Portal

If there is anything missing, Use the Wayback Machine.

• https://web.archive.org/web/20250512140740/https://tcrf.net/Development:Portal/2005_-_Nova_Prospekt_Era
• https://web.archive.org/web/20250430000743/https://tcrf.net/Development:Portal/2006_-_Transitional_Era
• https://web.archive.org/web/20250430000651/https://tcrf.net/Development:Portal/2007_-_Pre-release_Era

Hidden Visgroups in Map Source Files#

To do: The VCC Wiki is currently as of writing this, down for maintance and will be back online soon, we should proably wait for it to be available again before moving this part into the maps page. Also it could be incorperated into a subpage of the maps page maybe, the main contributor did give permisson for something like this.

There are leaked source files of maps that can be opened with Hammer (Valve's Level Editor Program). These have leftover and unused map geometry and logic which are hidden by default. Making them visible in the Visgroups box, shows early and unused parts of the map in question.

You can see them in more detail and categorised here and 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 and 2007 folder in the map pack. Choose any .vmf file and the map will load.

Useful images that could be re-used somewhere:

Confusing "Eras" Information#

Move this onto the prerelease page.

2006#

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 Aperture 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: 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.

2007#

During 2007, Portal was being finalized. However, there is still a lot to talk about in terms of development.

As Portal neared the end of development, there were four minor eras of development left:

• Game Informer Era: January - February / March 2007 This Era was shown in a couple of videos posted online by Game Informer in Early 2007. The time of this era is an estimate as the videos were posted in March of 2007 which goes into the GDC era. This Era still uses the 'Swril Portals' from 2006. The doorstate textures are more of a finalized style. The videos of Test Chamber 18 show a version that is different compared to before and after.

• GDC Era: Early March - Early June 2007 This version of the game was showcased at GDC. The footage shows the map gdc_portal_demo which features Test Chambers 6, 10 and 12. The Portals now have their final design but still contain Particles from the previous Swirl Portals. There is a now left hand on the Portal Gun. The final camera design are now present (which at this time) are a ambient occlusion bake are are solid white and are overall quite small. This is the last Era to feature the temporary Male Protagonist.

• E3 Era: July 2007 This version of the game was showcased at E3. The Portals shown now have their final particles. Chell is now the protagonist. The elevators and their shafts are final but have a slightly earlier texture. The Cameras are now final.

• Pre-Retail Era: August - October 2007 This is the last Era of Portal. A lot of the changes in this era made the game how it is today. The left hand on the Portal Gun is removed. The lights seen of various objects in the game are now the final blue. The crosshair is now the final one. The blue glow is now final too.