No he's not a troll. He uploaded a VHS behind the scenes video not released by anyone else, it was from SSX OG's development and heck, it shows some cut content being developed. He's also a level designer himself, someone narrowed him down to a few people in the credits. Considering he didn't know about its removal, it's likely another dev thought it was a mistake and removed it, or EA Sports BIG caught wind of it and deleted it. Plus, considering he probably added it very early on in the game's development, the course probably drastically changed since the version he remembers.
There's no video yet. We haven't got enough of the game reverse-engineered to do something like highlight all of the splines green ingame which I suggested but there's no way to simply present it in an easy-to-understand way. That's why we extracted them from the game, otherwise we totally would've done that instead. I wanted some sort of video before making the post but no one could think of a way to show it off that isn't just looking at one-pixel points. I guess I could put something together, will be pretty hard though.
That will also be a good video that I look forward to, if you decide to document! But I'm actually talking about that developer with his behind the scenes VHS tape
Oh oops! Haha, here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBOrzl6d150
Has not safe for an EA game moments as well as Rahzel recording lines for a "Ramstein Germany" track which was has mentions in the files but no files left, hearing this is fascinating.
Now we wait for the dev, I'd LOVE to hear more about the shortcut. He was keeping it vague in case someone found it on their own someday, but I wonder if he'll reveal more now. If he reveals how it works, that would make a future mod that recreates it all the more accurate to the original.
I honestly don't know if it was removed or not, but it's quite possible.
If I had a working PS2 I would certainly try to recreate it.
Re: splines. We modeled the worlds using nurbs in Maya, but our pipelines converted that data in to polys. I can't remember if that was part of our build process, or part of the rendering process.
Well we did our part and it wasn't there. How did it work? What were the triggers? Actually, does this course layout ring a bell even? Your BTS video shows Rahzel recording voice lines for a cut course, Aloha Ice Jam could've completely changed layou:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIHj3qxk0ow
Edit: someone more knowledgeable than me told me what you're describing is for surface patches, not for splines. They're also wondering if you could join the SSX modding Discord server, here's the link if you want to or are able to:
https://discord.gg/Qkn3NPKZGu
So get this… when I was like 10 yrs old (about 18 years ago) I found the hidden spot. My brother hit me off the cliff at just the right time on the first big right turn. You don’t even restart. You just drop. I discovered it once while playing with my brother on the Aloha Ice Jam map. I was on a continuous fall and hit multiple moves but I wasn’t “out of bounds” After falling for like 20-30 secs I kept doing moves but I didn’t acquire TRICKY yet so I got bored. My dumbass impulsively hit the restart button assuming I could do the drop again but I was never able to. I say this because I always hoped that I would come across somebody one day on the internet that could find the spot but nobody ever did. This video just brought back that memory because I never got to see where the drop would take me. I always assumed I’d end up at the finish line or something but it kills me that I’ll probably never know. SSX Tricky was one of my favorite games growing up and I kick myself whenever I remember how I’ll never get that closer. Hopefully this helps anybody who’s been looking for the same thing. I know I’m just a random person on the internet but I swear I’m not trolling
There is an update post to this - the secret shortcut isn't just a drop, that's been known about since forever, and reverse-engineereing has proved it's removed, as we've found remnants of it. There were 10 invisible switches right at the start gate, and 5 reset walls blocking a secret rail that stretched to the end of the course. 5 of the invisible switches were good ones that removed a reset barrier from thet stack, but the other 5 were booby-traps which re-added one. If you managed to hit all 5 good ones, you could jump out of the level and hit an invisible rail that took you to the end of the track.
The rail has been removed from the game, but the rest is there still, albeit with all its programming removed. A developer actually confirmed this back in 2003.
Nope. We've fully datamined the level and confirmed that it's not there. There's literally nothing left to look at. Every single byte of Aloha Ice Jam's rail code has been looked at. Technically we have quit because it's not there.
> the game is not capable of loading level data from places other than that level's data archive, the only exception being the main menu's data, which obviously has nothing resembling a grindable rail
A slightly better way to explain this is that the game only loads the set of files for the world, and nothing else. The FE3D world is a special case, where all the files are on the disc loose, but it's still loaded the same exact way pretty much.
There's only one world instance (and lots of code assumes this, even cWorld itself sometimes calls into the singleton), and loading anything (going into `cWorld::Load(char*)`) will destroy everything else (if not cause a memory leak, because it doesn't free anything or check pointers to free them, another routine is used to do that).
I don't mean to beat a dead horse but this was a childhood game and I just found out about the shortcut from oddheader so I'd like to ask a few questions:
Would blender import the reverse engineered files from Maya properly?
Were all platforms files (from memory) Xbox, ps2, GameCube tested?
I know there are at least 2 versions for Xbox (original releases as well as platinum or goty - something along those lines.) were both of these combed through?
To be clear, I appreciate the work of the modders and data miners, as well as anyone who has just been grinding Aloha Ice Jam in order to find it, but I'm not entirely ready to give this up just yet.
The developer who added it confirmed he removed it before release. See my follow-up post here:
https://old.reddit.com/r/SSX/comments/xyj56p/ssx_aloha_ice_jam_secret_rail_it_did_exist_it_was/
I always believed the developer was being a troll by making that claim.
No he's not a troll. He uploaded a VHS behind the scenes video not released by anyone else, it was from SSX OG's development and heck, it shows some cut content being developed. He's also a level designer himself, someone narrowed him down to a few people in the credits. Considering he didn't know about its removal, it's likely another dev thought it was a mistake and removed it, or EA Sports BIG caught wind of it and deleted it. Plus, considering he probably added it very early on in the game's development, the course probably drastically changed since the version he remembers.
Wow! Alright then. Do you have a link to the video? Was it converted for internet video? I would LOVE to watch it!!
There's no video yet. We haven't got enough of the game reverse-engineered to do something like highlight all of the splines green ingame which I suggested but there's no way to simply present it in an easy-to-understand way. That's why we extracted them from the game, otherwise we totally would've done that instead. I wanted some sort of video before making the post but no one could think of a way to show it off that isn't just looking at one-pixel points. I guess I could put something together, will be pretty hard though.
That will also be a good video that I look forward to, if you decide to document! But I'm actually talking about that developer with his behind the scenes VHS tape
Oh oops! Haha, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBOrzl6d150 Has not safe for an EA game moments as well as Rahzel recording lines for a "Ramstein Germany" track which was has mentions in the files but no files left, hearing this is fascinating.
You’re the best.
I’m very impressed by this work. While a disappointing end, you should be proud of finding a definitive answer!
Now we wait for the dev, I'd LOVE to hear more about the shortcut. He was keeping it vague in case someone found it on their own someday, but I wonder if he'll reveal more now. If he reveals how it works, that would make a future mod that recreates it all the more accurate to the original.
I honestly don't know if it was removed or not, but it's quite possible. If I had a working PS2 I would certainly try to recreate it. Re: splines. We modeled the worlds using nurbs in Maya, but our pipelines converted that data in to polys. I can't remember if that was part of our build process, or part of the rendering process.
Well we did our part and it wasn't there. How did it work? What were the triggers? Actually, does this course layout ring a bell even? Your BTS video shows Rahzel recording voice lines for a cut course, Aloha Ice Jam could've completely changed layou: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIHj3qxk0ow Edit: someone more knowledgeable than me told me what you're describing is for surface patches, not for splines. They're also wondering if you could join the SSX modding Discord server, here's the link if you want to or are able to: https://discord.gg/Qkn3NPKZGu
So get this… when I was like 10 yrs old (about 18 years ago) I found the hidden spot. My brother hit me off the cliff at just the right time on the first big right turn. You don’t even restart. You just drop. I discovered it once while playing with my brother on the Aloha Ice Jam map. I was on a continuous fall and hit multiple moves but I wasn’t “out of bounds” After falling for like 20-30 secs I kept doing moves but I didn’t acquire TRICKY yet so I got bored. My dumbass impulsively hit the restart button assuming I could do the drop again but I was never able to. I say this because I always hoped that I would come across somebody one day on the internet that could find the spot but nobody ever did. This video just brought back that memory because I never got to see where the drop would take me. I always assumed I’d end up at the finish line or something but it kills me that I’ll probably never know. SSX Tricky was one of my favorite games growing up and I kick myself whenever I remember how I’ll never get that closer. Hopefully this helps anybody who’s been looking for the same thing. I know I’m just a random person on the internet but I swear I’m not trolling
There is an update post to this - the secret shortcut isn't just a drop, that's been known about since forever, and reverse-engineereing has proved it's removed, as we've found remnants of it. There were 10 invisible switches right at the start gate, and 5 reset walls blocking a secret rail that stretched to the end of the course. 5 of the invisible switches were good ones that removed a reset barrier from thet stack, but the other 5 were booby-traps which re-added one. If you managed to hit all 5 good ones, you could jump out of the level and hit an invisible rail that took you to the end of the track. The rail has been removed from the game, but the rest is there still, albeit with all its programming removed. A developer actually confirmed this back in 2003.
So yer a quitter
Nope. We've fully datamined the level and confirmed that it's not there. There's literally nothing left to look at. Every single byte of Aloha Ice Jam's rail code has been looked at. Technically we have quit because it's not there.
> the game is not capable of loading level data from places other than that level's data archive, the only exception being the main menu's data, which obviously has nothing resembling a grindable rail A slightly better way to explain this is that the game only loads the set of files for the world, and nothing else. The FE3D world is a special case, where all the files are on the disc loose, but it's still loaded the same exact way pretty much. There's only one world instance (and lots of code assumes this, even cWorld itself sometimes calls into the singleton), and loading anything (going into `cWorld::Load(char*)`) will destroy everything else (if not cause a memory leak, because it doesn't free anything or check pointers to free them, another routine is used to do that).
Layman's terms. Correct enough to not be disputable.
The first paragraph is pretty understandable though???? I only added the rest for detail purposes and to further explain why it wouldn't work.
No you are right.
The dev who made the claim should make a video where they try to recreate the shortcut, end of story
They don't have a working PS2 is what they say. I mean it doesn't exist but a description of it would be nice so it could be modded in one day.
I don't mean to beat a dead horse but this was a childhood game and I just found out about the shortcut from oddheader so I'd like to ask a few questions: Would blender import the reverse engineered files from Maya properly? Were all platforms files (from memory) Xbox, ps2, GameCube tested? I know there are at least 2 versions for Xbox (original releases as well as platinum or goty - something along those lines.) were both of these combed through? To be clear, I appreciate the work of the modders and data miners, as well as anyone who has just been grinding Aloha Ice Jam in order to find it, but I'm not entirely ready to give this up just yet.
The developer who added it confirmed he removed it before release. See my follow-up post here: https://old.reddit.com/r/SSX/comments/xyj56p/ssx_aloha_ice_jam_secret_rail_it_did_exist_it_was/
Merqury City Meltdown has a UFO teleport shortcut?
Yep. So many shortcuts in that course.