Nov 2009 Open Beta

This is a sub-page of Proto:ModNation Racers (PlayStation 3).

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion.
Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

To do:

Document the debugging features that can be enabled in USEROPTIONS.XML
Document the secret music editor, if it can be enabled.
Document if the Career Mode exclusive characters can be loaded in the beta.
Document any assets from ModNation Racers November 2009 beta used in PlayStation Vita's ModNation Racers: Road Trip.

This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

An open beta version of ModNation Racers, originally opened for testing on November 24th, 2009 for PlayStation Network users from both North America and Europe. The game predates the retail build by 6 months and 1 day.

General Differences#

The build displays a permanent "Exclusive Beta" watermark, which is poisitioned at the top center of the screen.

Please elaborate.
Having more detail is always a good thing.
Specifically: How is it different?

Beta Handling	Retail Handling

The handling of the 2009 beta is completely different from the one in the retail version, being closer to the handling in the previous builds of ModNation Racers, including the E3 prototype from mid 2009.

Beta ModSpot	Retail ModSpot

ModSpot has some notable differences in the 2009 beta of the game. An example of this are the walls behind the "Top Mods" and "Top Karts" sections. These have a yellow background, with white tribal designs coming out of a white fading square. In the retail game, this design is changed by walls with the traditional racing checker design. The walls behind the top Mods and karts are also different, being a white background with a yellow star within a circle of the same color, while in retail, these are colored gray. The design of the stands for the top Mods and karts is also changed; in beta, these look similar to a podium, while in retail, these are just red squares. There also wasn't a waterfall between these two sections of ModSpot. Other than these, ModSpot is left unchanged for the most part.

Beta Character Creator	Retail Character Creator

The Creation Station in the beta is not much different from the retail version, with the only changes being the camera, UI, and music.

Beta Race UI	Retail Race UI

The race UI in the beta isn't much different from the retail version either, although some things are different.
- The icon of proximity for a weapon will showcase different icons for the approaching weapon in the beta.
- The boost meter is more round in the retail version than in the beta

Cosmetic damage to the vehicles#

In the 2009 open beta, karts do actually suffer from cosmetic damage. Unlike on the retail version of the game, the kart would get dirty, muddy and scratched if the body interacted with the environment. There is also mentions about this specific feature of the game located at DATA/ROM/VEHICLE/SYSTEM/DIRT. It is unknown as to why this feature was entirely cut from ModNation Racers.

Unused Features#

Rejected music editor#

The game contains a hidden music editor which was planned for the retail version during its development to further expand the creative aspect of the game. However, this feature was rejected, and then went unused. It was later fully deleted from the final build of ModNation Racers. This can ONLY be found on this version of ModNation Racers, as the files for it only exist in this beta, but there's the possibility that other currently uncovered builds of ModNation Racers also have this feature, either complete for use, or still in a primitive state. By the looks of it, the music editor is in very rough shape, quite possibly due to this relying on unexistent assets.

Quick Race#

Quick Race by default is disabled in the ModNation Racers 2009 beta, however, Quick Race can be enabled by changing a setting in USEROPTIONS.XML, allowing the player to play races offline against AI instead of repeating the same cycle of driving in Time Trial mode.

Use of beta elements on different games from the franchise#

The open beta uses assets that were later used for the PSP release of ModNation Racers, developed by San Diego Studio. Among these reused assets, there are the UI elements, Creation Station music, and elements from the story of the game like Espresso's Grudge Match, which is present in the beta for ModNation Racers, but was entirely cut from the final game, while it's present in the PSP version.

Beta Track Creation	PSP Track Creation

Beta Race UI	PSP Race UI

The open beta also uses some assets that were later used for ModNation Racers: Road Trip on PlayStation Vita.
- The menu sounds, most specifically the notification sounds from the beta, were used in ModNation Racers: Road Trip.

Unused characters#

The beta for ModNation Racers contains the files for various characters that went unused on the beta, located at DATA/ROM/CHARACTER, including amongst them the 15 Elite Mods from the Career Mode of ModNation Racers, as well as Career Mode exclusive characters such as Tag's crew chief, Tag's mother, Richard Short, Monkeyatto, Gary Reasons and Biff Tradwell, among others. The Elite Mods, and most of the Career Mode exclusive Mods have very little to no differences to their retail counterparts, except for Gary Reasons and Biff Tradwell, which present a lot of differences, despite their cutscene counterparts saying otherwise. One of the beta designs, specifically the one for Gary Reasons, was used for an in-game billboard art in the retail version of ModNation Racers.

Crew Chief	Mother	Richard Short	Richard's Assistant	CM Tag	Cop	Detective	Monkeyato

Some of the pictures for these characters present odd lightning, as if the light was shining from their back rather than from the front, some others present no transparent background, and very few like Biff Tradwell present corruption.

Biff Tradwell	Gary Reasons

Some of these characters are completely functional and can be used on the beta if one modifies the contents of DATA/CAREER/PUBLIC_BETA_CAREER.XML.

Unused Graphics#

Unused loading screens#

Located in DATA/FE_KART are 4 unused loading screen files (LOADING_CAREER.GFX, LOADING_CREATION.GFX, LOADING_ONLINE.GFX and LOADING_TRACK.GFX), which could be potential leftovers from the ModNation Racers alpha stage/E3 demo. Attempting to load the files in the 2009 November beta will crash the game. In the retail version of ModNation Racers, attempting to load the files will work, but loading screens will become infinite, and the loading percentage won't be visible at all.

The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess textures#

As well as on the retail build of ModNation Racers, texture files for Link from The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess can be found in DATA/CHARACTERS/LINK/TEXTUREPACK.TEMP.BIN