PSVita: Grand Theft Auto III port by Rinnegatamante & TheFlow released – Performance pretty good staying above the 20FPS mark all the time!
Just a mere 10 days ago, news broke that Rinnegatamante & TheFlow were porting Grand Theft Auto III to the PSVita with the project being in earlier stages. However, progress in the Vita scene sometimes moves at a lightning-fast pace and now, a fully working and playable Grand Theft Auto III port is out for everybody to enjoy!
The Vita’s Grand Theft Auto III port
Grand Theft Auto III is now running pretty well on the Vita thus finally granting the console a native GTA title! (Image from VitaDB)
The PlayStation Vita’s Grand Theft Auto III port is based upon the re3 engine which is a open-source reverse-engineered game engine for the game. Initially starting their porting with the Switch’s re3 engine port, Rinnegatamante and TheFlow managed to make swift progress over the last week with the port going from not being able to display any 3D graphics to now being fully playable with only very minor issues being present.
Performance-wise, Rinnegatamante states that game never drops below the 20-24 FPS bar which provides an experience pretty close to the PlayStation 2 version of the game which runs at 25 or 30FPS depending on the console’s region. Thanks to this, the PlayStation Vita finally has a fully playable native Grand Theft Auto title running on it which will surely make a good deal in the community happy!
How do I play GTA III on my Vita?
As GTA III isn’t a free game, you have to provide game files yourself then you have to decompress the audio files within (Image from VitaDB)
As Grand Theft Auto III is not a free game, you have to supply the game files yourself by extracting them from the PC version of the game which can be legally obtained on Steam for around $10 although cheaper legitimate routes may also exist. After obtaining the files, the process in a nutshell has you decompressing the audio files, installing the FdFix plugin by TheFlow, copying the data files to your console then installing the VPK and required data files which will take a bit of your time.
Due to the process not being as easy as installing a mere VPK file, Samilop Cimmerian Iter went ahead and wrote an officially sanctioned installation guide which you can access by following the link below. This guide also contains instructions on how one can use HD models from the XBOX version of the game. After installing the game, it is highly recommended to set the following settings in the Options menu:
- Frame Limiter: Off (removes 30FPS limit)
- Trails: Off (effect doesn’t work properly)
- PostFX: Off (removes color washing filter present in the original game)
- Screen Format: Auto (allows the game not to appear stretched)
Conclusion
You may read more about the Grand Theft Auto III port for the PlayStation Vita & PSTV by following the link below to it PSX-Place Release Thread. Samilop Cimmerian Iter’s installation guide has also been linked so that you can get the game up and running easily.
GTA III for Vita PSX Place Release Thread: https://www.psx-place.com/threads/re3-vita.31588/
GTA III for Vita installation guide: https://samilops2.gitbook.io/vita-troubleshooting-guide/grand-theft-auto/gta-iii
Rinnegatamante’s Patreon (donations): https://www.patreon.com/Rinnegatamante
TheFlow’s Patreon (donations): https://www.patreon.com/TheOfficialFloW
Finally! Now we need a GTA Vice City port. And San Andreas port after release of source code. (Still can’t get a proper Vita though 🙁 sad)
vice city will launch soon, now san andreas has no release date
I wish someone could port Bully and all RenderWare based Harry Potter games. (They have no reverse engineering) 🙁
this is amazing! has somebody checked what the performance is when you overclock your vita?
Yes, it doesn’t improve much, since the game already runs at 444
Never turn off frame limiter in any 3d era gta game, they was written in such a way that many things are tied to framerate if framerate becomes too high this games become extremely broken: broken timers, broken physics, broken collision detection and so on.
Great port, I’m already playing and I really liked
20fps isn’t playable. Stop repeating the same boring stories man.
If you’re talking objectively, then you’re wrong. Goldeneye on the N64 was 12-15fps, yet i bet your memories of that being silky smooth. 20fps to many will be fine.
When you have a game like GTA 3 with huge textures, the game is going to look terrible, the fact that the guy that wrote this has to mention that there is a bad frame rate is to avoid people raging on it.
Boo *** hoo! “If iT aIn’t ruNning at 60 fPS 4k iTs tRash”. gtfo and don’t you dare download and enjoy this free port, you don’t deserve it.
20 fps is pretty playable for a 3d era gta game. San Andreas worked at 25 fps on every platform and no one complained.
The game doesn’t run at 20 fps, runs at 25-30, which is very good considering it’s an unofficial release and it’s still the first version
Good, now port San Andreas.
No source code for now. Only GTA 3 and Vice City.
https://github.com/saml1er/gta-reversed
Hopefully this project continues, this is a project reverse engineering SA
Yo! It would be awesome if you could help too!.A port like this is alot of hard work to undertake with just a handful of people. Anyone can share a part in this by attempting to study and learn, and explain the basic mechanics of the PS2 games.
So can someone please explain why GTA 3 and MGS 2 and 3 can be run on the PS vita, but other games cannot?
There are no source codes available for them so people cannot port them to Vita.
which games exactly?
NOTE – Users can do the PS2 Cheat Codes, but ONLY in Classic Controls, and not in a Vehicle. Have to add the Left DPad to the Controls, however in order to get it working.
There are some Mods that Work, which is a small List right now, but it is increasing slowly.
Anyone know if there is a Cheat Engine or something that works with Homebrew to create Cheats????? I tried changing the PARAM.SFO from GTA300000 to PCSH11000, but you get to the GTA3 Splashj, and it crashes. So either there is no Permissions in Memory, or something.
Yeah because the RE3 team would totally be able to host their GTA3 launcher on Github if this was illegal (and continue to work on Vice City). RE3 did nothing but code a launcher. You’re a *** who doesn’t understand law or piracy.
Rockstar could have prevented this 20 years ago by removing the debug code on PS2 retail copies. Their negligence made this possible.
plz port hitman 1
ability to run it has, but I don’t know if it would be possible
Just started my run thank you devs
it had to be an american …
Proving my case…
Most Vita’s sit around and collect dust, or a thrown in the trash. It’s old tech that you can’t give away. People that are hoarders and like junk like them.
Stauton island will glitch during mission ‘last requests’. Use birds eye camera to get past it. Also noticed it while collecting hidden packages.
Thank you very much