orappa

I don't think they mind mods, as long as they don't give them bad press and issues with the US authorities (e.g. Hot Coffee). If they do release multiplayer, I doubt it will scriptable, I doubt it will have a map editor, and I doubt it would support custom models. I think MTA will be popular for a long time. The only difference it is likely to make is that people won't go LOOKING for multiplayer, so fewer people would know about MTA. Although they'd probably be able to sync certain things like physics better than the MTA team, so it would have advantages in those areas.

It's not just playing. There's a lot of documentation involved. Every time we test, we have to write up reports on the build such as how many times it crashed, new bugs found, general stability, etc. Then we submit bug reports to our database and create lists prioritising bug importance. This is in addition to creating scripting documentation and programming new maps and game modes.

There are two programs for Mac OS X called Parallels and VM Ware that both have a feature where you can take a Windows program and make the window appear in OS X *but* the program is actually running on XP. So you click the icon in the dock for the program and it will appear as if it's running in OS X when it actually isn't. Not sure how well it works with full-screen apps like games though. I'm pretty sure something like this could run MTA if it's available on Linux.

IyonUK used to be my favourite MTA server. I didn't even play deathmatch - I just played IyonUK Stunt the whole time. I can't specifically remember why it was so good, just that it was.

Yeah, multiple cores are only good if there are apps that can take advantage of them. I'm personally not too excited by either the Xbox 360 or PS3. My colleague has a Wii and whilst it doesn't have the games library of the others or the graphics, it's so damn fun. I would love to see a Wii version of GTA but it would never happen. Rockstar would get so many lawsuits due to the physical nature of the console.

Back on topic please (i.e. sticking with MTA when GTA 4 comes out, which has nothing to do with SA-MP). Everyone seems to think that 1) there will be a PC version and 2) that it will have multiplayer, when none of these have been confirmed (at least to my knowledge. If anyone knows otherwise, please correct me). Remember that the PS2 version of SA has multiplayer but this did not make it to the PC. Also recall that the PC version took nearly a year to come out after the PS2 version. I'm pretty sure there will be a PC version of GTA 4 even though it hasn't been confirmed (the question is when), but I'm not so sure about multiplayer. People say this every single time a new GTA game is announced but it has yet to happen. But of course it could.

You might want to edit the article to clarify that, Tali. That's what I initially thought it meant. P.S. Great work, guys. I know people are complaining but these features are WORTH waiting for. It's not like you're wasting time on trivial things.

If they don't, I'm sure someone will make a script for it.

The update server is for anticheat.

I have used: PC-DOS MS-DOS 4 > whatever version is in XP (7?) Windows 3.1 (briefly) Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows Me Windows XP Red Hat 9 Mac OS X I'm pretty much forced to use Mac OS X for work, which is a great OS so it doesn't bother me at all. Apple consumer hardware is expensive, yes, but the pro/enterprise stuff is WAY cheaper than the competition - e.g. Apple just bought a color grading app that normally costs $20k and included it in FCP 6 for FREE. Xserves offer fantastic performance in a 1U case, and I'm in love with Xserve RAIDs (the config utility is superb), even though they're in need of an update. I use OS X for most things like email and web browsing because it's a lot easier and low maintenance. I use RH9 for a couple of apps at work because I have to use them and there aren't any ports to other OS-es but overall I wasn't that impressed with it. It was very fussy with hardware, and once I worked out which components were causing problems, replaced them and then started it, I couldn't really see what it was offering me that OS X wasn't. Maybe it was just the apps I was running. If I was running a server I might have thought differently. And I use Windows XP for gaming, but MTA's the only game I play.

Whenever I pick up a package from UPS, I count how many Dell boxes come out of there. It's literally every other package. It's depressing. If I was going to buy a PC (and I don't think I would now that Macs have Bootcamp) I'd get either a 3DBOXX or an Alienware. I used to have an Alienware laptop that was great, although this was before Dell bought them so things may have changed. Btw Zion, it was originally in the General MTA section before it was moved.

What most people observing Macs from a distance don't realise is that it really is the small things that make up the difference. The build quality is superb (my friend has had his Mac laptop for 8 years and all it needed was a new battery. In comparison, my 4 year-old Windows laptop is at death's door). And the attention to detail is fantastic. Like, for example, the trackpad on the new Macbooks. I can move the mouse, scroll horizontally and vertically and right-click without going near the keyboard - just with a trackpad and one button. That's the kind of stuff that Apple doesn't advertise but it's the combination of small, useful things like that make up the whole experience for me. The low-end stuff is expensive, true, but when it comes to high-end stuff, Macs beat similarly-specced machines from other manufacturers. If you don't believe me, go to Apple.com and add everything possible to a Mac Pro and then go to Dell.com and add identical specs and see what the price is. Also, you don't *have* to get Apple to install everything for you. You can buy it under-specced and then add RAM and hard drives yourself. Apple adds certified components that they *know* are going to work, then they extensively test them and if they pass the tests, they install them and ship them out. That's what you're paying for - peace of mind. But you shouldn't have any problems if you buy cheaper memory and install it yourself. With regards OS X, my favourite thing about it is that it just lets you get to work. No defragging, no annoying popup messages in the taskbar, and the system wakes up from sleep in no time at all. And then there are features like Automator for automating common tasks. It really helps you be more productive. I used to like digging around inside my PC, fixing it and upgrading it. Then I decided I'd rather be *using* it than trying to fix it the whole time. It's not that Macs can't handle games, it's that the games library for them is limited. Developers are slowly (and I mean very slowly) turning to the Mac as a platform though because it's a quick way to make money (now that Macs are Intel it's easier to port games) and they won't lose very much money in support, whereas with PCs there are hundreds of drivers and suchlike that can cause problems. Apple includes drivers with their OS updates, which means fewer problems and it makes it easier for people who don't understand that kind of thing.

The biggest problem for MTA (technical issues aside) is the fact that if GTA IV offers multiplayer out of the box, most people won't go looking for an alternative.

I think if Rockstar did implement multiplayer, they would do it differently. I can't see them offering scripting but they may choose to offer co-op or bots, and so the two could co-exist.

No, but it includes scripting to allow people to customise the game. If a Race mode isn't included, I'm sure someone will make one.

So you've used every single Mac and compared their performance? Or are you, as I suspect, pulling "facts" out of nowhere? Anyway, regardless of that, I highly doubt there will be a Race update because DM is designed to replace it. It would probably be a lot of work to recode the anti-cheat to be Vista-compatible and it wouldn't be worth it if DM is going to replace it in the not-too-distant future. I hate to say this, but that's the price you pay for upgrading to a new OS early.

Er... the new Mac Pro uses 2x 3GHz quad core chips (8 cores) that were developed exclusively for Apple. Intel is only supplying other manufacturers with 2.6GHz chips. I think what you are referring to is the lower clock speeds of the old PowerPC processors. The PowerPC processors were more efficient than equivalent processors at the time so they could offer equal performance at a lower clock speed. That's a non-issue nowadays due to the Intel switch.

Easy solution: use a dual boot system. Have XP on one partition with all your games on. Have Vista on the other and use it for everything else. That way you get the best of both worlds (or worst, in the case of Vista). Or, even better, get a Mac (Vista is a poor-quality clone of OS X 10.4 Tiger), use that for everyday stuff and then fire up XP when you want to play a game. Or, even better than that, wait until the end of the year when Intel's new processor architecture is out that accelerates virtualisation, and you'll be able to play it via Parallels or VMWare within OS X.

It would have to be triggered clientside, as servers can't see the map. There could be some sync or security issues with doing it clientside though.

These are only examples. They're meant to be as simple as possible. We won't be showing complicated game modes with hundreds of lines of code.

You could, of course, change that behaviour with scripting.

Er....

Not this year. There's only a few days left.

You don't need to learn C++ at all. I learnt Lua just by looking at scripts that people had made, and the wiki documentation that we created.

As many of you know, we released a video two days ago showcasing many new features in MTA. If you missed it, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytuuYXJje6o Everything you saw in that video was created using MTA's new scripting system. This is the secret feature we alluded to many months ago. It was actually started before MTA:Race, which gives you an idea of how long we have been working on this. This is not the SDK; the SDK is more powerful but scripting still offers a great deal of flexibility. To put things in perspective, we currently have 373 functions available for developers to use for pretty much anything. The video only showed a few of them, such as object movement, hit detection and camera modification. All MTA scripts are written in the Lua scripting language. We chose Lua for several reasons, including its simple syntax, extensibility and the fact that Lua scripts do not need to be pre-compiled. Those of you with experience in other languages should pick things up pretty quickly, but I stress that scripting is not necessary in order to make a map. Existing game mode scripts can be imported into new maps with no scripting necessary (more on this at a later date). However, for those of you that do want to code game modes, the QA team has been working hard on providing extensive documentation to aid in this process. Whilst the video mainly showed tech demos and mini games, the QA team has been working hard on several game modes. Capture the Flag was shown in the video but other modes such as Conquest and Turf Wars are in development. It will be particularly interesting to see what the RPG community will do with the power of the new scripting system. Features useful to RPG programmers include control over time and weather, customisable player stats and clothes, integration with the MTA Center for player authentication (optional), vehicle modifications, 3D sound functions, dimensions, and many more. One thing from the video that I feel should be explained is the shot where players are moving buildings around with the mouse. This is not the map editor; it is just a demo script. The map editor is still in development, but we will be using the scripting language to create it. If you think back to the map editor in Race, you will appreciate just how powerful the scripting language is to be able to recreate and improve upon it. Another important feature in the video is glue, which will play a crucial role in the creation of the map editor. Glue is used to attach two objects together so that they move and rotate in unison. This allows players to "stick" to vehicles in order to fire from them without falling off. Gluing is enabled by the scripter and can be triggered any way he chooses - whether by a hotkey, a menu option or standing close to the vehicle for a certain amount of time. We really want to emphasise the flexibility and number of choices given to scripters when creating game modes for MTA:SA. We will start a new feature on the blog where we show you short videos of scripts and tech demos and explain in detail how the scripter managed to achieve everything in the video. This will give you an idea of what can be achieved with the scripting capabilities, whilst at the same time increasing your familiarity with the language. We would like to hear any suggestions you have for the scripting system on our forum. We hope that the Christmas video sufficiently whet your appetites and gave you an indication of the amount of work that has gone into the mod, and the direction we are taking it. On a side note, we are still accepting Race maps to be converted to DM maps for the release. More details here: viewtopic.php?t=18487