Milestone 15 Build Features

Art Cutoff: January 8, 2003

CD Delivery Date: January 15, 2003
Last Update: January 8, 2003

Will not ship

Will ship partially completed

 All level art complete

 Time-of-day changes complete for level 4
 Geometry and texture differences for levels 4-7 complete
 All Halloween specific characters appear in level 7
 All interiors completed and in game
 All special effects in all levels complete
 All generic pedestrians modeled
 All collector cards placed in all levels
 All breakable cameras placed in all levels
 All death volumes placed in all levels
 All terrain tagged in world art
 All interactive gags working in the game with animations and placeholder audio

 All story missions in game

 All race missions in game
 All bonus missions in game
 Tutorial mission working
 Attract mode working
 Final in-car camera tuning for all vehicles

 Continuation of FMV work on FMV #1 through FMV #7 (will continue to Feb 28)
 FMV pipeline established for all 6 SKUs
 Logo FMVs complete for all 6 SKUs
 FMVs are playable during gameplay, and trigger after the appropriate missions
 End credits FMV available in F/E (placeholder)
 All new phone booth screens and functionality complete
 All rewards (bonus cars, clothing, etc) available and working
 All final loading screens in game
 Presentation flow re-design and implementation complete
o Start, success and fail for story missions and street races
o Reward acquisition
o Collector card acquisition
 Dynamic loading strategy for HUD elements (phone booth, card presentation) in place
 Secondary mission objective HUD elements complete
 All English text in the game
 All user state (missions completed, rewards obtained, etc) saved on memory card
 Language select screen complete
 Language auto-select working (taken from console locale settings)

 All mission conversations working

 All character specific ambient animations for mission conversations in the game
 All mission 2D images in game
 All in-car character animations playing correctly
 Auto-reset when player car flips
 Interior gag camera cuts working where applicable

 AI vehicle implementation and tuning complete

 Traffic improvements made
o Wheels turn when car turning
o Varied speed
o Swatches
o Dynamic loading for neighbourhood specific traffic
o Brake lights
o Improved turning
o Fading
 Death volumes working, both in car and on foot
 Occlusion volumes working
 Shadow volumes working
 All terrain tagging effects working
o Sound effects
o Skid marks
o Particle effects
o Friction
o Rumble
 Lamp post lights disappear when lamp posts knocked down
 Tractor beam behaviour for final mission
 Shadow subsystem leaks fixed in ATG
 Mipmap tuning on PS2 complete

 All audio in game with the following exceptions:

o Voice will be text-to-speech if not yet recorded
o Interactive music may be synth if not yet recorded
o Licensed music not yet delivered from the publisher may be represented by placeholder music
 Sound events for when player hits a traffic car (dialog)
 Reverb working on all platforms
 Audio ducking working, with independent parameters for each sound effect
 All mission events needed for interactive music changes are correctly triggered in code
 Dolby Surround Sound integrated into the game
 All final sound effects in the game
 Final engine sounds in the game
 Placeholder interactive music in place for all missions
 Placeholder audio for all gags and FMVs in place
Important Dates and Milestones after January 15:

January 15:
 Game 100% complete
 No changes to game code or content, except as needed to fix bugs or resolve TRC issues
 Game is ALPHA

February 28:
 All crash bugs resolved
 All bugs resolved that will prevent EA CQC from testing the entire game
 All known TRC problems addressed
 Game is BETA
 Submit build to EA CQC process (NTSC)

March 14:
 Submit build to EA CQC process (PAL)

March 31:
 All known bugs addressed
 All CQC-reported TRC problems addressed
 EA CQC approval received (NTSC)
 Game is FINAL
 Submit to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo (NTSC)

April 15:
 EA CQC approval received (PAL)
 Submit to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo (PAL)

May 1:
 Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo approval received (NTSC)

May 15:
 Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo approval received (PAL)
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Milestone 9 Build Features

 6 CDs burned: NTSC and PAL on all platforms

 PAL build process and directory structures complete
 Firewire build working

 2 Levels
o Level 2
 Final geometry, terrrain, and full representative textures on 2 adjacent zones and the 3
surrounding rails
 As much geometry, terrain, and textures as possible on the remainder of the level.
 Several examples of instanced objects, created with Cary’s instancing tool
 Several examples of dynamic objects that are meant to move around the world
 Several examples of bounding volumes laid down with Cary’s fence tool
 One world animation
 Baked lighting on part of level
 Initial shadow map complete
o Level 8 (test track)
 8 driveable vehicles at once with ability for player to switch

 Logo movies at startup using new movie player on all platforms

 FE pipeline fully in place
 HUD elements partly complete
o All on-screen HUD elements complete for 1 and 2 player modes, except art for overhead map
o Pause menu with continue and quit; can cycle indefinitely between game and frontend

 Dynamic loading nominally working, loads and frees continually with unconstrained user movement
through the world
 Collidable object properties can be specified in the pipeline using the art DB
 Fence runtime completely working
 Car shadow working
 Main player character shadow working

 Engine sounds working and changing based on RPM

 Player car skid sounds working

 Out of car interaction example in a real level

o Simple jumping puzzle
o Character moves vertically and horizontally on animated platform
o Character triggers animation of moving platform with a button
o Character plays animation to push activation button
 AI traffic cars (at least one) using real pipelined road data
 Demonstration of mission system allowing a single mission to be played
Milestone 10 Build Features
Art Cutoff: August 8
CD delivery date: August 15

 Suburb level
o Geometry and terrain complete with 1st pass textures
o Geometry optimization partially complete
o Partially populated with moveable and breakable objects
o Bounding volumes complete
o Track data completely laid down
o Sample world object animation
o Baked lighting and shadow maps complete
o A single interior completely modelled and textured
o Single NIS gag animated
 Seaside level
o Geometry and terrain complete with 1st pass textures
o Geometry optimization partially complete
o Some bounding volumes complete
o Some moveable objects
o Some track data laid down
o Baked lighting and shadow maps complete
 8 cars built and tuned and driveable in the world
 5 walker characters available for play

 Can play the first few missions of Level 1

 Game demonstrates all mission types (chase, evade, collect, go to, destroy)
 Game demonstrates ability to initiate, succeed, and fail at missions
 Vehicle AI for missions completed (chase and evade)
 Missions unload and load into memory correctly
 Mission begin/end presentation complete: fades, loading screen, B&W freeze frame (time permitting)
 Mission restart works correctly (all moveable objects and mission elements reset)

 Front end NIS (the living room) with camera animations completed
 Front end 2D screens and functionality partially completed
o Main menu
o Multiplayer setup
o Multiplayer choose character
o Options
o Options: Controller config
o Options: Sound
o Pause menu (single player and multiplayer)
o Game Over (single player and multiplayer)
 Final fonts for front end and HUD completed
 HUD final art completed
 HUD map auto-generating in the pipeline
 HUD map displaying correctly, with relevant game objects
 Loading screen displaying for both F/E to game and game to F/E

 Music system complete with 1st pass music

 Music changes for: player in car, player out of car, player in an interior
 Sound effects working with some placeholder sound effects
 Locator based directional sounds working with 1st pass sound effects

 Moveable and breakable objects working in game

 Placeholder AI traffic driving in world

 Animated bounding volumes working

 Billboarded alpha quads working
 Instanced objects are loaded and represented in memory correctly

 Collectible cards displaying

 Can pick up a collectible card and have the pause menu reflect the inventory of cards
 Character behaves correctly on moving platforms
 All out-of-car functionality for jumping puzzles complete: character collisions, push buttons, etc.
 Car hailing system demonstrated (without NIS or presentation elements)

 Can enter and exit one interior

 Interior door entry/exit presentation works
 Rendering of outside world turned on/off correctly when inside interior
 Interior gag NIS plays correctly

 Pipeline for all world data except SFX (missions, collectibles, sounds, H2H data, etc) complete
 All loading happening asynchronously
 All memory allocations being captured and directed to an appropriate heap
 Can quit a level and restart from the front end without crashing
 Death volumes pipeline complete
Milestone 11 Build Features
Art Cutoff: September 6
CD delivery date: September 13

 Level Art
o Suburbs
 All geometry, tracks, and final textures completed
 All collision volumes in place
 All moveable objects in place
 All breakable object in place
 Geometry optimization step complete (all geometry at final poly count)
 3 interiors in the level:
 Final geometry, collisions, and character animations
 Final textures
 All hailing points (phone booths and bus stops) modelled and placed
 All local world spheres completed
 All collectible cards placed in the level
 All food icons placed in the level
 All destructible cameras placed in the level
 All death volumes placed in the level
 Light maps and shadow maps complete
o Downtown
 Initial track layout complete
 Dynamic loading load triggers placed
 Terrain modelled
 Key exterior landmarks placed in level
 Few textures
 Some fine geometry (e.g. awnings on buildings) not complete
o Seaside track finalized
 Dynamic loading
o Local world spheres draw at correct times
o Load cancels caused by quick turnarounds working
 Environmental mapping on cars complete
 Main car shadow in game
 Main player character shadow in game
 Billboarded alpha quads working
 Boulevard heaps integrated into dynamic loading system
 Shared level-wide textures correctly sorted into a statically loaded P3D file
 Skid marks drawing on the terrain
 Particle effects for skids on different terrain
 Particle effects for character dashes
 Collectable system completed
o Cards, food, and all other collectibles are rendered correctly in the world
o Front end correctly reflects current inventory of cards
 All action button functionality working with animations playing
o Telephones: Can activate them and the HUD presents a menu of cars to hail
o Doors to interiors: Enter and exit NIS character animations playing
o Cameras / power couplings: Can destroy them and have this reflected in HUD, mission data, etc.
o Switches in jumping puzzles for moving platforms, etc.
 3 interiors in the game and working (Simpsons House, Kwik-E-Mart, School)
 Interior gags playing correctly, with randomization
 All frontend screens complete
o Options
o Memory card screens
o Collector card screens
 Can select levels 1 through 7 in front end (may need to duplicate Suburbs in pipeline for now)
 All mission data and scripts for Levels 1, 4 and 7 (Suburbs) complete
 All mission presentation features in place and working with actual missions
 Character gets in correct side of car (driver or passenger)
 Dialog system working
o Dialog system pipeline complete
o Sample dialog incorporated from Road Rage and Skate and used in-game
o Ability to approach characters in the world and talk to them.
 Memory card loading/saving completely working
 Pedestrians in game and walking around the world
 Environmental / ambient sounds playing for suburb level
 Environmental / ambient sounds playing in one interiors
 Interior sound effects for at least two interiors
 Some final sound effects in game
 At least one car with final engine sounds (final source samples and tuning)
 Fence run-time completion
 All mission presentation aspects complete
 Mission flow functionality adjusted
o Start level in sunday drive mode
o Upon failing a mission, reset the mission to the starting position and go to mission instruction
screen
 Mission restart (with object reset) completely working
 All presentation aspects of car hailing system complete
 Final AI traffic driving around in world
o Designer-specified density control
o Intelligent driving on road networks (at intersections, etc)
o AI traffic goes into physics simulation mode correctly when hit
 Special effect pipelines all established and implemented
Milestone 12 Build Features
Art Cutoff: October 8
CD delivery date: October 15

 Level Art
o Downtown and Suburbs
 All geometry, tracks, and final textures completed
 All collision volumes in place
 All moveable objects in place
 All breakable object in place
 Geometry optimization step complete (all geometry at final poly count)
 3 interiors in the level:
 Final geometry, collisions, and character animations
 Final textures
 All hailing points (phone booths and bus stops) modelled and placed
 All local world spheres completed
 All collectible cards placed in the level
 All food icons placed in the level
 All destructible cameras placed in the level
 All death volumes placed in the level
 Pipeline for all special effects complete
 Shadows for all cars in game
 Shadows for all characters in game
 Billboards working
 Skid marks drawing on the terrain
 All particle effects in the game
 Environmental mapping on cars complete
 Pedestrians in game and walking around the world
 All collectible effects working correctly
 Local world spheres rendering correctly
 Z sorting working correctly and efficiently in the rendering engine
 Load cancels caused by quick turnarounds working
 All mipmap levels tuned
 Texture tile optimizations being performed in the pipeline (new P3D tool)
 Water rendering effects complete
 Traffic and prop fading rendering effects complete
 All special effects associated with collectibles complete
 All particle effects complete
o Car
o On-foot character
o Other particle effects (?)
 Audio incorporated into interior gags
 Mouth flapping and eye blinking working for conversations
 Mission restart (with object reset) completely working
 Car reset resets car to closest reset point
 All mission data laid down for levels ??, ?? and ??
 Skinned collectibles working (e.g. monkeys)
 Weeble effect on cars complete
 Traffic density controllable by the Watcher (?)
 Car door opens and closes for character entry/exit
 Car behaves correctly on animated bounding volumes
 Car brake stands and burnouts working correctly
 Car encounter with steep terrain handled correctly
 Toon line rendering on landmarks complete
 Mouth flapping implemented in all cases where it is to be used
 Eye blinking implemented and working on all characters
 Boss missions functioning, except final boss mission
 Damage states fully working on all player cars and AI cars, complete with textures, damage levels, and
particle effects.
 Player getting hit by a car handled and presented correctly
 Death volumes with reset working for both in and out of car
 Ability to go to any level, any mission from pause menu
o Loads other level if necessary
o Starts selected mission in post-presentation state (i.e.at the mission load instruction presentation
screen)
 Cheat input system completed
 Ability to save and load a game to a memory card complete
 All TRC related handling of memory cards completed (corrupt, missing, yanked cards, etc)
 Some first pass engine sounds in game
 Text-to-speech content integrated into dialogue system
 Some first pass collision sounds in game
 Logo movies final for both PAL and NTSC
 Randomization of some dynamically loaded textures (for changing sign gags, e.g. church)
 Improvements to vehicle AI (chase and evade) functionality as requested by the designers
 Can play FMVs in game
 Ability to jump to any mission from the front end
 Ability to jump to any mission from the pause menu
 Final AI traffic behaviour implemented
 Abstract base class for DSG-contained objects (?)
 Physics properties from art database being used
 All breakable effects incorporated into the game
 Camera collisions handled correctly (on foot, in car, and in interiors)
Milestone 13 Build Features
Art Cutoff: November 8
CD delivery date: November 15

 Level Art
o Downtown and Seaside complete with new track layouts
 All geometry, tracks, and final textures completed
 All collision volumes in place
 All moveable objects in place
 All breakable objects in place
 2 interiors complete for Downtown
 2 placeholder interiors for Seaside
 All interior gags complete for Suburbs and Downtown
 All hailing points (phone booths and bus stops) modeled and placed
 All local world spheres completed
 All collectible cards placed in the level
 All destructible cameras placed in the level
 All death volumes placed in the level
 All lighting and shadow decals complete
o Special effects for Suburbs and Downtown complete
 FMV #2 40% complete
 FMV #3, #4, #5 animatics complete
 Damage states for all driver vehicles complete
 Environmental mapping complete on all vehicles
 All AI mission vehicles complete
 All in-game character animations complete
 All missions for levels 2, 3, 5 and 6 complete and running in game
 Final rendering of visible collision volumes
 Camera shake working
 Camera collisions working
 Special camera setup for conversations working
 Death volume reset working, both in car and on foot
 In car character animations triggering correctly
 Occlusion volume runtime incorporated into rendering system
 Pedestrians and NPCs jump out of the way of player’s car
 Player’s car hitting other characters being handled correctly
 Car door opens and closes correctly for car entry/exit
 Car reset working
 Car auto-reset working
 All driving engine code changes complete
o Special code for rockfords
o Special code for speed bursts
o Other code changes required by designers
 Camera collisions implemented for both in and out of car
 Brake lights on vehicle
 Sun with glare effects in the game
 Loading compression working
 Drivers appearing correctly in all vehicles
 Object / traffic fade effects implemented
 Eye blinking and mouth flapping for conversations synchronized with dialog events
 All Z order problems resolved
 All performance optimizations to do in anticipation of Performance Analyzer run complete
 Can play a movie in the middle of a level
 Code support for in-car character animations complete
 Blobby shadows implemented and working
 Code support for water effects completed
 Electricity effects on Frink’s car working correctly
 Able to save and load games to memory card and Xbox hard drive
 All sound pipelines in place
 Audio for generic traffic working
 Some final interactive music in the game
 First-pass collision sounds
 Placeholder audio for gag NISes working
Milestone 14 Build Features
Art Cutoff: December 6
CD delivery date: December 13
Sony Performance Analyzer run: December 3

 Level Art
o Special effects for Seaside complete
o Ocean effect for Seaside complete
o Suburbs and Downtown interiors completed
 3 for Suburbs
 2 for Downtown
o Suburbs level completed with all level re-design changes made
o Polishing on Downtown and Seaside levels
 FMV pipeline for all 6 SKUs complete
 6 generic pedestrians modeled
 Final logo FMVs for all 6 SKUs in the game
 Terrain tagging in and all art complete
 All effects that use terrain tagging complete
o Sound effects
o Skid marks
o Particle effects
o Terrain specific friction
o Terrain specific controller rumble
 Can play the game with accessories:
o GameCube steering wheel
o GameCube Wavebird
o Gameboy Advance as a controller
o Logitech PS2 steering wheel
 Continuation of work on FMV #1 through #7
 Iris transition for interiors complete and in all interiors
 Interior special gag demonstration camera working on for the Kwik-E-Mart
 Can have conversations in interiors
 Can trigger interactive gags in interiors and exteriors
 Secondary mission objectives working in the game
 Bonus missions working in the game
 Can select and play unlocked movies from the front end
 Phone booth re-design complete
o Can select all available cars
o Can select all available clothing (placeholder clothing art)
 End credits fully designed and partially implemented
 Code for randomized load of generic pedestrians working
 HUD re-design complete
 All 2D collector card art complete
 All breakable cameras placed in all levels
 All collector cards placed in levels 2, 3, 5 and 6
 Presentation flow re-design complete
o Mission start
o Mission finish
o Street races
 o Bonus missions
o Rewards
 Level load newspaper screens complete
 Generic load screen (game to front end) complete
 All missions implemented and present in the game
 All bonus vehicles complete and in the game
 All bonus character skins complete
 All generic pedestrian models and animations complete
 All Halloween specific design requirements complete
 All areas causing problematic camera collisions identified and replaced with rail cameras as appropriate
 Rumble on controllers implemented and tuned according to ground surface, collision strength, etc.
 Load cancels working correctly
 Support for turning off environmental maps (or changing to an alternate map) in interiors, tunnels, etc.
 Shadow volumes for tunnels, interiors, etc.
 Object fade-in effect incorporated into the game where needed
 Shadow volume and environmental mapping switches working for covered areas in the world
 Half of all interactive gags working in the game with animations and placeholder audio
 All randomized textures (e.g. billboards) finalized and in the game
 All memory card screens complete
 Street race missions working
 Final in-car camera tuning for Homer, Bart, Lisa walker cars
 All reward systems designed, implemented and integrated with gameplay
 World geometry auto-optimize step integrated into art pipeline
 Mipmap levels tuned on PS2
 Boulevard heaps integrated into dynamic loading system
 Language auto-select / language select working in PAL build on all 3 platforms
 Positional sounds working in the game
 Sounds attached to moving objects working
 Triggers for ambient sounds working
 Car engine sound code finalized
 Second pass of engine sound content
 First-pass mission music in the game
 First-pass location based sounds in the game
 Some final ambient sounds in the game
 Switch to different music when in interiors working