Mac beta 4

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Revision as of 00:45, 3 September 2009 by Iritscen (talk | contribs) (filling in documentation of the BBB Oni scripts (I think this material will be merged with pre-beta content later))
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Although no PC betas are known to have been leaked, there are two alternate Mac versions that have been found "in the wild". One is definitely a beta, and has been called "beta 4" since its leak. It is unknown whether there were later beta versions or if this was the last one before Oni's release. Secondly, a version known as the "Big Blue Box beta", or "beta 5", which may not be a beta at all. Regardless of its actual version, both of these Mac "betas" have shed some light on the development of Oni.

Beta 4 (leaked during beta testing)

The application's version number is 1.0, as opposed to retail Mac Oni's v1.1, and its creation date is 11/14/00, which corresponds to the period of time that Oni was in beta testing.

Also leaked during beta testing was Oni's complete list of cheats. Some fans awaiting the game were intrigued by the "Developer Mode" cheat "thedayismine", but found it did not work in their retail versions of Oni. This code does work in beta 4, however. Later on, it would be discovered that the retail Mac (and PC) Oni still had Dev Mode in them, but the cheat that enabled it would need to be unlocked by engine patching; beta 4 is the only version of Oni observed to have Dev Mode freely accessible.

Also, this beta still had all the BSL functionality of the PC version; it had previously been thought that about 40 functions and about 160 variables were stripped from Oni for the Mac (listed here), since the Mac version is generally thought to have been finalized a bit later than the PC version. Having seen that the code was once present in the Mac binary, the community set about searching for it in the retail Mac version, and found it. Through hex editing, pointers to active variables and functions that were not of much use were diverted to point to some of the hidden and more useful BSL abilities. Those efforts have brought the retail Mac release into effective near-parity with the retail PC version; the changes made are documented here.

"Beta 5" (sold in German online store)

This version is v1.1, just like retail Mac Oni, and its creation date is 3/13/01, which, if accurate, means it is unlikely to be a beta, but rather a translated retail version, which would certainly agree with the version number. It was originally called "beta 5" by the community because it contains files that come from the development stage of Oni (although these files would likely have come from Oni's pre-beta era, to be exact).

This version of Oni was available as stand alone and also as part of a package of four games called the Big Blue Box, and sold only on a German website. It may no longer be available for purchase, but the product page is here. As in the retail Mac application, access to Developer Mode and many BSL functions had been removed, but this version had two very unusual features: the level0_Tools files, and some "lost" level scripts.

The level0_Tools files (in the usual .dat/.raw/.sep formats) contains resources used during development. The application does not actually seem able to use these tools in-game (in fact, the startup log explicitly records that Oni skips "tool files" such as this one), but the function of the tools was determined from examining their resources. If you're curious, you can download level0_Tools here. OniSplit can be used to extract the data into individual resources.

level0_Tools contains:
  • some furniture OFGAs (which are now baked into the environment of Oni's levels, as generic AKEV quads that are merely flagged as furniture)
  • some WMDDs that were used at some point to edit OBJCs and other BINA resources (helpful in reverse-engineering the BINA formats)
  • textures that were used for debugging, or for other more obscure purposes (the most notable such texture is Hapékat, a mask-less rendition of this little guy not found in-game, and now the depiction of our wiki's mascot)

Secondly, beta 5 contains a number of folders within the IGMD folder, which are not present in retail Oni either because (a) they provided the logic for levels that were used for testing during development, (b) they represent levels that were merged into other levels, or (c) they represent actual content that was cut from Oni in development. In total there are 10 folders not present in a retail Mac Oni installation. Each is matched with a string for a level name found in Oni's engine.

Merged and cut content

  • Airport_II. Level: Airport Part Deux (level5_Final).
The presence of this folder explains why retail Oni contains an "Airport" and "Airport_III" folder but no "_II". The scripts in this folder are very short and little of the level can be gleaned from them. However, a mention of the animation "KONOKOlev5_outro_run" allows us to pin down Airport II as the missing level 5 in the sequence of levelx_Final folders in GameDataFolder. This is consistent with Airport "I" being linked to level4_Final and Airport III being linked to level6_Final. So where did the level "Airport Part Deux" actually go? It was likely 1/3 of a whole, where Airport I and II are now each 1/2 of a whole; so, in fact, nothing has probably been cut here.
  • BGI. Level name: BGI HQ (level16_Final).
The most significant part of the extra folders in the IGMD folder. This level was likely intended as Konoko's final confrontation with the shadowy BGI. The scripts contain two cutscenes, one of which describes Konoko setting a bomb and taking cover, and the resulting explosion, and the other cutscene introduces the Iron Demon that would end up getting cut from the game. The number of the level indicates that these events would take place before Konoko returns to the TCTF to confront Griffin and after meeting with Kerr in the Science Prison.

Former arenas

All of these scripts' levels' names are numbered in the 30s, and since most of their names clearly refer to different kinds of multiplayer game modes, it can be assumed that this range of numbers refers to arenas for the canned multiplayer mode.

  • aop. Level name: Arena of Pain (level30_Final).
The script for this level simply creates three characters. Probably used either as a test of the AI, or of multiplayer.
  • cap. Level name: Capture (level34_Final).
The script here contains no illuminating information, however the name means it was likely a Capture the Flag arena.
  • CZ. Level name: Crossing Zone (level31_Final).
The script here simply spawns a character.
  • CZ_II. Level name: Crossing Zone Too (level33_Final).
The script here simply spawns a character.
  • pit. Level name: Pit (level32_Final).
Simply spawns four unidentified characters.

Test levels

The first level here is in the 30s, but its name pretty much pegs it as a test level.

  • ats. Level name: AlexTestSite (level55_Final).
The script is clearly for a test level for Mukade's teleportation (with a comment referencing the "bamf" sound effect of comic book fame).
  • SR. Level name: FiringRange (level71_Final) (probably; assuming "SR" = "ShootingRange").
The script here does nothing but start some unspecified environmental animations, possibly moving obstacles for the targets of the firing range.

Other

  • global. Interestingly, this version of Oni has a IGMD/global folder even though the Mac engine does not recognize scripts placed here.
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