GTA: SA Vita

This is a wrapper/port of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Android for the PS Vita with lots of custom patches such as:

• Fixed camera controls for flying vehicles (including the Hydra jet).
• Fixed broken facial expressions.
• Fixed cheats hash key table.
• Removed specular lighting on pedestrians.
• Added PS2-like rendering.

The port works by loading the official Android ARMv7 executable in memory, resolving its imports with native functions and patching it in order to properly run. By doing so, it's basically as if we emulate a minimalist Android environment in which we run natively the executable as is.

Changelog

v2.1

• Changed some button actions to on press (e.g. jump).
• Made minor improvements. Thanks to psykana.
• Updated to latest vitaGL.

v2.0

• Fixed original bug where ITB and the gym treadmill could not be used. Thanks to psykana.
• Added version to bubble.

v1.9

• Fixed issue where some peds were invisible.
• Improved performance by using a draw speedhack in vitaGL.

v1.8

• Updated to latest vitaGL which fixed a lot of bugs found during Bully development.

v1.7

• Added controls mapping configuration through the companion app. Thanks to Rinnegatamante.
• Updated to latest vitaGL which improved performance.

v1.6

• Added a few optimizations.
• Fixed free aim option.
• Disabled auto landing gear deployment/retraction. Thanks to psykana.
• Moved plane rudder control to GetTurret. Thanks to XirXes.

v1.5

• Added option to allow cut radio songs to play.
  • See MUSIC.md for how to restore removed songs.
• Added MP3 fuzzy seek option to improve loading speed.
• Added custom codes to activate mobile cheats:
  • "THEFLOW" - Invincibility
  • "RINNEGATAMANTE" - Weapon set 4
• Fixed mixed cheat codes.
• Fixed plane rudder controls.
• Improved the "Resume" menu entry to load the latest save (manual and auto save).
  • Selecting the "Quit Game" menu entry will now create a quick-save which can be loaded via the "Resume" menu entry.
• Improved performance by redirecting mpg123 to our own library.
• Improved performance by using better algorithms in vitaGL.

v1.4

• Updated openal for better performance. Thanks to isage.
• Fixed crash when selecting japanese/russian language. Thanks to psykana.
• Improved control scheme. Thanks to XirXes and darthbellic.

v1.3

• Added ability to remap controls with ux0:data/gtasa/controls.txt. Thanks to PoisonPoisonPoison.
• Added default vita-enhanced controls schema by darthbellic.
• Added support for co-op rampage missions when using PS3 scripts. See Tips and Tricks for instructions.
• Added option to enable high detail player textures.
• Switched to OpenAL-SDL for better performance.

v1.2

• Fixed memory leak in vitaGL leading to corrupted textures.
• Added ability to map L2/R2 to the front touchpad on the top. Thanks to psykana.

v1.1

• Changed to Xbox 360 buttons mapping (while keeping PS3 icons).
  • Fixes fighting moves
  • Allows switching target using L2/R2.
  • Changes bunny hop from double X to L1.
• Fixed rain and classic shadows rendering.
• Improved loading speed. Thanks to Graphene.
• Fixed thread scheduling. Thanks to Graphene.
• Fixed crash on exit.
• Removed redundant mobile controls menu entries.

v1.0

• Initial release.

Setup Instructions (For End Users)

(If you have already installed the game and want to update to a newer release, you can simply install GTASA.vpk on your PS Vita).

In order to properly install the game, you'll have to follow these steps precisely:

• Install kubridge and FdFix by copying kubridge.skprx and fd_fix.skprx to your taiHEN plugins folder (usually ux0:tai) and adding two entries to your config.txt under *KERNEL:

  *KERNEL
  ux0:tai/kubridge.skprx
  ux0:tai/fd_fix.skprx

Note Don't install fd_fix.skprx if you're using repatch plugin

• Optional: Install PSVshell to overclock your device to 500Mhz.
• Install libshacccg.suprx, if you don't have it already, by following this guide.
• Obtain your copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas v2.00 legally (com.rockstargames.gtasager is not supported!) for Android in form of an .apk file and one or more .obb files (usually main.8.com.rockstargames.gtasa.obb and patch.8.com.rockstargames.gtasa.obb located inside the /sdcard/android/obb/com.rockstargames.gtasa/) folder. You can get all the required files directly from your phone or by using an apk extractor you can find in the play store. The apk can be extracted with whatever Zip extractor you prefer (eg: WinZip, WinRar, etc...) since apk is basically a zip file. You can rename .apk to .zip to open them with your default zip extractor.
• Open the apk with your zip explorer, extract the assets folder from your .apk file to ux0:data and rename it to gtasa. The result would be ux0:data/gtasa/.
• Still in the apk, extract the file libGTASA.so from the lib/armeabi-v7a folder to ux0:data/gtasa.
• Open the main.8.com.rockstargames.gtasa.obb with your zip explorer (.obb files are zip files just like .apk files so just rename the .obb to .zip) and extract the contents to ux0:data/gtasa.
• Same as before, open the patch.8.com.rockstargames.gtasa.obb with the zip explorer and extract the contents inside the zip to ux0:data/gtasa.
• Download the gamefiles.zip and extract the contents to ux0:data/gtasa (overwrite if asked).
• Optional: For a more authentic console experience, copy the file ux0:data/gtasa/data/360Default1280x720.cfg to ux0:data/gtasa/ and rename it from 360Default1280x720.cfg to Adjustable.cfg. This file is a leftover from the Xbox 360 version and provides you the console HUD (e.g. radar on bottom left).
• Install GTASA.vpk on your PS Vita.

If you have followed the steps correctly, this is how your ux0:data/gtasa folder should look like.

Configurator App

After fully installing the port, you'll be able to configure it with the Configurator app.
The Configurator app will allow users to enable or disable a set of optimizations, patches and renderer alterations to best match users taste.
You can launch the Configurator app by clicking on the Configuration button located on the LiveArea section of the port as shown in the following screenshot.

Tips and Tricks

Gameplay

• You can input PC cheats by pressing L + SELECT to open the on-screen keyboard. See CHEATS.md for available and unavailable cheats (you can input cheat codes in lowercase as well as uppercase).
• The L2/R2 buttons are mapped to the rear touchpad on the top and the L3/R3 buttons are mapped to the front touchpad on the bottom. With v1.2 and higher, you can map L2/R2 to the front touchpad on the top.
• You can open the map by holding START and then releasing.
• You can get local freeroam coop and rampages working by replacing the main scripts with those of the PS3 version. See COOP.md.
• Due to expired licensing, some songs were cut from the game. See MUSIC.md for a list of removed tracks and a guide on how to restore them.
• To properly take off during Learning to Fly mission, retract your landing gear by pressing RIGHT.

Performance

• In order to reduce occasional stutters in-game, delete both ux0:data/gtasa/scache_small_low.txt and ux0:data/gtasa/scache_small.txt, then create a copy of the ux0:data/gtasa/scache.txt file to have two version of it. (for example scache(1).txt so in the end you end up with both scache.txt and scache(1).txt inside the ux0:data/gtasa/ folder), then rename scache.txt to scache_small.txt and scache(1).txt to scache_small_low.txt . This will however make the loading screen longer since it needs to compile more shaders ahead.

  • If the folder ux0:data/gtasa/cache contains much more than 300 files, it's recommended to delete the folder and have it rebuilt.

• In order to save storage on your Memory Card, you can safely delete all files in sub-folders of ux0:data/gtasa/texdb which end with:

  • .dxt.dat, .dxt.tmb, dxt.toc
  • .etc.dat, .etc.tmb, etc.toc

Build Instructions (For Developers)

In order to build the loader, you'll need a vitasdk build fully compiled with softfp usage.
You can find a precompiled version here: https://github.com/vitasdk/buildscripts/actions/runs/1102643776.
Additionally, you'll need these libraries to be compiled as well with -mfloat-abi=softfp added to their CFLAGS:

• mpg123

  • Apply mpg123.patch using patch -Np0 -i mpg123.patch.

  • autoreconf -fi
    CFLAGS="-DPSP2 -mfloat-abi=softfp" ./configure --host=arm-vita-eabi --prefix=$VITASDK/arm-vita-eabi --disable-shared --enable-static --enable-fifo=no --enable-ipv6=no --enable-network=no --enable-int-quality=no --with-cpu=neon --with-default-audio=dummy --with-optimization=3
    make install

• openal-soft

  • cd build
    cmake -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=${VITASDK}/share/vita.toolchain.cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_C_FLAGS=-mfloat-abi=softfp .. && make install

• libmathneon

  • make install

• vitaShaRK

  • make install

• imgui-vita

  • make install

• kubridge

  • mkdir build && cd build
    cmake .. && make install

• vitaGL

  • make SOFTFP_ABI=1 HAVE_SHADER_CACHE=1 SHARED_RENDERTARGETS=1 DRAW_SPEEDHACK=1 TEXTURES_SPEEDHACK=1 SAMPLERS_SPEEDHACK=1 NO_DEBUG=1 install

Finally, in the folder of gtasa_vita, install SceLibc stubs using:

make -C libc_bridge install

After all these requirements are met, you can compile the loader with the following commands:

mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. && make

Credits

• Rinnegatamante for porting the renderer using vitaGL, providing the companion app and making various improvements to the port.
• aap for porting PS2-rendering aka skygfx.
• Freakler for providing LiveArea assets.
• frangarcj, fgsfds and Bythos for graphics-related stuff.
• CBPS/SonicMastr for PIB, which was used on earlier stages of development.
• isage for the native audio backend for OpenAL-Soft.
• psykana for patching the scripts and making various improvements to the port.
• XirXes and shadowknight for the audio conversion script.
• JonathanERC and gtagmodding for the Cheat List.