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A Grand Theft Auto III Re-Implementation

306 points by ibobev 3y ago

the_player 3y ago
To save everyone the trouble – the last commit is 2 years old.
- oynqr 3y ago
  Around the time re3 got public interest.
  - alternatetwo 3y ago
    Specifically, shortly after re3 was done and got public attention - i.e. compiled to exe and no longer required the original gta3.exe.
gardenhedge 3y ago
"GTA 3 is no longer available on the steam store"
- colechristensen 3y ago
  It wasn’t for a while, they released a “definitive edition” which is available. They took the old versions down somewhat prematurely before releasing the remasters. A small number of people got some attention being disproportionally upset about this.
  - powersurge360 3y ago
    This minimizes things a bit. The definitive editions got torn apart for being ugly and poorly developed. It was a better experience to use the originals and mod them in many cases. This original version is still not available and people are still upset about it. Looks like the DE version of GTAIII currently has a 6 out of 10 on steam so it probably hasn’t been improved since release.
    - vasdae 3y ago
      I have played the DE version of GTA 3 (in fact I just finished) and it wasn't nearly as bad as they make it out to be. In fact I would say it's a better experience than the originals for those who haven't played them. Of all the bugs I've experienced, almost all of them were in the original release, which I played extensively. It's best to ignore youtubers and generally disagreeable nerds from reddit and all those places. They feed on hate.
      - user_7832 3y ago
        > I have played the DE version of GTA 3 (in fact I just finished) and it wasn't nearly as bad as they make it out to be. In fact I would say it's a better experience than the originals for those who haven't played them. Of all the bugs I've experienced, almost all of them were in the original release, which I played extensively. It's best to ignore youtubers and generally disagreeable nerds from reddit and all those places. They feed on hate. While I don't disagree with your experience at all of it being better than the originals, that is unfortunately just part of the issue here. The background is that Take Two has been very litigious, and a number of high-quality mods are no longer relevant due to their actions. I may be misremembering the details but iirc there was a very high quality GTA4 graphics mod that essentially gave the game "modern" graphics that too was forced to stop due to legal issues(to say nothing of the GTA3/VC etc mods). GTA 5 loading times were very high until a single guy fixed their shitty code with a mod. Take Two isn't just poorly managed or have poor code quality (which they do), they are also hostile to users wanting to modify their game. A good bit of the criticism here isn't specific to the game itself (which for eg may be fine once it loads) but rather their behaviour.
        dingnuts 3y ago
        considering all of the moral hand-wringing over the content of the GTA games there's some sort of deep irony over the fact that the developer is apparently not super ethical. or maybe it's not irony, but the opposite of irony. maybe it's totally predictable and shouldn't take anyone by surprise at all.
    - 3y ago
  - giancarlostoro 3y ago
    To be fair, even though I disagree with Rockstar on removing them from the store, you can still play the originals if you already owned them on Steam. Unlike the recent scandal with Assassins Creed where they removed it from your Steam library.
    - thebigspacefuck 3y ago
      I still have them in my library. I haven’t tried playing it recently but Vice City and San Andreas both play fine on my steam deck as the PC version and as emulated PS2 games. If the PC versions work with proton today then should they be able to run as long as proton is still supported?
    - hiatus 3y ago
      > Unlike the recent scandal with Assassins Creed where they removed it from your Steam library. Do you have a link with more information? Steam removed games that people legitimately purchased from their personal libraries?
      - giancarlostoro 3y ago
        Heres a HN thread on it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32049508 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32049508
      - Belopolye 3y ago
        > Steam removed games that people legitimately purchased from their personal libraries? The sad reality is that you purchased a license under terms that allow them to do whatever they want- it’s not really your personal library. Unless a government were to pass a law and fine them about it nothing will happen- it’s what you agreed to when you use services like Steam.
        BlueTemplar 3y ago
        Another reason to keep backups.
    - 3y ago
wicket 3y ago
It's worth pointing out that this project has not seen active development for a couple of years, since Take-Two sued the developers: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26199879 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26199879 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28402640 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28402640
- Hamuko 3y ago
  Aren't those links about a completely different project with a completely different name?
  - Philpax 3y ago
    That's correct - OpenRW is a from-scratch reimplementation of GTA3, while re3 is a manual decompilation that's capable of reproducing the original executable (or something very close to it). Both projects are very impressive in their own right. When re3 went public, OpenRW archived their repository; when re3 was DMCA'd, OpenRW unarchived their repository; and when re3 was sued, OpenRW ceased development. (This is based on my recollection from observing this two years ago - there may be other factors involved)
    - hd4 3y ago
      >when re3 was sued The day reverse-engineering legal protections failed.
      - bigstrat2003 3y ago
        Not really. No legal protection is able to stop an overzealous litigant from suing you. The real test is whether they win the case, not whether they can file one. Unfortunately, most people don't have the means to defend such a lawsuit, so they get bullied out of their legal rights.
        flykespice 3y ago
        This These companies know very well these independent groups, even if it's on their legal bounds, can't afford a legal defense team and actively exploit that to abuse them away.
omginternets 3y ago
All you had to do was follow the damn train, CJ.
- ThrowawayTestr 3y ago
  Wrong game
  - omginternets 3y ago
    Oh shoot, you're right!
  - crazysim 3y ago
    Though there is a train following mission in GTA3 too!
MBCook 3y ago
Despite being called OpenRW they never tell you where the name comes from, only that it’s an attempt to write the engine from scratch with clean code. But why RW? Did the GTA games run on RenderWare?
- MrGilbert 3y ago
  It's "Open ReWrite". That's what the description of the Github repository says.
  - MBCook 3y ago
    Yeah but that’s clearly a backronym.
    - alternatetwo 3y ago
      Back when the name OpenRW was coined, there was a much more widespread belief that RenderWare was the engine GTA3 runs on. At some point people realised that's nonsense, GTA3 doesn't have an engine (all code was written specifically for GTA3), and so they had to come up with something that's not RenderWare related.
- OatmealDome 3y ago
  Yes, the early 3D Grand Theft Auto games (III, Vice City, and San Andreas) ran on RenderWare. [0] [0] https://gtamods.com/wiki/RenderWare https://gtamods.com/wiki/RenderWare
- moosedev 3y ago
  I think the GTA 3 family of GTA games did, yes. They were PlayStation 2 games first, and RenderWare was relatively common for PS2 games. Source: worked in game dev using RenderWare on PS2 back then
  - MBCook 3y ago
    Since you were in the industry, was RW the first big 3rd party engine? I know it’s common now, and seems to have really taken off in the Wii/PS3/360 era. My understanding is it wasn’t in the PSX generation (at least early?).
MiddleEndian 3y ago
I'm surprised there are no open source GTA 2 clones (either straight-up or just similar games of that style). The total topdown PoV with rotating sprites seems like it would be ideal for low/zero budget enthusiast projects.
- harrisonpage 3y ago
  You are so so so right. I've only ever seen a few out there.
- dento 3y ago
  This is an open source game from my childhood which is somewhat similar: https://github.com/suomipelit/ultimatetapankaikki/ https://github.com/suomipelit/ultimatetapankaikki/
- moonshinefe 3y ago
  They gave GTA2 away for free officially at some point, which might have reduced a desire for it. That's my only guess.
  - robbiep 3y ago
    I have been looking to play GTA2 for a long time - I have such good memories of it. For any on mac who are looking - it is available for free from Porting Kit (which is a Wine-like platform). I am assuming they can install it for free since they're some sort of side project of GOG and I presume they have the original binary from when it was released for free So presumably anyone else with a Win system could get it from GOG (actually looks like you can get it here - https://gta.com.ua/rockstargames-classics-free-download.phtml https://gta.com.ua/rockstargames-classics-free-download.phtm... )
- eternauta3k 3y ago
  There was "Greedy Car Thieves" but I can't seem to find a working official website, probably dead. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxAMVhLNVX0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxAMVhLNVX0
jamesnorden 3y ago
>In its current state it is not possible to complete the game using OpenRW, or make any significant progress through the game. Plus last commit was 2 years ago. why even post this?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- xcdzvyn 3y ago
  it gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
pelasaco 3y ago
So many better games, people go for the game that can be used as example of a failed society.
sdwvit 3y ago
Does anyone have a mirror of ReVC project?
- Zambyte 3y ago
  https://git.robbyzambito.me/mirror/re3.git/log/?h=miami https://git.robbyzambito.me/mirror/re3.git/log/?h=miami
  - dawidpotocki 3y ago
    Seems to be down. Here is my mirror, it should have all the commits: https://git.dawidpotocki.com/mirror/re3/ https://git.dawidpotocki.com/mirror/re3/
    - Zambyte 3y ago
      Hm... it's up for me? If you just tried cloning, I linked directly to the web view of the VC branch, since that's what they asked for. This is the clone link https://git.robbyzambito.me/mirror/re3.git https://git.robbyzambito.me/mirror/re3.git Thanks for your mirror though
      - dawidpotocki 3y ago
        Hmm, just checked and it seems that it doesn't work when I'm connecting through some Mullvad VPN exits, but works when I disconnect. Oh well. I assume you have something like fail2ban.
    - xcdzvyn 3y ago
      Is this a fork of cgit? Do you have the source? It's lovely :) Edit: I see, it's just some CSS. New question: Is it FOSS?
      - dawidpotocki 3y ago
        Yep, just some CSS. I have not cleaned it up for release or anything, so it's a bit messy, but feel free to use it under the licence terms of cgit (GPLv2.0-only) and if you don't mind, put an attribution somewhere, like at least at the top of the CSS file. EDIT: You will also need this in your <head>, otherwise you won't have a mobile-friendly layout: <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" /> And also a custom pygments config so it uses the correct variables for colours, like this: class BiualStyle(Style): background_color = "#000000" highlight_color = "#222222" default_style = "#cccccc" styles = { Token: "var(--code-cyan)", Whitespace: "", Comment: "var(--code-blue)", Comment.Preproc: "", Comment.Special: "var(--code-red)", Comment.Hashbang: "var(--code-magenta)", Keyword: "var(--code-yellow)", Keyword.Declaration: "var(--code-green)", Keyword.Namespace: "var(--code-magenta)", Keyword.Pseudo: "", Keyword.Type: "var(--code-magenta)", Operator: "var(--code-yellow)", Operator.Word: "var(--code-yellow)", Name: "", Name.Class: "var(--code-cyan)", Name.Builtin: "var(--magenta)", Name.Exception: "var(--code-green)", Name.Variable: "var(--code-cyan)", String: "var(--code-red)", Number: "var(--code-magenta)", Generic.Heading: "var(--code-green)", Generic.Subheading: "var(--code-magenta)", Generic.Deleted: "var(--code-red)", Generic.Inserted: "var(--code-green)", Generic.Error: "var(--code-red)", Generic.Emph: "italic", Generic.Strong: "bold", Generic.Prompt: "bold var(--code-blue)", Generic.Output: "var(--code-gray)", Generic.Traceback: "var(--code-blue)", Error: "border:var(--code-red)" }
jmyeet 3y ago
I'm honestly shocked how game companies can refuse free money by remastering old popular titles. And when they do actually do it, they do it so cheaply that the resulting product is just godawful. Case in point: Warcraft 3 [1]. This remaster was not only awful technically but Blizzrad changed the ToS on third-party maps so they owned all the IP because they didn't want a repeat of the Dota fiasco where Dota 2 sprange from a WC3 map and Blizzard basically lost the MOBA war. Rock Star not so long ago released an awful remaster of the GTA3 trilogy [2]. These games are beloved. It's hard to believe they could screw up such an easy lay up but they did. There seems to be an all too common thread of outsourcing to third-party contractors on the cheap, little oversight, no internal accountability, limited oversight and honestly not really caring. But as we see people write emulators to play dead games on dead platforms. People remaster existing games largely for free. It's crazy to drop the ball so hard on something with such a huge inbuilt market. [1]: https://www.resetera.com/threads/i-still-feel-absolutely-awful-for-warcraft-iii-fans-for-what-blizzard-did-with-reforged.376911/ https://www.resetera.com/threads/i-still-feel-absolutely-awf... [2]: https://screenrant.com/gta-trilogy-definitive-edition-remasters-bad-graphics-bugs/ https://screenrant.com/gta-trilogy-definitive-edition-remast...
- danbolt 3y ago
  I don’t think Blizzard/Rockstar’s scenario necessarily applies here, Frank Cifladi has a GDC talk[1] about how the financial argument for remastering older IP can prove tricky. The enthusiast might not be happy with a bare bones, economically-sound port, so it can be challenging to market to them. Digital Eclipse gets around it by making nicer ports on the cheap, but I think a long-term solution would be a low-cost way for rights holders to keep older games in circulation without effort. [1] https://youtu.be/HLWY7fCXUwE https://youtu.be/HLWY7fCXUwE
- skocznymroczny 3y ago
  Have they really changed the ToS that much? My understanding was that by EULA the content you create through Warcraft 3 World Editor always belonged to Blizzard and Reforged hasn't really changed much in that aspect. On the other hand, a lot of custom maps for Warcraft 3 were based on external IPs (Dragonball Z maps etc) so it's not something Blizzard can claim anyway. Even when transitioning to Dota 2 they had to purge some of the more obvious IP things that existed in Dota 1, such as the sorceress character named "Lina Inverse" became "Lina".
Inviz 3y ago
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N3KhMOk_6HE&t=538s&pp=ygUMR3RhIDMgc291cmNl https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N3KhMOk_6HE&t=538s&pp=ygUMR3Rh... There is a video of a guy reviewing some of the code. It’s quite readable. The game was much simpler back then, some special casing was made (eg Catalina copter). But it’s a cool look behind the scenes
- gabegm 3y ago
  He's actually reviewing re3 which was the project DMCA'd by R* and involved manual decompilation rather than a complete reimplementation. It's an interesting video to watch to get his perspective though.
- tentacleuno 3y ago
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SebVNodMV4Q&pp=ygUjR1RBIGRldmVsb3BlciByZWFkcyBHVEEgc291cmNlIGNvZGU%3D https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SebVNodMV4Q&pp=ygUjR1RBIGRldmV... This one was very enjoyable, too. It was an ex-Vice City developer reviewing the re3 source code.
globular-toast 3y ago
Did it really look that bad? There wasn't even a shadow underneath the character? I always find it a bit sad when I see pictures of old games I used to play. My memory of them seems to automatically "upgrade" how they look to modern standards. Then when I see them it's shocking and disappointing to see how wrong my memory is. I'd rather leave it as a memory.
- hulitu 3y ago
  LCD's are crap when it comes to colors. The new HDR monitors seem to be better, but playing old DOS and Windows games on an (non HDR) monitor is a pain. I am very courious how many colors from those 16 milion of 24 bits are LCDs able to reproduce. My LCD seems to be able sometimg less than 16 bits (65535).
  - Lwerewolf 3y ago
    Good LCDs (i.e. native 8-bit IPS) have been available for a very long time. No-compromise gaming IPS's (120hz+, backlight strobing) - for more than 7 years. Decent 60hz ones (and even 76hz - 2209WA with overdrive) - for far, far longer. Yes, there's still the IPS glow, A-TW polarizer-equipped panels are almost impossible to look up in the first place. Yes, the black level is still pretty bad, unless you have a stacked matrix reference Sony or something. Yes, cheap 16-bit-with-bad-dithering TN less-than-sRGB-gamut LCDs are not great, but so were the el cheapo shadow mask CRTs.
    - tentacleuno 3y ago
      Great OLED screens are on the market now, too. They look absolutely incredible; once you go OLED, you don't go back :)
      - globular-toast 3y ago
        Yes, but my cheap LCD monitors I use for work have endured I reckon at least 3 years of continuous operation over the space of 7 years. What will an OLED that costs probably 5x as much look like after that much time?
GartzenDeHaes 3y ago
San Andreas in Unity, if anyone is interested. You can't do anything more than walk around, drive, and shoot though. https://github.com/GTA-ASM/SanAndreasUnity https://github.com/GTA-ASM/SanAndreasUnity
- looping8 3y ago
  It's strange, even though the graphics of San Andreas definitely don't look good, this somehow looks worse to me. It's like smoothing out the outdated models and making them higher resolution makes them seem worse. Not blaming the developers of this, just surprised that a much stronger engine ends up looking worse somehow, maybe it's just the initial shock?
  - Karliss 3y ago
    I can think of a couple reasons. * Fidelity level (in terms of resolution, color amount and similar) needs to match with the amount of information within drawing. One example of this are some of the games during transition from EGA to VGA which allowed to use more colors. Just slapping a color gradient on everything doesn't necessarily look better than more stylized look carefully using a limited color pallet. * Inconsistent quality level. While some of the assets are much higher resolution, not all of them are. This makes the older assets look worse compared to everything being equally low resolution. The mismatch can be caused not only by asset quality level but also lighting techniques.On hand you have sharp high resolution shadows on the other there are still some low quality textures and geometry. * Higher resolution textures makes it easier to notice bad texture tiling and low resolution geometry. With a high resolution textures perfectly projected on low polygon it's much easier to tell how blocky they are and where the edges are, compared to using more blurry textures.
  - tentacleuno 3y ago
    It's most likely because the game seems to use the textures from an existing installation. You can't just enlarge textures and have them look the same. I'm sure they could do some AI upscaling, but that probably wouldn't improve the situation much. GSG tried that for the Definitive Edition, and look how that went. It would be interesting to see a new texture pack made for it, which focuses less on nostalgia and more on fidelity.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
rabbits_2002 3y ago
There is a similar project for Morrowind called OpenMW. It runs great on Linux.

306 points by ibobev 3y ago

the_player 3y ago

To save everyone the trouble – the last commit is 2 years old.

oynqr 3y ago
Around the time re3 got public interest.
- alternatetwo 3y ago
  Specifically, shortly after re3 was done and got public attention - i.e. compiled to exe and no longer required the original gta3.exe.

gardenhedge 3y ago

"GTA 3 is no longer available on the steam store"

colechristensen 3y ago
It wasn’t for a while, they released a “definitive edition” which is available. They took the old versions down somewhat prematurely before releasing the remasters. A small number of people got some attention being disproportionally upset about this.
- powersurge360 3y ago
  This minimizes things a bit. The definitive editions got torn apart for being ugly and poorly developed. It was a better experience to use the originals and mod them in many cases. This original version is still not available and people are still upset about it. Looks like the DE version of GTAIII currently has a 6 out of 10 on steam so it probably hasn’t been improved since release.
  - vasdae 3y ago
    I have played the DE version of GTA 3 (in fact I just finished) and it wasn't nearly as bad as they make it out to be. In fact I would say it's a better experience than the originals for those who haven't played them. Of all the bugs I've experienced, almost all of them were in the original release, which I played extensively. It's best to ignore youtubers and generally disagreeable nerds from reddit and all those places. They feed on hate.
    - user_7832 3y ago
      > I have played the DE version of GTA 3 (in fact I just finished) and it wasn't nearly as bad as they make it out to be. In fact I would say it's a better experience than the originals for those who haven't played them. Of all the bugs I've experienced, almost all of them were in the original release, which I played extensively. It's best to ignore youtubers and generally disagreeable nerds from reddit and all those places. They feed on hate. While I don't disagree with your experience at all of it being better than the originals, that is unfortunately just part of the issue here. The background is that Take Two has been very litigious, and a number of high-quality mods are no longer relevant due to their actions. I may be misremembering the details but iirc there was a very high quality GTA4 graphics mod that essentially gave the game "modern" graphics that too was forced to stop due to legal issues(to say nothing of the GTA3/VC etc mods). GTA 5 loading times were very high until a single guy fixed their shitty code with a mod. Take Two isn't just poorly managed or have poor code quality (which they do), they are also hostile to users wanting to modify their game. A good bit of the criticism here isn't specific to the game itself (which for eg may be fine once it loads) but rather their behaviour.
      - dingnuts 3y ago
        considering all of the moral hand-wringing over the content of the GTA games there's some sort of deep irony over the fact that the developer is apparently not super ethical. or maybe it's not irony, but the opposite of irony. maybe it's totally predictable and shouldn't take anyone by surprise at all.
  - 3y ago
- giancarlostoro 3y ago
  To be fair, even though I disagree with Rockstar on removing them from the store, you can still play the originals if you already owned them on Steam. Unlike the recent scandal with Assassins Creed where they removed it from your Steam library.
  - thebigspacefuck 3y ago
    I still have them in my library. I haven’t tried playing it recently but Vice City and San Andreas both play fine on my steam deck as the PC version and as emulated PS2 games. If the PC versions work with proton today then should they be able to run as long as proton is still supported?
  - hiatus 3y ago
    > Unlike the recent scandal with Assassins Creed where they removed it from your Steam library. Do you have a link with more information? Steam removed games that people legitimately purchased from their personal libraries?
    - giancarlostoro 3y ago
      Heres a HN thread on it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32049508 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32049508
    - Belopolye 3y ago
      > Steam removed games that people legitimately purchased from their personal libraries? The sad reality is that you purchased a license under terms that allow them to do whatever they want- it’s not really your personal library. Unless a government were to pass a law and fine them about it nothing will happen- it’s what you agreed to when you use services like Steam.
      - BlueTemplar 3y ago
        Another reason to keep backups.
  - 3y ago

wicket 3y ago

It's worth pointing out that this project has not seen active development for a couple of years, since Take-Two sued the developers: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26199879 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26199879 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28402640 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28402640

Hamuko 3y ago
Aren't those links about a completely different project with a completely different name?
- Philpax 3y ago
  That's correct - OpenRW is a from-scratch reimplementation of GTA3, while re3 is a manual decompilation that's capable of reproducing the original executable (or something very close to it). Both projects are very impressive in their own right. When re3 went public, OpenRW archived their repository; when re3 was DMCA'd, OpenRW unarchived their repository; and when re3 was sued, OpenRW ceased development. (This is based on my recollection from observing this two years ago - there may be other factors involved)
  - hd4 3y ago
    >when re3 was sued The day reverse-engineering legal protections failed.
    - bigstrat2003 3y ago
      Not really. No legal protection is able to stop an overzealous litigant from suing you. The real test is whether they win the case, not whether they can file one. Unfortunately, most people don't have the means to defend such a lawsuit, so they get bullied out of their legal rights.
      - flykespice 3y ago
        This These companies know very well these independent groups, even if it's on their legal bounds, can't afford a legal defense team and actively exploit that to abuse them away.

omginternets 3y ago

All you had to do was follow the damn train, CJ.

ThrowawayTestr 3y ago
Wrong game
- omginternets 3y ago
  Oh shoot, you're right!
- crazysim 3y ago
  Though there is a train following mission in GTA3 too!

MBCook 3y ago

Despite being called OpenRW they never tell you where the name comes from, only that it’s an attempt to write the engine from scratch with clean code. But why RW? Did the GTA games run on RenderWare?

MrGilbert 3y ago
It's "Open ReWrite". That's what the description of the Github repository says.
- MBCook 3y ago
  Yeah but that’s clearly a backronym.
  - alternatetwo 3y ago
    Back when the name OpenRW was coined, there was a much more widespread belief that RenderWare was the engine GTA3 runs on. At some point people realised that's nonsense, GTA3 doesn't have an engine (all code was written specifically for GTA3), and so they had to come up with something that's not RenderWare related.
OatmealDome 3y ago
Yes, the early 3D Grand Theft Auto games (III, Vice City, and San Andreas) ran on RenderWare. [0] [0] https://gtamods.com/wiki/RenderWare https://gtamods.com/wiki/RenderWare
moosedev 3y ago
I think the GTA 3 family of GTA games did, yes. They were PlayStation 2 games first, and RenderWare was relatively common for PS2 games. Source: worked in game dev using RenderWare on PS2 back then
- MBCook 3y ago
  Since you were in the industry, was RW the first big 3rd party engine? I know it’s common now, and seems to have really taken off in the Wii/PS3/360 era. My understanding is it wasn’t in the PSX generation (at least early?).

MiddleEndian 3y ago

I'm surprised there are no open source GTA 2 clones (either straight-up or just similar games of that style). The total topdown PoV with rotating sprites seems like it would be ideal for low/zero budget enthusiast projects.

harrisonpage 3y ago
You are so so so right. I've only ever seen a few out there.
dento 3y ago
This is an open source game from my childhood which is somewhat similar: https://github.com/suomipelit/ultimatetapankaikki/ https://github.com/suomipelit/ultimatetapankaikki/
moonshinefe 3y ago
They gave GTA2 away for free officially at some point, which might have reduced a desire for it. That's my only guess.
- robbiep 3y ago
  I have been looking to play GTA2 for a long time - I have such good memories of it. For any on mac who are looking - it is available for free from Porting Kit (which is a Wine-like platform). I am assuming they can install it for free since they're some sort of side project of GOG and I presume they have the original binary from when it was released for free So presumably anyone else with a Win system could get it from GOG (actually looks like you can get it here - https://gta.com.ua/rockstargames-classics-free-download.phtml https://gta.com.ua/rockstargames-classics-free-download.phtm... )
eternauta3k 3y ago
There was "Greedy Car Thieves" but I can't seem to find a working official website, probably dead. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxAMVhLNVX0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxAMVhLNVX0

jamesnorden 3y ago

>In its current state it is not possible to complete the game using OpenRW, or make any significant progress through the game. Plus last commit was 2 years ago. why even post this?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
xcdzvyn 3y ago
it gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

pelasaco 3y ago

So many better games, people go for the game that can be used as example of a failed society.

sdwvit 3y ago

Does anyone have a mirror of ReVC project?

Zambyte 3y ago
https://git.robbyzambito.me/mirror/re3.git/log/?h=miami https://git.robbyzambito.me/mirror/re3.git/log/?h=miami
- dawidpotocki 3y ago
  Seems to be down. Here is my mirror, it should have all the commits: https://git.dawidpotocki.com/mirror/re3/ https://git.dawidpotocki.com/mirror/re3/
  - Zambyte 3y ago
    Hm... it's up for me? If you just tried cloning, I linked directly to the web view of the VC branch, since that's what they asked for. This is the clone link https://git.robbyzambito.me/mirror/re3.git https://git.robbyzambito.me/mirror/re3.git Thanks for your mirror though
    - dawidpotocki 3y ago
      Hmm, just checked and it seems that it doesn't work when I'm connecting through some Mullvad VPN exits, but works when I disconnect. Oh well. I assume you have something like fail2ban.
  - xcdzvyn 3y ago
    Is this a fork of cgit? Do you have the source? It's lovely :) Edit: I see, it's just some CSS. New question: Is it FOSS?
    - dawidpotocki 3y ago
      Yep, just some CSS. I have not cleaned it up for release or anything, so it's a bit messy, but feel free to use it under the licence terms of cgit (GPLv2.0-only) and if you don't mind, put an attribution somewhere, like at least at the top of the CSS file. EDIT: You will also need this in your <head>, otherwise you won't have a mobile-friendly layout: <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" /> And also a custom pygments config so it uses the correct variables for colours, like this: class BiualStyle(Style): background_color = "#000000" highlight_color = "#222222" default_style = "#cccccc" styles = { Token: "var(--code-cyan)", Whitespace: "", Comment: "var(--code-blue)", Comment.Preproc: "", Comment.Special: "var(--code-red)", Comment.Hashbang: "var(--code-magenta)", Keyword: "var(--code-yellow)", Keyword.Declaration: "var(--code-green)", Keyword.Namespace: "var(--code-magenta)", Keyword.Pseudo: "", Keyword.Type: "var(--code-magenta)", Operator: "var(--code-yellow)", Operator.Word: "var(--code-yellow)", Name: "", Name.Class: "var(--code-cyan)", Name.Builtin: "var(--magenta)", Name.Exception: "var(--code-green)", Name.Variable: "var(--code-cyan)", String: "var(--code-red)", Number: "var(--code-magenta)", Generic.Heading: "var(--code-green)", Generic.Subheading: "var(--code-magenta)", Generic.Deleted: "var(--code-red)", Generic.Inserted: "var(--code-green)", Generic.Error: "var(--code-red)", Generic.Emph: "italic", Generic.Strong: "bold", Generic.Prompt: "bold var(--code-blue)", Generic.Output: "var(--code-gray)", Generic.Traceback: "var(--code-blue)", Error: "border:var(--code-red)" }

jmyeet 3y ago

I'm honestly shocked how game companies can refuse free money by remastering old popular titles. And when they do actually do it, they do it so cheaply that the resulting product is just godawful. Case in point: Warcraft 3 [1]. This remaster was not only awful technically but Blizzrad changed the ToS on third-party maps so they owned all the IP because they didn't want a repeat of the Dota fiasco where Dota 2 sprange from a WC3 map and Blizzard basically lost the MOBA war. Rock Star not so long ago released an awful remaster of the GTA3 trilogy [2]. These games are beloved. It's hard to believe they could screw up such an easy lay up but they did. There seems to be an all too common thread of outsourcing to third-party contractors on the cheap, little oversight, no internal accountability, limited oversight and honestly not really caring. But as we see people write emulators to play dead games on dead platforms. People remaster existing games largely for free. It's crazy to drop the ball so hard on something with such a huge inbuilt market. [1]: https://www.resetera.com/threads/i-still-feel-absolutely-awful-for-warcraft-iii-fans-for-what-blizzard-did-with-reforged.376911/ https://www.resetera.com/threads/i-still-feel-absolutely-awf... [2]: https://screenrant.com/gta-trilogy-definitive-edition-remasters-bad-graphics-bugs/ https://screenrant.com/gta-trilogy-definitive-edition-remast...

danbolt 3y ago
I don’t think Blizzard/Rockstar’s scenario necessarily applies here, Frank Cifladi has a GDC talk[1] about how the financial argument for remastering older IP can prove tricky. The enthusiast might not be happy with a bare bones, economically-sound port, so it can be challenging to market to them. Digital Eclipse gets around it by making nicer ports on the cheap, but I think a long-term solution would be a low-cost way for rights holders to keep older games in circulation without effort. [1] https://youtu.be/HLWY7fCXUwE https://youtu.be/HLWY7fCXUwE
skocznymroczny 3y ago
Have they really changed the ToS that much? My understanding was that by EULA the content you create through Warcraft 3 World Editor always belonged to Blizzard and Reforged hasn't really changed much in that aspect. On the other hand, a lot of custom maps for Warcraft 3 were based on external IPs (Dragonball Z maps etc) so it's not something Blizzard can claim anyway. Even when transitioning to Dota 2 they had to purge some of the more obvious IP things that existed in Dota 1, such as the sorceress character named "Lina Inverse" became "Lina".

Inviz 3y ago

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N3KhMOk_6HE&t=538s&pp=ygUMR3RhIDMgc291cmNl https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N3KhMOk_6HE&t=538s&pp=ygUMR3Rh... There is a video of a guy reviewing some of the code. It’s quite readable. The game was much simpler back then, some special casing was made (eg Catalina copter). But it’s a cool look behind the scenes

gabegm 3y ago
He's actually reviewing re3 which was the project DMCA'd by R* and involved manual decompilation rather than a complete reimplementation. It's an interesting video to watch to get his perspective though.
tentacleuno 3y ago
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SebVNodMV4Q&pp=ygUjR1RBIGRldmVsb3BlciByZWFkcyBHVEEgc291cmNlIGNvZGU%3D https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SebVNodMV4Q&pp=ygUjR1RBIGRldmV... This one was very enjoyable, too. It was an ex-Vice City developer reviewing the re3 source code.

globular-toast 3y ago

Did it really look that bad? There wasn't even a shadow underneath the character? I always find it a bit sad when I see pictures of old games I used to play. My memory of them seems to automatically "upgrade" how they look to modern standards. Then when I see them it's shocking and disappointing to see how wrong my memory is. I'd rather leave it as a memory.

hulitu 3y ago
LCD's are crap when it comes to colors. The new HDR monitors seem to be better, but playing old DOS and Windows games on an (non HDR) monitor is a pain. I am very courious how many colors from those 16 milion of 24 bits are LCDs able to reproduce. My LCD seems to be able sometimg less than 16 bits (65535).
- Lwerewolf 3y ago
  Good LCDs (i.e. native 8-bit IPS) have been available for a very long time. No-compromise gaming IPS's (120hz+, backlight strobing) - for more than 7 years. Decent 60hz ones (and even 76hz - 2209WA with overdrive) - for far, far longer. Yes, there's still the IPS glow, A-TW polarizer-equipped panels are almost impossible to look up in the first place. Yes, the black level is still pretty bad, unless you have a stacked matrix reference Sony or something. Yes, cheap 16-bit-with-bad-dithering TN less-than-sRGB-gamut LCDs are not great, but so were the el cheapo shadow mask CRTs.
  - tentacleuno 3y ago
    Great OLED screens are on the market now, too. They look absolutely incredible; once you go OLED, you don't go back :)
    - globular-toast 3y ago
      Yes, but my cheap LCD monitors I use for work have endured I reckon at least 3 years of continuous operation over the space of 7 years. What will an OLED that costs probably 5x as much look like after that much time?

GartzenDeHaes 3y ago

San Andreas in Unity, if anyone is interested. You can't do anything more than walk around, drive, and shoot though. https://github.com/GTA-ASM/SanAndreasUnity https://github.com/GTA-ASM/SanAndreasUnity

looping8 3y ago
It's strange, even though the graphics of San Andreas definitely don't look good, this somehow looks worse to me. It's like smoothing out the outdated models and making them higher resolution makes them seem worse. Not blaming the developers of this, just surprised that a much stronger engine ends up looking worse somehow, maybe it's just the initial shock?
- Karliss 3y ago
  I can think of a couple reasons. * Fidelity level (in terms of resolution, color amount and similar) needs to match with the amount of information within drawing. One example of this are some of the games during transition from EGA to VGA which allowed to use more colors. Just slapping a color gradient on everything doesn't necessarily look better than more stylized look carefully using a limited color pallet. * Inconsistent quality level. While some of the assets are much higher resolution, not all of them are. This makes the older assets look worse compared to everything being equally low resolution. The mismatch can be caused not only by asset quality level but also lighting techniques.On hand you have sharp high resolution shadows on the other there are still some low quality textures and geometry. * Higher resolution textures makes it easier to notice bad texture tiling and low resolution geometry. With a high resolution textures perfectly projected on low polygon it's much easier to tell how blocky they are and where the edges are, compared to using more blurry textures.
- tentacleuno 3y ago
  It's most likely because the game seems to use the textures from an existing installation. You can't just enlarge textures and have them look the same. I'm sure they could do some AI upscaling, but that probably wouldn't improve the situation much. GSG tried that for the Definitive Edition, and look how that went. It would be interesting to see a new texture pack made for it, which focuses less on nostalgia and more on fidelity.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

rabbits_2002 3y ago

There is a similar project for Morrowind called OpenMW. It runs great on Linux.