The Secret Area Bungie Hid For 18 Years On Sandtrap In Halo 3

In Bungie's original source project file for Sandtrap in Halo 3, there's a whole secret area hidden away! It was most likely leftover from earlier in development of the map so let's get it restored and explore it!

Stay tuned!

[JJAB]

It's crazy to me to think that when MCC released in 2014 I was excited to be able to play Halo 3 again with people "like the good old days" of 2007 which at the time was 7 years prior. Yet now in 2025 7 years ago was 2018 and that feels like that wasn't long ago at all.

[TheMAZZTer]

Could have been used to generate lighting or reflection data for the main map using a lower-poly mesh to speed up build times (until the final build when they switched to using the final map). Or something like that. Don't know if that's even something that would make sense for this game engine.

Alternately maybe the author was keeping the old version of the map around for some reason. Maybe it sucked visual quality-wise so they decided to remake it, but the old version was kept around to ensure the layout and gameplay matched, and was named DO NOT DELETE so someone who didn't know wouldn't accidentally delete it before they were done with it.

[dVTHoR]

At this point, anything novel that gets revealed about Halo 3… is inherently awesome.

Best video game ever made.

[Mr_Spaghetti]

That's a PU (Parallel Universe). It's useful for when you want to beat Sandtrap in Halo 3 in 0.5x A presses by building up speed in the Elephant for 12 hours

[ZakRas]

Do Not Delete would likely be for 1 of 2 reasons;

1. Deleting it will break the map, it's easier to just accept memory will be dedicated to it than spend time trying to resolve the issue.
2. It was not to be deleted so that the map designers could keep a base/backup mesh of the maps exterior geometry/flow already laid out - so they could copy that as many times as they like to build the structures on, rather than build them then delete or try to edit them if they wanted to try alterations.

[incinerativemario]

Even as someone who knows almost nothing about programing, i know that claiming to delete a big part of a file labeled "do not delete" would have no effect, is a BOLD statement.

[bndyplays]

0:22 as much I want to believe the search is over I truly don't think what youve found the employee was referencing (unless there's something hidden specifically in that area you found)

[bubz]

i dont know if anyone else seen this before since i havent found a video of it but on Halo 3 xbox 360 theres a spot in the map on one of the structures that has a crevis and if you grab a sniper rifle and zoom in you can see the other player screen through that crevis

i remember finding this glitch with my cousin when halo 3 first came out

[ShadowDragon-cwwb]

Sandtrap looks so weird with blue skies.

[ShmeeGrim]

It's likely that extra terrain geo is a backup they kept around for editing reasons. Some of the stone structures are missing from it, so it could have been kept for making changes to the terrain without having to fiddle with those.

[TheRealLeonSKennedy]

*_Flashbacks of throwing mines until the invisible barrier and most of the map deletes itself fills your head_*

_Ah, those were the good days_

[WUSLOMAT]

I found this same thing back in late 2023 while working on a small tool for Blender — it was supposed to apply original textures to the models automatically.
I never ended up finishing it, though.
Funny enough, I also wanted to make a video about Sandtrap but never found the time. Glad you did — great work :)

[JamesTDG]

I imagine that someone could easily touch up this prototype version into a cool alt version of Sandtrap

[Romanicsm]

Maybe they intended it to be like Sandbox where the structures were all forgeable

[MetalZero_]

what always gets to me is that "unused" parts in any game may be void of anything but at one point the devs were walking all over that part many years ago😢

[Leftysrevnge]

5:32 I was about to say, it feels like one of those coding things where the piece isn't referenced or used or even part of the final release in any significant way, except if you delete it, everything breaks and no one knows why.

[RainbowBrainTumor]

Hey, great video as always. I think you should revisit the eXo arm glitch in Halo 3 but try to provide an explanation as to why it happens and why the game behaves so strangely whilst its in effect.

I've been searching everywhere for an explanation but have turned up nothing and i have no technical knowledge on Halo so it'd be great to finally know what causes such a strange glitch.

[ClaireRupika]

I remember that someone hacking the game already discovered that area by removing some invisible barrier and using a cheat to be inmortal, but i can't remember when it was released that video, but i remember that is here in youtube and it was way before the MCC.

[TEZAFIM]

maybe the developer tools they were using in 2006-2007 couldn't handle the full map, so they made a the other version to design the towers, minefield, and place the frigate out of the map before merging the 2 versions to create sandtrap, all we see is the pit of sand. but when they were working on it, the minefield and the towers and the frigate were on that "do not delete" version

[TheStrayHALOMAN]

I'd love a version of Sandtrap unearthed from the sand so we can explore the full buildings "Make it a remake of Temple from Goldeneye"