AngleZero v0.4.0 by ItsNoHax

One road, 3.5 km of Sekira Pass, built when the game starts. Points come from holding a slide, and the guard rails take them away. Grip mode keeps traction and stability control on. Drift mode turns the aids off once you pull the handbrake or slide past about 11 degrees.

Cars are separate .azcar files in PSP/GAME/AngleZero/CARS/, and the title screen lists whatever is in there. Release 0.3.0 came with 27 cars made from third-party models, each credited on the title screen.

Since 0.4.0 the EBOOT is encrypted, so it also runs on official firmware.

Runs on official firmware, rebuilds the course's scenery, and adds grip and drift driving modes.

Install

1. Download AngleZero.0.4.0.zip.
2. Unzip it at the root of the memory stick, replacing PSP/GAME/AngleZero/.
3. Launch from Game → Memory Stick.

Runs on official and custom firmware. Tested on both.

Highlights

• Official firmware support. The EBOOT is encrypted, so no custom firmware is needed.
• Boot time: 16 s → 1.5 s on hardware.
• Grip and drift modes. 50% more power: 0–100 km/h in 4.7 s, down from 6.7 s.
• New scenery: summit car park, a city in the valley, ridgelines, pines, textured road and hillside.
• New engine sound: a six-speed gearbox with turbo.

Driving

• Grip mode: traction control, stability control and a steering limiter.
• Drift mode starts from a handbrake stab or a slide past ~11°. The aids switch off, and a drift assist acts only outside a 14–43° corridor.
• Handbrake plus counter-steer mid-slide switches the drift to the other side instead of spinning the car.
• The car collides with the rail at its full footprint, not at its centre point. Cars no longer clip through the rail.
• Chase camera pulls back less at speed.

Course and scenery

• Summit car park start with seven bays, vending machines, a lamp and a parapet. The title shot is held there.
• City in the basin: street grid, towers, expressways with traffic, a train, a broadcast tower and aircraft beacons.
• Three rings of moonlit ridgelines; lit valley towns and mist.
• Procedural road and grass textures; moonlight and lamplight baked into the terrain and trees.
• Pines as alpha-tested billboards, planted in stands.
• Two painted lanes: double yellow through bends, speed bars, 急カーブ markings and road wear.
• W-beam guard rail with posts, reflectors, chevron boards and corner mirrors, all lit by the headlights.
• Cut banks on the inside of hard bends.
• Wet road option on the title screen (Up/Down), with lamp reflections on the tarmac. Handling is unchanged.
• Cones in a few deliberate groups instead of every 11 nodes.
• Stars and city lights drawn as single pixels, so they no longer twinkle. Scanline overlay removed.
• Dimmer headlight beams.

Audio

• Engine: firing-pulse synthesis through exhaust resonances, with clutch slip, rev flare, limiter and turbo whistle.
• Tyre squeal, road rumble, wind and rail impact sounds.
• The menu music now loops.

XMB

• New icon and background, drawn from the real course.
• New animated icon (ICON1) and info panel (PIC0).

Controls

| Action | Before | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Handbrake | ○ | R |
| Front view | △ | L (hold) |

Fixes

• Frame rate dropped to 30 fps with drift smoke. It now holds 60 fps.
• HUD text disappeared during long drifts.
• Lamps now sit on each car's lens. 22 of 27 cars were corrected.

Cars

The same 27 cars as 0.3.0. Credits and licences: docs/cars.md.