Introduction

 

In the case of MotorStorm, and many other games, modding seems to be used as an umbrella term and can typically be split into four different categories:

• Modding

• Reverse engineering

• Datamining

• Prototype game builds

 

Let's take a look at each of these categories in more detail.

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Modding

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The main, and most well known part of modding. "Modding" refers to the act of modifying or altering the game's content, mechanics, or assets to enhance or customise the game experience.

 

In my opinion, modding can be broken down into these two subcategories:

• File modding

  • Refers to the process of altering or modifying the files of the game. It involves directly editing or manipulating the game's files, which can include various types of data such as textures, sounds, scripts, configuration files, and more. This subcategory of modding seems a lot more popular with the MotorStorm modding community than memory editing.

• Memory editing

  • Refers to the process of modifying the data stored in the game's memory during runtime. Instead of modifying the game's files, memory editing allows for real-time changes to variables, code or other data stored in the game's active memory. This subcategory of modding seems a lot less popular with the MotorStorm modding community than file modding.

 

Technically, any game can be modded, but in every game there are certain barriers to entry that must be overcome before modding is accessible enough for people to start developing and releasing mods. This is where reverse engineering comes in.

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Reverse Engineering

 

Typically, something first has to be reverse engineered in order for a certain type of mod to be made. For example, the way Pacific Rift stores textures had to be reverse engineered in order for texture mods (e.g. custom liveries, driver skins, etc.) to be made.

 

And sometimes, reverse engineering can open up the ability to do many different things, rather than just a single type of mod. As an example, Monument Valley stores the bulk of its assets and data in a format named cache_ps3. It's a proprietary format by Evolution Studios. A few people have tried to crack it over the years, but none have succeeded. When it gets cracked, it'll open up a world of possibilities for Monument Valley modding (think all the types of things that can be done on Pacific Rift, can then be done on Monument Valley too).

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Datamining

 

Refers to the process of extracting and analysing data from game files or code to uncover information about the game's content, mechanics, or hidden elements. Datamining is useful for gaining insights into the game's inner workings, discovering unreleased or hidden content, or understanding gameplay mechanics on a deeper level, which can in part help with modding or reverse engineering. And in the same vein, reverse engineering can help with datamining.

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Pre-Release game builds

 

Technically, this isn't really modding, but I felt it was relevant. Concerns everything to do with pre-release/prototype game builds (alphas, betas, review samples etc.), and usually goes hand in hand with datamining. These game builds originate from all sorts of different places. For the MotorStorm series, these tend to be in the form of discs, or data recovered from development units.

 

There are many preservation groups around who try to preserve these builds and upload them for everyone to play and investigate.

 

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Conclusion

 

The MotorStorm games are in general pretty moddable these days! An extremely non-exhaustive list of the possibilities are as follows:

• Monument Valley

  • Custom music

  • Custom background videos

  • Access hidden liveries

  • Custom vehicle/driver/track combinations

  • Access hidden debug features

  • Access hidden menus

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• Pacific Rift

  • Custom audio

    • Custom music

    • Custom vehicle sounds

    • Custom environment sounds

    • etc.

  • Character retextures

  • Custom events

  • Vehicle retextures

    • Custom liveries

    • Custom accessory textures

  • Custom skies

  • Track retextures

  • UI mods

    • Custom fonts

    • Retextures

  • Access hidden vehicles

  • Access hidden liveries

  • Access AI-only liveries

  • Access online-only unlocks

  • Access cut microbadges

  • Access cut events

  • Graphical enhancements

  • Enable 16 vehicle freeplay

  • Access hidden debug features

  • Access hidden menus

  • Fix game bugs

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• Arctic Edge

  • Character retextures

  • Vehicle retextures

    • Custom liveries/decals

    • Custom accessory textures

  • Custom skies

  • Track retextures

  • UI mods

  • Higher quality textures

  • Access hidden debug features

  • Access hidden menus

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• Apocalypse

  • Custom audio

    • Custom music

    • Custom vehicle sounds

    • Custom environment sounds

    • etc.

  • Character retextures

  • Custom events

  • Vehicle retextures

    • Custom liveries/decals

    • Custom accessory textures

  • Custom skies

  • Track retextures

  • UI mods

    • Custom fonts

    • Retextures

    • And much more UI customisation

  • Access online-only unlocks

  • Graphical enhancements

  • Access hidden debug features

  • Access hidden menus

  • Fix game bugs

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• RC

  • Custom fonts

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Technical stuff

 

Visit Regal's Github for the technical bits. Some things are very outdated, but is to be fixed.

 

Notes from Regal

• ASSEMBLERgames.org is an archive of the AssemblerGames.com site.

• There were a couple more posts on AssemblerGames about MotorStorm builds (nothing interesting, if I remember correctly it was just people buying and selling some Monument Valley builds) but I can't find the posts because the AssemblerGames archive's search function is not very good. Pretty sure these happened before 2015.

• I'm only covering the 'first occurrence' of everything here. Some stuff was reuploaded or reposted over the years - I'm not going to bother with those subsequent reposts unless there was a substantial difference or improvement.

• There are smaller discoveries I didn't cover because there are so many. The majority of them can be found throughout the MotorStorm Modding Discord. Some videos were uploaded and can be found on mine, Scirvir's, and SimpleImprovement's YouTube channels.

• ModNetwork has been taken down forever because of some drama. Not much MotorStorm-wise was lost, but it was home to SimpleImprovement's modded Pacific Rift save.