Colin McRae Rally 04

Colin McRae Rally 04
Developer: Codemasters Publishers: Codemasters (US/EU), FX Interactive (IT) Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox, Windows Released in US: March 4, 2004 (Xbox), April 2, 2004 (PC) Released in EU: September 19, 2003 (PS2/Xbox), April 2, 2004 (PC) This game has a hidden developer message. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

Colin McRae Rally 04 is another installment in the Colin McRae Rally series. Unlike the previous three games, this game has no official licenses from any WRC teams. All of the cars' liveries are either fictional or taken from championships other than the WRC.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Build Date

Console versions

PS2 Demo	PS2 Retail	Xbox Demos	Xbox Retail Europe	Xbox Retail US
Jun 18 2003 16:52:38	Jul 29 2003 12:10:34	Jun 18 2003 16:55:52	Aug 6 2003 11:34:36	Dec 11 2003 13:43:02

PC versions

Singleplayer Demo	Multiplayer Demo	Codemasters 4xCD release (1.00)	Codemasters DVD rerelease (1.00)	Other versions (1.01)
Jan 12 2004 17:22:10	Mar 11 2004 13:02:57	Feb 26 2004 14:11:56	Mar 22 2004 10:24:53	May 12 2004 16:52:47

Unused Graphics

CSRefMap.dds from PC/Xbox versions (also exists in Demo) just black and white version of environmental map with interior of the Microsoft building from DirectX SDK.

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USP.big (located in Data/FrontEnd, found in the PC/Xbox versions) contains 8 .dds textures for images with information about the full version of the game. On PS2 these textures are in .tm2 format and located in the Data/FrontEnd/USP folder. These images were used in the demo.

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Icons.big in the the same Data/FrontEnd folder has an unused control.dds file (with a duplicate in the same folder) in the PC version. This file is identical to the one from the Xbox version and presents a picture of the newer Xbox "Controller S" gamepad (used in the Xbox demo).

Another unused control.dds file also exists in Icons.big from Data/FrontEnd/FrontEnd, and shows a picture of the older Xbox "Duke" gamepad. This file also goes unused in the Xbox version.

unlocks.big (located in Data/FrontEnd/Podium) has 6 unused textures presented on each platform: un_tstx and unmirx (where x=1-3)

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FullCars.big (located in Data/FrontEnd/FrontEnd, only in PC/Xbox versions) contains 99_00.dds and 99_01.dds, which might be leftovers from the Xbox build for E3 2003.

Despite the PC version not supporting widescreen aspect ratio, it still contains graphics for it. Several widescreen adapted textures can be found in the file Icons.big (located in Data/FrontEnd). These textures are vid_w.dds and vid_w_gst.dds. FECarsW.big contains the same car preview textures as FECars.big, but in widescreen adapted form.

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pdB_11.big (located in Data/Frontend/Podium, presented on every platform) contains textures for a podium with an MG Metro 6R4, which was cut during development.

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Lancia 037 has two .big files for non-singleplayer modes in PC/Xbox versions (located in Data/Cars/Lan037/TWO_PLAY): lan037.big and unused lan_037.big with slightly different textures. Textures in lan037.big instead of "7" in their name used "2" for some reason.

lan_037.big	lan037.big

lan_037.big also has 3 additional textures.

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MGC Sebring Special also has two .big files for non-singleplayer modes in PC/Xbox versions (located in Data/Cars/MGB/TWO_PLAY): MGB.big and unused MGC.big, only three textures differs and some doesn't included in unused duplicate. Textures in MGB.big used MC2 in their names instead of MGC which used in MGC.big.

MGC.big	MGB.big

Also this car has MGB.TAG (in Data/Cars/MGB), no other cars have in their folders files with that extension.

Unused Text

Developer Notes

readme.txt.txt (located in Data/Sounds/FrontEnd, only in the PC version) contains information about the quality of the used music files.

Music Loops are 44Khz Stereo.

XBox were 22Khz Stereo. (they were 44Khz until very late in development)

Whole_E.Lng contains unused strings with humorous descriptions of the game's rallies. They are the same in every release except the US Xbox one, where they were rewritten to be more professional.

Other Versions	US Xbox
Here lives trees aplenty. Baby it's cold outside. Anyone for a cup of tea? Yee haa! I'm a cowboy! It's like Greece lightning! Throw another kangaroo on the barbie! Feel like Gulliver in the land of short people. Shake those maracas!	Fastest rally in the world. From ice to snow to gravel. Tough event with diverse roads. Flowing stages with twists. Toughest rally in Europe. Demanding forest rally. Asphalt rally through rain and mud. Fast and dry asphalt rally.

Cut Cars

The game executables (on every platform) contain strings mentioning a Mini Cooper S:

Mini Cooper S
Cooper.tag
COOPER

This car appeared in Colin McRae Rally 2.0 and went on to return in Colin McRae Rally 2005.

Strings mentioning the MG Metro 6R4 can also be found:

Metro 6R4
MG Metro 6R4
6R4.tag
6R4

This car appeared in the previous two games and would return in Colin McRae Rally 2005. Also this car had podium graphics (same as presented Colin McRae Rally 2005, which reuses a lot of assets from this game), which means that this car was modeled and textured, but still was scrapped, probably due to licensing issues.

Also, those cars have mentions of its .tag files, which are absent in game.

Some cut cars also can be found in text files from Data/Strings. The MG Metro 6R4 is also mentioned in them.

MG METRO 6R4
VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE CLASSIC
RENAULT CLIO

A Renault Clio and a Volkswagen Beetle (though in New Beetle RSi form) appeared in Colin McRae Rally 2005. There are the only known mentions of these cars in the game, which suggests they were cut early on.

Platform Differences

• The PlayStation 2 version lacks online multiplayer.
• The PS2 and Xbox versions have native widescreen support, but the PC version doesn't.
• The PS2 version has downgraded visuals: downscaled textures, lower resolution (511×512 instead of 640×480 on Xbox), simpler reflections, no support for anti-aliasing, and simpler environments (for example, trees will have their foliage swaying on the PC and Xbox versions but not on PS2 version).
• The PC version (except SIngleplayer Demo) lacks interactive music themes in menus, when console versions has this feature.
• For unknown reason some sound files were encrypted in PC release. Almost all releases used next key string from game executable:

82CB9825DA6F44d3818A0D094EF56D992243769F343B49a5A95059FFB166E12B
B6E9F3BD2EFC4be9A9F5F4E4CDD9DE90D4889955FC8F493086A51B4DFC187D95
A311660D1E594c4f81681C1704BC17EEA321031611E440a6A4A7328889B91A31
A6C612518C524069BCE9B058E11BE6552D011CA42F664a2bBDADCD70B669A112
DC44C010E000409aA8937B6F21541B6088DF7BFD4A6F43788639EE4C0A2AA003
1B5833E46379443092837C1645C147F4332726E4C9414cae84148389086D7A36
4FDEF5D1524B462b87AFB05C1ED5D60FA67D928BBA824395A93ED0527814DF06
A67D928BBA824395A93ED0527814DF06C53304CD2E0E4520BFB5F3827B408189

Although, some releases used other key and their sound files also were reencrypted.

Planned PS2 US Version

A US version for PS2 was planned, but was later scrapped. The only remnant from this unreleased version is OSD_NTSC.INI from DATA/OSD, which is present in the European version. This file contains data about rendering parameters for 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios.

Regional Differences

Xbox US vs. Europe

surfaces.big (located in Data/Sounds/Surfaces) slightly changed in US version. In this file in later US release was added surfaces.cfg.

Also in the US version, flags.dds was added to Data/Textures, showing a crudely-drawn flag of England. Probably a placeholder of some sort.

stats.inx in Data/media in the Xbox version was slightly changed. Only one string was modified at 0x0000030C:

Europe	US
AppTitle=""	AppTitle="434D0010"

Revisional Differences

To do: Add pcgamingwiki link as source for this info

• Later game received patch 1.01 (czech release also get additional 1.02 patch), which fixed and expanded some network functions. Almost all rereleases were arleady prepatched to 1.01 version.
• Some releases are DRM-free versions: DVD rereleases from Codemasters (1.00); FX Interactive and CD Projekt (1.01).

Sold Out Software/OEM Club3D version

• In Sold Out Software/OEM Club3D rerelease (1.01) contains slightly different shaders.big file. Despite all shaders files inside are the same, all files get next strings in beginning with path of source code:

 d:\prj\codemasters\CMR4\VERTEX SHADERS 

or

 d:\prj\codemasters\CMR4\PIXEL SHADERS 

and with used tool

 Microsoft (R) D3DX9 Shader Assembler 4.09.00.1126 

Polish version

• Polish version has a lot of files different.
• Almost all changes related to localisation: all non-english codriver voices were changed to polish codrivers, some graphics and videos also changed to polish language.
• Car sounds files also changed, because polish executable used another string key for xor encrypting of sounds. First 1/4 of key is same, but other string is totally different

82CB9825DA6F44d3818A0D094EF56D992243769F343B49a5A95059FFB166E12B
B6E9F3BD2EFC4be9A9F5F4E4CDD9DE90D4889955FC8F493086A51B4DFC187D95
1049B530CA2F7220F7145F73EC35E45F532C744A777E2F2DF21E5975C33E974D
152D1B433F1A1F65C67F6A39653DAA756B3BE62CED2461599C209A2E4165543C
322FC67232066459A07FE214E946607E8746DF5C205E6E1B8436B069920AAD61
4D340965AF071835FC106724953AAE75AA3E505B3C2BD0634033DC42F01DEA23
8A6D745A056155258D50DA25C6227C701B49690CAE633E20A4719F3DDB58940A
4F28D83EBF52745C494B5C06197CF52C5D0F9C472305B34BC624B9540D0F754E

FX Interactive version

• FX Interactive also has a little differences.
• times4W.TXT (from Data/Drivers) has only one change: string diff_vhard used value "1.04", when original version used value "1.0".
• CreditsI.txt (from Data/FrontEnd) in FX Interactive version fixed some non-translated to Italian language portions of text.
• Strings (from Data/Strings) also have some non-significant changes. Only files with Whole in name were modified.

Czech version

• This version get exclusive patch 1.02, that fixes some localisation issues.
• Also exists limited edition branded by an OMV rally team, that contains exclusive OMV livery for Peugeot 206.