Jump to content

slush

Retired Staff
  • Posts

    155
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    3

Posts posted by slush

  1. We are aware of most (if not all) of the hacks out there right now. Most of them will be trivial to stop.

    The next release will incorporate more strict cheat countermeasures. Until then, you'll have to deal with the small number of cheaters there are, or play on a different server.

    -Derek

  2. It is a number of issues:

    1) We don't want people donating and think we have some obligation to help. This WILL happen, and we don't have the time to put up with it.

    2) We don't want arguments within the team.

    3) Currently, if we need a piece of software, there are two sources: Get it from a sponsored source (MS Visual C++ 2005 is free for a year, by the way) like a school (I get my copy from my university for free), or get it from the retailer. If it's the second option, we all pitch in to donate money to one of the team members who makes the purchase.

    4) We aren't exactly sure of any legal consequences that may exist regarding receiving capital as "donation money" when we are a group which creates software based on reverse engineering another piece of software, which is explicitly forbidden in Rockstar's EULA.

    5) We don't like wasting time thinking about these consequences (much like what this whole response is doing) when we could be focusing on getting something out the door.

    -Derek

  3. Why the hell would any of us want to propigate malware with our software? Like jon said, if you downloaded it from one of our official mirrors then it is NOT a virus.

    If you can't load single player games in GTA3, try deleting your .dat file in your "My Documents\Grand Theft Auto III" folder, and restart the game. Your sluggish computer issue may be from any number of problems. One of the most common is antivirus software suites. These take up over 50% of system resources in average cases. Systems with lower specs will definately notice a decrease in speed.

    From a technical perspective, it has to do with the use of certain API such as CreateRemoteThread and VirtualAlloc which makes some of the "stupid" antivirus applications such as the one you're using to give off a false alarm. However, it's pretty simple. If you think it's infected, don't use it. Easy as that, huh?

    I'm locking this thread now. There are plenty old threads which address this issue. Please use the search button at the top of the forum page.

    Thanks,

    -Derek

  4. For now, if it still is a problem, you can disconnect from the server, press alt+tab to get to your desktop, press ctrl+alt+del to bring up the task manager, click on "gta-sa.exe" and click on "End Process". Hit "End Now" on the dialog if it appears.

    -Derek

  5. 1) To run a server, go to the "MTA San Andreas" shortcut group in your start menu -> programs. Click on "MTA Server"

    2) You can't put them on someone elses server. The server admin has to put them on the server.

    3) You can put them on your own server (mods/race/maps directory) or upload them to another site and have a server admin buddy of yours put them on his.

    By the way, all this information is readily available in the manual.

    -Derek

  6. Please note information in the original post I made was relevant in 2003, but not necessarily now.

    0.4 was the preliminary version of what is now 1.0.

    ... And I'm 22 now, not 20. Huhu.

    -Derek

  7. ... or they are doing some major bugfixing right now, and will soon release a new beta for the Beta test team.

    Correct. It is kind of redundant to keep posting in our blog about beta testing. We already have enough entries.

    -Derek

  8. What I'm asking is, as programs, what are they/what do they do/what are they modifications to?

    We [MTA] are a group that creates modifications for the GTA3 series of games (GTA3/GTA:VC/GTA:SA).

    Blue is the name of our next generation, extraordinary new core which will be the platform new mods by us/others are created on. Think of it as a Software Development Kit (SDK).

    So, if it's a modification, what data in GTA is being modified that allows for networked gameplay and how?

    The inner workings of Blue are kept secret for a number of reasons. However, they involve many hooks. These hooks are placed in strategic areas of the game which allow us direct access to the GTA3 engine.

    If it's a program that interfaces with the game itself, through what means does it accomplish this? The history page suggests it started out as a trainer, but I would never have imagined networked gameplay could be accomplished through distributed memory poking.

    It is a program that interfaces directly into the game. It does this by hooking certain elements in the Windows API and reasearched GTA procedure calls.

    Indeed, MTA was first nothing more than a trainer. The earlier versions just involved syncing values such as player positions, health, car positions, speed, etc. over a network. These days it does much, much more than that.

    If any developers familiar with this project could explain precisely what MTA actually is, I'd be very appreciative.

    MTA is attempting a major shift. We are soon going to move from a purely multiplayer mod group to a group which provides an SDK for others to create mods with (multiplayer or single player). We will provide a downloadable SDK (unfinished in it's current state) which people will be able to use to create their own modifications later.

    Hope this helps a little.

    -Derek

  9. i actually don't see your point, because you guys do it for free.

    Not to carry on this subject, but Netscape was/is free. There are more cons with releasing wide betas.

    I'm not doubting that releasing wide betas would let us find more bugs. What I'm saying is that by releasing unfinished, untested versions of our software we would in effect be digging our own grave. It has to do with social and software engineering aspects.

    Go ahead and read the article i paraphrased (linked in the original reply). Scroll down to #3.

    -Derek

  10. Any type of hack will always not be permitted. Trainers and any other type of external memory access is already blocked.

    When we use the term mods, we refer to the creation of software through our SDK, as well as updating GTA content to match clients on both sides.

    This thread is misplaced and should have been created in the Blue general forum.

    07/29 - Moved from "Other Mods"

    - Derek

  11. There is a very simple reason for not releasing "bug fix" releases. This is the route Netscape actually took. Netscape was the first company to employ "wide-betas" (releasing pre-releases .01, .02, .03, etc., not unlike GTAT).

    The programmers at Netscape were basically just releasing untested software every time, and fixes were only made after a large enough amount of its users reported the same problem. This created a wide array of versions and subversions, pre-releases, and FINALs, wich resulted in mass confusion.

    But perhaps the biggest problem associated with releasing wide-betas is that the users get used to working with buggy software, and hence, the software as a whole is seen as buggy.

    Hope that finally puts to rest any questions you guys and gals have about the possibility of an MTA wide beta.

    Cited: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000067.html

    -Derek

  12. the approach we take to adding multiplayer to the game is much different than would be done if adding multiplayer was done "in house", thus our content is nearly useless to the R* team.

    Beside that, what else would we have to work on? :-P

    Kent

    Multiplayer solitare, of course. Gee, and you say you're on the team :roll:

    -Derek

×
×
  • Create New...