Proto:Driver: San Francisco (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, Mac OS X)
 | 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 details one or more prototype versions of Driver: San Francisco (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, Mac OS X).
There are ten total available prototypes of Driver: San Francisco, all of which target the Xbox 360 console platform.
The game was primarily developed and playtested on the PlayStation 3 platform, as noted by the presence of PS3 button layouts in extremely early builds of the game (despite the builds themselves being compiled against Xenon/X360) as well as leftover internal development footage (which served as placeholders for existing cinematics, such as the Jericho evidence board UI introduction) found within other builds.
The earliest available build of the game already appears to be largely feature-complete, with functioning implementations for a (now-scrapped) points system, various player abilities such as Shifting and ramming into other cars, as well as several additional cut abilities not present in the final game. Later development builds would observe the start of a world artpass as well as work on a proper game story, which had been nearly completed by February 2011 and finished by May of that year.
Some builds of the game expect a valid Xbox 360 development kit flash to be installed on the console's EEPROM, made possible through a version check that relies on a DmGetSystemInfo call made during initialization. The checks themselves are not present in the retail/mastering disc executable. Saves between versions are not compatible with each other.
Game executables
A typical internal development build of Driver: San Francisco has the following game executables in place:
DriverNG- Main development executable. This includes the standard set of development tools, such as a chapter/level warp menu and a dedicated performance profiler named Scry.DriverNG_Devkit- Debug executable. These were intended to be used alongside a typical Xbox 360 development kit, and typically includes complete debugging symbols as well as function mappings.DriverNG_Hotload- Game asset load testing.DriverNG_Profile- Performance testing. All recorded profiling data is automatically uploaded to internal Ubisoft servers.DriverNG_ONLINETEST- Used to test multiplayer capabilities. Similar in function toDriverNG_Devkit.DriverNG_ONLINETEST_Devkit- Originally the XDK counterpart of the multiplayer test executable, before its functions were merged into the ordinary online test executable sometime in mid-January/early February 2011.DriverNG_Master- Retail build configuration. These executables are what the consumer would use in the final release of the game, and therefore lack XDK versioning checks as well as any development-specific functionality.
Subpages
 | FPP Gameplay Builds Earliest available builds of Driver: SF. Includes much of the existing gameplay elements present in final release as well as a rough blockout of San Francisco (aka "Gym City"). |
| Pre-Production Update Build Additional work on game UI, initial work on world artpass and early pitch for game story. |
| 17 February 2011 build Includes a near-finalized version of the game story, as well as early storyboards for existing cutscenes dated January 2011. |
| 23 February 2011 build |
| 24 March 2011 build |
| 1 April 2011 build Executable-only build with plenty of internally-facing visual changes as well as a brand-new debugging system. |
 | GreysEmu build NONONO NONONO BLABLA BLABLABLA |
| 30 May 2011 build Game story (mostly) finalized. Finalized UX work. |
| Post-Final Dev Build Dated two minutes after final Xbox 360 release. Virtually identical to final, but includes development executables. |
