Burnout 5 (2007-02-22 build)

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Burnout 5 (2007-02-22)
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Build Info
Platform: Xbox 360
Compilation date: February 22nd, 2007
Also known as: "Feb 22"
Released publically: Yes

An early prototype of Burnout Paradise (then known as Burnout 5), compiled on February 22nd, 2007. It was found in a significantly damaged and initially unbootable state, due to the Xbox 360 devkit it was stored on having been used multiple times over. The build's restoration to a bootable state took nine months in total and was completed circa late 2019; however, it still has numerous unfixed issues.

Due to the fact that this build is still rather dysfunctional even after the amount of time for which it was tended to, a project to restore it to a completely working state is currently underway. See below for all known issues the build has, as well as the major files in need of repair or restoration.

Notable Differences

Burnout 5 Feb 22, similar to the Burnout 3 demo is largely considered the gateway of one development era to another. It still shines Burnout 5 on the surface but under it, a product more in the image of the final had already taken a lot of shape.

Drastically Different Lighting

In February 22, lighting looks in a rather completed state, with very different bloom and lighting effects being presented than the final product. A full timecycle is present with different times of day although night-time hours are likely not set up properly as it's still light. Whether this is intentional or not is unknown. Lighting that shares this same look was not seen beyond April 2007.

Drastically Different UI

The UI in February 22 is to no surprise, very different to that of the final game. It carries its own distinct look unlike earlier and later versions, and has some unique features not used in the final game, including the GPS breaking up when the player is hit. It carries lots of blue, red, and white.

More Detailed Crash Nav

The Crash Nav when accessed, is able to process and show more information than that of the final game's would. Each district of the map is highlighted and the filter can be adjusted to show things such as breakables the player has gotten, or other unlocks like the gutted wheels and crash blackspots. Hovering over an AI driver would provide some details about them including their car and location.

Early Vehicle Designs

While some vehicles are rather close to their final designs, a bunch still are visibly dated in terms of development standpoint. Various cars feature early liveries that are not anything like what they received in the final product, and some other vehicles still have designs that stand firm around November 2006, shortly into development. Vehicles in this era come in 3 pieces but it's unknown if they were intentionally able to break as such yet at this point in development.

Different Traffic Spawns

Traffic in this build has a different spawn pool per region than what is regular to the final game. Semis and larger vehicles present themselves in this build, and with debug tools in both the internal and artist versions the player can force any vehicle of choice into the spawn pool.

Earlier Map Design

The map seen here is closer to final, however is still marginally different in a lot of areas. The extended Motor City waterfront still features the massive oval track, but updated in model since earlier builds. In this time a lot of the map, especially the eastern half, still looks far more industrial and featuring a lot less points where the player was cut off. The entire railway can be ridden without blockades and the country club driveway is not gated off. The tunnel near the amphitheater is not here this early on so the play must access the countryside by means of the highway or roads far north and south. The various shops were now split into multiple parts, paint shops fixing the players paint, body shops repairing the player's mechanical damages, and part shops are also included allowing the player to equip any car with traffic checking for the ones that do not have it by standard.

Scrapped Progression

In this build, the game is presented with lots of singleplayer progression that is unlike anything the retail game had seen. On top of extended progression with more collectables present including hidden wheels and Speed Traps. The player would rather unlock licenses by completing Moving Violations, and on top of progressing through licenses, each car had its own form of progression with a series of violations for the player to complete in it. In a similar fashion to the shutdown system, drivers would appear periodically throughout Paradise City and the player would have to beat up a certain rival through events until they are afraid of the player of which they initiate a pursuit to obtain their car. Most of this progression was canned, only remaining a very basic shell of what is present in this build.

Scrapped Modes

This early on, classic style crash mode was still present in the form of Blackspots, although none are present on the map which is a possible side effect of having to use pieces from other builds. Pursuit mode was entirely gutted in favor of just taking out racers in Freeburn, and the races system seen in this build was also scrapped eventually. The player is able to spin their tires anywhere and start a race to any random landmark, with other drivers progressively joining in the race as it goes along. Road rage was started by beating up the AI drivers, but could not be started if the player's car has withstood too much damage without going to a repair shop.

More Detailed Damage

Although it is currently unknown what the damage model of February 22 is supposed to look like, it is known that crashes have more particle effects including the vehicle being able to burst into flames when wrecked, and that most likely every part was going to be able to detach from the car, which was later changed in the game's development for reasons unknown.

Major Issues

Inaccurate Collision

  • Caused by: Using the WORLDCOL.BIN (world collision database) of a Burnout 5 build from 2007-01-24; this WORLDCOL uses an older format to the one required by the 2007-02 build
  • Affects: Breaks world collision, Road Rules, AI behavior, player/AI respawning, roads and road types

Broken Deformation

  • Caused by: Missing/incorrectly formatted VERLET.RIG
  • Affects: Breaks vehicle body deformation, crash physics, collision during crashes

Delayed World Streaming

  • Caused by: Inefficient world streamer code; likely unfixable without heavy reverse engineering
  • Affects: Significantly delays world load-in times, causing extreme pop-up. World assets take 4-6 seconds to load when respawning or teleporting into an unloaded chunk

Broken/Disabled Progression Elements

  • Caused by: Unknown; these elements are possibly disabled by default
  • Affects: Renders it mostly impossible to progress through the game and unlock events/vehicles

Deactivated/Inaccessible Menus

  • Caused by: These menus are likely disabled via the executable
  • Affects: The Crash Nav, Junkyard wheel/livery selector, and likely more menus are inaccessible under normal circumstances

Other Missing Files

  • The files in question (wheels, textures etc.) were overwritten and made unrecoverable; see below for more information on those.

Overwritten/Modified Files

AI.DAT

  • Accuracy: Accurate
  • Recovery: Partial; 16384 bytes overwritten; file truncated
  • Info: Repaired based on 2006-11-13 AI file
  • Comments: Expected exact or near-exact accuracy to lost data

B5TRAFFIC.BNDL

  • Accuracy: Inaccurate
  • Recovery: Full
  • Info: Modified to remove dependency on lost vehicles by replacing them with closest counterparts
  • Comments: A better way would be to port the necessary files from another build

PVS.BNDL

  • Accuracy: Highly accurate
  • Recovery: Full
  • Info: Modified to fix out of memory error while in zone 234 by decreasing number of unsafe neighbors
  • Comments: Xbox 360 devkits with 1GB RAM may be able to use the vanilla file.

VERLET.RIG

  • Accuracy: Highly inaccurate
  • Recovery: Lost
  • Info: Made from scratch based on information in the executable
  • Comments: No counterpart in any known build; causes issues with deformation and game crashes

WORLDCOL.BIN

  • Accuracy: Highly inaccurate
  • Recovery: Lost
  • Info: 2007-01-24 file
  • Comments: Causes issues with roads, road rules, and likely more that's gone unnoticed

WORLDTEX.BIN

  • Accuracy: Inaccurate
  • Recovery: Lost
  • Info: Made from scratch based on 2007-02-22 TRK_UNITs, 2007-01-24 TRK_UNITs, final WORLDTEX, and a blank texture
  • Comments: Causes issues with textures

WORLDVAULT.BIN

  • Accuracy: Highly accurate
  • Recovery: Full
  • Info: 2007-01-24 file
  • Comments: File exists in image without FATX entries and is identical

SOUND/STREAMS/STREAMHEADERS.BUNDLE

  • Accuracy: Accurate
  • Recovery: Full
  • Info: Modified to accommodate final WATERFRONT.SNS
  • Comments: Uses XMA instead of XAS

SOUND/STREAMS/WATERFRONT.SNS

  • Accuracy: Inaccurate
  • Recovery: Partial
  • Info: Final file
  • Comments: XMA instead of XAS

VEHICLES/VEHICLELIST.BUNDLE

  • Accuracy: Inaccurate
  • Recovery: Full
  • Info: Modified to remove dependency on lost vehicles by removing them from the file
  • Comments: A better way would be to port the necessary files from another build

WHEELS/WHE_*_GR.BNDL

  • Accuracy: Accurate
  • Recovery: Lost
  • Info: Ripped from traffic vehicles
  • Comments: Identical to lost wheels in-game, with minor discrepancies in the files

WHEELS/WHEELLIST.BUNDLE

  • Accuracy: Inaccurate
  • Recovery: Lost
  • Info: Made from scratch based on 2006-11-13, uses ripped wheels
  • Comments: A better way would be to port the necessary files from another build