Rock Band 3

Rock Band 3
Developers: Harmonix, Backbone Entertainment (Wii) Publishers: MTV Games, Mad Catz Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii Released in US: October 26, 2010 Released in EU: October 29, 2010 Released in AU: October 28, 2010 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused cinematics. This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has a prototype article

To do: Compare the audio files of the unused songs to their final counterparts, and see if there are any differences (ie, is the keyboard/harmony audio still mixed into the backing track?) Compare the coldasice_nobass to the final chart and look for any differences (outside of the obvious, of course) Investigate the debug files found in ui/dev_only/gen

Rock Band 3 is the third entry in the Rock Band series, and is notable for introducing a brand new instrument, the keyboard. It also adds a revamped, more realistic guitar controller, 3 additional drum cymbals, and 2 additional microphones. Good luck plugging those all in at once...

Jokes aside, many consider this game to be the pinnacle of the series, due in part to the aforementioned new instruments, as well as its large music library and thriving modding community.

Subpages

Prototype Info

Cut Song List

The game released with 83 on-disc songs. However, several songs were cut before release. These names are taken from the file table list from the game's files.

Burning Down The House*
Black Magic Woman*
Can't Get Enough*
Cities In Dust*
Crying
Dammit - Real Guitar*
Don't Stop Believin' - Keys
Do You Feel Like We Do*
Feelin Alright
For What It's Worth*
Hold On Loosely*
Let There Be Rock†
Love Is a Battlefield*
My Own Summer*
Proud Mary†
Rock And Roll All Nite (Big Rock Ending)*
Shining Stars - Keys
Somebody To Love (Jefferson Airplane)*
So Whatcha Want?†
Spinning Wheel*
The Final Countdown - Keys
The Thrill is Gone*
The Weight*
Through The Fire and Flames*

Songs marked with a * were later released as DLC.
Songs marked with a † were available either as DLC before this game was released or on a previous game's setlist.
All other songs have not been released.
Despite not making it into the final game, all of these songs have their respective album artwork in the game. The following songs were already available in previous Rock Band titles, but had some planned on-disc upgrade which was cut:

Dammit
Don't Stop Believin'
Shining Stars
The Final Countdown

"Dammit" eventually got its Pro Guitar/Bass upgrade.

Leftover Audio Files

None of these songs have midi files associated with them. However, the following songs still have their audio files left in tact:

Black Magic
Dammit
Don't Stop Believin'
Feelin' Alright
So Watcha Want?
Somebody To Love (Jefferson Airplane)
Spinning Wheel
The Weight

Don't Stop Believin' in particular is notable, as it was used as a test song for the Pro Keys instrument in development. The unused audio contains a mix that has the keys audio separate from the backing, and notably amplified, unlike the DLC version. However, the harmony vocals were not mixed into the vocal track, implying they were not charted, which would be unusual for a song authored for Rock Band 3.

A brief section of the Keys audio that would normally never be heard isolated in the DLC version.

Test Songs Info

Also among the songs list are testing songs used to test out features in the game. These songs also have hidden song info.

File: _budget_test
Name: HUD Budget Test
Artist: Huddy Hudbourne
Genre: Metal
Year Released: 1980
Album: Blizzard of Ozz

File: _invalid_version_test
Artist: T. Wrecks the Build
Genre: Classic Rock

File: runs_16s
Name: Runs 16ths Notes
Artist: HUD Zeppelin
Genre: Rock

File: sustains
Name: Sustains
Artist: HUD Zeppelin
Genre: Rock

File: _bre_test
Name: Crosstown Traffic BRE TEST
Artist: Jimi and the Hendrices

File: framerate
Name: Frame Rate Test
Artist: EricB
Year Released: 1968
Album Name: Frame Rate Test Album

File: vocaltrainertest
Name: Vocal Trainer Test)
Artist: Janis Joplin
Year Released: 1969
Album: Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits

Crosstown Traffic has a Big Rock Ending test here. However, the version of the song playable in the game does not have a Big Rock Ending on any instruments.
The test song "runs_16s" has its audio and midi in working condition. It is a mess of random notes on all instruments, "Crazy Train"'s lyrics, and higher quality audio for Roundabout on the Wii. It is in ui/framerate.

Beatmatch Test 2

Also unused in the songs folder is a test song simply called beatmatchtest2. Only the audio file exists. It appears to be a short, original instrumental song to test beat matching.

beatmatchtest2.bik

The mix appears to be: Stereo Drums, Mono Bass, Stereo Guitar, Stereo Vocals (silence), Stereo Backing. Unusual details about the audio include putting the count-in audio on the drums track instead of backing and leaving blank audio for parts that don't exist.

Strumtest Real Guitar

Like Beatmatch, this short song appears to have been made to test the Pro Guitar and Pro Bass modes. There is no associated midi with this test song either.

strumtest_real_guitar.bik

This mix is simply: Stereo Drums, Stereo Bass, Stereo Guitar. This test song also mixes the count-in onto the drum track.

Unused Sounds

The midiinstruments folder in the root of the game directory goes entirely unused. Inside midiinstruments/chamberlin is a single descriptions.txt file which describes the files relating to chamberlin.

The purpose of this file is simply to document the samples.

Neither the game nor milo care about this file. Consider this a "readme" file for the instrument.

ViolinsG1
0,31,33
9980, 37286

ViolinsC2
34, 36, 39
5245, 24793

ViolinsG2
40,43,45
9752, 27213

ViolinsC3
46,48,51
5479, 32878

ViolinsG3
52,55,57
34816, 78592

ViolinsC4
58,60,89
8064, 16304

ViolinsG6
90,91, 127
37641, 78336

These strange violin references refer to sounds in midiinstruments/chamberlin/gen/chamberlin.milo_wii. The samples appear to be a violin sound played at different pitches.

violinscx2_uc.wav_wii

violinscx3_uc.wav_wii

violinscx4_uc.wav_wii

violinsg1_uc.wav_wii

violinsg2_uc.wav_wii

violinsg3_uc.wav_wii

violinsg6_uc.wav_wii

Say it Ain't Clean/Dist

Though this sample exists in Rock Band 2, this is only referenced in sfx/gen/keys_fx.milo_wii as a .cue file. It has seemingly no relation to keys_fx, files which appear to control character animations.

RB3Temp

In the songs folder, there is a folder for rb3temp; a placeholder song folder with no music inside. The cover art for this "song" happens to be the cover for Foo Fighters' album The Colour and The Shape.

Removed Accomplishments/Goals

The game tracks your goals or achievements. The Wii version had goals removed for various reasons. One such accomplishment is the Hard Drive Filler.

The icon is still at its larger 128x128 size as opposed to the Wii's 64x64 size for accomplishments.

Hard Drive Filler also goes unused on other platforms, as the required number of songs cannot be reached due to an oversight. The game limits you to 3000 songs, but the on-disc Pro instrument training tutorials also count against this limit. As the goal requires 2999 songs to even appear in the menus, it can never be seen or unlocked.

The accomplishment "Just Another Band Out of Boston" also has an alternate icon, using the actual Boston logo, which isn't normally used.

The version that is used appears twice though, due to a typo.

Don't Mess Around

Since the song "Black Magic Woman" was going to be an on-disc song, there is still description data for the Pro Drum achievement associated with it. Called "Don't Mess Around", if the player got 4 stars or more on the song, the achievement would be unlocked. Since the song was released as DLC later on, this achievement can't be unlocked.

Feelin' Alright

The song "Feelin' Alright", by Traffic, was also a scrapped on-disc song. It has a Keys achievement associated with it. If the player hit 90% of the notes on Keys, the achievement would be unlocked. It is simply called "Feelin' Alright".

O.M.G Full Combo!

This achievement also exists in name only. It would have been awarded if the player hit 100% of the notes in a song on Expert without breaking streak. There is no graphic or unlock condition associated with this achievement and it can never be obtained.

Guitar Goals

Guitar Solos
There exist several achievements relating to percentage of notes hit and difficulties for Guitar Solos. None of these can be unlocked in the game.

Hammer-Ons/Pull-Offs Goals
Hammer it Home is one of the many hopo-related removed goals. For this achievement, the player is to hit all the hammer-ons/pull-offs without strumming on an unknown list of songs.
Like the guitar solos, there also exist various similar goals for HOPOs on all difficulties and various percentages which cannot be obtained.

Another achievement, named Hammer Time, could have been unlocked by simply hitting one HOPO without strumming.

Open Strummer
Possibly relating to Pro Guitar, the achievement Open Strummer was also removed. The player had to hit all the open strums in a song to unlock it.

Form Follows Function
This achievement would have been unlocked by going into overdrive and not missing a single note while on Guitar.

Misnamed Accomplishments

On the Wii version, the following graphic files exist.

acc_prokeys_rb3_shiftmaster_keep.png_wii
acc_prokeys_rb3_shiftmaster-copy_keep.png_wii

The first file is the lever icon and is actually used for the shiftmaster accomplishment. The -copy file was likely left over and contains the following graphic:

This icon seems to be from an old series of accomplishments not present in the game anymore. The style of icon is similar to the "number of stars" accomplishments which are unlocked normally in the game. This icon suggests it would be awarded by percentage of notes hit on a song.

Streak is also awarded for Keys. The following files exist for 100, 350, and 500 streak respectively.

acc_keystreak_keep.png_wii
acc_keystreakmedium_keep.png_wii
acc_keystreaklong_keep.png_wii

These are the normal accomplishments which carry over to Pro Keys. There is also an unused file called acc_keystreammedium_keep.png_wii which is likely a typo but also suggests a different structure to the streak accomplishments since it uses the 100-streak icon instead of 350 as the properly-named file reads.

The graphic for the Band Elitist DLC accomplishment appears twice due to a spelling error. It appears once as acc_band_dlc_elitist_keep.png_wii and again as acc_band_dlc_etilist_keep.png_wii.
The same happens for acc_dlc_appelemoimoncheri_keep.png_wii which also appears as acc_dlc_applemoimoncheri_keep.png_wii.
Also for acc_dlc_robbinbankswithasixgun_keep.png_wii which also appears as acc_dlc_robbinbankswithaxisgun_keep.png_wii.

Wii Speak Support

On the disc, ui\global\gen contains files relating to Wii Speak support. However, when the game released, support for the hardware had disappeared and the feature was cut.

Dummy File

In the wiikeyboard folder, a file called zzzzzzz.zzz can be found. It contains the following message.

This is a dummy file to work around a bug in the disk emulator software
in which it sometimes doesn't output the last 32K of the disk partition
data.  This file needs to be exactly 32K in size
This file should be removed once the bug is fixed.

Placeholder Awards

The text for 3 test awards can still be found in ui/locale/eng/gen/locale_keep.dtb. These humorous awards only exist in this file and can't really be unlocked.

(award_test1 "Placeholder Award 1")
(award_test1_desc "You earned some instruments, I guess?")
(award_test2 "Placeholder Award #2")
(award_test2_desc "You won a pony! A PONY I SAY!")
(award_test3 "Placeholder Award 3")
(award_test3_desc "You won a date with Dan Teasdale!")

Excluded Post-Process Effects

Inside the dotdot/dotdot/system/run/band/gen/band_objects.dtb file, excluded Post-processing effects are defined.

#define EXCLUDED_SONG_POSTPROCS ((all_deploy.pp
		failed.pp
		failing.pp
		intro_contrast_flame.pp
		intro_contrast_grey.pp
		intro_contrast_ice.pp
		intro_posterize_a.pp
		intro_test.pp
		override_blender.pp
		placeholder.pp
		savior.pp
		world.pp))

They're set to not be used in milo or midi venues in songs. If the list is bypassed, some effects still function. The intro effects could have possibly been intended to be used, since most of them function. Some of the other effects might only be used in certain cases like when failing or rescuing a player.

• 

  intro_contrast_flame.pp, a high-contrast effect that clips to black and light teal.

• 

  intro_contrast_ice.pp, a high-contrast effect that clips to black and light orange.

• 

  intro_posterize_a.pp, a posterized effect that clips to black and gray.

The effect placeholder.pp also appears to function as a subtle flicker, similar to a pre-existing and allowed effect.

Unused Song

Download Worstcase .mid file File: Worstcase.mid (280 KB) (info)

There is an unused song on the Xbox 360 version on a folder called framerate, and all files are called "worstcase." The song is The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes." The song has multitracks on all parts, but the .mid file is just a mess of random notes on every instrument except for vocals, which is ripped entirely from "Run to the Hills". The song was originally released as DLC for the first Rock Band a few years prior to Rock Band 3's release. The files also exist on the disc for the original Rock Band, along with a cover of the song by WaveGroup, the company responsible for the covers of songs on the early Guitar Hero games. This suggests it was also going to be a cover originally, rather than the master that was later used.

Unused Track

In the game's files, every instrument has its own track design. For unknown reasons guitar is assigned the bass track textures, so the actual guitar textures go unused.

• 

  watermark_guitar.tex, the guitar highway texture.

• 

  spotlight_guitar_track.tex, the 4x multiplier texture.

• 

  spotlight_guitar_track_emmissive.png, the overdrive texture.

The overdrive texture name also differs from those of the other instruments, as they are instead spelled "spotlight_(instrument)_emissive.tex".

Unused Video

An unused video of a guitar spinning in space. It's a looping animation, and its aesthetic matches those of the backgrounds used in the music video venues, so it's likely it was meant to be used there. However, this file is stored in the videos folder, whereas the other music video backgrounds are stored in world/venue/video. Additionally, this video is in .bik format, whereas the others are contained within a .milo_wii file. Finally, and perhaps strangest of all, the video file itself is named credits.bik (with the actual credits video being named rb3_end_credits.bik).

Oddities

Cold as Ice

A duplicate version of Cold as Ice can be found in the songs folder labeled coldasice_nobass. As the name suggests, this version of the song has no bass chart.

Let There Be Rock

The unused song Let There Be Rock is labeled as lettherebebre. The "bre" at the end implies that this version was going to have a Big Rock Ending. However, since the song already had a Big Rock Ending in both of its previous incarnations, it's unclear as to how this aspect of the song would've made Rock Band 3's version stand out.

Misery Business

For some reason, the files for the song Misery Business are labeled as miserybusiness2. There are no files labeled miserybusiness or miserybusiness1.

References to a song simply titled miserybusiness exist in the Rock Band 1 title update file config/xlast_macros.dta alongside other released DLC songs, including Crushcrushcrush, another song from the same album. The original miserybusiness was likely intended to release alongside those songs before it was cancelled and eventually reworked into Rock Band 3's miserybusiness2.

Put Batch Files...where?

Inside milo/script/batch is an empty file named put_band3_batch_scripts_here.txt. Ironically enough, there are no other files in this folder.

Rock Band "Real?"

Many of the game's files, most notably the midi files, refer to Pro Guitar, Pro Bass, and Pro Keys as Real Guitar, Real Bass, and Real Keys respectively. This suggests that the game's "Rock Band Pro" mode was originally going to be called "Rock Band Real."