[Craig Kostelecky]

Well, this may be a mistake on my end, but I'm going to give it a try.

I gave more than two years of my life leading this project and since I've given it up I've watched it slowly die. I don't like that. I'm also at a point in my life where I have very little free time. But I need a distraction from my life during my few free moments. So I want to get this thing going again. Hopefully my actions will motivate others to help because I cannot do much on my own. This may not last long as my current situation (and no I won't elaborate on what's going on in this public forum, and I'll choose who to share it with privately) may not be more than a few weeks or months. At any point things could go back to the way they were a few days ago for me. My first priority is to my two boys (15 months and 3 months old).

But in that short time I will give an effort to reignite this mod. It felt really good to see spaceeinstein post something here as I've valued his contributions greatly. I hope he has more to give. And if some of the old guys (ModelingMan, Hammer83, PatrickW, SteaVor, hell even Demarest) want to get involved again, I would LOVE that. And I will also welcome any new blood to this mod. The things that need doing are not that difficult (in theory). We're not creating anything new, just trying to make old stuff work on the new(er) engine.

This project deserves at least one more major polished release. The way I see it, there's a few scm bugs to fix, which I will work on to the best of my ability. Some more exe hacking may need to be done to finish that properly. There's also a few peds to convert. I'm not worried about the random pedestrians on the street, but all of the actors called by the script should be converted. There's a few minor map glitches that we need to sort out.

So come on and join me. Let's give this thing one more chance!

EDIT: And just to clarify something, we'll be using Sanny Builder now for the scm. Barton's builders are deader than this mod.

This post has been edited by Craig Kostelecky on Thursday, Mar 25 2010, 05:18

[krause.799]

DO IT

[d0mm2k8]

I've rarely ventured into this part of the forum except for the time I downloaded the mod (which is f*cking awesome BTW).

I don't think people ever come to this part of the forums, mainly because they think this mod is dead.

You need to get in contact with many of the great modders here pronto if you're resurrecting this piece of art.

You have to spread the word man

[Craig Kostelecky]

I haven't seen anybody that I've worked with on this mod even online since I started up again. I'm sure some of them stop by every few moons to see if anything's new, so maybe they'll show up at some point. Whether any of them have the desire to do anymore is another question.

But this isn't too hard of work for any modders with moderate experience. And it's a great way to learn more. I know I've learned a lot about the GTA engine.

Since I haven't been very active over the last few years, I don't even know who the talented modders are. I do know this mod has a completely open door policy. If ANYbody can do the work that needs to be done, they are officially part of the team. There's a lot that I do not know how to do. So if anybody knows anybody who has some experience in character modeling, map editing, pedestrian path files, and maybe some exe hacking, I would love their help.

[Ziero_1986]

I would like to see this fired up again, since LC was my fav city and I'd like to see it with VC's abilities... Speaking of, have you heard anything from Blue over at BTTF Hill Valley about the HV mod for this?

[Craig Kostelecky]

Yes. I worked with him for a while back in November last year. I even put all of his DeLorean effects into my custom LC folder. It doesn't do time travel or anything like that, it just animates the wheels and allows the flying car to shoot forward better. I still have a separate official LC folder. I may release that as a separate download at some point. Sometimes I'll just play that while I get as many wanted stars as possible in my indestructible, impossible to catch DeLorean.

The work that team has done, especially bluespace88 has been unbelievable to me. I never thought the VC engine could do so much.

[krause.799]

so any 'eta' on the final version? I'm honestly just hoping for a moddable Claude and working interriors of clothing stores and such

[krause.799]

ALSO try to get in touch with dingleman, he is also working on lcsa

[Craig Kostelecky]

There's no ETA on anything. Right now I'm the only one doing anything and my progress has been slow. In a few weeks I'm expecting some help from a very influential team member, so it should start to pick up after that. But either way, things will likely continue to move slowly.

I'm not sure what you mean by a moddable Claude. And working interiors and clothing shops will all be unofficial add-ons that will not be developed directly by the team.

My goal for the "final" release is to simply get all or most of the peds converted, all of the major scm bugs fixed, and all mapping issues sorted out. Going for anything beyond that moves the release date from "sometime hopefully in the near future" to "likely never."

I have no idea who dingleman is. But I would welcome anybody's help who has the knowledge and desire.

[NTAuthority]

QUOTE (Craig Kostelecky @ Mar 25 2010, 02:05)

Some more exe hacking may need to be done to finish that properly.

I'm one of the few people left who can still do EXE hacking, and I'm interested in helping with the finalization of this legendary mod.

[Craig Kostelecky]

Thanks and good luck!

One of the issues we wanted to work on was a way to accurately duplicate the behavior of opcode 03f8 (used in Plaster Blaster) in the Vice City engine. We know that when 03f8 is called it looks at a variable that's defined and controlled by the exe. But we'd have to duplicate all of that too.

There's some discussion about that opcode in the last couple of pages in the BUGS thread. There's also more here.

Don't worry at this point about incorporating any exe changes into the launcher or other files. It would probably be easiest to just work on the exe directly for testing and then when it's all figured out, we'll integrate it.

I hope you're able to figure something out. I'd love to include more people into this mod as well.

Also, is there a difference between the GTA3 and VC 0123 opcode (has actor spotted player)? Sayonara Salvatore doesn't seem to work right and that may be one reason why.

[MadcapSmoky22]

OMG can't believe dis, I thought the mod was done already (in both ways, finished and no interest in it meaning it was dead) good luck is all I can wish unless i can help- can't texture or model, I only know scripting a lil bit (in San Andreas though, I believe I could quickly learn VC's scm) most of .dat editing and that's all unfortunely.

[NTAuthority]

QUOTE (Craig Kostelecky @ Apr 4 2010, 19:56)

One of the issues we wanted to work on was a way to accurately duplicate the behavior of opcode 03f8 (used in Plaster Blaster) in the Vice City engine. We know that when 03f8 is called it looks at a variable that's defined and controlled by the exe. But we'd have to duplicate all of that too.

The variable is set only for an created object matching the 'bodycast' ID, and appears to be some sort of altered health value, which also alters another flag in the CObject::ObjectDamage routine, possibly meant for fine-grained damage control. It's also used in a block which plays the 'breaking' sound and some other stuff in CAutomobile::ProcessEntityCollision... typical 'game-specific' opcode. It looks like it's easy to implement, but I'll very likely need to alter the script code to test it, and I never got the old BW mission builders to work.

QUOTE

Also, is there a difference between the GTA3 and VC 0123 opcode (has actor spotted player)? Sayonara Salvatore doesn't seem to work right and that may be one reason why.

Another parameter has been added to CPed::OurPedCanSeeThisOne, but 0123 has it set to 0 still. However, the second parameter to CWorld::ProcessLineOfSight now also gets Z adjustment, which it didn't get in VC III, so that might be an issue.

This post has been edited by NTAuthority on Tuesday, Apr 6 2010, 13:07

[Craig Kostelecky]

QUOTE (NTAuthority @ Apr 6 2010, 07:45)

0123 has it set to 0 still. However, the second parameter to CWorld::ProcessLineOfSight now also gets Z adjustment, which it didn't get in VC III, so that might be an issue.

That's exactly what I was expecting you to find. In Sayonara Salvatore in GTA3 you could hide out on the rooftops and snipe Salvatore as he left the club. With the same code in LC, they see you on the roof.

So if we can change 0123 to have the same Z axis behavior, that would allow that mission to play properly. The only thing I'd have to change in the scm is getting Sal to go to the cars properly as it's still a little buggy.

Do you need a compiled script for testing? Just let me know what you need and I'll hook you up. I'm also using Sanny Builder to compile the script.

[NTAuthority]

QUOTE (Craig Kostelecky @ Apr 7 2010, 01:32)

That's exactly what I was expecting you to find. In Sayonara Salvatore in GTA3 you could hide out on the rooftops and snipe Salvatore as he left the club. With the same code in LC, they see you on the roof. So if we can change 0123 to have the same Z axis behavior, that would allow that mission to play properly. The only thing I'd have to change in the scm is getting Sal to go to the cars properly as it's still a little buggy.

I've tried to remove the Z axis adjustment, but couldn't test it since in the version I have 1) the time given by Sayonara Salvatore in the text is 3 hours early and 2) when the time passed, nothing happened - Salvatore and the guards just stood behind the club, and that's not exactly testable.

Anyway, I've uploaded the 'fix' at http://files.dotbas.net/VCSpotBehaviour.asi - source code'll come if it works.

QUOTE

Do you need a compiled script for testing? Just let me know what you need and I'll hook you up. I'm also using Sanny Builder to compile the script.

Since the current script is not working, and I can't recompile for changes (I'd, for instance, need to recompile for re-enabling 03F8, as it's very mission-specific) an usable source version could be very useful.

Also, I've seen 'destination' blips and pickup coronas are still pink, do you already have a fix, or should I whip one up? I've already found where this corona's created, just need to change the used color.

[Craig Kostelecky]

Yes by all means change that color (if that's the way it's supposed to be in GTA3 of course, it's been ages since I've played the original).

I will try to get you a script with my updated Salvatore code and with 03F8 enabled. In my current version of SS, everybody will walk out to the street properly if the player is not seen, but Salvatore will not enter the car, he'll just stand there waiting to be shot. I just didn't have time to fix that part. My time today is very limited and tomorrow I am building a house for Habitat for Humanity, so I'll be unavailable until Thursday night.

Here is the scm with what you should need.

I also had a quick test of Sayonara Salvatore. It seems to play correctly if you're on the roof of either building.

So, Sayonara Salvatore is almost complete. I just need to tweak the timing of Salvatore leaving the club (it's sped up now for quicker testing), make sure Salvatore gets in the car when he's supposed to, and just test multiple ways of passing or failing the mission.

The script I uploaded here should allow anybody else to test Sayonara Salvatore. Please let me know what you think so far. Plaster Blaster will likely crash until 03F8 is enabled.

This post has been edited by Craig Kostelecky on Wednesday, Apr 7 2010, 18:03

[spaceeinstein]

It's cool to see NTAuthority working here. This project is finally getting a huge jolt after a long time of hibernation.

I have recently found cool things with pickup types. During "A Drop in the Ocean", instead of creating a pickup and checking if the player goes through the area, use pickup type 13 instead. The pickup actually bobs up and down with the water and you can drive through it to pick it up. So in the end, just replace 035B with 0213 type 13.

I think there was a mistake naming 033B. The last time I tested it, the opcode checks if the plane has completed its path, not if it landed. I don't know if this would affect the current coding of "S.A.M." but just to let you know.

I have compiled a list of vehicles that are spawned using 03C5. I don't know if this opcode has been converted yet but you can see there are some minor differences.

Why was $HOODS_DEFUSAL_GARAGE set to type 1? The original type 14 works perfectly fine in VC. Was that the source of the problem for the mission?

There's a weird thing involving 030D. If you start a new game using a German language, the total mission points is decreased by 2 from the set amount. Is the German version of VC missing two missions? This might affect 100% completion for this mod if people are playing with the German language.

This post has been edited by spaceeinstein on Thursday, Apr 8 2010, 15:45

[Craig Kostelecky]

QUOTE (spaceeinstein @ Apr 8 2010, 09:46)

Why was $HOODS_DEFUSAL_GARAGE set to type 1? The original type 14 works perfectly fine in VC. Was that the source of the problem for the mission? There's a weird thing involving 030D. If you start a new game using a German language, the total mission points is decreased by 2 from the set amount. Is the German version of VC missing two missions? This might affect 100% completion for this mod if people are playing with the German language.

Rigged to Blow was one of the very first missions I converted. So I probably just didn't know any better when I made the garage. I'll try setting it back to 14 and test it out. Actually, when it's set to type 14, the door closes after the car enters the garage, trapping the vehicle inside. It even closed through the car trapping half of the car in, half out. For me it plays fine set as type 1 (I think).

And that's weird about the German language. As far as I know, the game has access to the exact same scm no matter what language is selected. But that's pure speculation on my part and I would not be surprised if I was wrong.

I feel the same way about NTAuthority. It would be great if more people came by.

Off topic: does anybody know how to get in touch with SteaVor? He hasn't been online here for many moons and one of the links to the latest files is dead. I wanted to update my "official" copy to the last version he finished.

QUOTE (spaceeinstein @ Apr 8 2010, 09:46)

I have recently found cool things with pickup types. During "A Drop in the Ocean", instead of creating a pickup and checking if the player goes through the area, use pickup type 13 instead. The pickup actually bobs up and down with the water and you can drive through it to pick it up. So in the end, just replace 035B with 0213 type 13.

I don't really want to rewrite that mission to fix this as it plays fine, but if someone else wants to do it, I will use their code (provided it works of course).

This post has been edited by Craig Kostelecky on Friday, Apr 9 2010, 03:51

[ITBTD]

QUOTE (Craig Kostelecky @ Apr 8 2010, 20:17)

Off topic: does anybody know how to get in touch with SteaVor? He hasn't been online here for many moons and one of the links to the latest files is dead. I wanted to update my "official" copy to the last version he finished.

I have the original file (thanks to someone who recently gave it to me whose name I cannot remember...Very sorry!). If you want, I can send it to you. I also have SteaVor's E-mail address somewhere if you want that too.

[Weirdo.]

QUOTE (ITBTD @ Apr 8 2010, 20:42)

(thanks to someone who recently gave it to me whose name I cannot remember...Very sorry!)

Hello! Apology accepted. Just glad to help in any way.

Here's the linky again, in-case someone else is viewing this topic:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/lndd6t