GTA San Andreas - tips for improving gfx/sound

DonkeyStyle \o/

Stephen wrote:

I always save after every mission that's anyway difficult (especially those bastard flying missions).

Heh, I know exactly where you're coming from there... if I have to listen to that "Hey, in that thing you look like an enthusiast, the US airforce is less likely to shoot you down... cool, what's the problem then?... I said less likely!" shpeel one more time, I'll go nuts.
Nah, losing 2 hours of progress due to a random to-desktop-crash was enough of a lesson for me... anyway, saving gives you a full health bar, which is always nice.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Ahaha, and now check this right...
I just found Victim is open, so I go in to try on some new threads... the first thing I try on - he goes into the changing room and now he won't come out.
The game hasn't crashed, people are still talking in the shop, I can still access the main menu... but CJ just isn't coming out of that dressing room... cool, I have to reload my last save and drive for another 7 hours to get there. :rolleyes:

Stephen

Finally beat that one last night (Had to use a joystick though)

The las venturas missions are fun so far, no more of this flying ****e

DonkeyStyle \o/

Yeah, first it was desert, then it was a mafia town, now it's the corporate headquaters of america... or so I hear.
Another stupid thing that happened to me last night was that mission where you need to steal the dynamite from the quarry... I used the dumper truck to smash the crates, took all the dynamite in each of the 4 boxes... then it was time for my escape... but oopsy, I flipped the dumper and it blew up... never mind I thought, I'm escaping by one of those scrambler bikes anyway... then I got mission failed - you need the dumper (or something like that)... and I'm like eeeh, no... I don't need the fukking thing muppet developers ... at which point I rolled my eyes like this -> :rolleyes:

Makaveli

Quick question as all you of are miles ahead of me in the game

When the gang war starts in Los Santos and you have to start taking over territories, do you have to take over every single one?

Ciaran500

Its your choice if you want to. Only the one in that mission must be taken over.

Makaveli

For 100% completion do you think you need to?

Stephen

I'd say so. Along with picking up all of the horseshoes/clamshells, spraying all gang tags and taking all the photographs in san fierro... pfft.

Ciaran500

http://www.gta-sanandreas.com/guides/100percent/index.php

A list of objectives needed for 100%

Makaveli

Thanks for the link.
Damn there is a lot of stuff to do. I have one clamshell and 44 tags sprayed... About 10% complete, this is going to take me all summer.

kaimera

hmmm...played for a small few hours and yet no crashing or anything out of the ordinary. I did lower the visual fx and up AA to 2x and the fps have improved but sound et al are grand. *shrug*

only after doing 12 missions tho. Low_rider I hadn't a clue what I was to do! pox. passed it tho.

best game I've played in a long while now!

tuxy

the flying missions are ok with the keyboard just dont use the mouse use w,s,q,e and the arrow keys
its a good thing the flying missions are a bit more difficult because using the mouse to aim mean you get loads of 1 shot kills
so alot of the mission which were probably difficult on the playstation are easy on the pc

Stephen

Yeah, this one for instance (spoilers):

You know the mission where you go with big smoke and shoot up this place downtown, after which you get onto a motorbike and the guys chase you. Bike smoke is driving and you're on the back doing the shooting. There's a terminator 2 style bit where a truck comes crashing down from a bridge right behind you. That was a total bastard on the playstation because it was so difficult to aim, but I beat it first time on the PC cos I could just headshot people off the bikes and blow up cars by shooting their petrol tanks, etc.

Makaveli

Aye, that was a cool mission, but with a mouse was pretty easy. Could imagine how much of a pain in the ass it would be with a control pad.

philologos

btw tips are good about the graphics and sound. Has anyone had trouble with Zircons missions with the remote control plane flying.
I think that is a bastard mission

Ciaran500

Zircons? You mean Zero's?

I just did those missions this morning, took about a week to get throught those 3 missions on the PS2, got them all first time on the PC.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Actually one really odd thing I've noticed is how different the game behaves with the Frame Limiter On/Off.
I was at the driving school (car), stuck on Ale up (think that's what it was called), the one where you have to roll the car and land on your wheels without damaging the car... this was an absolute bastard to do... after what must have been 50+ attempts I just barely landed it a few times, but the car scraped off the ground too much and I failed on -damage%... then I turned the frame limiter on, and I did it perfectly within the next 5 trys.
Unfortunately I forgot to save it and the game crashed a few minutes after leaving the test center... taking my progress with it
So on re-doing the driving tests... I noticed the exact same thing... the car seems to roll faster/more with the frame limiter turned on... thus making this trick easier.
Really makes me wonder about other areas of the game that could be effected by this phenomenon. (I've left it off most of the time)

tman

Ciaran500 wrote:

Zircons? You mean Zero's?

I just did those missions this morning, took about a week to get throught those 3 missions on the PS2, got them all first time on the PC.

aye. breezed through them all on my first attempt.
the final mission was the only somewhat challenging one (there was 2 seconds left on the clock by the time i got to the end )

Stephen

AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

more god damn flying missions

Now on the one in las venturas where you have to fly out and meet the mafia plane, turn around and follow it, flying into a corona behind it - Once I turn around I just can't catch up with the bastard

DonkeyStyle \o/

Did you try using the rudder while you bank and lift? ... really nice sharp turns there... or if it's a 180 turn, some kind of interrupted loop-the-loop.
I haven't seen that mission yet, but I'm probably not far off. (I've just gotten the gimp suit in key to her heart.)
Actually Stephen, try turning the frame limiter on, just on the off-chance that it'll change the speed of the other plane or something.
Now that I think of it, there was another mission where framelimiter:on helped... where you have to ride the motorbike onto the back of a moving plane... with frame limiter off, I found the plane went way too fast... but managed it with frame limiter on.

tman

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

Now that I think of it, there was another mission where framelimiter:on helped... where you have to ride the motorbike onto the back of a moving plane... with frame limiter off, I found the plane went way too fast... but managed it with frame limiter on.

i already had the frame limiter on but my bike wasn't quite fast enough.
tapping the up key to go faster did the trick for me in the end (works for all bikes)
if you've rebound your keys, it's the key used to do stoppies/stand up on the bike

DonkeyStyle \o/

tman wrote:

tapping the up key to go faster did the trick for me in the end (works for all bikes)
if you've rebound your keys, it's the key used to do stoppies/stand up on the bike

Yeah, this is the same button as the PS2 version... the important difference is that the PS2 has pressure sensitive buttons, so you can just hold it a little bit and he stays hunched down... no such luck for the PC though... so it's all tap-tap-tap
I was tapping on that mission aswell, but it still seemed easier with the frame limiter on than off.

Makaveli

Took your frame limiter tip for another mission and it worked perfectly

it's the mission where you have to shoot down Toreno's helicopter with the rocket launcher. About 20 shots and I hadn't hit a thing, went into the options turned the limiter on, one shot and I took the helicopter out.

Ciaran500

What graphics card do you have? What are your FPS like without the limiter on?

Stephen

I eventually beat the mission I mentioned earlier, here's how:

Instead of flying straight out to intercept the plane like the mission tells you to, fly way out to the left or right of it then approach it from the side. It actually just sits floating in the air until you get near to it so it doesn't matter how long you take - it will start moving towards las venturas pretty much once you get within visual range. coming at it from the side (and also using first person view when behind it) made it a lot easier to catch up.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Ciaran500 wrote:

What graphics card do you have? What are your FPS like without the limiter on?

I've got a 6600GT, I'm not sure what fps I'm getting exactly, but it's nice and smooth with framelimiting turned off (1680x1050 32bpp / effects 'low' / AA 1 or 2) ... turning the frame limiter on causes a noticable drop in fps... although it's still playable enough.
As far as I know the frame limiter isn't just about your gfx card... I think it also takes into account how fast textures/map data can be loaded as you drive from one area to the next.

This phenomenon of different gameplay handling based on fps isn't unprecedented though, as any Quake3 player will tell you... ie. not being able to make certain jumps unless you have >whatever fps... and the whole 125Hz debacle.

Actually, the 'Red Baron' mission (Zero) was so easy on the PC compared to the PS2 that I now wonder if the fuel might have been draining at a lower rate because I had the frame limiter off... unless they tweaked this mission for the PC after complaints from PS2 owners
Food for thought though.

Ciaran500

I was just wondering what card you had to guage your performance. My FPS rarely goes above 40fps so the frame limiter @ 25fps doesn't feel that different, or affect my gameplay much.

Makaveli

Stuck at the moment needing money in order to buy

the airstrip

. What's the fastest way to build up cash with the least amount of effort? I need about 12 grand. Killing crack dealers was working well, made about 10 grand doing that but then they all disappeared.

tman

Makaveli wrote:

Stuck at the moment needing money in order to buy

the airstrip

. What's the fastest way to build up cash with the least amount of effort? I need about 12 grand. Killing crack dealers was working well, made about 10 grand doing that but then they all disappeared.

import/export at the docks is the ****ing win.
grab a limo from the strip in las venturas, cruise back to the respray shop behind wang motors and then take it to the crane for an easy $40000
i think the infernus gets you $80000 and there's one parked west of the docks iirc...
just make sure they're mint condition and you'll get a nice wedge of cheddar

/edit
the camper is prolly the handiest car to find in san fierro - can't remember what it's worth though

Makaveli

Nice one, didn't know where the import/export was.