WipEout HD

WipEout HD
Developer: SCE Studio Liverpool Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Platform: PlayStation 3 Released in JP: October 29, 2008 Released in US: September 25, 2008 Released in EU: September 25, 2008 Released in AU: August 11, 2008 Released in KR: November 11, 2008 This game has unused code. This game has unused modes / minigames. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has revisional differences.

WipEout HD is the eighth installment in the WipEout series.

H2H (Head to Head) Mode

This game mode was planned during the earlier stages of development, but was scrapped. Re-uses H2H HUD elements from WipEout Pulse. Can be easily restored by editing line 42 of the file:

data00/data/plugins/frontend/gui/racebox_definition.xml

replacing <aEntry> and </aEntry> with <Entry> and </Entry>. Available in racebox menu as a mode option after. The mode crashes the game if either 2097 or WIP3OUT HUD style is selected, but is otherwise fully playable.

Ghost Viewer Mode

Its purpose is unknown, but it was most likely a way to watch the ghost files recorded when doing Time Trial and Speed Lap events. Can be restored by editing the same file as with H2H mode, doing the same thing with “Ghost Viewer” entry. Crashes the game.

Tigron and Van-Uber

Despite apparently never being planned to appear in HD, the voice lines for these teams are still in the game files to this day, right next to all the other teams.

Zone Shipwreck

There is an unused model of a wrecked zone ship in the game files. It was used at one point, but was then replaced with a destruction effect. It can be seen used here.

Weapon Menu

It was possible to select which weapons you wish to include in your race. One would press the square button in the race setup menu (Racebox and Online) and choose which weapons to include and exclude, however you weren't allowed to have less than 4 weapons enabled. Can still be accessed by editing

data00/data/plugins/frontend/gui/racebox_definition.xml

on lines 107, 112, 118 and 121 (Racebox).

Respawn Disable/Player Limit

You could disable respawns in online races and limit the number of players who could join your lobby. There are icons and code references to that functionality. Unfortunately, it can't be restored in the current version of the game.

Spliscreen Online

There was a feature planned where you would be able to play splitscreen online. This is obvious from the online packets structure which has space for two PSN names and a player count bit, as well as from lines id="ONL_P2_START_JOIN" string="PLAYER 2, PRESS START TO JOIN GAME" and id="ONL_P2_START_LEAVE" string="PLAYER 2, PRESS START TO LEAVE GAME" (source: lines 1577 and 1578 of data/plugins/languages/american/entries.xml).

Ranked Play

There might have been a ranked online play mode planned, evident from lines id="ONL_RANKED" string="RANKED" and id="ONL_RANKG" string="RANKED GAMES" (source: lines 1589 and 1590 of data/plugins/languages/american/entries.xml). Ranked online play would put you in lobbies with people of around the same rank as you. Online rank is an implemented feature in the release version of the game. There would also be an unranked quick play option, evident from the line id="ONL_PLAY_NOW" string="PLAY NOW" (line 1583 of data/plugins/languages/american/entries.xml).

Obscure Textures

There are several strange textures in the game files. These textures can also be found in WipEout Pure assets.

On the left is photo of a kitten, which is cropped and horizontally resized from the original photo Kitten and scales by Greg Cuddiford. Likely randomly taken off the internet by the developers. original source.

On the right is a photo of Phil Harrison, former long-time executive of Sony Computer Entertainment.

Unused Sounds

There are a lot of unused sounds in the latest release of the game. The release narrator saying “Welcome to WipEout HD”, “Studio Liverpool” etc., and some of the old male narrator voice lines, which some could refer to as The Beta Male. The Beta Male also has some track description lines that would play before the race starts, similar to how it was in WipEout Pulse. There is no known way to restore this functionality. The Beta Male, however, is still used for post-race placement announcement in some versions of the game. The lines were likely replaced by the female announcer lines in the Fury DLC.

Shuriken and Repulsor Weapons

Stats for these weapons are still defined in

data00/data/xmlweaponstats_race.xml

and

data00/data/xmlweaponstats_elimination.xml

Perhaps the code for these weapons is still in the game, however restoring them is impossible without the source code. These weapons are replaced by rockets when dropped.

Revisional Differences

The ship and track select screens were different before the Fury expansion pack was released. Can still be accessed in demo version of the game.

Pre-Fury	After Fury

Pure/Pulse Leftovers

There is also a lot of code and files that are left from Pure and Pulse, some are used, some are not. Namely, the file ``data/plugins/frontend/gui/skin.xml``, which is the root of the entire frontend, is a modified XML file from ``WipEout Pure``.

(Source: ThatOneBonk (Majority of Research, Screenshots), ChaCheeChoo (Research, Documentation))