Portal surface
Introduction​
A Portal Surface is any block that can receive a portal placed with the Portal Gun (obtained from a Mirror Chest).
Portals can be placed on Portal Surfaces in any orientation: walls (north, south, east, west), floor (top face), and ceiling (bottom face). Stair-shaped surfaces additionally accept portals on their 45° slope.
Accepted materials​
The following Minecraft blocks are recognised as Portal Surfaces when placed inside a Lasers Enigma area:
| Block | Cardinal faces | 45° slope |
|---|---|---|
Quartz Block (QUARTZ_BLOCK) | ✅ | — |
Smooth Quartz (SMOOTH_QUARTZ) | ✅ | — |
Quartz Stairs (QUARTZ_STAIRS) | ✅ | ✅ |
Smooth Quartz Stairs (SMOOTH_QUARTZ_STAIRS) | ✅ | ✅ |
In addition, a Conditional appearing block or Conditional disappearing block made of any of these quartz materials also acts as a Portal Surface while it is visible. Any portal placed on such a conditional block is removed automatically when the block disappears.
How to obtain Portal Surface blocks​
Portal Surfaces are not strictly components. Like Glass and Mirror Block, they are Minecraft native blocks and two convenience items exist in the Place component menu:
| Menu item | Places |
|---|---|
| Portal Surface | A plain Quartz Block on the clicked face |
| Quartz Stairs | A Quartz Stairs block on the clicked face |
Smooth Quartz and Smooth Quartz Stairs are not available in the menu — place them manually as native Minecraft blocks. They still behave as Portal Surfaces when inside an area.
Step-by-step (via the menu)​
- Open Lasers-Enigma main shortcut bar by typing the
/laserscommand. - Aim for the block on which you want to place the surface. This can be on the floor, ceiling, or wall. Then right-click with the "Place component" button in hand.
- Click Portal Surface or Quartz Stairs. The block is placed directly (no color selection needed).
Note: A quartz block that is not within an area is just a regular decorative block — it does not act as a Portal Surface.
Diagonal portal placement (45° slope)​
On Quartz Stairs and Smooth Quartz Stairs, portals can also be placed on the exposed 45° diagonal face, not only on the cardinal faces. This allows puzzles that redirect lasers and players at non-axis-aligned angles.
The stairs must be correctly oriented so that the diagonal face is exposed to the Portal Gun's aim. If the stair geometry presents only a regular cardinal face from the player's viewpoint, the portal is placed on that cardinal face as usual.
When placed on a diagonal face, the portal footprint still respects the standard rules (all covered blocks must be Portal Surfaces within the same area).
Portal footprint​
When a player places a portal on a Portal Surface, the portal occupies an elliptical area of approximately 1.8 × 0.8 blocks on the surface. The portal center is automatically snapped to a block grid: the long axis aligns to a block boundary (so the portal always covers exactly 2 blocks) and the short axis centers on a single block. All blocks covered by the footprint must be Portal Surfaces with air in front of them, and all must be within the same area.
If the snapped position results in an invalid footprint, the center is automatically adjusted (clamped) to the nearest valid grid-aligned position. If no valid placement is possible, the placement fails.
Interactions​
Laser interaction​
The Portal Surface is a solid opaque block. Lasers are stopped on contact — unless a portal is placed on the surface, in which case lasers entering the portal from the front are teleported to the linked portal.
Player interaction​
Players can place portals on this surface using the Portal Gun. Left click places a primary portal, right click places a secondary portal.
A temporary block placed by another component in the air space in front of the surface — for example a stained glass block produced by a Laser Solidifier — does not block portal placement. Permanent blocks placed by a builder still do.
Other components interactions​
The Portal Surface has no direct interactions with other components.
Administration​
Admins can remove active portals without breaking their Portal Surface:
/lasers portal delete player <player>— destroy every portal owned by one or more players./lasers portal delete location <x> <y> <z>— destroy any portal located at the given block./lasers portal delete cuboid <x1> <y1> <z1> <x2> <y2> <z2>— destroy every portal intersecting the given region.
See the Portal commands page for full details.
Known issues​
No known issue currently.
See our issue board for more information.