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Want to revisit the classic GTA III and Vice City? You should take a look at re3 and reVC which not only provide the source code, they also upgrade the experience for both. Available on GitHub in a combine repository split across different branches for GTA III and Vice City, it has been tested by the team working across different systems including Linux.

Just like other game engine reimplementations, they do require the original data files so it needs a small amount of work to get each going. Considering the age of both though, the re3 and reVC projects are now probably the best way to play each of them on a PC.

Originally started in 2018, it seems the COVID-19 pandemic gave them a bunch of time to get it finished and out the door. They also mentioned their intention to work on the Liberty City Stories game which they've started in a reLCS project.

Amazing work from a dedicating community, which should enable these games to continue living on. They sit in a legal grey area though depending on what country you're in, as this type of reverse engineering is usually frowned upon, especially by the rights holders like Rockstar. The actual project has no license attached to it.

Check it out on GitHub.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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32 comments
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dpanter Feb 20, 2021
It requires libglfw3 3.3 min.; while Debian (which I'm currently using, after random nvidia-related f*ckups with Arch that I got fed up with) still has 3.2.1 as of now.
Or... grab libglfw3 3.3.2-1 from testing. 3.3 has been available in Debian repos since July 2019. :)
robvv Feb 20, 2021
It's been taken down :-(

However there are links to backups over on reddit.
walther von stolzing Feb 20, 2021
It requires libglfw3 3.3 min.; while Debian (which I'm currently using, after random nvidia-related f*ckups with Arch that I got fed up with) still has 3.2.1 as of now.
Or... grab libglfw3 3.3.2-1 from testing. 3.3 has been available in Debian repos since July 2019. :)

I eventually built libglfw3 from source; but the build for 'RE' still fails.

... I also confess, that I'm not confident enough to mix stable & non-stable repos on Debian. I use backports & flatpak & appimages & source builds when I need something new.
spiffyk Feb 20, 2021
Aaaand, it's gone. No suprise, they gained knowledge from the original decompiled executables, which is a no-go.
Tom B Feb 20, 2021
Damn. Is there an announcement from the authors anywhere? Could they host the code on another website? Seems a shame to waste all the time they spent on this great project.
mrdeathjr Feb 20, 2021
Damn. Is there an announcement from the authors anywhere? Could they host the code on another website? Seems a shame to waste all the time they spent on this great project.

Someone put repo here

https://gitee.com/wizstriver1/re3

out of dmca claws (go to hell rockstar)

dpanter Feb 20, 2021
I eventually built libglfw3 from source; but the build for 'RE' still fails.

... I also confess, that I'm not confident enough to mix stable & non-stable repos on Debian. I use backports & flatpak & appimages & source builds when I need something new.
FWIW, it built fine on Siduction, a Debian sid based distro.
yar4e Feb 23, 2021
Awesome job! Completed re3 without any issues! But reVC constantly crashing in "riot" mission, so it's not playable on Linux for now.. My system is fully updated Linux Mint 20.1.
DoctorJunglist Feb 23, 2021
Awesome job! Completed re3 without any issues! But reVC constantly crashing in "riot" mission, so it's not playable on Linux for now.. My system is fully updated Linux Mint 20.1.
That's odd, I've completed this mission in reVC without any isssues.

Do you by any chance have the framerate limiter off? It might be some kind of a bug with unlocked FPS.

I play with frame sync and frame limiter off and I use libstrangle to limit the FPS to 75 fps. The game works then, however each time I launch it, I have to first turn on the frame limiter, load the game, and then turn the frame limiter off; if I don't do that I get broken car handling.
yar4e Feb 23, 2021
Awesome job! Completed re3 without any issues! But reVC constantly crashing in "riot" mission, so it's not playable on Linux for now.. My system is fully updated Linux Mint 20.1.
That's odd, I've completed this mission in reVC without any isssues.
Do you by any chance have the framerate limiter off? It might be some kind of a bug with unlocked FPS.

Thanks for the information! I found message from reddit about the same issue in reVC so i thought everyone have this bug in Linux. Framelimiter is off. Game is crashing with segfault. Maybe you know where to post bugs
to let developers know about the problem?
Calinou Feb 24, 2021
You don't have to use libstrangle to use a custom FPS limit in re3/reVC. Enable the frame limiter, press Ctrl+M during gameplay (Ctrl+, on an AZERTY keyboard), open the Debug section and change the frame limit from 30 to the desired FPS value by pressing the arrow keys (72 works well on a 144 Hz monitor).

Unfortunately, this value is reset to 30 on every startup but at least it works without external software.


Last edited by Calinou on 24 February 2021 at 2:27 pm UTC
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