Is it possible to port GTA 3 to the Dreamcast?

[cloofoofoo]

At least GTA 3 and Vice City have pretty complete opensource ports available, re3 and reVC using librw.
They were taken offline by Take Two but there are lots of forks on GitHub.
They run fine on Linux (tested this myself on Odroid XU4 running Fedora 36) and many other systems, even 3DS.

So I'd say clone the source and start porting using Kos.

The Dreamcast can barely run the port of Mario 64, it will hardly be able to run gta3. RAM memory always runs out before the processor power is exhausted on the Dreamcast, this is inevitable

That is a terrible comparison. Mario64 is loading every asset into ram at once. Theres other n64 ports on dc that you can look at from its lifetime that probably required bigger cart size than mario 64. It a matter of fully reprogramming with dc in mind. By your logic there are multiplatform dc pc games on dc that require 64mb to 128 mb ram that shouldnt be able to run but do.

[cast128dreams]

At least GTA 3 and Vice City have pretty complete opensource ports available, re3 and reVC using librw.
They were taken offline by Take Two but there are lots of forks on GitHub.
They run fine on Linux (tested this myself on Odroid XU4 running Fedora 36) and many other systems, even 3DS.

So I'd say clone the source and start porting using Kos.

The Dreamcast can barely run the port of Mario 64, it will hardly be able to run gta3. RAM memory always runs out before the processor power is exhausted on the Dreamcast, this is inevitable

yes if you use dreamcast ram straight forward yes .BUT DREAMCAST uses VQ compresion (cpu capability)VQ compresion saves and free ram.mario 64 is just a straight forward port.

[Ryo_Hazuki]

At least GTA 3 and Vice City have pretty complete opensource ports available, re3 and reVC using librw.
They were taken offline by Take Two but there are lots of forks on GitHub.
They run fine on Linux (tested this myself on Odroid XU4 running Fedora 36) and many other systems, even 3DS.

So I'd say clone the source and start porting using Kos.

The Dreamcast can barely run the port of Mario 64, it will hardly be able to run gta3. RAM memory always runs out before the processor power is exhausted on the Dreamcast, this is inevitable

yes if you use dreamcast ram straight forward yes .BUT DREAMCAST uses VQ compresion (cpu capability)VQ compresion saves and free ram.mario 64 is just a straight forward port.

Streaming data from disk would be just as terrible, look at Crazy Taxi games, they almost kill the drive reader loading data, literally like crazy.

[Ian Micheal]

The Dreamcast can barely run the port of Mario 64, it will hardly be able to run gta3. RAM memory always runs out before the processor power is exhausted on the Dreamcast, this is inevitable

yes if you use dreamcast ram straight forward yes .BUT DREAMCAST uses VQ compresion (cpu capability)VQ compresion saves and free ram.mario 64 is just a straight forward port.

Streaming data from disk would be just as terrible, look at Crazy Taxi games, they almost kill the drive reader loading data, literally like crazy.

You do burst reads and compression same thing had to be done to the psp port which he drive in it as about the same as the gdrom at burst rate..

My radquake mod uses mips so load low qualty then higher as you move to save ram.. I have my map it uses over 59mb on pc but works on Radquake..

Can also use sh4 mmu maps to files hidden and dangrous does this or it would not fit into dc ram..

Lot of things you could do with compression and decoding you have longer load times etc..

[cloofoofoo]

The Dreamcast can barely run the port of Mario 64, it will hardly be able to run gta3. RAM memory always runs out before the processor power is exhausted on the Dreamcast, this is inevitable

yes if you use dreamcast ram straight forward yes .BUT DREAMCAST uses VQ compresion (cpu capability)VQ compresion saves and free ram.mario 64 is just a straight forward port.

Streaming data from disk would be just as terrible, look at Crazy Taxi games, they almost kill the drive reader loading data, literally like crazy.

Crazy taxi moves alot faster so faster streaming is required. You can traverse the entire map in seconds. Of course it will thrash the drive. Not to mention its 60 fps, even less time given to stream the file. Grand theft auto runs half that and much slower pace.

Have you seen the psp grand theft auto games? They had to be completely rebuilt for the hardware since its drive is actually nearly same speed as dc gdrom drive. In some cases it appears to be slower than dc. The dev team who ported crazy taxi 1 and 2 to psp mentioned due to slow umd drive it causes unstable sub 60 fps framerate. They mentioned its better to load music off the memory card to alleviate this problem. You dont see crazy taxi run lower than 60 on dreamcast.

[panzer86]

I hope it's possible.

[Thepolicenaut]

I know nothing about programming but when you see tomb raider running on gameboy advance it doesn't seem too far fetched

[MashDC43]

Damn...
Even with many visual downgrades wouldnt be possible?
btw,i really dig your videos man,the "Games That Never Were" series of videos are really good

Isso não parece ser uma informação real, o hardware do DC tem inúmeros recirsosa,com certeza que ele poderia suportar o gta3,e com melhorias gráficas.
o PS2 exibe inúmeros aplicativos em segundo plano(com downgrade)não esqueçam que a memória de video do Dreamcast aloca mais de 50 MB de textura...deixando a ram principal livre,no PS2 é tudo alocado na ram pricipal.
Então o PS2 não usa 32 de ram para mapa,e sim para fazer tudo, textura,polignos e etc.

No DC as texturas todas podem sem comprimidas em maior quantidade na Vram
O que poderia acontecer,será a versão de DC ter um mapa menor.
Mas com muita mais qualidade gráfica!

[MashDC43]

The Dreamcast unfortunately wouldn't be able to handle it, which is the reason for its cancellation. I spoke with one of the founders of Rockstar, Jamie King, a while back who said:

It was in development but the hardware wasn’t powerful enough to run the game in proper 3rd person perspective. We had to wait for the PS2

studying the hardware of the Dreamcast we can say that it would work.
despite having less main ram, the Dreamcast can allocate more than 50 mb of textures in its video memory...
leaving the 16 ram free will do other functions.
on the ps2 we know well that everything is allocated in the main ram, so there is no big advantage in having 32 ram.
An example:
shenmue uses 25-30mb of texture. this alone would already occupy the total ram of the ps2.
but this is allocated only in the video memory of the compressed dc.
the Dreamcast would support, and could make more beautiful graphics, but with a map less on screen.
these statements from the creators only confirm that they had no technical knowledge of the system.
I'm talking here about the two systems in their original functions, without cache update techniques to display more things on screen (as the ps2 does) this can also be applied to the dc.

[MondoGecko]

You dont see crazy taxi run lower than 60 on dreamcast.

It runs at 60 but it's variable, not locked. It chugs along lower than 60 quite a bit, in my experience.