Rock Band 3

Rock Band 3
Developer(s)	Harmonix
Publisher(s)	Harmonix
Series	Rock Band
Release date(s)	NA October 26, 2010 AU October 28, 2010 EU October 29, 2010
Release type	Console exclusive
Genre(s)	Rhythm
Mode(s)	Single-player, Co-op, Multiplayer
GameID(s)	BLES00986 (IRD), BLUS30463 (IRD) Demo NPUB90505, NPEB90291
Quick links	Check Compatibility Open Issues Search Google Wikipedia Page

Rock Band 3 is a game in the Rock Band series. It is a sequel to Rock Band and Rock Band 2, announced for release on October 26th, 2010. In March 2015, Mad Catz and Harmonix announced Rock Band 4, a sequel to Rock Band 3, and was released for Xbox One and PS4 on October 6th, 2015.

Distinguishing it from all previous rhythm music games, Rock Band 3 features "Pro" mode, which is designed to accurately mimic playing of real instruments. In Pro mode, real guitar and bass players have to match specific fingering on frets and strings, drummers have to strike cymbal pads in addition to snare and toms, and keyboardists have to use precise fingering across the whole keyboard. Mad Catz manufactured a 102-button controller with 6 strings meant for bass and for lead guitar Fender lent a real Fender Squier stringed guitar modified with built-in electronics and enhancements to support Pro mode. Real instruments and original Basic controllers can be played simultaneously in various combinations within the game to simulate playing in a real band. Before a song starts, the players choose which instrument they will represent within the song. If the right note is hit or played, it is heard in the audio. If notes are missed, they are not heard.

Configuration

Options that deviate from RPCS3's default settings and provide the best experience with this title are listed below.

GPU configuration

Setting	Option	Notes
Write color buffers	On	Fixes broken character textures.

Audio configuration

Setting	Option	Notes
Audio buffer duration	100	Lower values (16 ms to 32 ms) are suggested to reduce distracting echo when playing as a vocalist.
Microphone type	Disabled	Use "Standard" or "RockSmith" for vocals/karaoke gameplay. Up to three microphones are supported.

Network configuration

Setting	Option	Notes
Network status	Connected	Prevents long pauses when choosing songs.

Advanced configuration

Setting	Option	Notes
Driver wake-up delay	20	Prevents crashing between songs. Some machines require higher numbers in increments of 20.
Vblank rate	60	Past 60 Hz, vocals detection works erratically and online play has connection issues.

Known Issues

Flying off hair, instruments

• Instruments, hair, and other accessories may fly off of the character depending on the current vertically-scrolling note highway scroll position and the music venue authoring. Happens to a significantly lesser degree when only playing vocals. This occurs to a lesser degree on real PS3 hardware as well, but is exaggerated in RPCS3. A preliminary fix exists for guitars within the Milohax community but it requires complex modifications to the original disc. However, microphones, hairstyles, and hats have been observed to still have issues. A visual guide is available here.

Only the "Clear Microphone" doesn't exhibit teleporting out of every available microphone.

Here is a list of problematic hairstyles and hats:

• Masculine
  • Hairstyles
    • Afro
    • Buzz Cut
    • Classic Mop
    • Curls Just Wanna Have Fun
    • Dapper Dan (Left Part)
    • Dapper Dan (Right Part)
    • Grease
    • Mandana
    • Messy Mop
    • Most Likely to Recede
    • The Natural
    • The Quill Pig
    • Short Spikes
    • Sleek Mop
    • Totally Generic
  • Hats
    • Army Helmet /w Long Hair
    • Army Helmet /w Short Hair
    • Aviator Cap
    • The Bad Guy
    • The Bad Guy /w Short Hair
    • Beast of Burden Head
    • Biker Cap
    • Biker Cap /w Long Hair
    • Dread Wrangler
    • Erik the Rad
    • G.I. Cap
    • Give ‘Em Helmet
    • Happy Rancher
    • Hell on Wheels
    • Holy Bowler
    • Holy Bowler /w Short Hair
    • The Humphrey
    • Jazz Man
    • Knit Cap
    • Newsie
    • Suburban Cowboy
    • Super Visor /w Short Hair
    • Wool Bully Cap
    • You and What Army Helmet
• Feminine
  • Hairstyles
    • Buzz Cut
    • Chopped Off
    • Little Pigtails
    • Lolita
    • Pageboy
    • T.W.A.
    • The Natural
    • Trihawk
  • Hats
    • Angel of the Mourning
    • Biker Cap
    • Fab Fedora
    • Fancy Newsboy
    • G.I. Jane
    • Give ‘Em Helmet
    • Hell on Wheels
    • Holy Bowler
    • Holy Bowler /w Short Hair
    • Knit Cap
    • Knock ‘Em Dreads
    • Lolita Hat
    • Metal Outlaw /w Short Hair
    • Pardon Your French
    • Pardon Your French w/ Long Hair
    • Pardon Your French w/ Short Hair
    • Pickelhaube
    • Raspberry Cap
    • Speed Demon
    • Stripe Tease Helmet
    • Suburban Gangster
    • Super Visor
    • Urban Cowboy
    • Worn in the USA Helmet

Native Interface causes softlocks with instrument controllers

• The Native Interface may cause softlocks in the scenarios it pops up, which include naming things and sending or receiving invites. This is due to some instrument controllers not being able to interact with the interface. Either use an alternative input method, such as a keyboard or standard game controller, for these menus, or disable the Native Interface in the Emulator tab of Rock Band 3's custom configuration.

Crash entering Practice Mode

• If Quickplay is played, a race condition will cause the game to crash when entering Practice as guitar or bass. This can be fixed by installing the Rock Band 3 Deluxe mod.

Crash during online interactions

• If UPNP is enabled in the Network tab of Rock Band 3's custom configuration, the emulator can crash when going online, searching for others, or accepting/receiving invites. Disabling UPNP will restrict you to only finding two players. Manually forwarding port 9103 (UDP) in your router settings is recommended if RPCS3's UPNP function is causing crashes.

Special Notes

Controller settings

The "Rock Band" drum class results in unresponsive controls. Use "Rock Band Pro" instead, even if you have non-Pro drums. If you are using a Rock Band 2/3 drum kit or real ekit, do not forget to map the drum pad modifier and cymbal modifier buttons to ensure drum pad navigation works. See this page for details. You may need to manually edit your input configuration in a text editor for this. Other platforms' keyboards cannot be mapped in RPCS3's controller settings.

USB passthrough will work with a real PS3 keyboard or MIDI pro adapter, but Wii and Xbox 360 keyboards connected by wireless adapter are not currently supported. They can be hooked up as USB MIDI instruments and configured in Config > I/O > Emulated MIDI Device 1-4 with the caveat of needing to change octave to navigate menus. See this page for more details.

Netplay testing

For the complete list of games tested with RPCN, please check the RPCN Compatibility List.

Game Version	RPCS3 Version	Connects?	Create/Join lobbies?	Match with others?	Online features working?	Requires custom servers?	Notes
1.05	N/A	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Available	Official servers and music store have been permanently shut down. A custom server exists: GoCentral, which has functional RPCN invites, leaderboards, a DNS server to allow crossplay between PS3, Wii, and RPCS3 users, and has nearly one-to-one functionality with the original servers.