Gerard

Okay I won't pretend to know everything about modding, but between all of us put together, I think we could pretty much cover it. This topic is going to be a guide to modding GTA San Andreas, and it's going to be built by you. All you have to do is reply to this topic with some useful information, I'll put it in this post if it's right, and delete your post. It's a simple, fast way to build up a big database of information. Please, nothing about other games, no questions, nothing silly/stupid, and don't repeat anything. Everybody could contribute something. Please reply if I've got something wrong too. San Andreas Modding Guide What is a "mod"? A mod is a modification to a game or piece of software. We're talking about San Andreas, but you can get mods for many other games. A typical San Andreas mod could be changing a car, for example changing the Bullet into a McLaren F1, or changing the AT-400 into a Boeing 747. There are many different types of mod, and a wide variety too. Can I mod my game? There are several different versions of San Andreas, including console versions and multiple PC versions: Game Moddable? PC v1: This is the best platform to mod, and the easiest. V1 is the original version of the game, which was hit by the Hot Coffee fiasco. Most shops will not sell this version anymore. PC v2/v3/v4: Version 2 or above do not allow for mods that change the main.scm, script.img, gta3.img, or other .img files. It also doesn't allow for memory hacking or real-time memory address altering, so trainers, car spawners, and MTA/SAMP will not work. However, you can still edit the smaller .dat files and presumably audio. It is recommended that you downgrade your game to Version 1. Playstation 2 & Xbox Modding the PS2/Xbox version of the game is very hard, and not permitted by Rockstar/Sony/Microsoft. In order to do so, you will need a dual-layer DVD burner, a blank dual-layer DVD, DVD/ISO creation software, and a modchip. You must copy the DVD contents to the computer, install the mods like you would on the PC version, make the files into an ISO, and use software to make a bootable dual-layer DVD using the ISO file. You must burn to the DVD, then put it in your console. You must have a modchip or the console will give you a disc read error. We cannot provide support for Playstation/Xbox mods due to copyright/piracy issues Vice City or GTAIII: You cannot use San Andreas mods in these earlier games, but VC and GTAIII have lots of mods of their own. Be careful because the process to install these mods is slightly different, because the filetypes have changed since. How to install a car mod for Vice City GTA1 or GTA2: There are a small number of mods around for these games, but you can't alter classics - you'd take out all the classicness. Half Life 2 or other games: Yes, you can modify most popular games, but most of us don't know how to do it. This is a GTA related forum, you know! This guide will mainly focus on PC mods for Grand Theft Auto San Andreas v1. What are the different types of mods? You can change (MODify) cars, planes, helicopters, bikes, boats, buildings, landscapes, textures, the weather, missions, pedestrians, clothes, characters, speeds, settings, and almost any other aspect of the game you can imagine. You can download trainers that modify what the game is doing as it's doing it, using memory hacks. With trainers, you can spawn any vehicle out of nowhere, repaint cars wherever you are, put cars in garages, teleport yourself around, change your health/armour, pause/changee the time, and modify the weapons. Where can I get some mods? There are loads of mods in our downloads database, and there are more dotted around the internet too. Who makes mods? Mods are made by skilled fans, known as modders. Rockstar (who make GTA games) do not make mods for the game. These modders spend months or years learning their trade and making their mods. They all give away their mods for free, although you can buy lots of generic models from other sites that could be put into any game. Can I make a mod myself? Probably not straightaway, learning to mod can take quite a while, because you have to use several different pieces of software. It isn't impossible, but making good mods can take years of practice and hard work. By all means, if you have plenty of time on your hands, you should learn - it would be great to have some more modders. Just don't think it is as easy as drawing a car in an application, painting it a certain colour, and installing it in the game. For a start, you must be completely aware of how to install mods into San Andreas and, if you're making cars, be able to change some things on your own (like the handling and carcols). The best place to start would be textures (skins) for buildings, as they don't move or have animations. I'm afraid that not many people here are modders, and the few that are don't have the time to sit with everybody and show them how to mod step by step. There are quite a few tutorials around the internet, but the best places to start (in my opinion) is by playing around in Sketchup or 3DS Max - and they aren't free either. Your best bet in almost every situation is to download ready built mods. I'm afraid that modders are often too busy to answer every request for a custom car. Is it dangerous to mod my game? Installing mods does not damage your game, unless you do something wrong. So long as your follow the instructions, and have a basic idea of what it is you're actually doing, you are unlikely to make a mistake. If you do make a mistake, you could either restore a backup (if you made one) or reinstall your game. Reinstalling your game does not get rid of your saved games, they are stored in 'My Documents'. For this reason, it is best to keep a backup of every file you edit or replace. The only file that is usually too big to backup is gta3.img - you should just backup every .dff or .txd inside gta3.img that you alter. Script mods can range from just having all islands open at the start to having all-new missions - they change how the game works and what you do in it, rather than just the look and feel of things. However, if you install a script mod - that is a modification to the main.scm file - you will not be able to use existing savegames, and any savegames you make whilst using that edited .scm can not be used on a different/default installation. The main.scm won't function with savegames from other main.scms because it generates different function IDs, which confuses it - thus the instant crash is usually imminent. Installing Mods There are a number of ways you can install mods. The first is manually (using the dffs and txds), and another is using GGMM (GTA Garage Mod Manager) which is an quicker way to install mods Manually Installing a car into San Andreas PC v1 This is the most common and popular type of modding, for one of the most popular games of all time. The basic steps are as follows: Download and extract the mod, replace the DFF and TXD into gta3.img (If backing up, rename the files you are replacing in gta3.img first, for example, from dumper.dff to dumper_old.dff), replace the lines in handling.cfg, carcols.dat, default.ide, vehicles.ide and carmods.dat (If such replacement files/lines are included in the mod), run the game and test the mod. So... 1. Extract the mod file(s) to a folder... 2. Open GTA3.IMG with IMG Tool 2, and find the file you want to replace. Rename it for backup. 3. Use the Command/Add option and add the file you extracted in Step 1 to gta3.img. If the mod has other files such as handling.cfg, carmods.dat, etc...you can simply add those files, but if have previously modified the files then you will need to only replace the required line or your other mods won't work. Open the files in your San Andreas/data folder with Notepad. Replace the lines. If you want to back up the files, copy the one you want to backup to your desktop, rename the one in the data folder (like handlingold.cfg) and move the one on your desktop back to the data folder) Use the regular one for mods. 4. Remember to backup the .dat, .cfg, and .ide files if they need modded. 5. Copy the lines to the files in the data folder. Using GGMM to install a car mod into SA PC v1 [help needed for this] Other ways to install mods [help needed for this] So, can members please reply with any additions and edits you think should be made, thanks

Right so in your game there would be four weapons, and everybody would live in caves. There's still nothing interesting other than caves. If everyone lives in caves then there would be no buildings. No cars in the stone age. You could steal dinosaurs.. great. Your game is just about the gangs and the people and the objects and the interiors of buildings. Remember the original GTA? That was just cars, building exteriors and landscapes - and they're still the best things about San Andreas. We want to keep that basic essence of the game, even if it shifts a couple of decades (not millenia). And it's Dinosaur btw.

A "word processor" is the general term for a software application that you use primarily to write with. Microsoft Word is the most popular word processor, but there are quite a few others.

Modding vehicles is a long, hard process and requires a massive amount of skill and dedication. I'm afraid not just anybody can pick up the tools and make a car at all, never mind make a good one. So you have three choices: Spend months learning how to make vehicle mods Ask a modder very politely if he would consider making a car like that or similar Install a similar existing mod from our downloads database Sorry it isnt as easy as it sounds at first

Nobody has successfully edited garages in SA yet. It is easy to change what is IN the garage, and make cars appear and repaint them and stuff. As for changing the garage itself, I'm afraid you're stuck with 4 cars.

If you just scroll down a bit on the SA Modding page, somebody else posted a topic about this the other day. I suggest you just read that: http://www.thegtaplace.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5934 In brief, those mods are PC mods not for the PS2. Modding the PS2 is hard, and you'd have to edit the DVD and re-burn it and use a crack to get it to work. So the best option is simply buying the PC version. Its a year old now so won't be too expensive.

Auto = automobile = car Yes that does include spacecraft, but a game centred around spacecraft wouldn't be interesting. In a space world, everything would be perfect and ergonomical; no history, no familiar locations, no references to any events or people. It's this that makes GTA special. The range of locations in San Andreas is massive: not just one massive cave with lots of little caves in it; not just the moon with space pods on it. It would be boring and unexciting. BORING BORING FUN!!!

Underground cities? So it's exactly like overground except there's no Sun and its dark? No trees, no plant life, no natural light, no shadows? I mean its marginally more realistic than the moon, but it just isn't GTA. It's a different game.

No. Just no. Space is for different games. Not GTA Games. How many houses do you see on the moon? How many fast-food outlets? How many cars? How many police? How many airports? None. Right so you want it to be set a few hundred years in the future, with flying cars, colonised planets and space ports? I'm sure I've seen games like that.. Star Trek? There are loads of games like that. BUT NOT GRAND THEFT AUTO.

I really wish people would stop wanting GTA4 to be everything they want in any game ever. No offence, your ideas are good....... for a wild west game. Just NOT for a modern urban car-based game. Go submit those ideas for a Wild West game, go to gunthesequel and post them there. This forum is for GTA, as you know. These topics are wishlists for GTA, as you know. Those ideas are absolutely nothing to do with GTA, as you should know. It isn't just you, its loads of people. The amount of times people have asked for being able to go to work and wash yourself and go to the toilet and go shopping and get married and have kids. There is a game for that, it's called 'The Sims'. Yes you can do a lot of things in GTA games, and we are going to see lots of new things in the game. I just don't think this game has to be everything, and so far it hasn't really tried to be. In San Andreas, getting new clothes or outfits is alright, but eating and girlfriends is just too much. I hope Rockstar remove those features from the game, and I hope they don't add any more like that. I wouldn't complain if there was a horse you could ride in GTA4. I wouldn't get over excited, and I know a lot of people that would complain. It just isn't very Grand Theft Auto, that's all. I own "Gun", it's a good game. I just don't think it would be suitable for this genre. Yes very nice ideas, but I don't want to read them here. Ever. Thankyou.

The problem is almost certainly a defective mod or a mistake in modding. Virtually any road car could spawn there, including any planes overhead. Modded cars are no different to installed cars. In SA, you are simply overwriting the old with the new, and the game can't tell the difference. I've had this problem many times, and its usually a mistake when adding a mod. Could be a bad txd/dff, could be two versions of the same txd/dff (if you forgot to delete), or could be an error in the handling/carcols/default/vehicles files Try replacing the handling.dat, default.ide, carcols.dat and vehicles.ide files that you have with the originals, and see if that solves the problem. Try spawning every single car in the game, using a trainer, and see which one makes it crash. If not, you're gonna have to reinstall the game and mod all over again. Here's a useful tip from me Install no more than three or four at a time Test every single mod you have installed after you install them If every single one of those mods work, thats good If the game crashes when testing them, then you know which mods may have caused the problems Even better, spawn each car in turn using a trainer, then you know exactly which one is the problem Go through your IMG and check you don't have two files the same. I know you probably know all that, and you probably did do it for most of the 90 mods. The fact of the matter is that as soon as you get a bit slack, and install some mods without testing, thats when you could make a mistake, and you have no idea which car has caused it. Good luck.

That was perfect english. Let me summarize for you. He has SA for PS2 He wants to mod it He has downloaded some mods, but can't install them He needs help He can't find any help guides for modding the PS2 Now as far as I'm aware, the only way to mod vehicles for the console versions is to edit the San Andreas DVD and burn a new one, using a crack so you can play the copied disk. It is easy enough to mod for a PC, but since consoles don't install games you can't edit those files. The IMG file is the archive (a bit like a ZIP) in the installed files of the PC game, in which all the cars and buildings and textures are stored. That is what you need to edit. My suggestion is to simply buy a PC version of the game, that will be much easier to mod, and wouldn't cost as much as burning a hundred new DVDs for the mods.

It would also help if this was posted in the GTA4 forum, rather than in the Lounge. And yes grammar does matter. All i can see in your post is a massive block of letters, and it would take me ages to go through it all. I'd probably get lost too. Tell you what, i'll do you a favour. I'll move this topic AND tidy your post up. How's that for generosity.

The difference between your roleplaying idea and the current GTA games, is that GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas are much more of a free-for-all. There aren't many recurring characters, and you can still kill these characters, fail the mission, and they reappear five minutes later. If the game is like you suggest, any decision you make could affect things later on in the game. If you kill the head of a gang, even accidentally, that gang could turn against you forever, and the head of the gang would never come back. I suppose its not that bad an idea, since there are (for example) an endless amount of Ballas, OGF members and cops in SA. Without an endless supply, you actually could kill everybody and everything.It could be fun, it would be more realistic, but its much more dangerous.

In other words, San Andreas doesn't come with a built-in multiplayer mode, but you can download ones made by modding teams. These aren't official, and don't come from Rockstar, and they vary in quality and features.

Yeah I moved it here for you, plus it means there's STILL 1337 posts there

I thought I took over like six months ago........ But seriously thats still cool. We're bound to have loads of recognisable numbers. Don't forget the date next tuesday (week on tuesday): 06/06/06

Seventeen next week

You'll post it in the San Andreas Gameplay & Help forum though, won't you?

What a silly idea... there's no point in keeping topics open for the sake of it. If this topic, amongst others, has inspired people to post a lot more round the forums, then it's done its job. The idea is not to fill up ten topics as much as we can, but to fill up the forums as much as they need to. A high number of replies in one topic is not a sacrifice for three times as many spread out. A team of members that post in old topics just because they're told to? Great... I'm sure they're contributions will be useful. And anyway maybe everybody was scared off by your inappropriate comments about sex toys.

It is cool, and it does prove that Microsoft CAN still make great software. Remember it was they who invented Windows and Office. Vista has been a bit of a flop so far, but Office significantly exceeds my expectations.

I'd like to see a wider range of military and industrial vehicles. We had the Patriot, Barracks, Cargobob, Rhino, Hunter and Hydra. That's like one of each type, there maybe could be some other types (see images below). What would be really cool is if there was some form of a war, or two separate countries, where each side has a different culture and different military vehicles and uniforms. And sure, we've seen trucks that can carry cars, and (modified) helicopters, but never boats or ingame aircraft. I reckon there should be a boat, plane, helicopter and truck for carrying vehicles.

In San Andreas, you can make CJ eat, and even become fat

You know what they call it in the US? A big mac. You know what they call it here in the UK? Suicide.

Yeah I suppose if someone wants to go kill someone they could always get a gun if they really wanted to. But letting potential criminals and crazy people and innocent people just buy guns in the street is madness. In the UK we aren't allowed firearms, knives, or even anything that resembles a firearm. You can't take toy guns out in the street in case someone thinks it's real and calls the police to shoot you. Just too many things could go wrong if everyone has guns. The good thing is is that there aren't many guns in the UK, and that means any that are here are either for the military, the few weapons officers in the police, or illegally for criminals.