Unused Map Content

This is a sub-page of Portal.

Unused Maps#

devtest and devtest_01#

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A pair of developer test maps that are stripped from most versions of the game, but were left over in the Nintendo Switch and Nvidia Shield ports, as well as being found in the leaked map sources. The maps are played in sequence, with devtest connecting to devtest_01 at the end.

As expected from the name, these maps test most of the game's mechanics, ranging from the various testing elements to more specific behaviors like portal collision and how portals react to different materials. Text will be displayed on-screen throughout the maps directing the player to do specific actions; given the highly guided nature of this, the maps may have been used for regression testing, ensuring that the game mechanics continued to work as expected after major rewrites or engine upgrades.

The majority of the testing rooms are located in the first devtest map, which ends in an elevator leading to devtest_01. This elevator is a prop_portal_stats_display, so it will display the time/portal/step count if the level is loaded in challenge mode. Devtest_01 contains only a short test for rocket turret behavior, which seems to be based on the 2006 version of escape_01. The map ends in a simple box with brush-based text spelling out "YOU WIN".

Earlier versions of these maps from 2006 can be found in the leaked map sources, and an updated version of devtest would later be used during Portal 2's development.

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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 older design for (that is brush-based) monitors and other early models from development are still being used here. This is likely an oversight from the level designers forgetting to update these two specific rooms when it was finalized.

IV Stand Prop in background1#

Like other Source games of the era, Portal uses real-time 3D levels for its backgrounds on the title screen. An (normally unseen) IV stand prop can still be seen in the relaxation vault in this background map (background1), despite it being removed in the actual Test Chamber 00 map (that the background map is based on). Using console commands, it is possible to explore this background map and pick it up like a normal physics prop. The IV Stand Prop was seen in old versions of the relaxation vault from development (as indicated by pre-release screenshots and leaked map files). The fact that it's still included in the main background map is likely a development oversight.

background1	Test Chamber 00

Test Chamber 02#

When the player first receives the Portal Gun, the game originally used a func_door brush entity that moved the auto portal frames into the floor, out of sight of the player, as seen in older leaked versions of the map with a slightly different frame design. The leak uncompiled map (or a decomplied copy) 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 to trigger it is restored in the level editor, then it will perform the action like how it was supposed to.

Test Chamber 17#

There is an unused area that is located just outside of the 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 level. Interestingly, in the observation room, it uses the Half-Life 2 monitor models rather than Portal models, which implies this area is from a much earlier point of development. 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.

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 a much earlier version of the model. It is invisible to the player when it is out of bounds, (unless certain commands are used) and touching it causes it to rotate very slowly once. You can use this command 'ent_teleport rotate_launcher_door' to teleport into the chamber if you wish. The reason why it appears is likely because of the fact that the 'Rotating launcher' visgroup in the level editor that it is tied to was accidentally left checked on and so it gets compiled with the rest of the map.

Escape 00#

At the section near the end of the level where the player falls from on top of a vacuum tube to a lower one, GLaDOS is supposed to speak the line: "I feel sorry for you, really, because you're not even in the right place." However, the game attempts to play the line before enabling the speaker that it would be emitted from, resulting in it going unheard, although the caption will still display if the player has them enabled. The line can be made to play properly by running the command ent_fire glados_microphone_speaker04 enable right before jumping down to where it plays.

Oddly, the speaker enable input seems to have been intentionally delayed 0.01 seconds after the voice line is triggered. Perhaps the mapper intended to instead delay the voice line to ensure the speaker is enabled first, but accidentally set it on the wrong output?

Escape 01#

In the second escape map, inside 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 sound file being removed, printing a error message to the console if it's enabled. However, the line does still exist in the Spanish version of the game and will actually play. The original sound file was later included in the asset leaks. Captions do still exist for this in the final game despite the file being removed.

Advanced Chamber Stats Displays#

All of the advanced chambers have prop_portal_stats_display entities as their exit elevators, which is the entity used to display time/portal/step counts at the end of challenge mode. These go unused due to the advanced chambers not having challenge mode available. They may indicate that this was originally a planned feature, or they could also just be leftovers from the original base maps.

However, these would later be used in Portal: Still Alive, which does support playing challenge mode on the advanced chambers.