A Journey into TB:RB's code, unearthing secrets and more!

[boblybob]

Recently decided to dump my wii version of TB:RB (Which is perfectly legal if you own it!) and take a peek inside.

First thing I notice in the directory that holds the character models is quite suprising, right in between Birthday and Can't Buy Me Love.

birthday.milo_wii
blackbird.milo_wii
cantbuymelove.milo_wii

Gasp? I think so, the weird thing is it's in the folders for George, John, and Ringo, when it's a Paul solo song.
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I've also noticed an abnormality in the folders for the hair, clothes, body models etc.

There's the normal ones: Rooftop, Cavern, Shea, etc.
BUT then there's a folder for Revolver, which is weird since Yellow Submarine is the only Revolver song in the game that's in the studio.

Taxman and And Your Bird Can Sing use the Budokan files.

I've heard rumors from a friend close to Abbey Road, that Revolver has it's multitracks separated and waiting at EMI and was licensed at the same time as Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road, and Rubber Soul. And they were waiting to see what came of sales.
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The clothes folder is titled "Revolver01" and contains a few files, which I can't look at thanks to bmp_wii and milo_wii being unable to be decrypted.

3 clothes folders for Pepper, which is probably for Fixing a Hole and the others. A folder after '69 title "Straw", wonder what that could be, than again, can't view anything __wii, so who knows?

Another clothes folder titled "Love", is it for the remix album? REALLY wish I could view these. And nearly every folder has an export folder, hmmm.

Next in the models is the "Instrument" folder, which has a massive assortment of guitars, looking some of the names up, most aren't even featured in the game. Such as the Jose Ramierz acoustic, which was only used on "And I Love Her" and "I Need You" I think.

And John's Framus 12-string, used on "Help!" and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away". There are upwards of 30 guitars in the folder, and 8 basses, 8 Pianos (Including the Challen, Paperback Writer was the only on-disc song to use it, and that's in a live venue in-game, as well as a Vox Continental, pretty sure I never seen it in-game), and 2 drum kits, a Premier and a Ludwig, I'm not sure if I've seen the Premier in-game either, I know Ringo had one circa '61-'62, but not sure after that.
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Now, it's time to pay a visit to the models that make up the world of the Beatles Rock Band.

10 folders for EMI/Abbey Road Studios, one is default, before the dreamscapes kick in, the rest is just Harrison Hill, the Field, the Ocean, etc...

But now there, it seems to be another curious folder, "Greenscreen", upon opening, shows about 40 files, containing various files "Lucy's kaleidoscope effects, Within You's psychedelic haze, etc."

BUT, again, there is one by the name of "releanor.milo_wii", wonder what song that could be?

THEN, in the textures sub-folder of the same directory, "rigby_city01.png_wii". Maybe they're planning/planned an elaborate dreamscape for Eleanor Rigby? Similar to She's Leaving Home by the city title perhaps? Again, if I could open .png_wii files, I could share the dreamscape with you, but alas.

Next is another peculiar one, "space_gas_01.png_wii", haven't noticed any sort of space gas in game, "Across the Universe" anybody? Also found models titled "Earth", "Stars" and "Nebula", so that could back it up, maybe the Beatles playing with the solar system rotating around them?

Bunch of other effects, Oil splotches, various Vine and other foliage, Dust, Fog, Flames (When where there flames in game? Seems a tad angry )

Old film and film grain effects (Honey Pie please!), and a lot of bird, rays, and Indian effects.

Next folder (actually, it's more like 6) I stumble into, is a handful of folders known as "performancespace". (The stage area in When I'm Sixty Four, Girl, and Revolution) One is actually titled "performancespace02rev".

"performancespace04" is interesting, filled with different effects not seen in the 3 stages on disc. It has Gobos (Colored and shaped light projections), a "banner pole" and a "jack flag", probably go together to make a complete flag. One performance stage with a flower setup, and another complete with fog and flares. (It's performancespace02, the Revolution dreamscape has the same title folder, but with rev at the end of 02, maybe for Revolution 1? or 9?)
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Still got a bit more to ramble on about surprisingly, kudos if you've read through it all.

But I'm still sifting through the textures folder!
This one, is titled "shared", probably for more then one venue, first I go into "Birds", and find a crow model, hmmm, would go hand in hand I think with Blackbird.

Distortion maps: rain (Probably for WMGGW, but could be for the song "Rain"), sound waves (Keep seeing this mentioned, could it be the pulses on Ringo's drums in Come Together?), and underwater.

More "gobos" (Colored lights that project shapes, like the soldiers in Revolution), see the allright file from Revolution as well as it's soldier and fist, about 10 various "explosion" files, a factory, and a peace sign which is probably also from Revolution.
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Another folder, MidiInstruments perks my interest. Here, could be proof that RB3's keyboard, was, in fact, tested on Beatles.

It contains sound samples for Violins and a model for a Chamberlin. (Note: this is separate from the pianos the Beatles play, which are in the instruments folder, which in turn, is in the Characters folder)

It also contains a readme file

"The purpose of this file is simply to document the samples.

Neither the game nor milo care about this file. Consider this a "readme" file for the instrument."

Hmmmm.

[boblybob]

Now, bear with me, I might slip away from reality a bit as I try to close this. This could be either a crackpot idea, or a serious plausibility.

Remember those export files I mentioned?

Well, a good chunk of things in the Character models folder have an export folder with duplicate files (Crowd, Instruments).

HMX COULD be planning a supposed TB:RB expansion pack or something after RB3's release.

It seems weird to stop dlc so suddenly, yet mention nothing of it other then "We'll see". They could be waiting for after RB3, to incorporate it's features, since RB3 would sell terribly if Beatles also contained keys and Pro Mode, they wouldn't have a selling point then. They could then try and release something that won't be critically lampooned as a sell out.

It has the extra songs, utilizes the Chamberlain data to play keys, "Let It Be", "Lady Madonna", and "Hey Jude" would be perfect for it and would help sell immensely.

Use the export data to move the instruments in with new ones, improved Venues, pro guitar, pro drums (There is in fact, charting for cymbals and toms in the Beatles midis), and pro keys.

They have it all set, data from unreleased songs on-disc (Blackbird, Eleanor Rigby), references to Revolver, and a slathering of seemingly unused effects that could all fit new dlc.

Or...... I could just be looking to much into it all. You decide.

[gamegyro56]

Keys and pro mode won't be done without an engine overhaul. But the other stuff you found was really cool. Kind of like how they started with mo-capping for Norwegian Wood before the game was released.

What program(s) did you use to open and view these files?

[boblybob]

Keys and pro mode won't be done without an engine overhaul.

Which is what a separate game/expansion pack combined with the export data would do.

The only problem, though, is how to do it and not cause an uproar over selling out.

[ForeverBeatles]

I believe they were thinking ahead. HMX has stated they started working on Keyboard (Im not sure about Pro Mode though) when Rock Band 2 was released (September 14, 2008) I mean the paths between Making keyboard and developing TB:RB must have crossed. I'm sure they wouldn't released TB:RB without Let It Be or Hey Jude unless they had Keyboards in mind. Also the only way they could have keyboard without a major overhaul is if the dreamscapes and characters were exportable into Rock Band 3.

And nearly every folder has an export folder, hmmm.

Coincidence? Hope not

[BlueJayGuy]

BUT, again, there is one by the name of "releanor.milo_wii", wonder what song that could be?

THEN, in the textures sub-folder of the same directory, "rigby_city01.png_wii". Maybe they're planning/planned an elaborate dreamscape for Eleanor Rigby? Similar to She's Leaving Home by the city title perhaps? Again, if I could open .png_wii files, I could share the dreamscape with you, but alas..

It's OBVIOUS that they used the idea of Eleanor Rigby from Yellow Submarine to create that dreamscape...

[Shadowkiller11]

Certainly intriguing but to be fair many features and additions are always scrapped in a gaming development cycle. But still this might mean they don't have to spent as much time creating textures and effects etc if they do release extra DLC. I think if this gets locked then it might help crediblity.

[robbiecon]

Interesting discoveries. Of course, one could argue that some of the files have already been used. For example the Blackbird file may have actually been used for Her Majesty, where it is only Paul in the studio. Admittedly I don't kow why it would be under the other Beatles folders.

As for the instruments, I guess HMX wanted to have all options open and decided to develop graphics for all instruments. That way they would already be there, if required.

I think HMX probably has a lot of things on disc which was simply for a "What if?"
in case they chose to put certain songs in.

One thing I have certainly heard in game, when playing a song numerous times in a row (mainly Her Majesty) is that small sound bites from the White Album, such as Martha, My Dear are playing when it's loading the song up for a replay. So they would have definitely been included either on disc, or with the DLC as added loading soundclips. (please note the soundclips are heard within the actual song, the camera shows the switchboard room (or whatever it's called)) and then it goes into the studio, where Paul does his thing.

[RetroGaming]

The majority of the content has to be on disc for the DLC to work. Then they just have to reference those files when they release DLC, as opposed to including it in the DLC. This helps make the size of the DLC manageable. Basically all the dreamscapes use dreamscape elements already present on the disc, though not all of these elements are used in the on-disc songs. (For example: You can probably find the "She's Leaving Home" outfits on the disc, too, even though they are not used on disc.)

Really, all this helps us see is what Harmonix has/had planned for the game. The existence of the Revolver folder coincides with what they said about the last album being a toss-up between Revolver and Rubber Soul, and it seems that this would be the easiest album to release if they plan to do anymore DLC. However, they seem to have adequately planned for everything overall with the inclusion of so many guitars for the first five albums and data for "Blackbird" from the white album (I don't think it's a stretch to say that Magical Mystery Tour/the white album would tend to "reuse" effects, rather than require new ones). They really tried to cover all the fronts, which is interesting.

[BlueJayGuy]

One thing I have certainly heard in game, when playing a song numerous times in a row (mainly Her Majesty) is that small sound bites from the White Album, such as Martha, My Dear are playing when it's loading the song up for a replay. So they would have definitely been included either on disc, or with the DLC as added loading soundclips. (please note the soundclips are heard within the actual song, the camera shows the switchboard room (or whatever it's called)) and then it goes into the studio, where Paul does his thing.

I think that the bit of Her Majesty (when the song is loading) is from Blackbird and Mother Nature's Son.

Heres it's Mother Nature's Son:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZkVziQC3Uo

They are clever, because Mother Nature's Son and Her Majesty begin with the same chord

-2------
--3-----
-2------
0-------
0-------
0-------

You can hear it better in the Anthology version of MN'sS. Paul speaking inclusive.


They use Sexy Sadie takes, too.

Here is a list of the songs they used to do the loading screen;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIN6Sk5q2FI