Best posts made by PNWParksFan

We we all know, every time there's a GTA update everybody loses their damn minds while they wait for a new Scripthook. Inevitably somebody pretending to be a Scripthook or RPH developer posts some bullshit comments demanding donations in exchange for releasing the SHV update or telling people they're quitting the project or whatever. Obviously we know those are fake accounts, but it still gets annoying. I'd like to suggest that authors with high-profile mods be able to verify their account somehow. A verified account should show a special verified icon, and the site shouldn't let anyone else register for a new account with the same name or a name that is above some similarity percentage.

So we've got all these awesome helicopter models on gta5-mods, and many of them have wheels (as real helicopters often do). Unfortunately, GTA doesn't have any way built in to actually use those wheels though. This is a problem if you want to park your helicopter in a hangar, or if you want to taxi it around realistically. VTOL aircraft have a similar problem: they only have two positions (up or down), and in the up position they can't taxi either.

My new Heli Taxi plugin solves all of these issues by making it possible to taxi wheeled helicopters and VTOL aircraft. It also adds customizable additional angles to VTOL aircraft so you can choose a partial tilt. It uses normal helicopter controls and doesn't require any additional keybindings. It will work automatically with any helicopter that has wheels and any VTOL aircraft. You can optionally override settings for specific models by adding a configuration file for that model.

I started developing the plugin last week, and just released a beta version to members of my early access program. After I get some beta feedback and incorporate any necessary changes, I will be releasing it here on gta5-mods.com for you all to enjoy!

Special thanks to @SkylineGTRFreak for creating all of the excellent aircraft that I tested/developed this mod with and which are featured in the demo video below, and thanks for @DarthPungz for suggesting that I add support for VTOL aircraft. And a big thank-you to everyone who is a member of the Parks Benefactor Program for generously donating to support my development projects.

YMAP development has been progressing, with more people figuring out how to load map mods "properly" by custom DLCs and YMAP entries. The codewalker tool is helpful for laying out maps and generating ymaps, but sometimes you want to do it in-game. Menyoo seems to work pretty well for laying out maps. I am considering creating a script which could convert Menyoo Spooner XML files to YMAP files. Obviously not everything that can be done with object spooner can be done in a ymap file, but it would just take objects/props and put them into the ymap format, and possibly parked vehicles as well. I would need some help with figuring out what ymap flags should be used - at the very least to make something spawn frozen or dynamic. Is there interest in this? I would do it as a standalone .NET exe, so you wouldn't need any particular plugin hook or anything. You could just open an XML file and convert it to ymap format. Some manual work would be needed to integrate it into a proper DLC or other ymap file of course.

@Golden_Darknezz there's already a private beta, with enough testers to get good feedback. You know what happens when you have an open "beta"? People skip right over "beta" and go straight to "open", and expect everything to work. Good beta testers know how to solve basic problems for themselves, are competent at editing meta files and installing mods and doing basic troubleshooting. They know what to look for, how to describe a bug helpfully and even demonstrate how to reproduce it. When you open a beta up to the masses, you get people who do none of those things and instead view it as an opportunity to get early access to something they're excited about. It can end up really slowing down progress because you spend time helping people without getting good feedback in return.

(I'm not speaking on behalf of the RDE team here, just from my own experience. I've done open betas before, now I don't, because the majority of people who participate don't participate, they just waste your time.)

Everybody needs to chill the fuck out. Back up your copy of OpenIV. Block it from accessing the internet via the firewall. Continue as normal. OpenIv doesn't need to be updated after every new game patch so just keep on keeping on. Yes, this is bad, but it's not the end of modding. We will keep going.

In other boat-related news, this is working fairly well now...

I'm coming at this from the perspective of a script modder, which is of course quite different. On the one hand, our tools are generally free (visual studio, scripthook, ragepluginhook, etc.). On the other hand, it requires much more work to create something new, as you can't just rip a model from somewhere else and portray it as your own work.

I think it's OK to offer early access to a mod to people who have donated, especially if the mod is still in early development. But the key to that is, eventually releasing it to the public, for free!

Honestly I do think part of is that the people who should be donating don't. There are people making very large sums of money from YouTube and such who literally never donate to anyone. I have no problem with modders sticking it to those people and getting something in return. But for the average player who just wants to enjoy the mods in their game for fun, I think they absolutely deserve to be able to get access, and not get strung along.

We are working on adding more seats.

(This is a screenshot with peds I added by spawning and attaching them with a script, they're not in actual seats. This is just for testing purposes in determining where to position the seat dummies to make this actually possible later on with real seats. They're just statically attached at the moment, so they can't do any animations or get in/out.)

@nathanjamesddg151 @Dilapidated I'm doing some extensive work on the Defender model to get it ready for Coastal Callouts. Adding seats, working lights, etc. The model does have some issues which make it difficult to work with, especially with regards to mapping and LODs. I do believe the RDE team would want any model included to have proper LODs. @SkylineGTRFreak and I have been talking about adding a mounted gun if this upcoming DLC update makes it possible, and will integrate that with the various other changes I'm currently developing. We're all busy and it's too late to add models to RDE 3.0 at this point, but hopefully it'll be available for a future version! At the very least it'll be included when Coastal Callouts is eventually released.

Finally got the lights on the Defender to look decent even in daytime. Also added some textures to make the instruments in the cabin more realistic.

Video preview of the WIP additional seating:

What's your oppinion on the whole thing, though? Like is this just a one-time thing, or are they gonna start taking out scripthook and shit.

(assuming it's a real C&D which is............... improbable, since they won't benefit at all from it)

@sollaholla I can't predict the future. Considering this hasn't even been verified by Take Two yet, I'm not freaking out. Same thing I said stands for RPH and SHV though. If Take Two shuts them down, we'll just stay on the current GTA patch forever. I'm not going to just stop making mods, nor are most other people who've put hundreds or even thousands of hours into this. It might get a bit more difficult, especially for people who are new and don't already have all the files. But we'll find a way forward.

So much for "no longer showing ads with fake download buttons".

Yeah I've used that before too. It should be as simple as deserializing the menyoo file, then reserializing to the ymap format. I need to do some more research though on the various flags, options, and such in the ymap files.

I've been planning for a while to delve into ymap editing. I'll report back on my findings. If I'm successful I can probably make a simple converter from the Menyoo export format to the ymap format. There will always be some manual work involved though. Finding the right ymap to use for a particular area is a tricky part especially.

As @nathanjamesddg151 alludes to, there comes a point where we run up against the limitations of the game engine. More people working on it means more chance of finding a clever workaround, but at the end of the day that's what it is. A hacky workaround, which will always be more unstable, difficult to use and install, and generally annoying to deal with than proper native support. We'll certainly all keep trying to figure out the best way to do this - nobody wants working guns, doors, etc. on boats more than we do! - but there are hard limits on what the game engine allows. If R* someday releases an update that enables all these features on boats, then we'll really be able to go crazy with it.

OK, now I have it actually working in-game! In the screenshot below, every ped is in a seat of the vehicle! Thanks to @FoxtrotDelta for his help. We are continuing to make some other adjustments to the model as well, and I am still working on the meta files to get the entry/exit animations to work more smoothly. Peds in any of the outside positions can shoot weapons. The peds on the bow and hanging on while standing up can even fire 2-handed weapons like assault rifles.

( @nathanjamesddg151 @SkylineGTRFreak )

Hello all,

I have created a mod kit ID registry so people can register which modkit IDs they are using for mods they plan to release publicly, to avoid accidentally using a modkit ID already in use by another mod. This will make it easier for modders to make sure their mods are widely compatible, and less likely to create support requests from users.

The registry is available here, and can be publicly edited at the moment: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/154RLDnK35cNUPZrIiEep5ymy9UlQ-jpsx1XJxiJ9-Qw/edit?usp=sharing

Please feel free to add mod kit IDs you are using, or that you know are in use by mods you've downloaded. If someone wanted to go through some of the more popular released mods that use modkits and add them in, that would be a great help.

Obviously this is an entirely voluntary effort for modders to all make life easier for each other. Nobody's going to come after you or fight over IDs, I just want to make things go smoother

@FoxtrotDelta Looking very nice!

@Dark0ne said in How do I link a page when you hit download to install mod on different page?:

On a personal note, I've decided to start donating to mod authors who, each month, are the most active and popular mod authors on 5Mods based on our internal database statistics. I know that Rappo used to donate to mod authors from time to time, but I'd like to make this a regular occurrence. I have already done the donations for this month and, from now on, I will do this around the start of each month moving forward.

I'm just getting caught up on this now, and was actually going to suggest exactly this. It might be nice to have a more formal revenue sharing program, similar to how YouTube shares with creators, but I know that comes with a whole host of technical and community management challenges, so your current approach is a great alternative.

I think a lot of the resent around money in the GTA V modding community comes from a feeling of being left out or taken advantage of. Yes, some devs are just greedy people looking to make a quick buck (cough cough LSRD), but let us not immediately dismiss everyone who is interested in receiving some form of compensation as fitting that mold. Modders often feel like they aren't getting compensated proportionally to the time they put in vs. other people making money from their mods. YouTubers and modding communities/download sites make at least an order of magnitude more money than modders do. Not to trivialize the real time and effort those groups put into maintaining their channels; developing, hosting, and managing sites like this; etc... but at the end of the day, without modders putting in hundreds of hours of effort to actually make the mods themselves, the rest of it couldn't exist. And in my experience, the vast majority of those profiting off the backs of mods are quite stingy. Several YouTubers I've spoken with have been quite offended by the mere suggestion that they contribute something back to the modders who make their channels possible. (To give credit where due, a few have actually been quite generous, but that's the exception not the norm.) I think your idea to donate to modders on a regular basis helps address some of that inequality. I wish YouTubers would do the same.

For me personally, I do provide early access during the beta development period of my mods in exchange for modest donations. I don't do work for hire, and I don't do private mods – once they're up to my standards and are sufficiently stable for the average noob to install and use without issues, my mods are released to everyone. But the key thing is, I would be making these mods even if nobody wanted to pay, because I make them for my own enjoyment too. At a high level, I only make things I want in the game for myself. I'll add features that other people request, but I'm not going to make a mod that's completely uninteresting to me. I wouldn't expect 5-mods however to let me use it as an advertising platform for that! IMO, once you put something on 5-mods, that should mean you're ready for the masses to use it, for free.

I have thought a great deal about putting commercial use restrictions on my future mods – stipulating that any YouTuber or other person who wants to use it for commercial recording/broadcast must get my permission and arrange some sort of deal first. This of course relies on either the honesty of YouTubers to comply with that license, or YouTube's willingness to take down videos reported for using unlicensed mods. But, it also gets tricky if the mod itself uses unoriginal IP. Obviously this is much easier for script mods than for vehicle mods, especially as script mods tend to be "original creations" to a much greater degree, and are less encumbered by potential trademark/copyright issues.

I think it's very important to keep mods free and accessible for people who just want to play with them for their own fun. But it's quite true that there are a lot of folks out there who are profiting handsomely off the labor of modders and giving nothing in return, and I know how frustrating that can be.

This feature currently exists in Wilderness Callouts (released by @alexguirre) and in Coastal Callouts (in beta by myself). Alex at one point was considering making the camera part a standalone mod. Not sure what the status of that is, but I'll ask him about it again.