Guild Wars 2

So I went into Corliolis Plaza in Lions Arch (the place with all the empty portals) and 3 portals were active but had crosses thru them. Literally a minute later they weren’t active at all. I’ve noticed that 1 or 2 are randomly active at times then won’t be later. Anyone have any ideas what’s up with this?

Since they are a placeholder for future content they may have a graphic rotation that someone at some point thought should be there.

I’m not a graphical expert, but I think the correct term for this is post processing.

If looking at an object from far away it has less detail and less effects.
The same goes for all asura portals. From far away they have a skin with lesser details and when you approach the real skin is loaded. This is called post processing.

However, the ‘long distance skin’ for portals doesn’t have a difference between an active portal and an inactive portal, but always shows active, where the short distance skin does recognize that difference.

Now it becomes funny. Depending on your setting and that the portals will always be at different distances due to how to they are placed, it can happen that some show the short distance skin, and others the long distance look.

On top of that, due to the removal of culling, the graphical lag in LA is peaking a lot, making it so that the long distance place holder skin can be in view far too long and causing this randomness.

tl;dr – This is a graphical glitch caused by graphical limitations/choices being made by the devs. The portals are supposed to be OFF and are very likely for future content.

It could just be random since it looks like a construction site. Sometimes the NPC is “testing” them. More immersive, or it could be what Mercury said…