Burnout Dominator (PlayStation 2)

Burnout Dominator is the last game in the series to be released on the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. It is, in some ways, a "best of" of the series, bringing back a few elements of the series that hadn't been seen for a while, like a scaled-down version of Burnout Legends. One of these elements is Boost Chaining from the first two games. Crash mode, however, was removed, which didn't exactly please long-time fans of the series. It also removed online multiplayer, because... reasons?

Sub-Page#

Prototype Info

Build Information#

Stored at 0x2C62BC in all of the executables is the information about the build timestamp, and who initiated the compile.

Burnout Revenge Leftovers#

Pop-up Icons#

File Name: GLOBALE.TXD\Crash, CrashBreaker, RatingDown, RatingUp

The icon that displays when you crash, use the crashbreaker, or gain or lose your rating during an event. GLOBALE.TXD\Crashed is used instead for the crash icon.

Medals#

File Name: GLOBALE.TXD\medal_bronze, medal_silver, medal_gold

The Bronze, Silver and Gold medals from winning an event.

Crown#

File Name: ''GLOBALE.TXD\crown

It's a crown. It was unused in Burnout Revenge and returns here, unused once again!

Revenge Rank Bar#

File Name: GLOBALE.TXD\REVENGEbar

The bar that shows your progression through the current Revenge Rank.

HUD Elements#

File Name: GLOBALE.TXD\anchor, box_end, box_tile, ta_bg_end, ta_bg_tile

Online Multiplayer#

Present in the code are many strings and menus regarding online network play. This was present in the PlayStation Portable port, but in this port it was removed.

gNetwork
gLobby
ONLINEGAMESWON
ONLINETAKEDOWNS
ONLINEREVENGETAKEDOWNS
ONLINEOPPONENTSBEATINGINTDS
HUDOnlineRoadRageEliminated
Online

Crash Mode#

Interpolation Time (crash mode)
/Data/Export/ValueDB_PS2/CrashMode/BurnPickup.cfg
BurnPickup
HUDCrashTourTurnTitle
HUDCrashTourTargetTitle
GameModeCrashGolf
GameModeCrashBattle

"Golf" is a reference to how Criterion sometimes refers to Crash Mode as "golf with cars."

Leftover Props#

eCS_RoadSnowyCobbles
eCS_RoadSnow
eCS_OfflineSnow
eCS_Lava
eCS_CrashRamp

While most props are shared between Dominator and Revenge, these are not, but still remain in the game's files. eCS_Lava is not used in either game. Perhaps there was going to be a Hawaii stage at one point?

Burnout 3: Takedown Leftovers#

Crash Navigator#

USA
Europe
Far East

The names of the three regions in the Burnout 3 World Tour. These were also leftover in Burnout Revenge.

Unused Tracks#

Steeltown#

There are two unused variants of the track named Steeltown. In some ways more polished than what's left of this track in the PSP version. The sky color used in these earlier tracks is more similar to what's shown in the loading screen for Steeltown Works. (RK_22_V1.BIN\rk_22_v1\RK_22_Image01; 02; 03.tif)

• Internally named RK_21_V1 (Philadelphia – Long Forwards)
  • An earlier and much longer variant of the used Steeltown Works track.
  • Far more denser in vegetation than Steeltown Works.
  • Has a road that leads to Steeltown Hills which is otherwise an entirely cut part of the map.
  • Steeltown Hills has a cut Signature Shortcut that was repurposed for the Midtown Mayhem shortcut, as it shares the same ID (RK_21_1).
    • The yellow barriers indicating the shortcut is there don't appear, but the collision detection is still present.

• Internally named RK_21_V2 (Philadelphia – Long Reverse)
  • A slightly earlier and less polished variant from the Forwards track.
  • Uses the same sun flare that's used in Burnout Revenge.

Unused Vehicle Colors#

Most vehicles have 8 palettes, despite the fact that the game by default is limited to only allow cycling through the first 6 palettes, where it only contains 3 unique colors repeated twice. The last 2 vehicle palettes were originally reserved by Burnout 3: Takedown exclusively for Online Road Rage events and therefore are only in red and blue. Burnout Revenge also has the last two colors set to red and blue, but it doesn't block you from cycling through them all during the World Tour. Many Dominator vehicles also have those two colors as the last 2 palettes, on top of which 15 vehicles that are hardcoded to be blocked from cycling through vehicle colors, even if they have more than one unique color available.

These restrictions can be bypassed with the following codes, which work for all known retail releases. While some 7th/8th palette vehicle colors may appear identical to existing red/blue colors if there are any, they usually do have very subtle differences in brightness.

2018C7C4 00000000
002DE888 000000F8

All of the unused vehicle palettes

---

Classic Series

Factory Series

Tuned Series

Hot Rod Series

Super Series

Race Specials

Dominator Series

Unused Text#

Miscellaneous#

The results screen only shows how many Dominator Points are needed to unlock the next series, but the progress to unlocking menu screen damage seems to also have been meant to be shown on the results screen, which are unlocked at 2500 and 7500 Dominator Points.

All of the used loading screen tips are defined in the executable, but while one of them has a missing tip sequentially, the string still exists.

Cut Vehicles#

All the used series have exactly one removed car, but there are two completely cut classes as well.

The Offroad class also has its own title left over that would appear on the class select menu in the garage.

Cut Tracks#

There are a lot more cut track entries left over besides the already known Steeltown track. The RK tracks are for Dominator, whose codename during development was Burnout Reckless, but the LG, RR and RV tracks are uncertain. It's possible that they could stand for Burnout Legends which normally has 18 tracks and coincidentally has 17 entries, and Burnout Revenge which normally has 13 tracks (excluding Crash exclusive ones) and again coincidentally has 12 entries here, which could've been used as placeholder test tracks during development.

Boulder Colorado is the placeholder name for Glacier Falls.

While Red Gate and Carnival Point ended up being released on the PSP as bonus DLC, they still have unused placeholder signature shortcut strings.

Cut Rival Challenges#

Normally, there are only 5 different rival challenges that can be given throughout the world tour - Maniac Points (FE_​REWARD_​CRITERIA_​RECKLESSPOINTS), Drifting a certain distance (FE_​REWARD_​CRITERIA_​DRIFTEDMETRES), Chaining Boosts (FE_​REWARD_​CRITERIA_​BOOSTCHAINS), Near Misses (FE_​REWARD_​CRITERIA_​NEARMISSES), and taking down the rival (FE_​REWARD_​CRITERIA_​TAKDOWNSONDRIVER1), but there seem to be a lot more reward criteria that was likely planned to be used at one point. While some of these don't seem to fit as rival challenges (such as Hours Played), it's likely these would've been checked at the end of an event and also awarded a new car.

It's also important to note that these are separate from the existing trophy awards, which use an entirely different label format and also aren't written in past tense, but it's also possible these were eventually reworked into the final trophy awards. The game also seems to retrieve the existing reward criteria strings mentioned above during the car unlock cutscene, but doesn't display it anywhere.

For the record, the Gamer Points mentioned below are the early name for Dominator Points.

Cut Multiplayer Series?#

While there is nothing that explicitly states these strings are meant to be playable in the multiplayer series, these particular names use the string itself as the label to hash as the ID, just with all non-alphanumeric characters removed, the same way that all the existing multiplayer series names already do.

On-Screen Popups#

To do: A lot of these look like they're placeholders, but are actually used (for example BigMessageBadRevengeSlam2Part1: REVENGE SLAM 2), double checking needed!

Messages that are meant to pop up on screen like any other. A bunch of Burnout Revenge leftovers too.

Ad Hoc#

Some Ad hoc related strings meant for the PSP release are present.

Burnout HQ#

Some online DLC retrieving related strings also meant for the PSP release are present.

Unused Models#

To do: There are several more props that are loaded but never spawned, some of them being LOD variants of existing models. Confirm if those are actually never used (they are stored as separate models, not as LODs of an existing model).

Signature Shortcut Barriers#

Normally the game uses 3 barrier models, two of which look identical, where they have lights on top and one of them has an extra smaller barrier on top. Many tracks also have early variants of the shortcut barrier props that are never spawned.

Unused Graphics#

To do: The screen damage effect has a bunch of dirt/paint splatter-like textures that don't seem to be used.

Early Logo#

File Name: FEMAIN.BIN\su_mainmenu\Dominator_Logo, Logo_02.tif & Dominator_Logo_White.tif

This logo is technically only used for the XMB icon in the PSP version, however it is likely an oversight, as the PSP save icon uses the same logo as in the final release.

Pop-up Icons#

File Name: GLOBALE.TXD\Drift, NearMiss

Award Icons#

File Name: FEMAIN.BIN\c_screen\Icon_award_new.tif

Likely intended to be shown when a new award is unlocked and allowed to be achieved. In the final game every award is open for achieving.

Series Select Icons#

File Name: FEMAIN.BIN\wt_seriesselect\secret_seriesImage_01.tif

File Name: FEMAIN.BIN\wt_seriesselect\icon_new.tif, Medal_Bronze, Silver, Gold.tif

These four icons indicate that each newly unlocked series would display a star on it, as well as each series having a medal award of their own.

Track Select Icons#

File Name: FEMAIN.BIN\wt_eventselect\trackImage_RK_09, 13.tif

Placeholder icons for the Red Gate and Carnival Point tracks.

Signature Shortcut Icons#

File Name: FEMAIN.BIN\dd_rewards_shortcuts\Image_RK_09_SC1, 13_SC1, 13_SC2.tif

Placeholder icons for the Red Gate and Carnival Point signature shortcuts.

Record Breaker Background#

File Name: FEMAIN.BIN\rb_records\image_bg01, 02, 03, 04.tif

Normally only the EA Trax and the progressive scan menu has a background of its own. This, according to its filename, was intended to be used when viewing the records for the Record Breaker gamemode.

Checkpoint#

File Name: GLOBALE.TXD\check

Just like in Burnout Revenge, this game also has its own checkpoint texture that goes unused.

Unused Audio#

Early Menu Music#

MOVIES.RWS/PFEBG is a placeholder music track that was initially used before being replaced by Burnout 2002 Reprise. The track would have played on a loop whenever it was used, but the way it was looped is not known.

Unused EA Logo Audio#

MOVIES.RWS/PEALogo is a higher quality version of MOVIES.RWS/?EL (where ? is the letter for the language e.g. E for English, even though all those tracks are identical.)

Time Extension Sound#

RECKLESS.AWD/timeextend is the sound that plays in the PSP version on receiving a time extension in Maniac Mode. For whatever reason, no sound plays in the PS2 version when receiving a time extension.

Unused Loading Screen#

To do: Replace with gif (or a png, whichever works better). Does this even exist? Seemingly couldn't find anything like it.

C_Loading is a basic, placeholder loading screen with no hints or images.

Cut Gamemodes#

Oncoming Challenge#

Normally throughout the World Tour you can get a Burnout Challenge, Drift Challenge, Near Miss Challenge, or a Dominator Challenge (Maniac) event, but there's also an Oncoming Challenge event type which uses the World Tour event stage logic ID 11 that goes unused. Points are awarded when you drive on the opposite lane.

This gamemode can be loaded by using this code, which should work on all known retail releases. It replaces the 2nd event (Drift Challenge) in the Classic Series that takes place in Bushido Peak with Oncoming Challenge.

00654E54 0000000B

Zone Mode (Domination)#

References to a cut game mode, Zone mode, can be found within the game's executable, as well as having its own ZONEMODE.AWD sound container. The .AWD has been repurposed for the very 1st tutorial event (Glacier Falls Burnout Challenge), as it is the only container to have the tutstart, tutflash, tutbstrfl and tutend sound effects heard in that event.

It also has a zonestart sound file which sounds like a slightly slowed down version of the positive message sound (posmsg). zonestart, just like the four tut* sounds, isn't present in any of the other event .AWDs except ZONEMODE.AWD.

However, leftover strings indicate it the event was meant to be something like the Maniac gamemode, but having to specifically score points in a specific zone.

Signature Takedowns#

ALLSIGTAKEDOWNS
ALLSIGSHORTCUTS

In the final game, there are Signature Shortcuts. At one point, there were both Signature Takedowns and Shortcuts, and the former was most likely axed for difficulty reasons. This is supported by the fact that these strings are not leftovers from any previous game.

Debug Options#

Quickstart Menu#

A debug quickstart menu that lets you enter any map and gamemode. Toggled by pressing Start while in an event.

// SLES-54627, SLES-54681
// SLPM-66739, SLUS-21596
003BCFF0 00000080

// SLAJ-25094, SLKA-25260
003BCFF8 00000090

Garage Debug Display#

A debug display that shows information about the camera while in the garage.

// All known retail releases
004C1B69 00000001

Hidden Details & Trivia#

Award Achievement Names#

Most of the awards (internally referred to as Achievements) have generic names such as 25_​GOLDS and 500_​NEARMISS, but 6 of the awards have unique names, as if they were meant to be actual achievement names.

And several other awards' internal names don't match their actual use case. Some such as 100_​GOLD_​MED aren't even possible to achieve in the final game, since there are only 88 events.

Revisional Differences#

Text#

The Asian and Korean releases have a slightly updated MAINUS.BIN string hash ID array, where one string was changed.

Regional Differences#

Font#

The International version uses the "ITC Eras Std Medium Bold 17" font while the Japanese version uses the "Impact 16" font for the latin alphabet text.

To do: Compare the differences in English texts.

International	Japanese

dirtyEra.bin\dirtyEra 0	japan.bin\Japan 0

EA Trax#

By default in all other regions, the Japanese and Mandarin version of Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" is disabled, but in the Japanese version it's the opposite with the English and Spanish version being disabled.

International	Japanese