Important notes

• This is based on auto-scheduled races occurring in Chocobo Circuit, this does not account for special NPC-driven races which have different rules.
• The author guarantees the machinery to produce a Chocobo Race is documented to an acceptable degree for emulation except where eventually stated.
• The gameplay mechanics themselves are based on low samples and were not a meaningful focus of this effort. Assume they are made up and/or poorly understood.

Introduction

Chocobo Races occur in Chocobo Circuit, a zone reachable for multiple towns. Players located in the grandstands (after paying 50g or using a pass) are automatically enrolled into the race cutscenes. Players can bet on upcoming races.

Mechanisms involved in playing a Chocobo Race

sequenceDiagram
      participant S as Server
      participant C as Client   
      S->>C: 1 · Push the whole race in one burst (0x069) -> client buffers it
      S->>C: 2 · Start the event
      Note over C: 3 · Client plays the race from its buffer
      C->>S: pings at each phase (intro · names · start · results)
      S-->>C: answers those (names, payout)

Chocobo Racing packets (0x069)

A polymorphic packet is sent in one batch before the actual race. The packet has 5 documented modes:

• 1: Generic race parameters, this contains weather and a counter
• 2: Chocobo participants, this contains a definition struct for each chocobo
• 3: Race script: contains 32 distinct sections telling the client how to render the race (where chocobos are at beginning of section, where they end up. Any optional event that may occur during the section)
• 4: Race results: The place at which end individual chocobos will end up
• 5: Done marker: Tells the client the exchange is complete

The client will memcpy the content of the payload into global Chocobo Race structs and exit. Nothing special will occur at that point.

// Packet handler feeds this struct
struct ChocoboRacingSys      // at pGlobalNowZone + 245112
  {
      uint32_t     DownloadFlg;        // Modes 1-4 clear, Mode 5 sets 1
      uint32_t     RaceParams[2];      // [0]=weather (id<<5)+8, [1]=counter
      ChocoboParam ChocoboParams[8];   // 
      SectionParam SectionParams[32];  // 
      uint8_t      ResultParams[4];    //
  };