[HN Gopher] A Grand Theft Auto III Re-Implementation
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       A Grand Theft Auto III Re-Implementation
        
       Author : ibobev
       Score  : 89 points
       Date   : 2023-10-31 19:53 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (openrw.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (openrw.org)
        
       | the_player wrote:
       | To save everyone the trouble - the last commit is 2 years old.
        
         | oynqr wrote:
         | Around the time re3 got public interest.
        
       | gardenhedge wrote:
       | "GTA 3 is no longer available on the steam store"
        
         | colechristensen wrote:
         | 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 wrote:
           | 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 wrote:
             | 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 wrote:
               | > 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 wrote:
               | 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.
        
           | giancarlostoro wrote:
           | 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.
        
       | wicket wrote:
       | 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=28402640
        
         | Hamuko wrote:
         | Aren't those links about a completely different project with a
         | completely different name?
        
           | Philpax wrote:
           | 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 wrote:
             | >when re3 was sued
             | 
             | The day reverse-engineering legal protections failed.
        
               | bigstrat2003 wrote:
               | 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.
        
           | wicket wrote:
           | You are right, however it's likely that OpenRW was also
           | impacted by Take-Two's actions towards Re3 given that its
           | development also ceased around the same time.
        
       | omginternets wrote:
       | All you had to do was follow the damn train, CJ.
        
         | ThrowawayTestr wrote:
         | Wrong game
        
           | omginternets wrote:
           | Oh shoot, you're right!
        
           | crazysim wrote:
           | Though there is a train following mission in GTA3 too!
        
       | MBCook wrote:
       | 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 GRA games run on RenderWare?
        
         | MrGilbert wrote:
         | It's "Open ReWrite". That's what the description of the Github
         | repository says.
        
         | OatmealDome wrote:
         | Yes, the early 3D Grand Theft Auto games (III, Vice City, and
         | San Andreas) ran on RenderWare. [0]
         | 
         | [0] https://gtamods.com/wiki/RenderWare
        
         | moosedev wrote:
         | 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
        
         | Crosseye_Jack wrote:
         | GTA3/VC/SA, Manhunt and Bully ran on RenderWare. They made
         | their own engine for GTA4 (and also for their pingpong game and
         | RDR1 iirc) and I "presume" the games since.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockstar_Advanced_Game_Engine
        
         | hanniabu wrote:
         | rewrite
        
       | MiddleEndian wrote:
       | 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.
        
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       (page generated 2023-10-31 23:00 UTC)