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PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games

MultiTheftAuto Development Continues 132

Posted by michael from the run-and-gun dept.
MultiTheftAuto Team writes "Today, MultiTheftAuto have released the first information about their new core technology that will be deployed in future versions of MultiTheftAuto. The new core technology, codenamed 'blue', offers many of the features that have been requested by the software's users over the last year and a half, these include: Support for boats, support for firing from vehicles, support for drive-bys, and support for planes. As well as supporting all these features, the new core will introduce a revolutionary new way of writing modifications for Vice City, combining the existing methods with a fully integrated C++ add-on system, giving anyone who wishes to the ability to create complex and exciting mods, far beyond the possibilities of 'traditional' methods."
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MultiTheftAuto Development Continues More

MultiTheftAuto Development Continues

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  • Development would move faster (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 04, 2004 @04:03PM (#10158666)
    But 7 of the developers have been shot and killed, 4 more are in the hospital recovering, 12 are in jail, and 3 are missing.

  • Sweet (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Lord Kano ( 13027 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @04:03PM (#10158667) Homepage Journal
    I guess all we're missing now is GameSpy support.

    LK

    • Re:Sweet (Score:5, Informative)

      by PhrostyMcByte ( 589271 ) <phrosty@gmail.com> on Saturday September 04, 2004 @04:09PM (#10158698) Homepage
      MTA uses the ASE protocol, so The All Seeing Eye [udpsoft.com] supports it just fine. Much better than GameSpy anyway (imho).

      • Re:Sweet (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Lord Kano ( 13027 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @04:23PM (#10158770) Homepage Journal
        I can play on GameSpy for free. The All Seeing Eye makes you pay if you want to play for longer than 3 weeks.

        LK
        • Huh? I've been using it for months and it hasn't reached out and given me nipple cripples till i cough up some dough!

        • Re:Sweet (Score:3, Informative)

          by 88NoSoup4U88 ( 721233 )
          " I can play on GameSpy for free. The All Seeing Eye makes you pay if you want to play for longer than 3 weeks."

          Browsing games on Gamespy 'for free' ; That is, if you can endure the 10 second banners that you HAVE to watch every X minutes on Gamespy.

          On your point of ASE not being free : it -is- , you are never forced to buy the software, but it sometimes gives you slack about 'not having enough resources' which most of the time is quickly fixed by refreshing the gamelist again.

          • In my opinion, the naggings about "I'm sorry, you're not registered, we're saving our registered resources for registered people. Would you like more information on becoming registered?" Yes/No boxes that come up are just about as annoying as ads. Plus they strip out features like searching for a partial string in a server name.

            Stuff isn't free, so you either advertise, troll for the person to buy the full version, or both. Gamespy Arcade IS garbage, but with something as big as IGN/Gamespy, the advert

    • ..with the new support for C++ mods, you might just be able to code GameSpy support yourself. An intermediate map with a graphical representation of the available games from GameSpy, perhaps? Use your imagination. :)
      -Matt
    • And better netcode... the lag is hideous when I tried it out some while ago, and that was on a LAN...

  • GReeaaaaaat game! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by FiReaNGeL ( 312636 )
    GTA:Vice City was one of the best game I ever played (the 80`s soundtrack is amazing :) What`s better than cruising in an old car, uzi in hand on the beat of Michael Jackson?) and I appreciate efforts that aim at extending his life.

    But with GTA:San Andreas around the corner, is it worth it?

    • Re:GReeaaaaaat game! (Score:2, Informative)

      by Smile005 ( 719003 )
      I haven't been keeping up to date with SA but is it going to have multiplayer support? And anyway, each games' style is completely different and I think I'd find myself playing Vice City even when SA is out because I like it so much. As you said, the soundtrack is great and one of the best elements of the game.
      • no multiplayer support - i recall the rockstar developers specifically saying that they could not get it working from a technical perspective...

        interesting that these guys HAVE been (apparently) able to...very cool.

        multiplayer gta is just about the coolest idea ever...who needs mmo's when you can just cruise in your own custom vice city ;}
        • no multiplayer support - i recall the rockstar developers specifically saying that they could not get it working from a technical perspective...

          A technical perspective or a gameplay perspective? A game that provides a fun experience for one person is very different from one that is fun for 2-50 other people at the same time. The 1 second window of differing positions perceived by you, the server, and the guy you are firing the uzi at make the considerations on resolving combat very different from those

        • I have a feeling that Rockstar was talking about the PS2 and didn't care for the PC. Or they know how much "fun" the previous GTA games were in MP and decided it's not worth it.
        • Thing is (and in no way am I trying to belittle their achievement; this is a true hack) these guys where only able to get MTA working thanks to the code stubs Rockstar left in the game when they abbandonned multiplayer due to it being too time intensive to get done on time.

          • Re:GReeaaaaaat game! (Score:1, Informative)

            by Anonymous Coward
            Thing is (and in no way am I trying to belittle their achievement; this is a true hack) these guys where only able to get MTA working thanks to the code stubs Rockstar left in the game when they abbandonned multiplayer due to it being too time intensive to get done on time.

            Funny part is, they said that about GTA 3. They're about to release the second sequel to that game, and there's still no word on official multiplayer support. Either they figured the PS2 couldn't handle multi or they just don't care to
          • sure, but like any programming task - isn't what the code looks like, it's whether it 'works' or not.

            The simple fact that these guys have gotten it working (as well as they have) when the Rockstar team of 50+ people couldnt' do the same says quite a bit about the indie/hobbyist mindset.

            we may not be able to out-develop the big game companies, but we can definitely out-invent them ;}
        • "no multiplayer support - i recall the rockstar developers specifically saying that they could not get it working from a technical perspective.."

          I don't buy this statement though ; I'm quite sure that the next installment (after GTA:SA) in the GTA series is gonna have some focus on MP too ; MultiTheftAuto is just -way- too much fun ; defenitely if some of the glitches (that come with 'hacking' the game) would be gone.

          It might even become a MORPG kinda-game.

    • Re:GReeaaaaaat game! (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Of course it's worth it! It shows how the present system of game pricing is utterly messed up - bargain bin games are worth much more than new ones, since they already have final-version patches and cool mods you get a better and longer game. As a bonus they generally have lower system requirements too.
      Summary: Yes, the irony makes it worth it.

    • Re:GReeaaaaaat game! (Score:4, Informative)

      by Espectr0 ( 577637 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @04:16PM (#10158737) Journal
      But with GTA:San Andreas around the corner, is it worth it?

      Of course, since SA won't be released on the PC until may

      • Of course, since SA won't be released on the PC until may

        Is May an official/semi-official date you've read somewhere, or is that just a guess?

        Just curious, I haven't read anything even confirming a PC release (though it's been kinda assumed) let alone a date. So it's great news if that's official!

        Still not sure if I'm patient enough to wait for the PC port this time around, I may just finally break down and buy a PS2. :)

    • The first few time I played it I just ran around aimlessly and shot and beat up people and got bored with it. When I actually got the game and started actually playing along with the story it got very interesting. I plays out more like a movie than a game.
  • and goes 'wha?'

    Is this a floor wax? A Dessert topping?

  • Awesome! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by t_allardyce ( 48447 )
    its engines like this that are the way forward - Flashpoint, GTA, 1942 etc that allow massive worlds, vehicles and lots of freedom and interaction with objects. Also some decent maps or realistic cities help (the getaway was crap to be honest), stick all that together and you can create pretty amazing games easily!

  • ...the same one they use to make 'blue' movies?

  • I know this story... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    After sometime those who are funding this will deploy their resources elsewhere and then one of the developers will come out with this thing called UniTheftAuto. This will soon become very popular but will be closed source. Then someone will write its clone and release it under an open source license and the new game will be called LinTheftAuto and will challenge Microsofts flagship games and the X-Box. Yeah, trust me. Thats exactly what happened to Multics [wikipedia.org]
  • Here is the Coral cache [nyud.net].

  • c++ add ons (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Mia'cova ( 691309 )
    I've never been a fan of c++ add-ons. You can't build a newbie-friendly community when your mods are potentially unsafe. Unreal, for example, allows c++ add-ons but it's considered very poor form. The big MSU contest bans entries with native code. These days I don't see c++ as a pro. When I see that I think of it more as a "no scripting language" con. I'd hate to see mods begin to bundle in other software, for example. I'd just much rather keep things in a safe sandbox. I certainly don't have the time or de

    • Re:c++ add ons (Score:4, Funny)

      by paganizer ( 566360 ) <thegrove1NO@SPAMhotmail.com> on Saturday September 04, 2004 @06:09PM (#10159160) Homepage Journal
      Does anyone else who was alive from the Gerald Ford years or earlier see this as a really, really weird post?
    • If you want to see some good use of C++ for scripting, check out Command And Conquer Renegade.

      All game scripts are in C++ inside a dll (scripts.dll).
      Source to this dll was not made available by the game developers (Electronic Arts) so it was Reverse Engineered (by me and others) and since then, its getting better all the time.
      Current versions go beoynd the "official" interface for scripts and make direct engine calls directly to do things not otherwise possible.

  • Almost excited (Score:4, Funny)

    by agent dero ( 680753 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @04:14PM (#10158730) Homepage
    I was reading through the blurb and thinking "alright schweet, they're open sourcing it!"

    Guess not, but, I guess i'll be the one to say it, is this not a little excessive? I mean, we seem to going more and more to the direction of Rome and gladiators with the amount of outright violence that is considered entertainment.

    When did we cross the threshhold to where beating a hooker was not enough? ;)
    • If you mean that by adding these features, they're furthering violent entertainment...well, they're just adding features that were in the original but had not been ported over yet, nothing big there.

      And frankly, whats so wrong exactly with bloodsport? Granted, I don't condone the use of slaves and forced fighting, but there are a LOT of people who are drawn to that kind of thing. Why SHOULDN'T we have the option of watching that as entertainment? Who died and made you my moral compass? Perhaps someone s

  • PC Ports! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 04, 2004 @04:21PM (#10158763)

    I loved GTA3 and I loved GTA:VC. And I really do understand the many, many reasons to release the next one, San Andreas, on the PS2. But it should be released on the PC.

    And this article is why.

    Multi-theft Auto basically takes the GTA franchise "all the way." I wouldn't dare suggest that GTA:VC wasn't worth the purchase price, and the developers reasons for not finishing the multiplayer portions (they didn't think they could do it to their own satisfaction, or that of other gamers) are totally understandable.

    But that's what mod communities and dedicated fan-bases are for. I loved GTA:VC and having that experience multiplayer is just exciting. I'm confident San Andreas will be fantastic, but it will never be the game GTA3 or GTA:VC have become, because there won't be a "rename the cars to their real names" mod, or a mod that adds new and interesting vehicles, or a mod that creates a multiplayer, or text files where the physics engine can be toyed with...

    Yeah, I know, their target audience doesn't give two shakes for neat-o physics engines. But I am sure ten years from now, those things will allow GTA:VC to stand out as a classic while San Andreas stands as another "merely good" game.

    Unless we get a PC port...!

    Get a free computer [freedesktoppc.com]. No joke [freeipodguide.com].

    • Re:PC Ports! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by TomHandy ( 578620 )
      I don't get it, are you making some sort of assumption that a PC version of San Andreas isn't coming out? Because I'm almost positive that Rockstar already said it will be (I believe something like May 2005, with the Xbox version do in March 2005). The only reason I can possibly understand your post would be if there was some reason to believe that a PC version was NEVER coming out.
    • Somebody mod this guy down. All the GTA games are available on computer and there is no reason to suspect the next one won't be. 3 informative? More like -1 Can't extrapolate.
    • It took about a year for the PC version of GTA:VC to appear after the initial PS2 release.. there's no reason to beleive things will be different for GTA:SA
    • I think the problem with releasing it on the PS2 means they have to reduce the graphics quality of the game for the platform, when really they should be increasing it for the current generation of PCs.
      • What's the market? The number of people who have a PC with the latest nvidia/ati cards is small. A quick look at the current Dell entry-level home PC reveals that its graphics capabilities are well below that needed for many current PC games.

        It's a hell of a lot cheaper to buy a PS2 or other game console.

  • ...offers many of the features that have been requested by the software's users over the last year and a half, these include: Support for boats, support for firing from vehicles, support for drive-bys, and support for planes.
    So is this like a new car/boat/plane operating system for the mafia to take out targets with a push of a button?

  • The GTA team is sleeping (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The Crips have been offering support for drive-bys for ages.
  • support for firing from vehicles, support for drive-bys, and support for planes
    Does anyone else find this somewhat worrying? I do understand that some people find this sort of game entertaining but features requests like these really do worry me.

    • Re:How 'bout those features! (Score:4, Interesting)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @05:29PM (#10159000) Homepage Journal
      those being all features that exist in vice city anyways it's not so shocking.

    • Features like planes, air vehicles in general, boats, 2-wheeled autos(motorcycles) and simlar features just make GTA the 'One True Engine'.

      Wether you want to kill people, move up in the mob, or write a wholesome mod, these features make GTA's engine be able to scale from a third-person shooter, flight sim game, boat sim game, car race game..

      GTA 4, or similar engine, will have the real world features that make it the most powerful engine out there. You will be limited by your imagination, not the game.

      Now

  • Dammit - I didn't know this was for a game! (Score:5, Funny)

    by spineboy ( 22918 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @04:53PM (#10158857) Journal
    I started reading this thinking it was some sort of car anti-theft system, like Lo-Jack. When I got to the part about supporting firing from cars, I was kinda like uhhh, cool!? This is some kind of anti car-jacking device too. When I got to the part about "supports drive by shootings" I started thinking "All right, this manufacturer has gone a little overboard, and is gonna get sued or something"

    And then reality kicked in.....Phew!

    • There are car defense systems that support "firing from cars", though it isn't quite the same thing:

      Flamethrower now an option on S. African cars [cnn.com] (December 11, 1998):

      Crime-obsessed South Africans have a powerful new weapon with which to stop likely criminals: the car flamethrower....

      The Blaster squirts liquefied gas from a bottle in the automobile's trunk through two nozzles, located under the front doors. The gas is then ignited by an electric spark, with fiery consequences.

      Note the source, CNN. This is

  • why not an opensource game like that? (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I still wonder why there is no existing collaborating forces to develop an open game of the same type as GTA.
    The hardest and most delicate task is to build the main engine. Then everyone on the net could offer what they can to the game... models, textures, missions, whatever fits with the engine.
    Except maybe slow developement, what do I forget about game developping that the FOSS community can't afford?
    • The hardest and most delicate task is to build the main engine.

      Not if you use an existing open source engine (or one that will be open source soon [slashdot.org]).

    • Re:why not an opensource game like that? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by imroy ( 755 ) <imroykun@gmail.com> on Sunday September 05, 2004 @02:56AM (#10161203) Homepage Journal

      I know I would love to put together something like GTA:VC or MTA. I'm sure many others have as well. My problem is that I'm perhaps not as good a coder as I'd like to think, and I've never explored game programming before. But I have put a lot of thought into it the last year or two, and have come up with these resources:

      • OGRE [ogre3d.org] - an object-orientated graphics engine.
      • Open Dynamics Engine [ode.org] - as used by the well-known stair and truck dismount games [jet.ro].
      • DIE [sf.net] - a car game in the early stages of development. It uses the two previous libraries.
      • Boost [boost.org] - C++ libraries. In particular, there is Boost.Python [boost.org] which allows good cooperation between C++ and Python. That could be useful for scripting the interactive behaviour of the various people, vehicles, weapons, and other devices.

      As you say, the key would be in creating a flexible engine at the core. I imagine people adding new vehicles, tools, missions, and venues. I'm not sure what the "aim" of the game would be, but I'm sure people would create things to do. Here's my wishlist of improvements and other ideas:

      • Climbing ability. I see lots of ladders around GTA:VC, but can't climb them. The ability to hang onto ledges like Tomb Raider would be useful as well.
      • More detailed buildings. Most of the buildings in GTA:VC are just boxes. I'd like the ability to walk inside, use the stairs or elevators, find a sniping position on the balcony or window, etc.
      • Focus less on violence. GTA:VC has been heavily criticised for its violence and sometimes even I find it a little too much. I'd like to see more focus on stunts and tricks, mischief, puzzle solving and just simple exploration. Perhaps make the police more likely to catch you when you do something "wrong".
      • Different character classes. Perhaps not as detailed as a full-on role-playing game, but do have different types of characters with slightly different abilities. You need variety when multiple people are playing online.
      • More interactive elements like light switches, garage doors, elevators, etc. Perhaps the player could obtain a garage door remote control and go around opening peoples garages.
      • For the ultimate geek thrill, simulate several thousand artificial people! Get rid of the annoying "background" element of the cars and pedestrians in GTA:VC. Everyone has a house, they travel to work every morning and travel home every evening. Police and police cars actually patrol and have to travel to you instead of just appearing. Likewise with the heavier SWAT vans, police helicopter, and army trucks and tanks. Tourists travel in on planes to the airport, stay at hotels, travel around by day seeing the sights, and leave again by plane. Oh boy, lots of computation and memory and bandwidth! Perhaps a little too far-fetched for now.
      • You're about 3/4 of the way to my dream game. Add percistance and p2p multiplayer and you're there.

        For a closed source project, the torque [garagegames.com] engine from garage games would be a good start (Tribes 2). At $100 for an indie license, you get 3D w/huge maps, smooth transitions to indoor maps, network code, and vehicle physics. Or you could pay $250,000 for an Unreals engine.

  • I don't want to assault any prostitutes. I don't want to run down taxi drivers. I'd prefer drugs be legal than remain so expensive by dint of law that people *kill* other people to get them (and the money they produce). If it weren't already true, it would seem a ludicrous contrivance ...

    However, I enjoy driving. So could someone please make a mod which is just fun, even if dangerous in real life, driving about? :)

    Oh, and make it run on Linux, too.

    timothy
    • Actually. There is a mod for Battlefield 1942 called Interstate 1982 (I believe). Guess what it is? That's right, just driving... mostly. You still have idiots that like to shoot each other, but it's all about the cars and driving.
      • heh, in my vast ignorance of gaming, I will have to google for Battlefield 1942 as well as Interstate 1982 :) That sounds rather fun; I don't mind the occasional (simulated) highway potshot if it means a mostly-driving game, I just don't want that to be the focus.

        How about a game where you gain points by scowling (some key combination could take care of this) at drivers who are talking while turned toward the backseat, applying makeup, talking on the phone while weaving around and staring into space, chang
    • Why not just play the game? You can just steal a sports car and drive it around. You don't have to play the missions.

  • Wtf. (Score:1)

    by TheBot ( 806046 )
    "I've never heard of this" "What is this?" Do you even go online? Who wouldn't want GTA to be Multiplayer? Bunch of newbies.

  • Why do we care? (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by Tough Love ( 215404 )
    The code isn't open, the development isn't open, it's just some wannabe game developer rockstars putting together a resume.

    • Re:Why do we care? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by CodeMaster ( 28069 )
      Because I have just noticed it (and have been playing GTA:VC for quite a while now...) and it really rocks!

      Why can't we say kudos to something that is not completely OS and shareable and hackable etc... These guys did a great job, the game is rock solid, and the gameplay really rocks.

      Kudos.

      get a free ipod! [freeipods.com] This really works... [iamit.org] Only 2 more GMail invites left!...

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