Notes:Motorstorm: Apocalypse

This page contains notes for the game Motorstorm: Apocalypse.

ms3/scripts

This folder contains a series of "scripts", more akin to configuration files, detailing several aspects of the game logic.

cache_preload.xml

This file has no special xsd defined inside and is essentially a list of a large sum of the rpk's of the game. Possibly meant to load when hitting going back to the main menu, given several boot-critical rpk's are missing.

debrislist.lst and roadfill.xml

To do: Check if changing the roadfill.xml file leads to crashing, or if foreign objects can be spawned on the track this way

Unsure about what the former does, but the latter specifies some of the models and employed to litter the tracks. They seem to be related

debrislist is a flat file, while roadfill.xml is a simple xml file with three elements and a known attribute for each.

<RoadFill>
  <Group name="somegroup">
    <Object name="rf_item01" />
    <Object name="rf_item02" />
    <Object name="rf_item03" />
    ...
  </Group>
</RoadFill>

screenrush.xml

This file defines the properties of the particles that can be seen when driving through any given area. The file is a standard xml file with no associated xsd, containing a main "ScreenRush" element, with definition elements underneath. Each one of them has the following properties: ZRange, Radius, Life, Speed, Density, RollSpeed, FadeBand, VelocityStretch, StretchFade, MinimumFade and StretchFadeInSpeed. This could be a leftofver from MS2, it's configured exactly the same. This game is full of red herrings after all.

viewportquality .xml

This file parametrizes viewport scaling, particle effect quantities, LOD biases and other performance-related postprocessing depending if the game is displayed in 3D mode or in 2D mode, or if splitscreen is enabled. Given there were some visual differences between the 3D and 2D modes back when it was being demoed around it could be interesting to research further.

filemanifest.cfg

A plain file containing every file that is found on the game. Including the unused ones. Needs more testing whether or not this is parsed at boot. Resarch unfruitful on this one. Trying to parse one of the E3 config files will make it look for files outside the manifest so... I've got not a good way to know.