Grand Theft Auto Vice City - The community patch

[Tharon]

Since the release of the definitive (defective) edition of Grand Theft Auto Vice City, many have dusted off the original superior version of the game. Unfortunately, the PC version of Vice City presents a fair number of problems related to its years to a porting that was not already excellent at first.

There are several fixes and mods that improve the game on PC, but these require a good level of knowledge to be used. Alternatively, you can use ready-to-use mod bundles, but which leave little room for customization.

This patch was born from the need to put order among the most popular fixes and changes, and at the same time make installation and customization easy and understandable.

The patch is divided into five ranks:

Rank 1 - Basic Fixes
Allow you to start the game and solve the main problems.

Rank 2 - PS2 Restore
Make the PC version as similar as possible to the Playstation 2 version.

Rank 3 - Basic gameplay enhancements
Mods that improve the quality of playability.

Rank 4 - Graphic enhancements
Improve the graphics of the game, mostly based on the Xbox version.

Rank 5 - Extra enhancements
Additional optional improvements.

A comparative video of the various ranks is available at this address:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94noQ2SPCUg

To install the patch download the entire _Build Patch folder at this address:
and copy it inside the "Grand Theft Auto Vice City" folder (you must have the _Build Patch folder inside the game folder for the installer to work).

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/141d_Bcm_Y_mXQTNCTyBebLUI3Bqbx3Z_?usp=sharing

(alternative link on MEGA. Link divided in three parts to avoid Steam censorship) :
https
://mega
.nz/folder/xA9Q0AiQ#BUKi8YJDMU_pQesAWIuaKw

Then launch the VCCommunityPatchInstall.bat file from the _Build Patch folder.
It is important that the patch is applied to a clean version of the game to avoid conflicts. The patch will create a backup copy of the current installation, so you don't have to re-download the game every time you want to change something.

It is possible to manually install the various mods, in order to completely customize the gaming experience. Just extract the compressed file of the mod you want in the game's main folder.
The important thing is to always follow the installation order.

Here is the list of mods included in the patch:

Remember, if you plan to use the provided installer (VCCommunityPatchInstall.bat) you need to download the whole "_Build Patch" folder.

Basic Fixes

1_01 - Downgraded exe
First version of the game. Necessary to be able to install subsequent mods.

1_02 - Ultimate ASI loader
Required to install ASI scripts.

1_03 - Silent Patch
Fixes most of the problems in the game.
(requires Ultimate ASI loader)

1_04 - RunDLL32 and DEP fix
Allows the game to start in the presence of crashes related to the DEP or the GAMEUX of Microsoft. Only install it if you have trouble starting the game.
(requires Ultimate ASI loader)

PS2 Restore

2_01 - Stats line fix
Fix wrong stats in the game statistics.
(requires Ultimate ASI loader)

2_02 - Intro Fix
Workaround to restore the game's introductory movies. It may have problems with Windows 10.

2_03 - SkyGfx
Restore the look and feel of the game on PS2.
(requires Ultimate ASI loader)

2_04 - Modloader
Needed to load next mods. Essential.
(requires Ultimate ASI loader)

2_05 - CLEO
Needed to load CLEO mods. Essential.
(requirest Ultimate ASI loader)

2_06 - PS2 Leftovers fix
Restore missing or changed files in the PC version of the game.
(requires Modloader and CLEO)

2_07 - Restored generic textures
Restores some downgraded textures.
(requires Modloader)

2_08 - Fixed Sound
Restore the removed songs and other sounds.

2_09 - Dispatch Voices
Change the dispatch voices to those of the PS2 version.

2_10 - Ped Speech
Restore the talkative peds from the PS2 version.
(requires Ultimate ASI loader)

2_11 - Restored tear gas grenade
Restore the missing gas grenade weapon.
(requires CLEO)

Basic gameplay enhancements

3_01 - Widescreen
Allows for an effective enlarged view.
(requires Ultimate ASI loader)

3_02 - GInput
It allows a better use of the gamepad.
(requires Ultimate ASI loader)

3_02x - GInput (PS2 icons)
Button icons based on playstation gamepad.
(requires GInput)

3_03 - SaCarCam
It allows you to rotate the camera while in the car, and adds a variable FOV depending on the speed of the vehicle.
(requires Ultimate ASI loader)

3_04 - Various improvements
Various improvements to the game.
(requires Ultimate ASI loader)

Graphic enhancements

4_01 - HQ Elements
Improve the quality of radar, icons and fonts.
(requires Modloader)

4_02 - HQ Screens
Improve the quality of the loading screens.
(requires Modloader)

4_03 - HQ Graphic
AI enhanced and other high quality texture for the game. Some are really good, some not so good. Overall it's a good improvement of the game textures.
(requires Modloader)

4_04 - LODLights
Enhance the lighting effects of the game.
(requires Ultimate ASI loader)

4_05 - ParticleEX
Enhanced particle effects.
(requires Ultimate ASI loader)

4_05x - ParticleEX (Xbox+III effects)
Change the particle effects to use a mix of the XBOX and GTAIII effects.
(requires ParticleEX)

Extra enhancements

5_01 - Vice City Neons
Add more neons in the city, taken from Vice City Stories. Nice.
(requires Modloader)

5_01x - Vice City Neons (Custom texture)
Custom neon texture, more wide. Highly optional.
(requires Vice City Neons)

5_02 - Sharptrails
Removes the blur effect present in the PS2 version of the game.
(requires Ultimate ASI loader)

5_03 - Framerate Vigilante
It lock the framerate at 60 frames per second and limits (but does not completely solve) the problems related to the high framerate.
(requires Ultimate ASI loader)

5_04 - MixSet
Tune some of the game aspects. Used to raise the view distance and lessen the car disappearance.
It's a bit bugged and can make the game crash when starting a new game if a game is already started. Be sure to not have a game loaded if you want to start a new game.
Also the raised distance for despawning cars can cause problems with some of the rampages. If you have problems with vehicles not spawning doing a rampage disable the mod by deleting the file CLEO\Mix Sets (Junior_Djjr).cs

Feel free to experiment and provide feedback and suggestions !

[xXx_42069YAMOM_xXx]

Thanks for Sharing the Dispatch Voices SFX file, the DEP don't included them for some odd reason. Just one small thing i want add is the fact that VC Weapon Skins on PC are Censored Version after PS2 1.4.0. The Community mod pack and Definitive Project don't have them as of right now but most of them have already included in a different mod pack called VC "PS2 Weapon Skin" (The Tec-9 model sadly haven't been Port to PC yet or just like the Dispatch Voices file i haven't found them yet).
Edit: At 5_01 - Vice City Neons line, i think you meant to type VCS (Vice City Stories).

[Tharon]

Thank you for your tips. Weapon skins in this patch are (or should be) uncensored. If you check the Ruger it have its wooden look like the Ps2. Names are uncensored too in the english/american language. I have extract the language files from my original PS2 first edition disc but need to modify them, because they lack all the PC strings.

[xXx_42069YAMOM_xXx]

Well, just like you said the Weapon skins are there in this patch, did you port it yourself or smth ? That's amazing, been scouting around the net for quite a time but no luck.

[Tharon]

No, my only original work is the intro fix workaround.
All of the others are the work of talented modders and other passionate GTA gamees. I've only select the most usefult, gathered them together and modified a bit to be easier to apply.

[Filzbiber]

Thank you for sharing. I seem to have problem. When I start the game I can hear the intro music but the screen just stays black. After the intro when the menu screen is supposed to come up, the game crashes. Any ideas what could cause the problem?

[Tharon]

The intro didn't work well on some system. It's normal. I made a workaround to make them show anyway, it's the 2_02 - Intro Fix.

For the game crash it can be a number of things. The vanilla game is known to crash when :

- DEP is enabled in Windows.
- Game experience is present in the system, it's only a Windows 7 issue.
- A corrupted of not compatibile option file is found.

The first two are fixed with with 1_04 - RunDLL32 and DEP fix. For the third you had to delete the options files (and probably the saves) from documents\GTA Vice City User Files.

If the game still crashes and the game is modded probably there is some incompatibility with the mods installed.
Can you tell me what mod you have installed and the sequence ? The right installation order is important.

[Filzbiber]

Thank you for your quick reply.

I used the VCCommunityPatchInstall Windows Batch File in a clean install, no other mods installed previously. During the installation I said "Yes" to everything and chose PS2 button layout.

I made sure DEP is disabled in Windows, I also checked in the eventviewer and didn't see any DEP error.

The GTA Vice City User Files folder is empty, as I've never started the game on this PC before.

I also reinstalled 1_04 and 2_02, without success (although I don't care too much about the intro movie anyway).

I have Windows 10 and I run the game in compatibility mode for Windows 7. My display is 2560px1440p 165Hz although I already tried to limit to 60FPS in nVidia control Panel.

[Tharon]

I tried the same install as you and the game works fine. I'm using it in a 2560x1400 monitor too, but at 60hz and on Windows 7.

Did you remember the message error after the crash ? Also there are two log files provided by modloader and CLEO that can be useful : modloader\modloader.log (it's big, only look at the final part) and scripts.\cleo.log.
If there are some error in one of the two mod, it should be noted.

Anyway, you don't need to run the game in compatibility mode, nor limit the fps with nvidia control panel. Just enable the frame limiter in the game, il will lock the framerate at 30 or 60 with framerate vigilante.

If you still have problems you can try manually installing each mod to discover what is causing the issue.

Try this :

Restore the backup and start the game, look if the vanilla game run.
Then install only the 4 basic fixes and look if the game run.

[Filzbiber]

There is no error message. The application just crashes to desktop without any message.

In the modloader log I found the following: "No aScreen address, not injecting a menu". In case I missed something you can download the log here: {LINK REMOVED}https://www.mediafire.com/file/163bde77m5ma9g4/modloader.log/file
The cleo log is empty.

Before installing your batch file I tried to run the vanilla game and I didn't even get an intromovie. Nothing happened on screen and I had to shut down the gta-vc.exe process in task manager.

I also applied your batch to GTA 3 and there it worked. There is the same problem with the intromovie, but after the intromovie (not) playing, the menu screen shows up and I can play the game without any problems. I don't know if this information is of any value.

I will restore the original steam version and try to manually install each mod step by step later/tomorrow and let you know of the results.

Thanks again for your support. It's much appreciated.

EDIT: For the sake of completion I tried to run the game without compatibility mode and with the fps limiter in nvidia control turned off, without success.

[Filzbiber]

UPDATE:

Alright, so I did a clean install by downloading from steam. Before tinkering in any way with it, I tried to run it vanilla and this time it worked (had to use compatibility mode though).
So I again applied your windows batch file (this time choosing "No" when asked for the introfix and ParticleEX [Xbox]). And this time it worked like a charm (no need to use compatibility mode).

Seems like I had a corrupted initial install to begin with.
Thanks again and apologies for having wasted your time.

PS: You didn't make a community patch for San Andreas by any chance, or have I just not found it?

[Tharon]

the modloader log is normal. Everything is loaded fine and the game doesn't have crashed. The empty cleo log means that cleo isn't even started.

The game should run even without mods installed, so it seems there is an issue preventing the game to start before mods are even loaded.

Sometimes this kind of behaviour is caused by windows defender or other antivirus. You can try to add an exception for the game.

[Tharon]

Oh, ok disgregard my previous post then :)

No, i haven't make a community patch for San Andreas yet because i didn't had the time. San Andreas is huge and is difficult to make sure everything works fine.

But it's planned.

[Filzbiber]

OK, good to know. Thank you again for your awesome work. You (and all the other modders) deliver where Rockstar Games failed us.

[Tharon]

Where the game give you the error and what mods did you have installed ?

1_04 require the Ultimate ASI loader to work (1_02). Also the downgraded executable (1_01) is advised.
The best way to proceed is to install all the basic fixes (from 1_01 to 1_04). This will made the game more compatibile with modern systems.

[Zopheir]

Thanks a lot man easy to install and makes the game run and look amazing.
https://c.tenor.com/qj_wTx9dXVMAAAAC/cat-hug.gif