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The Rad Mod for XBox Grand Theft Auto: Vice City


JohnnyBaboon
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As the title suggests, this is a collection of mods for the Xbox version of GTA: Vice City. The aim of this mod was to fix a couple of bugs, to make what I feel are improvements to the game's overall presentation, and to provide a fresh, new visual experience for the same Vice City you know and love, while still maintaining what made the atmopshere and feel of the 1980s American beach city setting so enjoyable.
Retaining immersion was also important. If it couldn't have existed in 1986, you won't find it here. 
Performance was also a key focus. While the Xbox version of Vice City is capable of displaying larger textures just fine, the texture work here was (mostly with very few exceptions) kept at the same resolution with the same compression method as the original textures, because you will run into performance issues, namely regarding pop-in, textures failing to load properly, and frame rate hiccups if you do decide to go with larger textures. In my testing, this wasn't something immediately noticeable in the early stages of the game. It only really becomes an issue when you're driving back and forth between the two islands, particularly late game when you own a lot of properties. This modification performs just as well as the original release from beginning to end.
It is recommended that you play this mod in WIDESCREEN with TRAILS OFF.

  • New Roads:

Original textures replaced with textures made from real images of Miami roads. 
This solves the issue of the blurry roads in the original release and generally looks better all around.
Sidewalks replaced as well.

  • New particle effects:

Particle effects replaced with more realistic representations. GTA III's Liberty City holdover leaves that once scattered the ground have been replaced with palm leaves, much like they appear in the PS2 version. This one small change in particular has a surprisingly large effect on the atmosphere of the world.

  • New Duds:

New Miami Vice inspired suits for Tommy and Lance. Most outfits have been changed. From pallette swaps to complete replacements, the new outfits fit the game's world while simultaneously referencing various films, TV shows, and video games along the way. Each outfit functions in cutscenes as well.

  • New timecycle:

More colorful days and darker nights. Nights actually feel like night time now. Make the neon of Vice City shine brighter than ever against these blackened night skies, and enjoy beautiful sunsets and sunrises. Fits the beach weather perfectly and looks great with the Xbox version's unique lighting system.

  • New foliage:

Fuller and more colorful foliage textures make Vice City come alive. The Xbox version has always had inferior foliage to the PS2 version, this fixes that issue.

  • Bug fixes:

PS2 animations, including idle animations missing from the Xbox release, have been restored. Tommy now gives an "up yours" gesture with his arms instead of flipping a nonexistent finger (another GTA III holdover) when standing in front of traffic. 
A bug preventing the acquisition of the Havana outfit after completing certain missions has been fixed, it is always accessible after having been unlocked now.
The brass knuckles have been resized to not look so outlandishly large.
Aiming sites for weapons like assault and sniper rifles have been adjusted to display correctly in widescreen mode. This means they display incorrectly in 4:3 mode, however.

  • New animations:

A few improved animation replacements for Tommy. He runs with single handed and two handed weapons in a more believable way now. Walking, idles, sprinting, and just about everything else has been kept vanilla for the sake of familiar game feel. Tommy still sprints as fast as he always has - something that's typically changed for the worse with animation mods.
Female character models no longer dislocate their hips as they walk. Peds overall have new animation. They all walk a little slower now than before, but their animations look less rubbery.

  • New pedestrians:

About 85% of peds replaced with their VCS counterparts. These pedestrians are higher quality than the ones found in the original release of Vice City. Better quality texture work, more colorful outfits, and more diverse models.

  • New surprises:

I've thrown in a number of retextured areas and objects throughout the game. From small world objects to interiors, there's a number of new things to see for returning veterans.

  • New weapon:

The Ruger has been replaced with an AK-47.

  • New HUD:

The radar ring has been replaced with a new, original ring. Icons on the main HUD, map icons, and weapon icons have been replaced with their 10th Anniversary counterparts. The pause screen map has been replaced with the 10th Anniversary map.

  • New text:

A few lines in the game's american.gxt file have been modified to reflect some of the changes this modification brings. Mostly in terms of outfit and weapon names.

Download

INSTALLATION:
1. Extract folders to any directory of your choosing
2. FTP all folders from the archive into your GTA: Vice City root folder on your Xbox, choose to overwrite files in the process.
3. IMPORTANT: Delete GTA_VC.CAP.Final file from your GTA: Vice City root folder if it exists
4. Clear your Xbox's cache and start the game
5. Have fun

There shouldn't be any issues with running this mod on existing save files. Feel free to report any bugs you see.

What I'd like to change in the future:
Improve widescreen mode from the existing pan 'n scan implementation
Fix the alpha render state for the target lock and sniper dot

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1 hour ago, irlandez said:

Hey man. I'm watching your youtube channel. thank you, your videos are very useful, sometimes I follow your advice when upgrading game consoles.

Same here, MrMario's video on upgrading Xbox HDDs was really useful to me and one of the reasons this mod exists. Hope you guys enjoy it.

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I've just uploaded a revision. It fixes some incorrect weapon icons and fixes a potential bug causing Blista Compacts not to spawn.
If you've already downloaded, it's strongly recommended you download again to fix these issues.
Installation method is the same.
If it's your first time downloading, there's no need to download the link in OP. Just get this one.
Download
Is there any way I can edit the OP to replace the link with this new one?

 

11 hours ago, neighbor said:

any footage of this mod running?

Sorry, I don't have a capture card, and taking footage from my phone or something along those lines seems too archaic to post lol
If anyone would like to capture footage and share, it would be appreciated

Edited by JohnnyBaboon
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10 hours ago, JohnnyBaboon said:

Sorry, I don't have a capture card, and taking footage from my phone or something along those lines seems too archaic to post lol
If anyone would like to capture footage and share, it would be appreciated

got ya, thanks for your work, hope to see somebody uploading a video, to see what's inside, because unfortunately I'm far away from home and don't have a Xbox in my reach. BTW, did you try to make it run in 720p?

Edited by neighbor
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8 hours ago, neighbor said:

got ya, thanks for your work, hope to see somebody uploading a video, to see what's inside, because unfortunately I'm far away from home and don't have a Xbox in my reach. BTW, did you try to make it run in 720p?

No, I didn't try 720p, it should run just the same as vanilla Vice City does in 720p though

45 minutes ago, irlandez said:

bro, how do I save the Russian language after installing the mod?

Is it just the text you're having problems with? Don't replace fonts.txd inside the Models folder. Keep your original fonts.txd from the unmodified game and that should display the Russian language. 

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1 hour ago, JohnnyBaboon said:

Is it just the text you're having problems with? Don't replace fonts.txd inside the Models folder. Keep your original fonts.txd from the unmodified game and that should display the Russian language.

thank you! I have all worked out, now the game has a mod and Russian language.

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1 hour ago, neighbor said:

never heard of that, also google does not hint me anything. Can you provide more details please?

I've not tried it myself, but according to folks in this assemblergames thread it's possible, I think with ogxhd. I've seen footage of GTA III on Xbox running in 720p at least, but performance took a noticeable hit.

https://assemblergames.com/threads/ogxhd-720p-16-9-success-stories.65365/

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One more update, this should be the last one, at least for a while. Had a lot of fun with modding Vice City, but I've done most everything I wanted to without resorting to changing values in the .xbe. If I ever figure my way around fixing some of the incorrect alpha effects or the widescreen implementation, you guys will be the first to know.

1.5 updates:
Updates the "Frankie" (100% completion) outfit
New suits for Sonny and Ken Rosenberg
Stronger vehicle reflections
Foliage color adjusted
Replaces the targeting reticle with something a little less obtrusive

Installation is same as before, this .rar contains everything you need. There is no need to download the older versions listed above.

Download
 

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One last update, but you can consider this one optional.
It's an updated timecycle. I wanted to keep the bright blue midday of the original game with the gradient sunrises and sunsets, as well as the darker nights I originally released this mod with. This one also comes with updates to make rainy, cloudy and foggy weather a little more consistent with their corresponding times, and includes updates to atmospheric and object lighting. If you're happy with the current timecycle, feel free to skip this, but I encourage you to try both to see which you prefer as I think this one is a lot better in general and has a pretty heavy impact on the look of the game.

The first link comes with every file you need for the mod, and the second is just the timecycle file itself.
For the first link, follow installation instructions in the readme. They're the same as they always were.
For the second link, just extract the .rar and drop the timecyc.dat file into your data folder to overwrite the old timecyc.dat.
Download (full)
Download (timecycle only)

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