DylanRocket has posted a video of the March 2004 build, with many, many differences to the final game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu8PXdyoAh4
wow that love the blue command posts. now we need to build the maps from that version.
inb4 I attempt to convert that Theed map to PC.
I commented this, but seriously, great find DylanRocket and Aden. This was pretty much one of the few things left to find for the demo scene of BF1.
really is that map available for download ?
And suddenly all of those theories about the Officer class have been turned on their heads. The clone Officer being a red ARC trooper and not the yellow-lined unit found in images (which was a prototype Pilot)? Interesting.
I'll have to rewrite portions of my retrospective in light of this video.
Quote from: Michaeluj on July 13, 2020, 07:04:19 AM
And suddenly all of those theories about the Officer class have been turned on their heads. The clone Officer being a red ARC trooper and not the yellow-lined unit found in images (which was a prototype Pilot)? Interesting.
I'll have to rewrite portions of my retrospective in light of this video.
Haha, I immediately thought of your retrospective when I saw this.
It's nice that new revelations come out after all these years though!
Yes, the retrospective is looking pretty good, probably close to finish. Right now, I think it's at the stage when I'm mostly concerned with polish and considering interview questions for any developers interested in responding.
Also, the document for BF1, alone, is now over 400 pages. Sure, much of that is just articles, but that's still a substantial piece of work!
This is absolutely fascinating!
I'd absolutely love to play those prototype map builds. Naboo and Geonosis particularly intrigue me.
I'm just amazed. I didn't think it would ever get discovered. This is great! :tu:
This is awesome seeing more of the proto maps since we only got glimpses of them in the early trailers & screenshots.
Seeing the IG88 model for the assassin droid class in action looks great on those older animations.
It makes me wonder what the alternate firing modes are like for the weapons used by the droids and clones.
Seeing this makes me excited about knowing more of the history behind each of the classes, vehicles, and maps! :cheer:
Quote from: SolarStorm327 on July 14, 2020, 02:29:12 PM
Seeing the IG88 model for the assassin droid class in action looks great on those older animations.
I never even knew they made an IG88 model. I kinda wish they used it. :( It looked great!
I did a complete playthrough on my channel on physical hardware, for a more detailed look at everything included.
https://youtu.be/nXkfpg5aXR4
I like the layout of the Theed map much more than the stock map - it feels more like a city. Agreed on the floor texture though.
Looks like they kept the majority of Dune Sea's terrain and restricted the map to the area where the Sarlacc was in the March 2004 build.
Hoth was pretty much locked down early by the looks of things. Interesting that the AT-AT wrecks remained instead of exploding like they do in the final game.
I wonder if weapon modes still work in the final game.
Quote from: Skinny on July 14, 2020, 03:29:57 PM
I never even knew they made an IG88 model. I kinda wish they used it. :( It looked great!
It's one of the few cut units still in the mod tools.
(https://i.imgur.com/pueVZCU.png)
Quote from: Dark_Phantom on July 14, 2020, 09:35:48 PM
I did a complete playthrough on my channel on physical hardware, for a more detailed look at everything included.
https://youtu.be/nXkfpg5aXR4
That moving aurora effect on Rhen Var is fab!
I noticed that the Dark Trooper has different shoulder plates. Even the IFT fighter tanks have double barreled laser turrets before switching over to the single barrel turret (they don't seem to have animated fins at that point either).
If this is the March 2004 version, do we know if any other version exists? Like maybe a August 2004 version to see if they made any major final changes before September's launch?
This is still cool though.
There is an August 3rd, 2004 build, but it's very close to the final build (which, despite releasing in September, is actually dated August 12th, 2004). I'm comparing those files with the release files, and the files do differ a bit from the final release files (Rhn1.lvl is larger in the earlier build, for example). I doubt there's any major changes since it's only nine days before the final build, but if anyone wants to take a look at it, I can send you the link. It seems like a warez group released this build of the game, so I wonder how they got a hold of it and whether or not they even realized it was an earlier build.
In other news, I managed to fix nab1.lvl! It turns out the data was fragmented, and the tool used to extract the build from the debug kit didn't recognize this, so most of the data in there was from something else (probably from one of the other builds on the kit like Destroy All Humans). I located the second half of the file by using the nab2.lvl file as reference. Thankfully, it wasn't further fragmented from there unlike a certain other game (irrelevant but I'm still really frustrated about it :P).
Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/2wuwxegav0fyxbz/nab1.lvl/file
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91iKAsr0Fg4
The map layout is basically just ripped straight out of TPM but with ruins placed around the map. MTTs are featured in the Clone Wars era and AT-AT's are in the Galactic Civil War era. Setting the Republic or Rebels as the attackers has no effect - the game still places them as the defenders for some reason, so no Alliance hovernaut. Overall, I'd say I prefer the final release's map, but I do like the inclusion of the MTTs in the early map.
My favorite part about this version of the map has to be how Gungans run around making this noise (https://youtu.be/KaoTwt35pGE?t=7). It really paints them as fierce warriors.
With nab1.lvl working, I think we now have everything this build contains. I looked for Bespin map files, but I couldn't find anything. Since Pandemic kept putting in placeholder maps for the Bespin maps in the Historical Campaign and Galactic Conquest, it's reasonable to assume the maps were far from completion at this point in development and were never compiled.
What's interesting to me is that this debug kit doesn't have any files from later builds of the game. I wonder if there might be another one out there containing later builds of the game or even SWBF2 builds.
For PS2, there is a series of demo discs called Jam Pack. In the Jam Pack 11 disc, there is a Battlefront 1 demo. The files inside _LVL_PS2 are dated 5/26/2004. The demo only includes one map which is Endor and only two SIDE files are available, being ALL and IMP which feature the rebel spy and the imperial officer.
It would be cool if we could get our hands on the entire thing with all the maps and sides, I'd love to see if there is anything else I could carry over into the retail game.
Lastly, I imported the spy and the officer into the retail version, they're available on every level except Hoth and Cloud City: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e7YN2OVsOPuY1OoSDPWsh5otsMiQgYxu/view
And if anyone wants the Jam Pack 11 demo, it's here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TZqwc5pxSEWkuU9H6bRvQoGVKKmGe3n4/view
I have a couple videos of the PS2 Jampack demo on my channel, you can drop the retail PS2 files into the game and they will mostly work. Galactic Conquest had a different revision there as well.
I have a "Demo" build of the game but it's dated September 30(?) 2004 I believe, and looks exactly like release with the gDemoBuild flags highlighted and only has Endor as well. Everything ingame also looks the same. It was an Xbox magazine disc from December 2004 (Conker was the headline game).
@DylanRocket, thanks so much for fixing nab1.lvl! I was able to pull a sound file out of it but noted that if there was any data it was corrupted and no headers. I figured if it's like the other files, it had LAAT gunships on Republic and MTTs on the CIS, nice to see it get restored (the PC version's flyby video had them).
By Rhn1, you mean the hill of death, right? ;)
No problem! I gotta say, I'm really glad that was the only fragmented map and that it was only split into two fragments. These other fragmented files from another game I'm dealing with are a huge nightmare to try and piece back together.
I never paid too much to the flyby videos before. Looking at them now, it's really crazy to see how much of that footage comes from these old maps. I always knew they showcased the old Theed map and starfighters on Kamino, but I never really noticed the differences in all of the other maps until now. I didn't see the MTT or LAATs in Naboo's flyby video though. Did they ever change the flyby videos with the updates they released by any chance?
I did notice the MTTs in the PS2 flyby video though. Speaking of which, it looks to me that the PS2's flyby videos are generally better representations of the stock maps. The PC version just lets you preview maps that you can't even play. Naboo: Plains is like the one exception for the PS2 flyby videos.
And yeah, I love that placeholder Rhen Var map lol
Speaking of flyby videos, there's a flyby video on the Xbox version that depicted a day version of Kashyyyk: Islands.
I must have gotten them mixed up. The general rule is that the PC version has the older videos, but there are some exceptions (Probably Naboo: Plains is one). The interesting part is that the consoles have a different set of flybys. The flybys were never updated on either platform when released, and I have the feeling it has something to do with the size of the movie files (my shell.mvs, with added unlockables, etc, is almost 1 GB in size, not to mention I added the tutorial videos to Tuteng). The way it is currently setup they'd almost have to send out the whole file again in an update. Not worth it, imo.