_of_indices_displayed	1000000		"Indicates the maximum number of indices to display per tile. The index size will..."[Clarify]
r_paintblob_max_number_of_threads	4	Arbitrary number	Controls the maximum number of threads dedicated to gel blob processing. Warning: Do not set this to 0, or the game will crash!
r_paintblob_max_number_of_vertices_displayed	1000000		"Indicates the maximum number of vertices to display per tile. The VB size will b..."[Clarify]
r_paintblob_only_mainview_displayed	0	0 disables, 1 enables	Only render gel blobs and bombs in the main view (not through portals).
r_paintblob_otherviews_highres	0	0 disables, 1 enables	Makes gel render in high-poly mode when viewed through portals. Functions independently from r_paintblob_mainview_highres.
r_paintblob_rotate	0		To do: Effect description.
r_paintblob_seeding_with_simd	0		To do: Effect description.
r_paintblob_shader	[blank by default]	Shader	To do: It would appear to change the gel shader instantly, but no effect has been observed.
r_paintblob_tile_index_to_draw	-1		To do: This command seems to enable or disable the rendering of particular blobs, possibly related to if they are fused together with other blobs. The specifics of this command and the "blob tile" system are not clear.
r_paintblob_timeout_for_recycling_fragments	100	Milliseconds	To do: Effect description.
r_paintblob_use_optimized_fragment_copy	1	0 disables, 1 enables	To do: Effect description.
r_paintblob_wireframe	0	0 disables, 1 enables	Renders gel in a manner similar to mat_wireframe.
removeallpaint			Removes all placed gel from brush geometry. Does not remove gel blobs or bombs or reset paint on objects such as cubes.
speed_funnelling_enabled	1	0 disables, 1 enables	Enables portal funneling for players running on propulsion gel. (Note this command's incorrect spelling.)
speed_paint_color	255 165 0 255	Red Green Blue Alpha	Color for propulsion gel on brush geometry. Requires a new map to be loaded or the current map to be saved and reloaded before taking effect. Does not change color for gel in midair.
sv_bounce_anim_time_continue	0.5		To do: Effect description.
sv_bounce_anim_time_predict	0.2		To do: Effect description.
sv_bounce_reflect_enabled	0	0 disables, 1 enables	To do: Effect description.
sv_enable_paint_power_user_debug	0	0 disables, 1 enables	To do: Related to weapon_paintgun? Throws a console error about prop_testchamber_door not implementing IPaintableEntity.
sv_paint_detection_sphere_radius	16	World units	How far away from gel the player can be while still being affected by the gel. 8 and below disables conversion gel. 0 disables all gel types.
sv_paint_trigger_sound_delay	0.1	Seconds	How long to wait before playing the sounds signifying that the player has stepped onto or off of repulsion and propulsion gel.
sv_paintairacceleration	5		No effect.[Confirm]
sv_paintblob_damage	0.1		Confirm: No effect. Seems like it would be for tweaking the amount of damage dealt to a player when hit by a gel bomb?
sv_portal_placement_on_paint	1	0 disables, 1 enables	Confirm: No effect. Seems like disabling this would forbid portals from opening on painted areas.
sv_press_jump_to_bounce	3	Arbitrary number	Changes how the player uses repulsion gel. 0 = bounce any time that the player is touching gel (even if they just walk onto it) and not crouching. 1 = bounce only when the jump key is pressed. If the player holds down jump, they will only bounce once. This mode is not ideal for wall jumping. 2 = bounce only when the jump key is held down. If the player holds down jump, they will bounce until they stop holding jump. 3 = bounce when jump key is pressed, and any time that they player lands on gel (as long as they don't crouch).
sv_speed_normal	175	Units per second	How fast the player walks when not on propulsion gel.
sv_speed_paint_acceleration	500	Units per second per second	How fast the player speeds up to sv_speed_paint_max when on propulsion gel, and how fast the player slows down to sv_speed_normal when getting off propulsion gel.
sv_speed_paint_max	800	Units per second	Maximum speed the player can move at when on propulsion gel.
sv_speed_paint_on_bounce_deceleration_delay	0.2		To do: Effect description.
sv_speed_paint_ramp_acceleration	1000	Units per second per second	A higher version of sv_speed_paint_acceleration specific to ramps.[Confirm] To do: How are ramps defined?
sv_speed_paint_side_move_factor	0.5		Confirm: No effect. Seems like it would multiply how fast the player moves when going sideways on propulsion gel.
sv_wall_bounce_trade	0.73	Arbitrary number	Multiplier of how much outward velocity is traded for upward velocity on wall bounces with repulsion gel. 0 disables wall bouncing.
sv_wall_jump_help	1	0 disables, 1 enables	To do: Enables some kind of helper when wall jumping continuously with repulsion gel (like in sp_a3_jump_intro)?
sv_wall_jump_help_amount	5	"Correction amount" No effect.[Confirm]	To do: Effect description.
sv_wall_jump_help_debug	0	0 disables, 1 enables	No effect.[Confirm]
sv_wall_jump_help_threshold	9		No effect.[Confirm]