Development:Portal/2006 - Transitional Era

This is a sub-page of Development:Portal.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

This page sucks. If you could make it suck less, that would be awesome. Specifically: Too cluttered, structured too much like a prerelease page, no file paths/directories, rather vague and not very obvious how much of this is in the repo leak itself.

To do: Comb through 2023 leak and other files for more content Major Reworking is needed for the page File path directories. Elaboration on all sections If you wish to participate in research: [[1]].

During 2006, Portal underwent an aesthetic transition from the old Nova Prospekt look, to the modern clean look. There's still plenty to talk about, however.

2006 introduced to the following Eras:

• Early 2006 Era: Mid May 2006 - Late June 2006 The game has now entered a more Aperature style. But some Prospekt Era assets are still used, like the furniture, the observation rooms, and the Portals. The Portal Gun from Prospekt is still used and would be for a little while longer. A lot of the Aperture-style elements seen through this point of development are quite early and use temporary models, as the team were experimenting how they wanted the style to look.

• Trailer Era Era: July 2006 - Mid August 2006 This Era of development was used in Portal's trailer and the Portal gameplay seen in the Orange Box trailer. The Aperture style is now more finalized and the Portal Gun being close to final but with a 'F-22' on it and the view model has a lower FOV and earlier animations. The Portals in this point of development are the 'Vine or Fire Portals'. Turrets have temporary voicelines and Ellen Mclain is now voicing GLaDOS in the trailer but the Text To Speech voice is still used in-game at the moment. Most of the gameplay in the trailer is mostly SFM footage.

• Gamescom Leipzig Era: Late August 2006 - Mid September 2006 This version of the game was showcased at Gamescom in Leipzig in 2006. Aperture elevators are in the game. Various objects have proper textures and the Portal Gun glow for firing an orange portal is purple like the gun model. The Aperture style is slightly more finalized in this version. The ending in this point of development is the Xen ending, which it would be for some time after.

• X06 Era: Late September 2006 This Era was showcased at the Xbox 2006 Showcase. The game now uses the 'Swirl Portals' but still aren't particle-based, and the middle of the portal is blue for both portals. The antlions connecting puzzle elements were made dotted as they are in the final game, however, they are always orange. The ending in this build would have been a mix of the Xen ending and something else entirely.

• December 2006: December 2006 A lot of the assets from this Era were leaked and the Portal: Project Beta mod attempts to compile them into a playable form. A lot of changes occurred in this month more than any other. The swirl portals now have particles and more final textures are seen. The purple glow when firing an orange portal is made the same color. The cameras in the game are from Counter-Strike: Source. Fizzlers have a different design which sort of resembles the Portal 2 fizzler.

(Source: Wolfcl0ck)

Early Portals

To start, portals still featured their Prospekt Era design but during this era, they underwent another design change in the Trailer Era, they are now blue and orange and gained a 'Vine/Fire' bending effect, this design dubbed them as 'vine' or 'fire' portals. Later in the X06 era they featured a distinct oval shape, and a much bigger swirl effect with swirl particles. It was redesigned to the modern look when Valve began work on the console ports during the GDC Era, as apparently the Xbox 360 wasn't capable of rendering the Swirl Portals. However there is a step in between design of the Swirl and Final Portals they feature the final design and the Swirl particles during the GDC Era and was changed during the E3 Era.

2005-2006 Portals	2006 'Vine' / 'Fire' Portals	2006 'Swirl' Portals	2007 GDC Era Final Portals With Swirl Particles	Current Portals

Early Portal Guns

This era of development saw three versions of the Portal Gun. The first was a port of the 2005 model. The second saw the beginning of the modern look. The third was a revision of the gun, with "F-22" oddly added to the side. Interestingly enough, the light color for the secondary portal on the first two guns were purple, despite the portals themselves already being recolored orange. There also used to be a left-hand on the gun during the GDC Era and the E3 Era.

2005-2006 Portal Gun	2006 Portal Gun	F-22 Portal Gun	Modern Portal Gun

2005 Prospekt Era Visgroups in 2006 Maps

There are leaked 2006 maps of the Test Chambers that can be opened with Hammer (Valve's Level Editor Program). These have leftover Prospekt Era assets which are hidden by default. Making them visible in the Visgroups box, shows early parts of the map in question.

You can see them in more detail and categorised here. Credit to The Valve Cut Content Wiki for putting this together.

If you want to have a look for yourself then here are the steps. Hammer is located in Portal/bin/hammer.exe you can just double click it and it will work normally. The Portal mappack is located here on the Half-Life Project Beta Website in English. Open Hammer and open the 2006 folder in the map pack. Choose any .vmf file and the map will load.

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  Example of the VisGroups.

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  Example of a Prospekt Era Visgroup Walls in Camera view. From background01.vmf.

Early/Unused Maps

Many early and unused maps from Portal have been released, which allow us to view the game's development history. At this point in development, the game had adopted it's modern aesthetics, but still contains many differences, such as observation rooms still featuring the Half-Life look.

To do: This section may need more screenshots Needs more information for the maps

art_testroom

A giant Test Chamber Area featuring multiple test elements.

bonus_longjump

A cut bonus map where the player would endlessly double fling to get as far as they could.

testchmb_a_00

The later section of Chamber 00 has the Emancipation Grid on the outside of the exit door. GLaDOS refers to the first instance of this Grid as having horizontally arranged glowing bars, whereas the final is a particle field.

The starting room, with early props and early portal frames

An example of the 2006 observation rooms, still featuring a Half-Life 2 theme.

The main test, with the Emancipation Grid on the inside of the chamber.

2006	Final
First, however, note the glowing bars arranged horizontally across the exit.	First, however, note the incandescent particle field across the exit.

The completion quote for Chamber 01 was reused in the developer commentary to demonstrate how GLaDOS's AI voice was created.

2006	Final
Caption: Perfect. Please move quickly to the chamberlock, as the effects of prolonged exposure to the Button are not part of this test.

testchmb_a_01

The observation rooms in Chamber 02 are connected on the inside, and the second pit in Chamber 03 features two slightly raised panels. GLaDOS's entry line for the Portal Device room has an old take of "but is an unintended side effect", and completion of the map's last chamber reminds of Aperture Science's gratitude towards participating test subjects (per portal.bonus01_1 in the caption files), whereas the final version establishes Bring Your Daughter to Work Day.

2006	Final
Caption: Please be advised that a noticeable taste of blood is not part of any test protocol but is an unintended side effect of the Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill, which may, in semi- rare cases, emancipate dental fillings, crowns, tooth enamel, and teeth.

2006	Final
Well done! Remember: [garbled] (reversed: join us for testing).	Well done! Remember: The Aperture Science Bring Your Daughter to Work Day is the perfect time to have her tested.

testchmb_a_02

More or less the same as the final game

testchmb_a_03

More or less the same as the final game

testchmb_a_04

More or less the same as the final game, only GLaDOS tries to warn that complacency (portal.bonus02_1) can result in failure, rather than stating the purposes of appearances of danger.

2006	Final
Very impressive! Be warned, however, that c-[garbled].	Very impressive. Please note that any appearance of danger is merely a device to enhance your testing experience.

testchmb_a_05

More or less the same as the final game

testchmb_a_06

More or less the same as the final game

testchmb_a_07

The entrance room features unique light sources. The button for the exit door in Chamber 11 rises when the lift is activated instead of after acquiring the Portal Gun. The latter section of Chamber 12 is set up differently as well. GLaDOS refers to the protagonist's (who at this point in development was a male placeholder for Chell) residence as "[subject home floor here]".

2006	Final
The Device is now more valuable than the organs and combined incomes of everyone in [subject home floor here].	The Device is now more valuable than the organs and combined incomes of everyone in [subject hometown here].

testchmb_a_08

More or less the same. Wires are hanging out from beneath the tall button platform.

testchmb_a_09

More or less the same. Oddly uses a different Emancipation Grid design.

testchmb_a_10

The second Emancipation Grid fling is a duplicate of the first one. The lift hall to the final room has different lighting, as well as a small observation room. The final room features an extra observation room, and GLaDOS notifies about the upcoming 16th test chamber; the final build of Portal repurposes this for that map with differently recorded lines.

2006	Final
Due to mandatory scheduled maintenance, the next chamber of this testing cycle is currently unavailable. It has been replaced with a live-fire course for armored military androids.	Did you know you can donate one or all of your vital organs to the Aperture Science self esteem fund for girls? It's true! Due to mandatory scheduled maintenance, the appropriate chamber for this testing sequence is currently unavailable. It has been replaced with a live-fire course designed for military androids.

testchmb_a_11

The chamber lacks an entrance door, and the decals for where to drop cubes on the turrets use Half-Life 2 graffiti (decals/decalgraffiti036a) as a placeholder. The BTS section has a drastically different appearance.

testchmb_a_13

The Companion Cube is a regular one. The BTS section in the large room is absent. The player doeesn't destroy the Companion Cube in the final section, as the button just leads to the elevator.

2006	Final
However, it cannot come with you for the rest of the test and, unfortunately, will be euthanized.	However, it cannot accompany you for the rest of the test and, unfortunately, must be euthanized.

testchmb_a_14

The beginning BTS area is absent. The turret-filled room features an open doorway instead of a moving platform, though the fling slope is still there. The final upward fling area is completely absent, and the door just leads to the elevator. What's interesting is the observation room that was used to oversee this chamber in lab_lvl3 in the 2005 era features the same appearance here, albeit with missing props.

testchmb_a_15

The first puzzle has a different setup, and the escape sequence has an entirely different setup.

To do: The Escape sequence is drastically different from the final game's. May need its own section.

Early Versions of Maps

Oddly enough, testchmb_a_08, 09, and 10 all feature alternate map versions, each showing off earlier versions of these chambers.

To do: More screenshots are needed.

testchmb_a_08_leipzig

This is an early version of Test Chamber 13, last modified August 17th, 2006. This version of the chamber features a turret on the other side of the exit door, an earlier observation deck, and early orange hazard lights instead of antlines. It was planned to be showcased at Gamescom 2006 in Leipzig, Germany, hence its naming scheme. This is a slightly earlier version than what was ultimately used.

testchmb_a_08_leipzig2

This map is identical to leipzig, save for 3 differences: 1. GLaDOS now has lines for the player entering the chamber and getting trapped. 2. The turret has been moved slightly. 3. The editor grid size has been changed from 4 to 16 (this has no bearing on the actual compiled map.) This is the version that was used at Gamescom, as well as a collection of screenshots released for the game.

The Chamber, as seen in pre-release media.

Other Changes

There's many other details to the aesthetics that differ from the full release.

To do: More screenshots are needed Change the screenshots to comparisons

Emancipation Grid

This went through two two designs in the 2006 era. The first featured shifting horizontal orange lines. The second featured a blue warp effect. The latter possibly inspired the grid designs in Portal 2.

2005 Grid	Early Grid	Warp Grid	Final Grid