Proto:Forza Motorsport/September 14th, 2004

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.

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this. Specifically: Capture screenshots of the differences with an Xbox. A development kit may be required.

A trial version of Forza Motorsport was released on demo discs between December 2004 and January 2005. It seems like this trial was originally intended to be only given to the press for video capturing and previews, as seen in this brief clip from IGN here, though was released as a demo disc likely done to compensate for the game getting delayed again in that same month. The trial is pretty basic, containing one track (Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca), 12 selectable cars - 4 of which customizable, and a means to replay the same track over and over again. This demo is almost identical for each release, just having minor differences in its Xbox executable file.

The Xbox executable reveals that this trial has a build date of 1.04.09.14.33360 (September 14th, 2004), a pretty close date to the start of the Tokyo Game Show - and before any delays were announced, further supporting the fact that this was always intended to be only shown to the press.

This trial can be found on the following discs:

• Forza Motorsport Demo (Europe/USA)
• Microsoft Game Studios New Year 2005 (Japan)
• Official Xbox Magazine Disc 38 - January 2005 (Europe)
• Official Xbox Magazine Disc 39 - Holiday 2004 (USA)

Differences

General

To do: Add the rest of the images

• A lot of stuff internally is different. The game's files have *.ini and *.xml files all over the place, which normally would be packaged together in *.cab files. Although *.cab files do exist, most of the files that aren't are temporary files for the Trial Version.
• The icon is completely different - using the same logo present in some early title screens. This is likely just a leftover before the game's reveal at E3, as the logo was already finalised at that point. This icon can't be seen by any official means either, you need an custom dashboard to see this icon.

Trial	Final

A higher quality version of this icon exists in media\Forza_Icon.bmp, and is called by a text resource description file in the same folder (TitleImage.rdf).

• There's no multiple languages in this build. This is noted on the game's loading screen.
• The disclaimer mentions a 2004 copyright instead of 2005.

Trial	Final
[[File:|300px]]	[[File:|300px]]

• After the Microsoft Game Studios screen, the E3 2004 trailer starts to play.
• The loading icon is different, showing a clock instead of a spinning engine.

Trial	Final
	[[File:|300px]]

• The title screen is completely different and a lot more basic.

Trial	Final
[[File:|300px]]	[[File:|300px]]

• All button prompts are centered instead of aligned to the left.
• All menu text is Arial font set to Nearest Neighbour.
• The results and pause screens have blue rims instead of silver.

Trial	Final
[[File:|300px]]	[[File:|300px]]

Car Selection

The car selection screen is in a much rougher state.

Trial	Final
[[File:|300px]]	[[File:|300px]]

• The backdrop is brighter and lighted different.
• There's no "SELECT CAR" or "My Profile" text.
• The border is smaller, which allows for the menu window to be bigger.
• The border rims are silver.
• All car class icons are much more basic, and don't show a number for their class.
• The bars indicating car statusses are just simple blue bars.
• The stat text is on the bottom.
• The car weakness icon is missing the two dots on the back of the car.
• The manufacturer logo is more off to the left.
• You can't select a car color.
• Toggle Ratings was renamed to Ratings.
• Selecting a car with bring up a message about how the full release has fully customizable cars. Selecting the first four cars on the list will automatically set a

Loading Banner

Only one loading banner exists, for Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca respectively.

Trial	Final

• All text and track info is baked into the banner.
• The text "DEMO TRACK" is written on the left.
• On the right is the game's title. This font is identical to an unused font seen in a later build.
• The image rim is blue instead of gray.
• The "metal casing" has its opacity turned down allowing you to see the whole backdrop. This rim is identical to one found unused in the final game.
• The track minimap has no corner numbers
• The backdrop is taken from a different location.
• There's no extra black space to the right.

Race

Trial	Final
[[File:|300px]]	[[File:|300px]]

• There's no music during gameplay.
• The "Place" text is smaller and located at a different place. The same can be said for the place numbers, which are more to the left.
  • The number of place you're at is smaller and moved away from the dash.
  • The total number of racers is bigger.
• The lap text is bigger, white, and not aligned with the rest of the timers.
  • The lap numbers are also at a different location because of that, with some slightly different sizing for the current lap and total amount of laps.
• Your best time and last time are already on the screen before you hit the 2nd lap.
• The opacity of the timers is higher.
• The handling number is raised slightly higher.
• The STM, ABS and TCS lights are closer to each other.
• km/h is noted as KPH.
• Holding Y to flip views doesn't hide all of the UI.

Trial	Final
[[File:|300px]]	[[File:|300px]]

• The front view camera isn't stuck in place and can be moved if you steer your car the other direction.

Pause Menu

Trial	Final
[[File:|300px]]	[[File:|300px]]

• You only have 4 options: Resume, Restart, Quit, and a removed option to turn on or off controller vibration on the fly.

Race Ending Screen

Trial	Final
[[File:|300px]]	[[File:|300px]]

• The info window is narrower.
• Quit was renamed to OK.

After you quit, you'll see 4 different loading screens before being brought back to the car selection screen.

Leftover Text Documents

Disclaimer.txt, SXQuery_EndRace.txt, SXQuery_EndScene.txt and shaders.txt are the same as seen in this build.

media\TrialDB\placeholder.txt

You can read.

placeholder to create TrialDB direcory

media\AI\DrivatarV2\SegmentProfiles\DoNotDelete.txt

An empty text document with a very strong message. This serves the same purpose as all the other placeholder documents.

Graphics

To do: gfx_carlogodisplay.xpr. ico_status.xpr. Gauge HUDs. Other stuff hidden in other folders/cab files.

Differences

FrontEnd\Bkgd_controller_port.xpr

The car backdrop (that was also used at some point for a feedback screen) was replaced with a fiber background and the Xbox controller was changed to a drawing of the controller. This graphic isn't visible in-game.

Trial	Final

FrontEnd\Bkgd_XL_main.xpr

The image inside the arc is different.

Trial	Final

FrontEnd\ico_CarDriveType.xpr

All car icons had thicker outlines and no dots representing the back lights.

Trial	Final

FrontEnd\ico_tracklogo_sm.xpr

There are far fewer variated track icons. Some have completely different designs or use different fonts. Only Rio de Janeiro, Road America and Road Atlanta are identical to the final game.

Trial	Final

Additionally, because of how short this list is, all icons are sorted vertically in the game's *.xpr, not horizontally.

FrontEnd\showroom.xpr

Used for the car's reflection in the car selection screen. The reflection image was changed completely.

Trial	Final

FrontEnd\Sym_ClassLabel.xpr

The class label uses an early and more basic design, and class R was changed to GT, GTS and P1. These numbered classes can't be seen in this Trial Version though.

Trial	Final

HUD\damage_hud.xpr

There's no outline and the HUD was changed to a topdown car.

Trial	Final

HUD\gfx_goarrow.xpr

The color of the arrow was originally green and doesn't have any glossiness.

Trial	Final

HUD\gfx_golight_yellow.xpr

The race start light was originally yellow and lacked any glossiness. The filename remains the same in the final game, not changing it to the color it should be.

Trial	Final

HUD\gfx_redarc.xpr

The arc was made longer.

Trial	Final

HUD\gfx_tireheat.xpr

The icon lacks outlines and had its size changed.

Trial	Final

Unused

Car.xpr / Credits.xpr

Two copies of the early Forza logo with a car in the background. The filename suggests this might've been an early car select screen or used for a credits sequence.

FrontEnd\ForzaPreview.png

A *.png file of the game's logo and ESRB rating. This may have been intended for a demo disc, but is placed among other frontend files.

HUD\GaugeV1.xpr

An early version of the gauge meters, predating anything seen at the game's reveal at E3 2004. The gauge has a silver outline, is much more blue and all other elements would've been put in small boxes. This somewhat resembles the early blue/halo style the game went for.

A rough assembly of what this gauge could've looked like can be seen below.

HUD\test_compression.xpr

Various HUD icons that were used in this case to test image compression.

Audio Differences

To do: Document sound effect differences.

Only one music track exists in this build, that being the music for the title screen. It's almost identical, with the only differences being that its audio file loops twice, and that one of the drum sections has its drums louder than in the final game. Listening to both of these clips with left-right audio channels will let you hear the difference.

Trial	Final	Comparison (Left = Trial, Right = Final)

Placeholder Video

A rather humerous placeholder video can be found in media\tracks\Flythrough.xmv and media\tracks\OpeningVideo.xmv. It shows the ending of the Forza Motorsport E3 2004 trailer before cutting away with text reading "Brought to you by the letter T", all edited in Windows Movie Maker. This was likely just as a means to clean up demo disc space and get rid of these two large video files.

This mention on the wiki was brought to you by the letter T.

Oddities

Credits

The credits is supposed to play the E3 2004 trailer in the background while the text scrolls. Everything in the background just stays black for some unknown reason.

<credits video="\FrontEnd\AttractVideo.xmv">
		<section left="60" top="0" width="520" height="480" velX="0" velY="-40" offset="0">

Duplicate Minimap

A duplicate Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca minimap can be found in media\tracks\Lagunaseca\HUD\Minimap.tga. This folder is otherwise empty and the minimap is identical to the minimap used for the trial.

QuickPreview Compressor

Present in media\tracks is a leftover batch script titled compressXBPs.bat. It's a drag-and-drop script that would generate compressed QuickPreview files in the XBP format. The software required to make this script work isn't here, making this useless.

@echo off
cd /d "%~dp0"
if not exist "..\..\bin\release\compress.exe" goto errNB
if ""=="%1" goto noparam
ren "%~1" "%~nx1.original"
call "..\..\bin\release\compress.exe" "%~1.original" "%~1"
rem for /F "usebackq delims==" %%f in (`dir /a:-r/s/b *.xbp`) do ren "%%~f" "%%~f.original" & call "..\..\bin\release\compress.exe" "%%~f.original" "%%~f"
goto success

:errNB
echo You don't have dev\bin\release\compress.exe - please get this file from SD
goto end

:noparam
echo drag some file onto this one to compress it
goto end

:success
echo done
goto end

:end
pause

Launching via XBE

Booting directly into the demo from a custom dashboard will remove the Exit Demo option.