OG Xbox Boot Animation Easter Egg Hunt

[Commander Scheppert]

What if the Animation of the green flubber isn't given, instead it's a simple 3d audio visualization? I have seen mods for the camera positions and colors but never for the actual Animation itself.

 

[Esppiral]

So no one has figured it out yet? Why not reach the person that hinted at the Easter egg?

 

[Borman]

Seamus isn't telling.

 

[Commander Scheppert]

It has to be rather simple. Someone questioned if it's a morse code. He said its a lot less subtile than that. He also said that it's obvious. Did anyone noticed that the "room" where the Animation takes place realy looks like the xbox case itself? These pipes are kinda resembling a Giant X.

 

[Druid II]

Probably stating the obvious, but the green blob in the middle always reminded me of Flubber (the 1997 Robin Williams movie).

 

[cta]

It's been referred to as "the flubber animation" for ages, so that's not likely to be it.

 

[EvanSki]

another one is the alleged "intro is rendered in real time" that people thought wasnt true with the console, which turns out it is true and theres code in the bios to render the intro on start up, Saw it in one of Modern Vintage Gamer's videos

 

[Borman]

Its been known to be true since like 2003.

 

[GoTeamScotch]

So no one has figured it out yet? Why not reach the person that hinted at the Easter egg?

So far, no. RenderedKnave and I have spent a good amount of effort scouring the code looking for clues to no avail. Seamus isn't giving any hints. I imagine someone who is more familiar with the Xbox code might be able to find it easier.

But yeah, I basically asked Seamus if it was a symbolic easter egg, like something on screen is a hint or nod at something and he said it was more "obvious", which makes me think it's not just "the number of blobs represents the number of kids one of the programmers has" or something esoteric like that. I've scoured the animation sequence code and if there is something there, it's well obfuscated.

 

[Mikaro]

I basically asked Seamus if it was a symbolic easter egg, like something on screen is a hint or nod at something and he said it was more "obvious", which makes me think it's not just "the number of blobs represents the number of kids one of the programmers has" or something esoteric like that. I've scoured the animation sequence code and if there is something there, it's well obfuscated.

Maybe the large X and all the pipes is supposed to be like the inside of the controller, rather than the console itself, maybe its not completely something to do with the code of the console itself but rather the controller; it would explain the controller's bulky exterior.

 

[MTest]

A weird face with a somehow smiling face be clearly looked in middle top.

 

[GoTeamScotch]

No luck yet, and Seamus isn't really giving any hints. I will say that through all this I've gotten a deeper appreciation for how complex the boot animation is. It's just a simple little video that plays while the console is waking up, but the design behind it is actually quite remarkable. Microsoft outsourced the animation to the game studio, PipeWorks, and they did a pretty impressive job, especially considering how compact it is + how fast it is to load + how reliable it has to be.

I discovered a few things that were new to me-

• The blobs are randomized. Their size and movement are constrained by limits, but are still randomized within those limits. So each time you power on your Xbox, you're seeing a slightly different animation play out.
• The movement of the "flubber" blobs is physics-based. It's not a simple scripted animation routine. Instead, their motion and how they morph and combine together is based on physics being rendered in real time.
• Each blob has characteristics that control its movement and how each one morphs and deforms with the center larger blob, including:
  • Inertia
  • Friction
  • Density/viscosity
  • Temperature (this affects the blob's speed, just like a lava lamp)
  • Collision

Then of course there's of the rest of it: the 3D models, the shaders, the lighting, and overall design aesthetic.

And I mentioned this before, but aside from all the stuff you can see on screen, the sound is generated in real time too. It's not just an MP3 or WAV file that plays a pre-recorded sound file. It's generating frequencies (sort of like how a MIDI file works) and applying sound-effects on-the-fly thanks to math and code written specifically for this animation sequence.

Now I'm curious to find out more about other 6th-generation console startup animations.

 

[MoonTar]

So this is an Easter egg that is supposed to be obvious. So do people think it is something obscure like the credits or something anyone can do like on accident lets say.

 

[bLiGhTy]

I've been hunting for a while trying to find this hidden easter egg but I don't think it's in the boot animation or at least I don't think Seamus Blackley actually specificly said it was in the boot animation.

I have been trying to find a button combo for ever that will allow the graaphic equaliser that appears in the orb on the music player to go full screen, Just always thought there must be a way.

only thing I've come across is that 0 has a font that looks like it came from Halo.

 

[GoTeamScotch]

I have been trying to find a button combo for ever that will allow the graaphic equaliser that appears in the orb on the music player to go full screen, Just always thought there must be a way.

Press X on your controller while listing to music in Dashboard.

only thing I've come across is that 0 has a font that looks like it came from Halo.

It's just a way of differentiating between the letter O and number 0. Some fonts do slashes on zeroes. This one does a dot.

 

[bLiGhTy]

not the animation GoTeamScotch, the graphic equalizer that you can see underneath it as it transitions to full screen. it always ends up out of view

 

[siev]

In this article: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news...gn_behind_the_original_Xbox_startup_sound.php

Brian Schmidt states that "So I wrote a little bit of C code to generate a sawtooth wave. I generated a triangle wave, I generated a big long list of random numbers that I used as white noise."

In the available source code, have we been able to track down what that big long list of random numbers is?
or
the source code behind the sawtooth wave generation?

 

[bLiGhTy]

Another thing I have noticed is that the 3D Xbox image you see on the dashboard seems to be a pre production xbox design. The X logo is also present on the underside of the console and the front panel is different above the power buttons noticeably.

I’ve been trying to imput names for my memory card hoping there is a trigger there along with console nicknames - nothing yet.

I fear most og xbox’s will be paper weights before this one is discovered

Edit:

Looking into pipeworks a little more turns up a game called the incredible machine which the whole boot animation appears to nod at. There is also a reference In the cover art to the old school title Red Baron.





Further edit: I f you watch the Angry Video Game Nerd Jurassic Park Tresspasser episode you will discover this guy does lot's of reference eggs and little else. what ever this egg is my bet is it's not worth the hunt.

It's a shame really, with everything the xbox had at it's disposal it could easy had at least 1 built in game even if it was an 8 bit space invaders played on one of those little screens in the video settings menu.

 

[bLiGhTy]

I think I just found it Folks! the Audio file "Settings sub menu in_LR.wav" found on the xbox Dashboard is the exact same sound the SEGA dreamcast makes when it disconnects from the internet.

Do I win anything?

 

[Arcadia]

Is that part of the boot animation?