Driver 2 unnoficial PC port, how possible would DC port be?

[Anthony817]

So uh, since 2020 is the gift that keeps on giving there is more amazing news. The PSX exclusive cult classic Driver 2 finally has an unofficial PC port made possibly by a team that decompiled it. Now, I don't know about anybody else, but I sure in the hell always wished this game came to the DC. It was rumored to at one time, and I think perhaps this one would be a good fit for the system.



Project page
https://github.com/OpenDriver2/REDRIVER2

Download:
https://github.com/OpenDriver2/REDRIVER2/releases

If ever there was a game needed for the system that is now open sourced and within the capability of the system, it would be this. I mean, this will definitely get all kinds of mods now, and could become a great 3D GTA styled game. It is also SDL2.

[deluxux]

Wow that would be great. This is one of games the Dreamcast should have had back in the day. Its really cool how they can reverse the game and make it free for all.

[Anthony817]

I spent all day trying to get this to work, but I finally compiled it for Windows PC. So, if anybody wants to try it out you can grab it here.

https://mega.nz/file/qcsBkKBa#kQ82HL2mp ... 0kyPbajZgE

Some things to note: If you use an Nvidia GPU, you may have garbled graphics. In which case press 7 key and it should fix it.

I was unable to get this working on my laptop with Intel graphics/cpu, but my all AMD gaming PC played it perfect.

[simbin]

Similarly I've been hoping something might happen since GTA III porting began. Driver 2 would probably be a better match for the Dreamcast hardware actually.

[Anthony817]

Yeah I would agree with that. Might be a better approach to have something like this ported over, and through the use of mods try and beef it up little by little seeing how far you could push it on the DC. I was gutted when this never came to other systems, least of which PC, but DC was at one time rumored to be a platform it was coming to.

I read about it in an old Dreamcast magazine article and used to have a screenshot of it but have misplaced it. Perhaps it was nothing more than a rumor anyway.

[Ian Micheal]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... cast_games does not appear on any list i can find.. would you mind telling me how you got this built and what src base the one on the project page is kinda of some ps1 emulator in parts?

[Anthony817]

Nah, I am 100% sure it was never officially announced. It may have only been a rumor in the magazine article I saw anyways. They were known for posting rumor mill stuff.

I just extracted the contents of Driver 2 version 1.0 SLUS-01161 disc 1 and 2 into a folder. I then added the folder containing the project files like binary and such. I then had to run an app called jPSXdec to rip the FMV's and audio files and convert over to a format the PC could use.

If you are having trouble finding instructions it details them here but it seems hard to find and hidden on the git.

https://github.com/OpenDriver2/REDRIVER ... structions

But you can skip all the converting of the FMV's and audio and just grab the files from mine in the post above unless you want to do it yourself. I will admit it took me a few hours to get it all figured out.

Oh, and the version I used is the 5.0 update released earlier today. From what I am guessing they are running some calls through partial emulation kind of like how neo did with the SM64 port?

P.S. I am trying to figure out how to get the debug mode enabled, it allows you to do some pretty awesome stuff like toggle cheats and day and nigh weather or other stuff in real time in game.

Edit: If you want debug menu to play around with just download it here, and extract the contents to the game directory. You can have the dev build and release build installed in same directory at same time.

https://ci.appveyor.com/project/SoapyMa ... /artifacts

[stry8993]

Similarly I've been hoping something might happen since GTA III porting began. Driver 2 would probably be a better match for the Dreamcast hardware actually.

Even a super downgraded fugly somewhat empty GTA III on Dreamcast would be a dream come true, but I'll admit that Driver 2 wouldn't hurt at all!!!!

[Anthony817]

Yeah, but I think that maybe GTA III would have to be mightily optimized. Sure graphically it was never much to look at compared to the more realistic looking counterparts like The Getaway and Driver Parallel Lines, but I think maybe it might be too much for the systems limited ram, 16mb just is not much to work with to have a large open map with complex traffic and pedestrian AI going on all at the same time in an active mission unless you do like what Driver 2 did and stream in sections of the map from disc at a time.

Not to say a graphicaly nice looking open world map where you can both drive and do on foot missions couldn't be done on the system, it surely could. Just look at Head Hunter, it looked great and kind of had both driving and on foot shooting. But we just need a lot of optimizations, or take a less demanding game like Driver 2 and beef it up with mods. Now that the source it out imagine more detailed car models being ported in from other Dreamcast games like models ripped from Vanishing Point. That would be really awesome to see since those vehicle models are already optimized for the Dreamcast system.

The devs also said they are working on not only the ability to make all new maps from scratch, but also porting over the maps from Driver 1 into the game as well, and making all new missions. So it will have a lot of replay value for sure if it were to be ported. So theoretically we could continuously have all new games made in this engine.

[Retro-45]

Well if Atomiswave can run this well on dreamcast, I can see this happing as well.