Portal

Portal
Also known as: Portal: Still Alive Developers: Valve, EA UK (PS3) Nvidia Lightspeed Studios (Switch and RTX remaster) Publishers: Valve, Nvidia (RTX remaster) Platforms: Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Mac OS X, Linux, Nintendo Switch Released internationally: October 22, 2008 (Still Alive), May 12, 2010 (Mac), May 2, 2013 (Linux), June 28, 2022 (Switch, Companion Collection), December 9, 2022 (RTX remaster) Released in US: October 10, 2007 (Windows/360, The Orange Box), December 11, 2007 (PS3, The Orange Box) Released in EU: October 19, 2007 (Windows/360, The Orange Box), November 23, 2007 (PS3, The Orange Box) Released in AU: October 25, 2007 (Windows/360, The Orange Box), November 22, 2007 (PS3, The Orange Box) This game has hidden developer credits. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has revisional differences. This game has a development article This game has a prerelease article This game has a bugs page

To do: There's more stuff on various Wikis: Valve Developer Community, The Portal Wiki, and maybe the Combine OverWiki or Half-Life Wiki as well. Unused level/portions. There's a source code leak, which may or may not be of a prototype. Cover stuff related to Still Alive and First Slice. Revisional differences (first version: Windows Orange Box; last version: latest Steam update (Win, Mac, or Linux) or Android port. Internal comment node names. There are numerous unused dialogue files in the beta asset leak. RTX version differences. The 2023 Valve asset leak contains files from pre-release builds, such as unused textures.

Hello, and again, welcome to the TCRF wiki article pertaining to unused assets within the computer entertainment software known as "Portal". We hope your brief detention in the relaxation vault has been a pleasant one. Your specimen has been processed and we are now ready to begin the article proper. Before we start, however, keep in mind that although fun and learning are the primary goals of TCRF activities, serious injuries may occur.

Sub-Pages

Development Info

Prerelease Info

Bugs

Ending Update

To do: Add and then compare two videos, one of the 2007 ending and one of the current one.

In February of 2010, an update for Portal was released which featured a slightly altered ending. Both endings feature the player in the parking lot with GLaDOS's remains. However, the original 2007 version had a simple fade to black, before transitioning to the party room with the cake and Still Alive. The February 2010 patch added the Party Escort Bot with the line "Thank you for assuming the party escort submission position." before slowly dragging the player back, which then transitions to the cake and Still Alive.

Unused / Leftover Portions of Levels

In some of the final game's levels, unused or leftover content from old versions of the map can still be found, often due to oversights during development.

Early Observation Room Leftovers

In the observation rooms of both Test Chamber 06 and 16, the brush-based monitors and other early models from 2006 - early 2007 are still being used. This is likely an oversight from the level designers forgetting to update the room's art style when they were put in place.

• 

  Test Chamber 06.

• 

  Test Chamber 16.

Test Chamber 01

When the player first recieves the Portal Gun, the game originally slid the auto portal frames into the floor, out of sight of the player, as seen in older versions of the map. The uncompiled map for the final version of the chamber features one still leftover here; it doesn't do anything in-game as the output to trigger it has been removed, making it do nothing. If the output triggers it again, then it will perform the action like how it's supposed to.

Test Chamber 17

There is an unused area that is located just outside of Test Chamber, seen with the noclip cheat. The area is actually the part of the advanced version of the level, where you fling to the other side. It is unknown why it is also leftover in the standard one. In the observation room, it uses the Half-Life 2 monitor models rather than Portal models, which implies this area was from a point of development in 2006. It should also be stated that the advanced version of Test Chamber 17 also contains this exact same observation room with these monitors, not just the unused version.

• 

  Overview.

• 

  The Observation room.

Test Chamber 18

In the outside of the map, an unused High Energy Pellet Launcher can be found, likely a leftover from development. It seems to be designed around an earlier version of the model.

Escape 01

In the second escape map, the starting area where Chell is tricked into falling into an area with turrets, the game still tries to play a cut voiceline from GLaDOS, but can't due to the file being removed, printing a error message to the console. However, the line does still exist in the Spanish version of the game and will actually play.

Listen	Caption
	"Okay, I am going to kill you now."

Unused Textures

Portal features a variety of unused textures that can still be found in the game files.

BLU Briefcase

Present in materials/models/flag is the Team Fortress 2 BLU briefcase texture, apparently misplaced here.

fixed_portal_border

The early fixed portal border texture, seen in many pre-release screenshots, remains in the game's files in the portal/materials/signage/ directory, and still works in the asset leaked developer test map (devtest.bsp) if the map is loaded into the final game.
This texture was later made into the model that's seen in Portal 2, which also has it as a leftover file.

Red Portal

A red-colored portal, present in portal/materials/models/portals/portal-red-color.vtf. This is the color the orange portal had briefly during development, and if you turn on the closed captions the message "Red Portal Open" will appear whenever you shoot an orange one. This misnaming is present in all languages. The misnaming is also seen in the name of the audio files, is referenced in Hammer with weapon_portalgun and prop_portal, and is seen in the source code as well.

To enable it in-game (replacing the orange portal), modify portal/materials/models/portals/portalstaticoverlay_2.vmt to read $PortalColorTexture models/portals/portal-red-color instead of $PortalColorTexture models/portals/portal-orange-color, although the particles around the portal will stay orange.

The most likely explanation for these red portals is that they were a change made late into development, then reverted; previous designs of the portals were orange, and these red portals use the final design in addition to the orange particles. This may also explain the discrepancy in the captions and everything else, as the developers didn't have time to revert the changes.

Alternate Portal Particles

To do: Add an image of this in action.

Present in the game's particle files are a different particle system for portals that was never used in-game. It can be enabled by running the game with the -tools argument.

"Sparta" Sign

This odd texture, likely a reference to the movie "300", is present in portal/materials/models/props_facemovie/wet_floor_sign, without a matching model in the game's files. Files used in the "props_facemovie" folder were originally intended to feature in a Source Filmmaker video, and a matching model for the sign can be found in the Source Filmmaker files, albeit with just a plain texture instead. The file being located here in Portal was likely misplaced here by accident and was never fixed.

• 

  Texture from the Portal files.

• 

  The sign with the SPARTA! texture.

• 

  The sign with the plain texture from Source Filmmaker.

White Phone

There is an unused skingroup texture of Aperture Science's emergency red phone prop, colored white here.

• 

  Texture from the Portal files.

• 

  When applied to the phone and receiver models.

v_portalgun2

Present in the portal/materials/models/weapons/v_models/v_portalgun/ directory is a texture for a much earlier Portal Gun from around 2005, as seen in this video.

Unused Map Textures

A couple of concrete and plastic textures that were never used.

• 

  concrete_bts_floor001b.vtf

• 

  concrete_bts_wall001a.vtf

• 

  plastic_light001a.vtf

• 

  plastic_light001b.vtf

materials/nature/hazard_liquid_beneath.vtf

This texture, in portal/materials/nature, apparently would have appeared as the surface of toxic slime, as seen from below. The material simply reuses the top texture for both sides.

Overlays

A few overlays, a poster and a couple of oil stains, also remain unused. stain_oil_06.vtf lacks an alpha channel.

• 

  aperture_poster001a.vtf

• 

  stain_oil_02.vtf

• 

  stain_oil_06.vtf

Camera Detachment Texture

In Portal, when a Portal is placed behind a camera, it will detach itself from the wall, leaving behind two dots where it would have connected to the wall. In the game files, an actual texture for the camera detachment can be found, likely from a point in time when security camera used a different model due to it looking like the model used during development.

Skyboxes

An odd skybox showing metal test chamber walls with glowing orange holes.

• 

  bts_custom_cubemapup.vtf

• 

  bts_custom_cubemapbk.vtf

• 

  bts_custom_cubemapft.vtf

• 

  bts_custom_cubemaplf.vtf

• 

  bts_custom_cubemaprt.vtf

• 

  bts_custom_cubemapdn.vtf

Another odd skybox showing the first Xen map from Half-Life c4a1.bsp. The map escape_01.bsp is in fact set to use this, but the map doesn't contain any skybox brushes, so it is never rendered. However, as shown in the uncompiled map file's _steaming_refuse visgroup, an early ending would reveal that Chell was to be in Xen after she defeated GLaDOS.

• 

  sky_escape_01_up.vtf

• 

  sky_escape_01_bk.vtf

• 

  sky_escape_01_ft.vtf

• 

  sky_escape_01_lf.vtf

• 

  sky_escape_01_rt.vtf

• 

  sky_escape_01_dn.vtf

(Source: Richter Overtime, Ossy Flawol)

Unseen Portal Gun Viewmodel Hand

To do: replace with png.

In the actual Portal Gun's viewmodel, there's a non-animated hand without textures. Unfortunately, Chell's hand texture's UV mapping does not match the VTF, so the texture doesn't align with her arm properly. This appears to be a bug, since the Xbox 360 versions show the hand with textures. This can be seen briefly if you move your camera fast enough. The hand was most likely used in older versions of the game, as older points of development from 2007 show a left hand being visible in the Portal Gun.

(Source: Source 1 GitHub issue tracker)

Unused Dialogue

GLaDOS

To do: There's more unused audio for GLaDOS than just this one; extract them and upload them here.

Listen	Transcript	Sound Summary
	"File Deleted"	Present as portal/sound/vo/aperture_ai/file_deleted.wav. It is simply GLaDOS saying "File Deleted".

The Xbox 360 version of the game includes some additional unused GLaDOS voice lines; other versions of the game only include the subtitles for them, which are labelled as BONUS REWARD SOUNDS. Some of these correspond to lines which were garbled or cut-off in the final game, and some have also appeared in asset leaks.

To do: Project Beta includes alternate versions of some of these lines, but they've been removed for now so as to not risk adding false information to the page by accident since it's very poorly documented where the project beta assets were actually sourced from. Feel free to add them back whenever the various Portal beta leaks get more properly documented on here.

Name	Audio	Subtitle	Notes
portal.bonus01_1		"Well done. Remember that we are pleased you could join us for testing."
portal.bonus01_2		"There really was a cake."	Also exists under the name escape_01_death_nag01-1 (including in non-Xbox versions).
portal.bonus01_3		"I know you don't believe this, but everything that has happened so far was for your benefit."
portal.bonus02_1		"Very Impressive! Be warned, however, that complacency can result in failure."
portal.bonus02_2		"Before, when I told you it was your last chance, that wasn't completely true. This is your real last chance. Now, STOP what you're doing!"
portal.bonus03_1		[sic] "To reiterate our previous warning, this test requires a mastery of the principles of portal momentum."	A distorted/garbled version is used in Test Chamber 10:
portal.bonus03_2		"Most importantly under no circumstances should you remove the device from the testing area."	A cut-off version is used in Test Chamber 02 after obtaining the portal gun:
portal.bonus04_1		"Get ready to fling yourself. Fling into space."	A distorted/garbled version is used in Test Chamber 12:
portal.bonus04_2		"[Warping Effects] Fling! Fling! Fling! Fling! Fling!"	Appears to be a further distorted version of the previous line.
portal.bonus05_1		"We are pleased with your success."
portal.bonus05_2		"Enrichment Center regulations require both hands to be empty before any cake can be served."	A cut-off version is used in Test Chamber 19:
portal.bonus06_1		"You need to make a LEFT at the next junction."
portal.bonus06_2		"You need to make a RIGHT at the next junction."
portal.bonus06_3		"I'm checking some blue prints and I think... yes, right here! You're definitely going the WRONG way!"

Turrets

Listen	Transcript	Sound Summary
	"Dispensing product".	Unused line for when the player is spotted by a Turret.
	"Cannvassing".	Unused line for when a Turret is searching for the player.
	"Preparing to dispense product".	Unused line for when a Turret is shooting at the player.
	*Laughs* "Ah ha ha".	Unused lines for when the player knocks down a Turret.
	"Sorry, we're closed".
	"Hey, hey, hey!"	Unused lines for when the player picks up a Turret.
	"Wooooooooooah"
	"Illegal operation".

Curiosity Core

Listen	Transcript	Sound Summary
	*Scream*	Unused death sound that would have likely played as the core is incinerated.

Unused Sounds

Listen	Sound Summary
	Unused fluorescent hum variant.
	Unused ticking sound for a clock that was using in early Nova Prospekt-like builds of the game.

Hidden 'J' Devloper Credit

In the map escape_00, if you go into the Rattman den featured at the start of the level, you can see the letter J made up of drawn hand decals. It's hard to see due to the dark lighting, but can be made easier to see by disabling the lighting with the command mat_fullbright 1.

Tim Larkin

If you noclip to the end sequence, you will find a radio NPC named Tim Larkin. Larkin created the ending cinematic music/sound, and this NPC controls the playing of those sounds. It was named after him in his honor. Apparently, Tim didn't know about this!

Unused ASCII Art

Various pieces of ASCII art go unused in the credits.txt and, by proxy, in the ending credits' ASCII art section.

RADIO

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Half-Life 2 Leftovers

There is a folder titled "hl2" filled with every single Half-Life 2 asset, an artifact of the SteamPipe update from 2013. You can read more on why this was necessary on this sub-page for Team Fortress 2, which ran into the same problem. However, unlike other post-steampipe games, Portal actually features not just the assets but also all the source code, meaning the weapons, basic functionality, HUD, vehicles and NPCs are featured. You can actually copy the Half-Life 2 maps and play them in Portal, and you can see that a lot of stuff is functional but a whole lot of sounds are missing. If you use the "scripts/game_sounds_manifest.txt" and precache the scripts that are found in the 'hl2' folder, then the sounds will function properly with working scenes and captions.

Half-Life 2 Weapons & GUI

Open the console and then type 'sv_cheats 1' then type 'impulse 101'. This will spawn all of Half-Life 2's weapons, which are fully functional. The 'impulse 101' command is straight from Half-Life 2 and was also featured in Half-Life 1 (Goldsrc or Source) and in its expansions. It gives the player a HEV Suit and every weapon in the game. The Dual-Portal Gun is also featured (whether the player has it or not). The HEV Suit and Half-Life 2 GUI works perfectly fine. Note that it also features the flashlight HUD from Half-Life 2: Episode Two, although it and the flashlight don't work. However, if the player plays Half-Life 2 maps and equips the suit seen in d1_trainsation_05 and go into the map trigger for d1_trainstation_06, the flashlight will work as intended but no light will actually be projected on the screen. The crosshair remains static instead of measuring the player's health and ammo, probably because in Portal's development the crosshair was styled like the one from Half-Life 2 and was animated very similar to it as well. That fact that this crosshair remains static is probably because of the addition and removal of the earlier crosshair.

Some installations of Portal will have 'Fast Weapon Switch' enabled by default in the options menu. This is a leftover from Half-Life 2 and will change the layout of the Half-Life 2 HUD to be different. Also, in certain installations of Portal, the HUD will be arranged differently, which can also be seen in some installations of Half-Life 2.

• 

  Overview.

• 

  Alternate HUD arrangement.

Episode One Vortex Hopwire Weapon

In Portal, the cut weapon from Half-Life 2: Episode One known simply as weapon_hopwire (named the Vortex Hopwire to distinguish it from another cut Hopwire weapon from Half-Life 2) is present, leftover from Episode One's developement due to Portal borrowing Half-Life 2 and the Episode's code to use it as a base. The weapon is a unstable black hole weapon. Its viewmodel is that of the grenade, and when thrown it spawns a rollermine model that detonates into a black hole when activated by pressing Primary Attack. To enable the black hole itself, the command hopwire_votext 1 must be set to 1 for it to spawn.

Half-Life 2 NPCs & Vehicles

All of Half-Life 2's NPCs are mostly functional. They don't have sounds until you precache them in Portal's game_sounds_manifest.txt file. You can spawn them in with cheats or play a map with them featured, and they will function exactly like they did in Half-Life 2.

Portal features a few Half-Life 2: Episode One and Episode Two NPCs, such as the Zombine, Antlion Grub, Hunter, the Combine Advisor, and others. All of the NPCs don't have their sounds, captions, models, or textures and will spawn as ERROR models when the assets are brought back into the game; the player can see that the NPCs are a bit scuffed and don't function exactly. These NPCs were mostly likely leftover from Portal using Half-Life and its Episodes' source code as a base when it started developement.

All of Half-Life 2's vehicles do work in the same way as they do normaly by default. However, Portal also features the Half-Life 2: Episode Two Muscle Car known as the 'jalopy' in game files, but it is incomplete and missing the required resources, so the game will crash upon the player forcing it to spawn.

Half-Life 2-Style Testing Equipment

The prefabs included in the Source SDK Episode One tools with the folder "prefabs" (having three folders inside, one of which is for Portal) feature old versions of map elements in Half-Life 2 style. Portal used Half-Life 2 assets in the early stages of development as placeholders.

Platform Differences

To do: Add images comparing the various menus between the PC, Console, and Steam Deck UIs. The PlayStation 3 version included in The Orange Box is infamously pretty scuffed; much of the issues seen there need to get added here.

Main Menu Differences

Like the other games in the Orange Box, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Portal have a unique menu system which has been redesigned to be more controller-friendly. The main notable differences compared to the PC UI are that advanced chambers and challenge maps are combined into the New Game menu, while controller settings are split into a separate menu.

Additionally, a completely different controller UI was added to the Windows and Linux versions of the game in 2022 for use on Steam Deck. It activates on Deck automatically, but can be enabled on any Linux or Windows system by adding the launch option -gamepadui (or inversely, -nogamepadui will disable it on Deck). Enabling it will also turn the Vulkan renderer on unless another launch option overrides it (e.g. -dx9). However, on the Mac version of the game it is not compiled in and will cause a crash on startup. This version of the UI retains the full bonus maps menu, but makes it (and commentary) submenus of New Game rather than being separate buttons on the main menu.

PC	Steam Deck (-gamepadui enabled)

PC	Steam Deck (-gamepadui enabled)

PC	Steam Deck (-gamepadui enabled)

The PS3 version lacks achievements, since Trophies weren't introduced until 2008. Neither the PS3 or Xbox 360 versions of Portal ever received any updates, and thus are missing content from the Portal 2 ARG, including the Transmission Received achievement, the secret radios, and the extended ending.

The Switch version includes the bonus levels from Portal: Still Alive, but is otherwise based on the original Orange Box version of the game, albeit with the Bonus Maps menu re-added to contain the aforementioned Still Alive levels. It also adds in-game achievement notifications, since the Switch lacks a built-in achievement system. The achievements menu still shows Xbox Gamerscore values, likely by mistake (with Transmission Received being worth 0G, having never been on Xbox originally).