Grand Theft Auto Grieving Thread - Yep, I've been drinkin' again...

[Haftag]

Always the Bostonians...

Seriously though, screw take two, the moment gta 6 launches i will do the morally right thing and become the first person to torrent that shit

You probably can't right there and then. Also fuck english.

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

Can you explain that logic? If they bought stuff from GTAO, R* has already got their money. Maybe newer players may be hesitant to buy stuff for an older game.

Every player is a potential sharkcard sale. If the average person buys a shark card once every week and they spend two weeks playing GTA6, that's lost revenue.
Then, how many will return to GTAO, once GTA6 launches?
How many will return to scratch with GTAO2 vs GTAO, especially if GTA6 is safe and bland?

 

[Psyduck]

One thing I'm surprised the SA community hasn't bothered with is attempting to remaster the Introduction Movie, which was a seperate DVD only available for the PS2 Special Edition of SA.

The video above is only available in 360p quality and no other higher quality version of it seems to exist. You'd think after 20 years SA fans would attempt to recreate the movie with the tools they have now, but AFAIK no attempt has been made yet.

Why would anyone want to remaster The Introduction though?

 

[Colon capital V]

Why would anyone want to remaster The Introduction though?

It looks blurry and bad in 360p, while it was probably fine and serviceable for the common consumer in 2005 with CRTs still, R* (like usual) didn't have much foresight in rendering out a better quality video for 720p or 1080p monitors.
(also it'd be fun to have another cutscene for modders to dick around and add or replace character models in).

 

[The Last Stand]

This is perhaps the closest thing we'll ever get to a making of for the very first GTA. Hell, perhaps any GTA game at all.
View attachment 6991165

Admittedly I would like it if Rockstar provided something resembling a peek behind the curtain of what goes on in development.

Speaking of behind the scenes development: here's more Obbe Vermeji stories. This one is on how street lights work in GTA. Tweet. (A)

In gta3, traffic lights cycle through 3 states: North/South East/West Pedestrians The traffic light’s model orientation determines its cycle, and at startup, my code stored the cycle in the road nodes. This is why, even if the light was knocked over, cars still obeyed the light. Map artists just placed the lights, ran the game, and it all worked—no extra setup needed. Simple, but it still worked this way in IV. During gta3, I gave players a 1-star wanted level for running red lights. This was not popular with the team. I quickly removed it.

I remember one behind-the-scenes video that detailed cut police scanner lines in GTA3. One of them involved traffic violations.

 

[LifeAlert]

I remember one behind-the-scenes video that detailed cut police scanner lines in GTA3. One of them involved traffic violations.

While we're on the topic of GTA 3's development:

Spoiler: Lots of stuff

GTA 3 design document in text format:

https://gtaforums.com/topic/991814-gta-3-design-document-itemized-from-gtaseriesvideos-video/

https://archive.ph/ZWZch

Early trailer from February 2001:

German trailer with beta footage:

Beta gameplay from PSW Magazine:

 

[crackers breakfast]

too lazy to search for some sort gta community watch (if there even was one) so i just gotta send this here just in case anyone interested to look at this

https://fivem.team/

 

[Xenomorphs Are Cute]

One thing I'm surprised the SA community hasn't bothered with is attempting to remaster the Introduction Movie, which was a seperate DVD only available for the PS2 Special Edition of SA.

The video above is only available in 360p quality and no other higher quality version of it seems to exist. You'd think after 20 years SA fans would attempt to recreate the movie with the tools they have now, but AFAIK no attempt has been made yet.

Someone, somewhat, made something akin to it, with even more backstory.

 

[Would]

The Xbox and PSP allowed for players to create their own radio stations with their console's respective media player features.

The PSP was a bitch and a half to get to work and caused frame stuttering from the constant buffering.
Neat idea but clearly beyond the adept capabilities of the PSP.

It was pointless in VCS anyway. No one's personal music choices tops the radio in that game. No one's.

 

[Here Comes Mongo]

Since one of his videos was brought up, I have to say that Vadim M.'s videos have been fantastic for learning about how the older games work. Informative and entertaining at the same time. He did one that went over all the censorship the Japanese version of San Andreas had compared to the NA version that blew my mind (any time you have to kill someone "innocent" for a mission, the Japanese version changes the target to always somehow be affiliated with the Ballas, among the expected things such as changing the sex shops to just "shops").

Can't recommend his videos enough.

 

[The Last Stand]

I'm glad both the running red lights penalty and pedestrians reporting crimes with a payphone were cut before III's release. That would've made even basic missions annoying to deal with.

 

[Adash]

Since one of his videos was brought up, I have to say that Vadim M.'s videos have been fantastic for learning about how the older games work. Informative and entertaining at the same time. He did one that went over all the censorship the Japanese version of San Andreas had compared to the NA version that blew my mind (any time you have to kill someone "innocent" for a mission, the Japanese version changes the target to always somehow be affiliated with the Ballas, among the expected things such as changing the sex shops to just "shops").

Can't recommend his videos enough.

Vadim's videos are great, can vouch.

Also the Ballas are actually in your walls right now.

too lazy to search for some sort gta community watch (if there even was one) so i just gotta send this here just in case anyone interested to look at this

https://fivem.team/

God damn, this is long. I'm up to Part 4, but it's only like a quarter of the way in. Ended up skipping to the summary. Either way, it's insane what I've read. I'm shocked that any of this even happened. I hope everything goes well for all of the original devs. I've tried to archive the site, but basically everything I use comes up with no images. I'll copy the TLDR.

Spoiler: Summary

NTA creates FiveM shortly after GTA5 release on PC in 2015, as planned, from remnants of a GTA4 project. It’s popular out of the gate, Take2 notices, and engages in legal action. NTA is banned from modding all Take2 IP. This discourages NTA for a while, but after seeing the community keep the dream alive, they decide to jump back in with another alias. NTA carries FiveM back into success.

Groot and Thers quit their jobs, and go ask for a job at FiveM, NTA says “Why not?”. Others are hired as well. Management is poor, those who cannot self-manage contribute almost nothing. Groot and his friends are the most egregious slackers. Despite this, things go well, and the core developers advance the platform happily

Groot, seeing a golden opportunity for him and his friends, tries to secretly sell the project to R* without the authority to do so. He leaks the personal and financial data of the company in an attempt to impress Rockstar. Despite having very little impact, the Groot Gang declare themselves as more important than everyone else, and take great pride in the player numbers and overall success of FiveM.

NTA learns of this R* deal, is mad, but warms up to the idea. Groot prepares his team for the acquisition, while the rest have no clue what’s going on.

The R* deal goes through, Groot Gang beg NTA for big bonuses. Groot wants 30% of the deal. NTA resists their begging.

FiveM join R*, the overall mood is “cautiously optimistic”. The Groot Gang all go to HR and get NTA suspended on the first week. Groot Gang proclaim themselves as the “Visionaries of FiveM”, lie about their impact, take credit for others’ work, and Ethan gives them all cushy Senior Roles.

After being suspended temporarily, NTA gives the Groot Gang millions of Euros in hopes to regain their friendship. Groot Gang takes the money and continues to campaign for NTA’s firing. NTA gets kicked out for good.

Development is slow, the community is starting to notice a downhill trend in all aspects of FiveM. The Groot Gang pretending to be “Seniors”, after having been absent for years, are having a negative impact on development and the project as a whole. It becomes obvious to everyone that they don’t know what they’re doing, but Ethan keeps propping them up.

The Groot Gang still resent those who sided with NTA and convince Ethan to replace them with staff from the smaller alt:V project. Ethan hires Ex-alt:V as seniors, and puts them above the original team in rank and pay. Ex-alt:V are given confidential information, like exclusive early access to the next GTA5 build, and end up leaking it to their friends.

The ex-alt:V associates are secretly responsible for the Christmas 2023 GTA5 source code leak. Disquse keeps this secret, and they know he knows, but they decide to betray him anyway.

Conflicts arise between the Original Developers and Ex-alt:V. Ex-alt:V are brand new, and don’t know what they’re doing, yet are put in charge by Ethan. They force through bad code in an eager attempt to prove themselves at their new job. The original developers try to hinder this, and they don’t like it. Both sides go to Ethan to complain, some half-baked solutions arise, but are ignored. Ethan sides with alt:V and Groot.

The team begins to suspect that Ethan is purposefully nosediving the company. From various external community members, they learn of a secret project ROME that is meant to replace FiveM, being worked on by R*.

Ethan fires Disquse, and as a result, the rest of the Original Developers quit. Some of them rant on the forums/Discord for a few days, but then they move on.

Months later, Tuxick, a “Senior R* Employee” and former alt:V member, attempted to blackmail Disquse (now an ex-employee) over his knowledge and evidence of the ex-alt:V team’s involvement in the GTA 5 source code leak that occurred on Christmas 2023.

FiveM degrades into a worse and worse state with each day, the community is continuously upset, the team does little to no work.

In late 2024, well-known members of the community, interested in what happened to FiveM, formed a coalition to write and publish this article. They contact many associates of Cfx and R* to compile information.

 

[crackers breakfast]

God damn, this is long. I'm up to Part 4, but it's only like a quarter of the way in. Ended up skipping to the summary. Either way, it's insane what I've read. I'm shocked that any of this even happened. I hope everything goes well for all of the original devs. I've tried to archive the site, but basically everything I use comes up with no images. I'll copy the TLDR.

i mean, sometimes it kinda feels like a shill for ntauthory, dont get me wrong he is a cool modder, but who will ever know what is truth, people are insanely dedicated nowadays.
dosent excuse all drama anyway

 

[The Last Stand]

God damn, this is long. I'm up to Part 4, but it's only like a quarter of the way in. Ended up skipping to the summary. Either way, it's insane what I've read. I'm shocked that any of this even happened. I hope everything goes well for all of the original devs. I've tried to archive the site, but basically everything I use comes up with no images. I'll copy the TLDR.

I'm still reading the expose; I'm up to the R* takeover phase. This aligns with another article I found about GTA 6's online.

Rockstar Games is gearing up to make “Grand Theft Auto VI” the next big metaverse platform.

When Rockstar releases “GTA 6” later this year, it won’t just be the biggest video game launch of the decade — the launch will represent “GTA’s” attempt to transform from a popular game series into a bona fide creator platform.

Rockstar Games has been in discussions with top Roblox and Fortnite creators, as well as dedicated “GTA” content creators, about the potential to create custom experiences inside the upcoming game, according to three industry insiders with knowledge of these meetings, who requested anonymity in order to protect business relationships. These experiences would allow creators to modify the game’s environment and assets to bring their own intellectual property — and potentially their brand sponsors — into “GTA’s” virtual sandbox.

Representatives of Rockstar Games did not respond to requests for comment prior to the publication of this article.
Thus far, the conversations have remained relatively open-ended, and it’s unclear exactly how creators would benefit from bringing their IP and audiences into “GTA 6,” beyond the exposure that would come from having a presence inside one of the world’s most popular gaming properties. Creators in other metaverse platforms — who often refer to themselves as user-generated content, or UGC, creators — can make money by getting a cut of virtual item sales or through revenue share programs.

The ‘GTA’ ecosystem​

A look into the creator ecosystem of “GTA 5” provides some insight into the potential future of “GTA 6” as a creator platform. Fourteen years after its release, the fifth iteration of “GTA” remains the most-watched game on Twitch, thanks in large part to the tremendous amount of activity taking place inside FiveM, a popular game modification that allows players to host and join multiplayer servers, or virtual worlds in which hundreds of users can play together simultaneously. Although Rockstar initially banned some of FiveM’s creators in 2015, the developer later acquired their company in 2023, signaling its tacit approval of the “GTA RP [role play]” community.
“It is my firm belief that is the reason that they purchased FiveM is exactly that — to spin up a metaversal universe of custom-built experiences, and potentially UGC items, with an attached UGC creator economy,” said Pete Basgen, global gaming and esports lead for WPP agency Wavemaker. “It will essentially occupy that adult-enumerated space at the top of the ecosystem; there’s a very natural place there for people that graduate from Roblox and Minecraft.”


Unlike the virtual worlds inside platforms such as Roblox and Fortnite, “GTA” servers hosted on FiveM charge users subscription fees to participate. Creators have made millions of dollars by charging users subscription fees that typically range between $25 to $100 per month in exchange for custom in-game cosmetic items and priority access in the queue to enter the servers, with FiveM skimming a cut of all subscription revenue. At the moment, metaverse platforms such as Fortnite and Roblox lack this kind of subscription functionality.

“I always kind of smile when people lump ‘GTA’ and Roblox and Minecraft together, because the experiences are so different,” said Chris Hopper, COO of talent management company Loaded, which operates the “GTA” role-playing server Prodigy RP. “A lot of what you see on Roblox and Minecraft feels so geared towards the direct-play experience — what do you, as a player, want to do? The foundation of ‘GTA RP’ has always been player-to-player interaction.”

In past iterations of “GTA,” Rockstar has declined to bring in real-life brands or advertisers, infamously preferring to use stand-in brand names such as “Sprunk” (Sprite) or “Krapea” (Ikea). With the game’s rumored $2 billion production cost, Rockstar may be incentivized to pull out all the monetization stops to recoup its investment on “GTA 6,” causing some observers to hope that Rockstar’s attitude toward ads will warm up as the release grows closer.

“If Rockstar embraces UGC, it’s a game-changer, plain and simple,” said Chad Mustard, COO of UGC gaming studio JOGO. “The demand for creator-driven experiences is already massive, and this could unlock unprecedented opportunities for studios like ours. The economics are proven, the audience is there, and we’re ready to build. This is the moment GTA creators have been waiting for.”

The hostile takeover of FiveM aligns with the massive anticipation of GTA 6 thanks to GTA Online. The primary directive for GTA 6 is to be a "platform" from the framework that FiveM provides under the R* label. Not an entertainment product, a PLATFORM.

 

[W00K #17]

Its so much better than the wall of trash that was the IV soundtrack. VC and SA were still the best, though.

The right wing and NPR parody talk stations were hysterical.

 

[Mark Knopfler]

So, it seems there is kind of a big scandal in the GTA community. Remember FiveM, the multiplayer client for GTAV made by members of the GTA community? You might have remembered that they got acquired by Rockstar a few years ago. As it turns out, this was facilitated deliberately by a group within the FiveM dev team called the "Groot Gang" which sought to oust NTAuthority, the founder of FiveM from the group. You can read a summary of the document made by TezFunz2 here or from the site itself here.

Edit: I am late and gay.

 

[crackers breakfast]

So, it seems there is kind of a big scandal in the GTA community. Remember FiveM, the multiplayer client for GTAV made by members of the GTA community? You might have remembered that they got acquired by Rockstar a few years ago. As it turns out, this was facilitated deliberately by a group within the FiveM dev team called the "Groot Gang" which sought to oust NTAuthority, the founder of FiveM from the group. You can read a summary of the document made by TezFunz2 here or from the site itself here.

even though i already sent website i gonna thank you for well more comprehensive message

 

[Colon capital V]

Since one of his videos was brought up, I have to say that Vadim M.'s videos have been fantastic for learning about how the older games work. Informative and entertaining at the same time. He did one that went over all the censorship the Japanese version of San Andreas had compared to the NA version that blew my mind (any time you have to kill someone "innocent" for a mission, the Japanese version changes the target to always somehow be affiliated with the Ballas, among the expected things such as changing the sex shops to just "shops").

Can't recommend his videos enough.

I just wish he wouldn't take 3-6 years to release a new video or start up a multi-part series over things like busted ports or interesting trivia and never following up on it (still waiting for Part 2 of GTA III removed content).

 

[The Last Stand]

I just wish he wouldn't take 3-6 years to release a new video or start up a multi-part series over things like busted ports or interesting trivia and never following up on it (still waiting for Part 2 of GTA III removed content).

I wonder if he ever made the video involving the macOS ports of GTA III, VC and San Andreas.

 

[crackers breakfast]

I wonder if he ever made the video involving the macOS ports of GTA III, VC and San Andreas.

i remember post something about "32bit support was removed so no mac os gta for ya" idk where though