Mario Kart 8/Beta elements

This article pertains the beta elements of Mario Kart 8.
== Unused Courses ==
=== Test ===
A copy of Mario Circuit from the Flower Cup, but without music. Additionally, the orange arrow signs are not animated. According to interviews, Mario Circuit was the first track designed for the game, so this is very likely intended for testing (as the name suggests otherwise).
File:MK8 Unanimated ArrowSigns 1.png
File:MK8 Unanimated ArrowSigns 2.png
=== ReservedXX ===
Unused tracks (found in IDs 0x02 to 0x0F) where XX is a number (starting at 01) going upwards. The game crashes upon loading it.
=== UnderConstructionXX ===
More unused tracks (found in IDs 0x30 to 0x4F). It is similar to ReservedXX, where the XX is a number (starting at 01). They also crash upon loading it. If DLC packs 1+2 are downloaded to the game, IDs 0x30 to 0x42 will load the DLC tracks. However, 0x43 to 0x4F will still result in the game crashing.
== Unused Models ==
=== Obstacles ===
Image	Objld Number	Filename 	Name 	Description
 	N/A 	TEST_FruitBasketB	Fruit Basket 	The textures used for the basket and fruits (especially the filename) are obviously meant for tests, as they are simple rectangles with solid colors and borders.
 	N/A 	N64Tree 	N64 Tree 	A low-quality tree that is roughly based on the ones from Mario Raceway in Mario Kart 64. This model is notably different from the similarly-named model found in Mario Kart 7 and different in shape from the trees that were used for the that track in Mario Kart Wii.
 	5019 	TreeTri 	Snowless Tree 	A non-snowy version of the trees meant to be used for Mount Wario. Since the whole track takes place in completely snow-covered mountains, it would've looked quite unfitting. It's possible that the track would've had some grassy terrain at one point during development.
 	1009 	PylonY 	Yellow Cone 	While THE red and blue varients are used throughout the game, there's also a yellow version that is not used on any track. These cones were then repurposed in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the SNES Battle Course 1.
 	1076
1105 	DokanCake
DokanHone	Pipes not Housing Piranha Plants	There are two pipes that are only seen in combination with a Piranha Plant. Versions without the plants exist anyway and go unused. This might implicitly tell that more pipes were once placed on the track or fewer pipes originally had plants in them.
* DokanCake: Meant for Sweet Sweet Canyon, having a sugar frosting texture.
* DokanHone: Meant for Bone Dry Dunes, having a slightly muddier green.
 	5024 	FlagStartMario 	Start Flag 	A generic start flag. It seems like a modernized version of the start flag used in GBA Mario Circuit, but the final version uses the classic Mario Kart font on it and has a slightly different coloring.
 	N/A 	KuriboBlue 	Blue Goomba 	This Blue Goomba seems to be an earlier model compared to the normal Goomba used in the final game as it might have been intended for Piranha Plant Slide, where in Mario Kart 7 the Goombas in the underground section are blue as a homage to Super Mario Bros.
=== Skyboxes ===
Image	Filename 	Objld Number	Description
 	VRfair 	7006 	A rather generic cloudy sky, but with a weird yellow tint towards the horizon.
 	VRcloudSea 	7012 	Once the original version of the sky in Mario's Circuit, now an unused duplicate the sky containing the same original material names and textures.
 	VRCustomizer	7030 	An unicolor, light blue sky. The name might suggest that it was seen in a track editor as a placeholder until the real skybox was created.
 	VRClock 	7034 	Although the filename is referenced in Tick-Tock Clock and Super Bell Subway, they are never seen as the track model as they are completely encased around the racers. It has a unicolor dark blue box.
 	VRMenu 	7025 	The filename is referenced in the internally used track (Gu_Menu) to draw the menu background and is not rendered when used on tracks. It only consists of the reflection map which can be indirectly seen on karts in the character and parts selection screens. On tracks, it results in no skybox being drawn at all, leaving traces of models previously rendered in front of the sky. The reflection map does represent an empty hall with lots of pillars. The game uses special coding for the filename since, when removing or replacing it in Gu_Menu, no menu background graphics like the main menu characters or the blue backgrounds are drawn anymore and the whole online lobby and will not be rendered at all aside only the UI above that remains.
There are also skyboxes listed as DL_VRAnimalSpring (ObjId 7054) and DL_VRAnimalWinter (ObjId 7055) in the object dictionary. These would've obviously been used for the spring and winter seasons of the Animal Crossing track, but both reuse VRWaterPark (for spring) and VRSherbet (for winter) instead. They either have no data or the game doesn't render either one as placing them in a track results in the same effects as with VRMenu.
== Unused Graphics ==
=== Menu Graphics ===
Image	Description
 	A placeholder version of the default title screen image.
 	A placeholder for snapshots of 16 DLC tracks to be shown as the background in the Grand Prix result screens of the corresponding cups. The image only exists in version 1.0 of the game.
 	A placeholder snapshot of Mario Circuit for the results screen.
 	An unused START! icon. It's possible that this would've been used instead of GO!
 	Four unused icons meant for different cups. They reuse older artwork for the central objects and lack the same extra decorations that the normal icons have. Their file names refer to them as CupIconDLC00 through CupIconDLC03, indicating that these were placeholders for the DLC cups. Out of the 4 released DLC cups, only the Yoshi Egg ended up getting used even though it rebranded a new icon. The Blue Spiny Shell also found its way into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe via the Booster Course Pass, with also having a revamped icon. These seem to imply the initial DLC was set to be more focused on purely the Mario franchise, rather than cross overs with the Legend of Zelda and Animal Crossing series.
 	Two unused stamps. The first is a placeholder (as the word "Sample" is over Mario's head) with the second being an early version of Pink Gold Peach's stamp that's missing it's shading.
 	An early kart icon for the Pipe Frame. The vehicle in question uses a design more closely resembling that seen in previous games than its final design in this one.
 	Five unused kart icons for a 13th Mii variant. The kart's variant relies on what color a player's Mii is, but there are only 12 colors to choose from. All five of the icons are placeholders using graphics from Mario Kart 7.
 	Icons for two planned variations of the Prancer, which can only driven by Peach. Since Rosalina and Daisy have alterations of Peach's vehicle parts, they were most likely planned for them. Both icons are placeholders.
=== Object Textures ===
Image	Description
 	An unused emblem for either Kamek or a generic Magikoopa. Neither character appear as a playable character in the final game or DLC packs, so he was probably scrapped during development. Kamek did appear in pre-release screenshots of Mario Kart 64.
 	A generic emblem with the eight logo being included in the emblem folder, but goes unused. It's indirectly seen in pre-rendered graphics for the kart previews.
 	A placeholder texture for kart emblems, which can be found inside most kart model files.
 	Lakitu contains a texture showing a final lap/section 2 (hence the 2 is golden). However, the final game always displays the 3/3 board for the last lap/section no matter the number of total laps (except for 7 laps which it handles correctly to support Baby Park). However, during E3 2013, there were demos of the game in which players could try out Mario Kart 8 before its release with all races that were only in the demo version had two laps, which requires the use of this graphic.
 	Crude textures that were made for the Standard Mii Glider. Both colors were dependent on which way the Mii was: blue for female and red for male.
=== Course Textures ===
Image	Description
 	The computer screens in Rainbow Road have 8 frames of animation, but a 9th animation frame is present in the game's files and reveals to be an early version of the first frame. The bar charts are all empty, as the infoboxes used solid lines instead of fake text, and the blue glow around the edges are missing. The Blooper shuttle is shown with different lighting and with a parallel projection, but the model itself appears to be the same. The space station is displayed at a different angle and has no textures or background. It is possible that this was a stylistic choice and does not necessarily indicate that the image was made before the texturing of the course was complete.
 	There are two copies of the building windows texture in Toad Harbor, one of which has big red numbers in the place of where the posters should go. The positioning of the numbers don't match the final poster placement and seem to indicate that taller or thinner posters were planned. There is also a small white and blue image next to the eighth spot. The texture itself is used on all of the windows outside of the marketplace area and was likely left in due to the windows being identical in both versions of the game.
 	The internally used track (Gu_Menu) actually consists of a finite small plane on which karts are placed at race start, which is also correctly textured with a test texture. This plane is not visible when running the track as the material defines to cull both back and front faces rather than just only back faces. Together with no skybox being added as an object, only drawing artifacts are visible around racers.
 	A placeholder signboard texture, which can be found alongside a number of other signboard textures for the Excitebike Arena. The text on the bottom left translates to "※4:1 Non-Sign Logo Variation".
== Unused/Test Items ==
=== Test Items ===
In the item slot table file (ItemSlotTable.byaml), there are two test items (Test3 and Test4) which were obviously used for testing purposes. These items were most likely holdovers (serving the same lack of purpose) as the same-name items in Mario Kart 7.
=== Lucky Seven Leftover ===
In the item slot table file (ItemSlotTable.byaml), there is an item named Seven. It could just be a leftover for testing the Crazy Eight during development of the game (as both that and Lucky Seven at basically the same thing) and they simply forgot to change the name.
=== Fake Item Box and Super Leaf Leftover ===
In the file RaceLogData.exbin, there appears a two text strings called (FakeBox and Tail). Since they are only referred into that file, this can assume that they were cut it very early in development of the game.
=== External Links ===
Mario Kart 8 on The Cutting Room Floor.
Category:Mario Kart 8