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GTA III and Vice City get reverse engineered with a new game engine

By - | Views: 37,962

Want to revisit the classic GTA III and Vice City? You should take a look at re3 and reVC which not only provide the source code, they also upgrade the experience for both. Available on GitHub in a combine repository split across different branches for GTA III and Vice City, it has been tested by the team working across different systems including Linux.

Just like other game engine reimplementations, they do require the original data files so it needs a small amount of work to get each going. Considering the age of both though, the re3 and reVC projects are now probably the best way to play each of them on a PC.

Originally started in 2018, it seems the COVID-19 pandemic gave them a bunch of time to get it finished and out the door. They also mentioned their intention to work on the Liberty City Stories game which they've started in a reLCS project.

Amazing work from a dedicating community, which should enable these games to continue living on. They sit in a legal grey area though depending on what country you're in, as this type of reverse engineering is usually frowned upon, especially by the rights holders like Rockstar. The actual project has no license attached to it.

Check it out on GitHub.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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32 comments
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hardpenguin Feb 17, 2021
Quoting: WorMzyI'm kinda curious what the 'RE' stands for. It's probably something obvious, but all I can think of is 'Resident Evil'...

Quoting: recioalexRockstar Engine?

I believe it's "reverse engineered".
pb Feb 17, 2021
Quoting: hardpenguin
Quoting: FaalagornI haven't tested them yet, but they are both available as Luxtorpeda packages: https://luxtorpeda-dev.github.io/packages.html
Yup, that way I played through GTA3 on Steam just a week or two ago!

So it's 100% completable on this engine? How about VC? I've never played either, but I have them on Steam, might as well try...
sebastianlacuesta Feb 17, 2021
Quoting: WorMzyI'm kinda curious what the 'RE' stands for. It's probably something obvious, but all I can think of is 'Resident Evil'...
Maybe RenderWare Engine?
List of RenderWare games
rea987 Feb 17, 2021
Quoting: HoriIt'd be nice if we could use it straight from Steam as a compatibility layer (like Proton).
I think OpenMW can be used this way for Morrowind, IF i'm not mistaken (which I might be)

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/ljw5br/gta_iii_gta_vice_city_and_bloods_native_linux/
hardpenguin Feb 17, 2021
Quoting: pb
Quoting: hardpenguin
Quoting: FaalagornI haven't tested them yet, but they are both available as Luxtorpeda packages: https://luxtorpeda-dev.github.io/packages.html
Yup, that way I played through GTA3 on Steam just a week or two ago!

So it's 100% completable on this engine? How about VC? I've never played either, but I have them on Steam, might as well try...
Yup, GTA3 is! Not sure about the Vice City though. I think it won't hurt to try!
Linuxwarper Feb 17, 2021
Now add raytracing and it will be even better.
wvstolzing Feb 18, 2021
Quoting: LinuxwarperNow add raytracing and it will be even better.

Are they planning to do that? I've seen some pretty nice experiments on youtube, using a different reverse-engineered engine or mod or hack (can't really tell what it is):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPnw78wJYgc
Adds a pretty nice mood to GTA3, I think. The VC examples aren't as good.

This is the 'engine' in question. It's (partly?) built on Vulkan, so a Linux version could be a possibility:
https://github.com/petrgeorgievsky/gtaRenderHook
Linuxwarper Feb 18, 2021
Quoting: wvstolzingAre they planning to do that?
I don't know I just find that raytracing in older games is a great use case.
mrdeathjr Feb 19, 2021
I finish my gameplay videos with re3 and revc, work with mods ok (some cars mods dont work but seems lack of texture formats used in mods)

last night build fix keyboard buttons (space bar and esc) and this morning are fixed mp3 support files


Re3 + Mods



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4GsPbGby20


ReVC + Mods



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZqNdv3DPSc




Last edited by mrdeathjr on 19 February 2021 at 2:29 pm UTC
mrdeathjr Feb 20, 2021
github project page are closed because them are strike with dmca

https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2021/02/2021-02-19-take-two.md

boycott rockstar




Last edited by mrdeathjr on 20 February 2021 at 1:52 am UTC
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