Portal And Left 4 Dead Demos Found Inside SteamVR Performance Test

If you haven't already downloaded the SteamVR Performance Test, it's not a bad idea to give it a shot. Though if you're not planning on venturing into the world of VR, then it might not be all that useful to you. However, those that are looking forward to getting their Vive or Rift in the coming months would do well to make sure that their machine is capable of rendering the video necessary to make the experience enjoyable. There are also some hidden gems tucked away in the demo, as well.

When Valve releases anything, gamers will inevitably tear it open, looking for any traces of future games, such as Half Life 3, or Left 4 Dead 3. Despite how small the installer is for the SteamVR test, there are a surprising number of things that were left out of the demo. You can find them, if you know how and where to look.

Thankfully, the guys over at ValveTime have already done all of the heavy lifting for us. They've dug up the usual code strings with direct references to HL3. While that might seem exciting, they're nothing that hasn't shown up before, so don't get on the Half Life 3 hype train just yet. There is a new, updated model of Dog, from the second game, which while interesting, has been leaked previously.

Also dug up were some new textures for a character named "Retired Engineer" for Left 4 Dead 3. They're kind of creepy to look at by themselves, as they're just flat renderings meant for a 3D object.

While those things are neat, what's really interesting to see are demos of VR projects that Valve is working on. These include a demo where you'll shoot headcrabs, another where you can explore some areas of Aperture Science's labs. There are actually a lot of these types of incomplete demos. Unfortunately while they can be loaded up, they don't provide any sort of enjoyable experiences. Textures and character models are completely missing, and you can really only move around and interact with a few objects.

For all of the demos found, head over to ValveTime for their complete coverage of everything they've unearthed.