Project Beta² is a pair of modifications to the original Portal which takes fans back to early developer demos of the game. As a historical art piece, the mod aims to be as accurate as possible per-demo based on published footage from the time. Each demo contains correct portal and portal gun textures, as well as the male character model used before Chell was included as the game's protagonist.
The mod was released on October 10th, 2024 in celebration of Portal's 17th anniversary! To install the mod, download the archive by clicking or tapping the button below. Next, extract the archive files to a folder of your choice. Open Installation.txt and follow the steps as outlined in the file. After installing, restart Steam and the mod should show up in your library.
These areas appear at the start of the Leipzig demo, and are notable for being based on the rooms created for the initial sequences of the original Portal trailer. Players can feel free to re-enact the trailer sequence (or to voluntarily remain under the crusher as it slowly kills them).
The Leipzig demo is based on the recorded demo shown at the 2006 Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany. This version has the portals featured in the trailer, with an animated mask and overlay. Due to differences in both the lighting settings and in the way the engine and tools calculated the lighting, the chambers appear darker than those from the retail version of Portal. Turrets behave differently from later versions of the game: when knocked over, they don't move while firing. Disabled turrets may be reactivated by placing them back in an upright position.
Overall, signage around the levels is more simplistic. The indicator lines around the stages are solid orange lines, and they lead to faint green/red door indicator boxes. The security camera models are generic camera models instead of the aperture-ized versions from the retail build. When picking up objects with the portal gun, an orange light shines and a prominent effect is displayed near the muzzle of the gun, similar to the HL2 gravity gun. In addition, light rail platforms use an older sound effect.
The Barcelona demo is based on the demo from Microsoft's 2006 X06 Conference in Barcelona, Spain. Portals in this demo were redesigned to have a spiral appearance, as the original trailer portals coudln't be use due to technical limitations of the Xbox 360.
The crosshair now changes to orange when an item is picked up. The test chambers have a brighter appearance. The indicator lines are now orange dotted-lines. Certain sounds, like button sounds, are the same as they appear in retail builds.