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Image reference (original game): Burnout 3: Takedown · original-game artwork, provided by IGDB. Image rights remain with their respective owners. This illustrates the referenced original game, not the actual visuals of this rewrite or mod.

Source maintainer: sp00nznet · Revision: 79b578dcbb03 · Catalogued: 2026-10-12

Source license: MIT · LICENSE · Article: Source README (format adapted)

The source README follows, with formatting adapted for this site and images replaced by source links. Feature, completion and testing claims belong to its authors and have not been independently playtested here. The Traditional Chinese translation was prepared with AI assistance.

Burnout 3: Takedown — static recompilation

A static recompilation of the Xbox version of Burnout 3: Takedown (Criterion, 2004)
into a native Windows executable. The game’s own x86 code is lifted to C by the
xboxrecomp toolkit. It boots through
its real entry point and runs its own menus, races and renderer on the toolkit’s
Xbox runtime. No game logic or screen is hand-written.

Generated source is not distributed. The repository holds the build glue, the
per-title data and the docs. You supply your own disc image; the recompiler runs
on your machine and writes the C into a gitignored folder.

README image：Two-player split-screen race, both cars off the line

Two-player split-screen, recorded headless with --record-style per-flip frames and scripted pads.

Status

Alpha. Every game mode boots, renders and plays, one or two players, driven by
an Xbox/XInput pad. It is not yet fun to play: the NV2A GPU is emulated in
software, so menus run at about 14 fps and races at 2–4 fps on a 12-core machine.
There is no save profile yet, so every launch replays the tutorial videos.

Mode	Players	Status
Race (Single Event)	1	plays to the finish
Time Attack	1	plays
Road Rage	1	plays
Crash	1	plays: launch, pile-up, score
Race	2, split-screen	plays
Road Rage	2, split-screen	plays
Double Impact	2, split-screen	plays
Team Crush	2, split-screen	plays
Party Crash	2–8, pass the pad	plays
Xbox Live / System Link	—	not attempted

Known gaps: vertical streaks over the menu backdrop movie, seams in the sky dome,
bump-mapped (dot-product) texture stages read as zero, and no profile saving.
ROADMAP.md has the list; docs/boot.md has what it
took to get here, fix by fix.

This is one title in the xboxrecomp family and follows its house style: the
toolkit carries everything that isn’t specific to Burnout 3, and this repo carries
only what is.

Screenshots


README image：Takedown	README image：Single race
A takedown: slam a rival into a pillar	A single race, off the line
README image：Crash mode pile-up	README image：Race
Crash mode: the junction pile-up	Race
README image：Road Rage	README image：Double Impact
Road Rage	Double Impact (2P)
README image：Crash result	README image：Time Attack
Crash mode scoring	Time Attack
README image：Garage	README image：Crash map
Vehicle select	Crash junction map

Getting Started

You need:

Windows 10 or 11, x64, with about 12 GB free
your own Burnout 3: Takedown disc image (.iso)
an Xbox or XInput controller (two for split-screen); there is no keyboard mapping

Quick start

Download this repository (green Code button, Download ZIP) and unzip it
somewhere with space, for example C:\recomp\burnout3.
Double-click Setup.cmd.

It checks for Python 3.10+, the capstone package, Git, CMake and the Visual
Studio 2022 C++ build tools, and asks before installing any that are missing
(with winget), saying what each is and how big. It fetches the xboxrecomp
toolkit beside the repo folder, then asks for your .iso (it looks next to the
repo and in Downloads first). After that it unpacks the disc, regenerates the C
and builds.

Each step is skipped once done, so after a failure just run it again. What went
wrong goes in setup.log, and the window says what to do next.
Double-click Play Burnout 3.cmd, which the setup leaves in the repo folder.

The first build takes 20–40 minutes. Nothing from the game is downloaded or
bundled: the only game data used is your disc image.

Step by step

The same steps as Setup.cmd, by hand. Commands are for PowerShell, except where
the step says Git Bash.

Install the prerequisites.

Tool	Version	Get it
Python	3.10 or newer, with the `py` launcher	`winget install -e --id Python.Python.3.12`
capstone	5.x	`py -3 -m pip install --user capstone`
Git for Windows	any recent, which includes Git Bash	`winget install -e --id Git.Git`
CMake	3.20 or newer	`winget install -e --id Kitware.CMake`
Visual Studio 2022	Build Tools with Desktop development with C++	`winget install -e --id Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.BuildTools`
ffmpeg	optional, for `--record`	`winget install -e --id Gyan.FFmpeg`

Open a new terminal afterwards so PATH picks them up. If python opens the
Microsoft Store, that’s the Store alias; use py -3 as below, or turn the alias
off under Settings → Apps → Advanced app settings → App execution aliases.

> py -3 --version
Python 3.12.10
> cmake --version
cmake version 3.31.6

Put the repo and the toolkit side by side. The build looks for the toolkit at
..\xboxrecomp.
```
git clone https://github.com/sp00nznet/burnout3
git clone https://github.com/sp00nznet/xboxrecomp
```
The toolkit’s main has everything Burnout 3 needs (xboxrecomp #138-#156).
Unpack your disc image into burnout3\Burnout 3 Takedown\, using the
toolkit’s XDVDFS reader:
```
cd xboxrecomp
py -3 -m tools.xiso unpack "D:\isos\Burnout 3 - Takedown (USA).iso" -o "..\burnout3\Burnout 3 Takedown"
cd ..\burnout3
```
You should end up with Burnout 3 Takedown\default.xbe next to Data\,
Tracks\, ovid\ and the rest (about 2.4 GB).

Regenerate the C (Git Bash, from the burnout3 folder):

$ ./regen.sh --disasm
==> xbe_parser
==> disasm
==> func_id
==> abi_analysis
==> recomp
==> done. Now: cmake --build build-xr --config Release

This writes src/game/recomp/gen/, about 29 files, all gitignored.

Build (PowerShell or Git Bash):
```
cmake -S . -B build-xr -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64
cmake --build build-xr --config Release --parallel 2
```
It ends with burnout3.vcxproj -> ...\burnout3\bin\burnout3.exe. --parallel 2
together with the default /MP (half your cores) keeps the machine usable while
it compiles. Each generated file is large at /O2.
Run it from the repo folder, so it finds Burnout 3 Takedown\ and saves\:
```
.\bin\burnout3.exe
```
A window opens titled Burnout 3: Takedown | FPS: n | draws: n, and you see the
EA and Criterion intros, then “Press START”.

Usual trip-ups: regen.sh needs Git Bash, not WSL’s bash. A tool installed a
moment ago isn’t found until you open a new window. The build needs the
64-bit generator (-A x64).

Usage

bin\burnout3.exe [--headless] [--record out.mp4] [--seconds N] [path\to\default.xbe]

Invocation	What it does
`burnout3.exe`	Plays in a window. Pad 1 and pad 2 are XInput pads 1 and 2.
`burnout3.exe --headless`	Runs with no window, for scripts and remote sessions.
`burnout3.exe --headless --record out.mp4 --seconds 600`	Runs for 10 minutes with no window, then encodes every presented frame to `out.mp4` (needs `ffmpeg` on PATH). Ctrl+C also stops and encodes.

Scripted input, for recording or testing without a pad in hand:

set RECOMP_PAD_SCRIPT=20000:start:1200,30000:a:400,90000:rt:60000,90000:p2-rt:60000
bin\burnout3.exe --headless --record race.mp4 --seconds 900

Each entry is <ms>:[+][:<hold ms>], timed from when the game first
reads the pad, and a p2- prefix sends it to the second pad. RECOMP_PAD_LIVE=pad.txt instead reads steps appended to a file while the
game runs. docs/running.md lists the buttons, the environment
variables and the capture tools.

The emulated hard disk lives in saves\. Delete it to see the first-boot flow
(profile creation) again.

Building from source

regen.sh runs the toolkit’s pipeline on default.xbe. The stages are XBE parser,
disassembler, library-function identification, ABI analysis and the recompiler.
CMake then builds the generated C against the xboxrecomp runtime. That runtime
supplies the Xbox kernel, a software NV2A GPU, the MCPX audio processor, a USB
OHCI host with emulated pads, and the XMV movie player. See
docs/architecture.md for which part owns what.

The C is regenerated, not edited. If the output is wrong, the fix goes in the
toolkit’s recompiler or in this repo’s per-title data
(config/seed_functions.json, src/game/main.c), never by hand in gen/.

Contributors

See CONTRIBUTORS.md. Contributions are welcome; read
CONTRIBUTING.md first, especially Where your code comes from.

License

MIT, see LICENSE. This covers the code in this repository only.
Burnout 3: Takedown and its assets belong to their owners and are not included.

License and provenance

The README and its translation retain MIT terms. Changes comprise translation, links and formatting. Editable Markdown, the original README, LICENSE and NOTICE files are included in the linked bundle. This grants no rights to the original games, their assets or trademarks.

LICENSE

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 sp00nz

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

Burnout 3: Takedown Static Recompilation