Postal III

Prototype Info Prerelease Info Valve LeftoversWith so many games coming out around the time, who blames them for leaving in a couple of assets.

Unused Weapon#

An unused "seed" weapon, meant to attract the cut pigeon NPCs.

Development-Related Text#

Сюда класть энвмапы, которые хочется чтобы были свои для каждого уровня

В vmt прописывается:
"$envmap" "#blablabla"

При загрузке, например, уровня level2 будет искаться текстура level2_blablabla.vtf
Если ее нет, то ищется просто level2.vtf
Ну а если и ее нет, то будет наша любимая эмо-текстура

Put the envmaps here you want to be used on each level

Write into the vmt:
"$envmap" "#blablabla"

When loading, for example, level2, the level2_blablabla.vtf texture will be searched for
If there isn't one, it'll look for level2.vtf
If even that's missing, there'll be our favorite emo-texture

A developer message in Russian telling them to put environment map directories in a .vmt file.

Unused Achievements#

Scrapped Achievements Without Icons#

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT - Arrest a criminal while under effect of catnip.

ASTRONAUT - Launch a cat via rocket launcher.

BUSHMAN - Prove that your IQ is higher than an animal's.

DON'T TOUCH MY MONKEY! - Acquire Helper Monkey.

Removed Achievements#

BIPOLAR - Swap paths 5 times in one playthrough.

CHAMP WHISPERER - 50 kills using dog.

MEGA-SADIST - 200 injured or death-crawling victims NOT finished off.

Scrapped Achievements#

AIN'T GOT TIME TO BLEED - Maintain 50% or less health at all times.

CINEMA ENTHUSIAST - [Cannot find the description for this Achievement.]

COPROPHILIAC - 100 successful monkey-poo flinging attacks or shop-vac feces attacks.

CULTURE WARRIOR - kill/incapacitate 50 protestors.

GUMP - Walk 200 miles.

INSTALLATION EXPERT - [Cannot find the description for this Achievement.]

IT SPECIALIST - [Cannot find the description for this Achievement.]

MISOGYNIST - Complete game killing only females.

MOVIE CRITIC - [Cannot find the description for this Achievement.]

NFL DRAFT PICK - 50 grenades kicked back at enemies.

QUESTION AUTHORITY - [Cannot find the description for this Achievement.]

WORSE THAN MY GRANDMA - [Cannot find the description for this Achievement.]

YOU ARE SO LAME - [Cannot find the description for this Achievement.]

YOU MUST BE FUCKING BORED - [Cannot find the description for this Achievement.]

Unused Text#

unusedcontent.cfg#

unusedcontent
{
    "dir"       "maps"
    "dir"       "materials"
    "dir"       "models"
    "dir"       "scenes"
    "dir"       "sound"
    "ignore"    ""
    "ignore"    "reslists"
}

A leftover from Portal 2. Its purpose is unknown.

Unused Models#

Most unused models are from old character designs or scrapped ideas.

Early Main Menu Postal Dude#

An early, surprisingly different version of the Dude's menu model that resembles the old 2007 Postal Dude by Josh Leichliter. It can be found in models/main_menu/dude_main_menu.mdl. The version found in the finished game lacks the lower half of his trenchcoat, and only has a single animation for lazing around in the main menu. The Igromir 2007 prototype of the game, as well as the leaked 2009 Xbox 360 build, has the full model completely intact, including the lower half of his trenchcoat.

Unused Test Town Hotel Models#

The final game still has models from the Test Town hotel. These are all still in the game files due to Postal III still technically being in development when it released.

Early Test Character#

In a folder named "postal_rage", you can find a Mad-Max looking character named "Maxel", a leftover from Axle Rage, an Akella project cancelled in 2006; he looks very different to everyone else in the game. Interestingly, in a developer screenshot that came with the prototype leak, the developer is playing as Maxel, meaning Maxel was used as the placeholder player model until the Postal Dude's was properly implemented.

Unused Postal Babe Model#

This unused model, F_Avg_Postal_Babe, is an untextured model of one of the Postal Babes, which are characters that originated from Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend.

Unused Female Character#

The model's filename is F_Avg_SS_Skirt. It has no animations, which means it was most likely cut very early into development. This model is also in the 2007 leaked build.

Unused Videos#

Watch on YouTubeA placeholder video in the media folder; just a white backrground with the text "cutscene in progress".

An unused video in the p3_english/media folder that was meant to play during the Cash Mart mission. An unused video in the p3_english/media folder that was meant to play during the Homeland Insecurity mission.

Unused Textures#

Postal III has many unused textures. Many of these are either leftovers from the in-game cutscenes or from unused ideas that were scrapped.

Bloody Zealot Textures#

Inside the "cutscenes" folder of the "characters" directory, there are unused bloody textures for the Zealot in both cutscenes of the AIDS-infected cat hunting mission.

Bloody UN Soldier Textures#

The United Nations soldier has an unused, blood-covered texture; this is most likely a remnant from a cutscene.

Unused Spade#

Originally, the shovel was intended to be a spade. The textures for this original design are still in the game, with the model being found in the leaked 2007 build.

Unused Big SWAT#

These textures, along with leaked concept art and model, are the only remnants of M_Big_SWAT, a character made and scrapped very early in development.

Unused Dev Textures#

Postal III only uses a handful of developer textures in its maps from Half-Life 2, and a few of them go unused.

Unused Sounds#

The game's unfinished state means there's a fair few sounds that go unused, some of them from early builds of the game.

Postal Dude#

Originally, if the player earned a position among law enforcement, they would receive an equipable police outfit. However, as it cannot be donned voluntarily, these lines go unused.

Temp Voice Acting#

To do: Filenames for these.

Used in early stages of development, these clips, voiced by Mike Jaret, are generic citizen remarks and screams. These go unused in the final game, though they can be heard in early footage and are used in the leaked Xbox 360 builds.

Revisional Differences#

To do: Document more worth noting changes made with the patches.

After the game's release, Trashmasters released a total of three patches in an attempt to salvage the disaster the game was. One of these additions was a "free-roam" mode that wasn't much other than all the outdoor maps from the game's missions (and specific maps like Porn World and the arcade) strung together with level transitions and the mission logic removed. The Postal Dude also starts free-roam with every weapon unlocked.

Before the 1.12 update the game used a remix of the song "Goodbye Almond Eyes" by Tokyo Rose for the Porn World and Jen Walcott's Bodyguard missions, but because Akella didn't own the rights for the song it was replaced by "Illegal Makro Recipe" by The Hen.

Regional Differences#

Fart Gun / Гамамет#

This was an exclusive bonus weapon that was given for pre-ordering Postal III Гама-edition from the Russian digital game key store Gama-Gama, which originally can be only unlocked on the digital non-Steam or CD Russian versions of the game. Later on, that add-on DLC could be bought on its own from Gama-Gama. The weapon was finally added in the Zoom Platform version since version 1.2, though it wasn't added to the Steam version until January 29th, 2024.

Despite the Fart Gun, being an exclusivity for Russian buyers, an official English translation was found in the Japanese copy of the game, which was then later officially ported to the English version. Similar to the Shop Vac, the primary fire dispenses a foul gas that immediately knocks out any enemy in the vicinity in a non-lethal way. While its ammo capacity is unlimited, it does need to be reloaded, which is done by holding down the alt-fire button.

Oddities#

с & c texture parameters mistakes#

To do: Try to search a list of borked textures and perhaps, if they do create issues in-game, provide a before/after comparison.

A couple of texture for the game doesn't work properly due to the developers mistaking the letter c (The usual, Latin letter) with с (The cyrillic letter). As a first example, in the cat model, .vmt files such as "cat.vmt" & "cat_01.vmt" in "materials\models\Characters\", this mistake is seen in the writing of the $nocull parameter, making it incorrect.

This issue also affects some file-names, such as textures in the Porn World level, which cause some to be missing or not be unpacked. In materials\concrete there's "concrete_light_inner_old_wall01_ñ.vtf" (Which, on cyrillic enabled system, will look as "concrete_light_inner_old_wall01_с.vtf"). However, its dedicated actual texture parameter .vmt file is correctly named "concrete_light_inner_old_wall_01_c.vmt"

Both of these issues above has been fixed with the Zoom Platform version of the game since patch 1.3.