RDE 3.1
Perhaps we should preface this with an apology for our inactivity, and general quietness, with our last DEV update dating back to January; however we’ve been hard at work, and have plenty to show for it, with 3.1 being much larger than we expected.
New Peds and Vehicles
As with 3.0, we have continued to expand our fleets, with new peds and vehicles on the table for 3.1, alongside overhauls. New to the table is a couple of peds and vehicles, with the LSPD, LSSD and the BCSO receiving unmarked units, the SAPR and SAHP receiving the Landstalker, the BCSO receiving the Gresley, and the LSSD, BCSO, and NOoSE receiving the Rumpo. For new peds, the LSPD will be receiving a bicycle officer, and a middle aged officer to diversify the city; later there are plans to implement peds such as motorcycle cops, fat cops, female SWAT, FIB enhancements and much more. Thanks to the work of Custo, Yard has overhauled a large portion of our current peds with new equipment, new heads, and many more goodies, thanks to some breakthroughs in ped ymt files. New female heads, more face textures for the male LSPD cop, kevlar vests for females, tasers and nightsticks (which work with CopHolster!), as well as smaller details, such as new name tags and watches (sadly no double watches at this time). As for vehicles, all the major agencies have received another interior makeover, and have received an interior console, which first debuted here, for that extra bit of detail for those that keep the vanilla RDE vehicles.
Livery Changer and Script Fixes
We have of course continued to develop the script portion of our mod as well. Since RDE 3.0.1, we have made great progress, fixing multiple bugs and refining our systems. Highlights include polished and more responsive Arrest Warrant & Better Chases non-lethal functionality, much better search AI for SSR spawned units (the AI is now exactly the same as in vanilla game), tweaked armed vehicle AI, performance improvements and additional configurability. The PopCycleMonitor functionality has also been implemented, allowing for more than one ped to occupy ambiently spawned vehicles (allowing cop cars to spawn with two peds again, like GTA IV, for example). Aside from that, the LiveryChanger script (from the Emergency! addon), has been expanded to support peds as well, allowing for both zone based and vehicle livery based component and prop texture changing - this allows for LSFD ambulances to be crewed by LSFD paramedics, and BCFD ambulances by BCFD paramedics, for example.
New Install Method
At first the DLC method we had in place seemed to be the best install method around. After multiple DLC releases from R* this however did not prove to be the case. Currently there is a hardcoded amount of allowed DLC’s that can be added to dlclist.xml. As of this writing that number stands at a total of 48. Once this amount is exceeded your game will crash on startup. To work around this we spent countless hours experimenting with new ways of injecting our content without pushing ourselves over the hardcoded cap. After extensive research we discovered a way of injecting all our .rpf’s directly through update.rpf. So not only will the new install method be painless, it’s actually more compact and better organized than ever before! We feel that with 3.1 going forward our new install method should prove to be future proof. Tuple this with our installer.exe as well as our handcrafted gameconfig.xml and you’re ready to add RDE on top of other countless mods.
Forthcoming Attractions:
RDE ELS
Since the release of ELS back in December, many have asked for an ELS adaptation of the RDE vehicles, and fortunately for those that asked, an ELS RDE pack is currently in the works. The initial pack will include the LSPD, LSSD, and BCSO, with more agencies potentially being added down the line. A complete overhaul of the vanilla lightbars is planned for 4.0 for non-ELS users. A release date cannot be given at this time, but once available will be available exclusively on LCPDFR as a standalone release.
RDE Retro
Spearheaded by 11john11, RDE Retro will be a complete overhaul of RDE, and the world of GTA V, taking San Andreas back to 1992, the first time we visited SA. From age appropriate lighting, classic police cars, and even service vehicles, 11john11 plans to create an authentic 90’s setting for the game. Again, while no release date can be given at this time; once complete it will be available as an official standalone pack, and part of the RDE installer.
RDE Liberty
While it’s been awhile since it was first announced and been in the limelight, RDE Liberty will launch when OpenIV releases Liberty City, which has been delayed, and as such has been put on the back burner. RDE Liberty will launch solely with the LCPD, with the Liberty State Police and Alderney State Police potentially be added latter as LC is developed by the OIV team.
Reveal hidden contents
Miscellaneous Stuff:
With the new install method, some changes have happened in response, with the most prominent being RDE Sheriff, or the “Sheriff’s of Blaine” addon, has been fully merged with vanilla RDE to curb confusion on both your end, and our end. BCSO will assume the sheriff naming convention, and the LSSD will follow, however with LS being injected before sheriff to differentiate them; becoming lssheriff, users of RDE Sheriff will already be familiar with this naming convention.
RDE’s World of Variety (WOV) support will continue, with 3.1 updated to the latest version from Cass, with edits from us to take full advantage of the new peds and vehicles added by 3.1.
Thanks for reading, and your continued support of RDE. As always, if you’re interested in working with us, you can apply here: https://goo.gl/gyjJID, as we’re always looking for competent beta testers, media personnel, and collaborators.
Until next time,
NefariousBonne and The Realism Team
