Ask Jordan

[Beretta]

Only 2 weeks til release : >

 

[liesofsilence]

I think the controls will be the same as for the 3/Vice versions for the Xbox.

 

Do you know, or can you guess when it'll be gold?

I played the gold version

Ya, but I mean when it'll be officially gold, spreaded out to press retail copys.

[Sam]

What are the basic controls for the Xbox version?

 

I can answer that one. (Credit: geeking, not pimping) It turns out they'll be customizable. (Click here)

Shooting with b is going to suck, they better let us change certain buttons while in car, on foot, and in aircraft. Also, Jordan said using the bicycle is the right trigger, but that magazine says its the a button? Or is it A just to pedal faster, and hold r to simply pedal...?

[QJimbo]

 

Traffic amounts: seemed the same as the PS2, but this is not a PS2 problem.  It seems to be a Renderware problem.  Renderware is the engine that the game is built on.

Actually, the ammount of actors Renderware can handle is quite hardware-scalable. In thoery, one can throw vehicles at VC until you run out of memory addresses for them. How long the framerate holds up is dependent on the machine. On the PS2 version of San An, there are seemingly arbitrary maximum limits of 20 peds and 12 cars which can spawn in certain areas; with even less in others. If these numbers haven't been upgraded by default on the PC version, R*^ was kind enough to leave them in a nice txt file for us to play with. I'd expect these could be safely doubled on any decent gaming rig.

Nice! Is this a txt file on the PS2 GTA:SA or on GTA:VC PC? Where is this txt file, and what do you edit in it? Sounds very intruiging

[illspirit]

Traffic amounts: seemed the same as the PS2, but this is not a PS2 problem.  It seems to be a Renderware problem.  Renderware is the engine that the game is built on.

Actually, the ammount of actors Renderware can handle is quite hardware-scalable. In thoery, one can throw vehicles at VC until you run out of memory addresses for them. How long the framerate holds up is dependent on the machine. On the PS2 version of San An, there are seemingly arbitrary maximum limits of 20 peds and 12 cars which can spawn in certain areas; with even less in others. If these numbers haven't been upgraded by default on the PC version, R*^ was kind enough to leave them in a nice txt file for us to play with. I'd expect these could be safely doubled on any decent gaming rig.

Nice! Is this a txt file on the PS2 GTA:SA or on GTA:VC PC? Where is this txt file, and what do you edit in it? Sounds very intruiging

I've only seen it on the PS2 version, obviously, but there's no reason to think it won't be included for the PC. In GTA2 through VC, ped/car density ratios were set in the main mission script. To make it easier on us (and themselves too, I imagine), R*^ stuck the arrays into popcycle.dat in the data directory.

[adamcs]

Hello, I'm a big fan of "Planet of GTA."

 

Question: are the shadows direct 3D stencil buffer shadows or raytraced by the radiosity simulation?

Hey I was thinking that too.

 

Jordan?

[Jordan]

Hello, I'm a big fan of "Planet of GTA."

 

Question: are the shadows direct 3D stencil buffer shadows or raytraced by the radiosity simulation?

Hey I was thinking that too.

 

Jordan?

Well, when quadrating the vernacular structure of the raytracers applied to San Andreas, a slight curvature will appear adjacent to the upper cortex, thus bending all light and shadow to correlate with our very existence.

[Fluffyinsanity]

Well, when quadrating the vernacular structure of the raytracers applied to San Andreas, a slight curvature will appear adjacent to the upper cortex, thus bending all light and shadow to correlate with our very existence.

LOL

[blue_steel]

You didn't answer my question. Have the safe houses beeen restored so you can see inside when outside, and see outside when inside?

[Wizzy]

Did you ask if the Custom Cars disappearing or being reset in the garages was fixed? major annoyance of mine.

 

and how many custom soundtracks can we have on our custom station?

[spaceeinstein]

You didn't answer my question. Have the safe houses beeen restored so you can see inside when outside, and see outside when inside?

I don't think that's what Rocksttar meant by restoring to their original beauty. Only graphics and some models are improved, nothing is added to that extent.

[Jordan]

You didn't answer my question. Have the safe houses beeen restored so you can see inside when outside, and see outside when inside?

Sadly, that was one thing I didn't try.

[excalibur69]

hey man,

 

i gotta question for ya... now that ign has released some new screens of the xbox (which to me dont seem all that impressive), when you played the game on xbox what were your impressions of the graphics (i know you touched on it before in a previous question)? is the xbox well represented in those new screens (in terms of draw distance & high res textures)?

[Jordan]

hey man,

 

i gotta question for ya... now that ign has released some new screens of the xbox (which to me dont seem all that impressive), when you played the game on xbox what were your impressions of the graphics (i know you touched on it before in a previous question)? is the xbox well represented in those new screens (in terms of draw distance & high res textures)?

It is well-represented, yes. I did confirm with IGN that they do recieve the screens in 640 res.

[Cam]

Are the engine sounds different? Do they sound more realistic?

 

Are there any nice new effects?

 

Whats been improved the most? (in your opinion).

[Cran.]

I remeber reading about Xbox/PC having real time refeltions. Can you prove me wrong?

[Some other guy]

IS multiplayer split screen

[blue_steel]

Is there water dropplets on the screen? I remember playing it on PS2 and the rain looked dull because there were no water dropplets on the screen just, wat looked like to me, sheets of white lines closing towards the screen.

[blue_steel]

You didn't answer my question. Have the safe houses beeen restored so you can see inside when outside, and see outside when inside?

I don't think that's what Rocksttar meant by restoring to their original beauty. Only graphics and some models are improved, nothing is added to that extent.

This wasn't what rockstar said its what someone in the forums started a topic on. Sorry for the double post its just difficult for me to edit and quote.

[deltadude]

Have rockstar added anything that was taken out of the PS2 version?

Are there any new gameplay features?

 

[riahc5]

IS multiplayer split screen

THERE ARE NO BIG CHANGES! ITS THE SAME GAME JUST WITH IMPROVED GRAPHICS AND BUG FIXES!

Man some people are dumb.... Reason why our world is the way it is....

 

 

I remeber reading about Xbox/PC having real time refeltions. Can you prove me wrong?

Id like that answered

 

Another question; Rockstar as we all know has said that there will be mod support...Since the Xbox version is a port from the PC version will it also be easier to mod the on the Xbox?

 

 

[Newby]

will there be a spawn packer cheat?

[davew2040]

will there be a spawn packer cheat?

That is really a dumb question to ask in this context.

[Jordan]

Are the engine sounds different? Do they sound more realistic?

 

Are there any nice new effects?

 

Whats been improved the most? (in your opinion).

1. No, they are the same. However, the PC and Xbox have better capabilities for sound delivery.

 

2. Yes, please read for those on my website.

 

3. graphics, or more importantly, draw distance

[Sillyhed2000]

Hiii Jordan.

 

I'm not sure if this comes under the framerate question asked a few pages back, but when I was on a major highway on the PS2 version and I matched speed with the cars they juddered back and foward a few centimetres while they were moving. I played it for about five minutes and mostly went bushbashing, but even so this still bugged me and I have to know if it's been fixed or not! I haven't played Vice or GTA3 on PS2 so I don't know if this was present in previous games. Is it fixed for the Xbox version? Do you know if it'll be fixed for the PC version?

[holden_ss_rule]

on the ps2 version of sa, when you drive along the highways, the signs are too hard to read. (the ones that tell you which exits to take on and off the highway). Are they easier to read on the xbox?

also, ermmm, a friend of mine was wondering... if you can still pick up hookers

Edited May 29, 2005 by holden_ss_rule

[blue_steel]

on the ps2 version of sa, when you drive along the highways, the signs are too hard to read. (the ones that tell you which exits to take on and off the highway). Are they easier to read on the xbox?

Good question.

[illspirit]

 

Hiii Jordan.

 

I'm not sure if this comes under the framerate question asked a few pages back, but when I was on a major highway on the PS2 version and I matched speed with the cars they juddered back and foward a few centimetres while they were moving. I played it for about five minutes and mostly went bushbashing, but even so this still bugged me and I have to know if it's been fixed or not! I haven't played Vice or GTA3 on PS2 so I don't know if this was present in previous games. Is it fixed for the Xbox version? Do you know if it'll be fixed for the PC version?

That's actually not an fps issue, per se. Unless a car has been bumped/shot/scared or scripted to drive away under its own free will, the engine moves it around manually without calculating physics. Baisically, the car is moved/rotated to a different spot along the path every game cycle. At low speeds, you just don't notice since the difference in location is so small. As the cars speed up, the jump from point to point is more obvious. If you bump a car on the highway, it movements will smoth out to match the framrate as the physics and driver AI kick in.

 

 

This is also the reason cars sometimes float in the air or are driving halfway under the ground or in buildings. In theory, this is done to keep the framerate up since the engine doesn't have to calculate physics or higher level driver AI all the time.

[murph_fan51]

on the ps2 version of sa, when you drive along the highways, the signs are too hard to read. (the ones that tell you which exits to take on and off the highway). Are they easier to read on the xbox?

 

Yes, Xbox and PC are using higer resolution textures, the improved graphics so this will be fixed for sure! Check this out!

 

[anus]

Hi, Jordan. Here are my questions:

 

1. Is the weather improved? For example, more realistic rain, skid marks?

 

2. Do the vehicles in the game drive like crazy in the highways? For example, Julius Thruway North, it is crazy there. You cannot drive into it safely without getting thrown to about two kilometres.

 

3. Is the AI changed in the Xbox version?