GTA: United mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

GTA United is one of the biggest total conversions for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas ever made. Together with the limit adjustment system it is and was a major breakthrough in San Andreas modding. It uses the most modern technologies which make it possible to get a mod as big as none has been before. But not only it's size is huge, also the work behind it. It is not yet finished, but since the work on the modification started there were 2 major releases and the next milestone – version 1.2 – is currently in development...

History

The modification was started in April 2006 firstly just with the target to add San Andreas' ancestor Vice City next to the default game map. It did not took long when the first problems appeared. There were many game internal limits like a limited number of models you can add, just as parts of the map are not rendered when they are mapped outside of an fixed boundary. At this time modding was not very sophisticated so there was no way to bypass those limits. This is a reason why the developers decided to clear out San Andreas and replace it with the new map. However untill today no stable way has been found to add the whole map next to the original one.
It did not take long and the modification called VC2SA (Vice City to San Andreas) entrenched in the GTA modding scene and the project became well-known even in the international scene, although it was not released. But also voices became louder to convert Liberty City and finally a sister-project called LC2SA (Liberty City to San Andreas) was formed. After the union of both modifications their leaders became the heads of GTA United and today they are the last members of the original team. On April, 1st 2007 – exactly one year after the Vice City 2 San Andreas modification was announced it was ready for the first public release and finaly at 12 o'clock (AM) it was shown to the world. Two months later on June, 2nd 2007 the first public version of Liberty City 2 San Andreas was released. With the time there came smaller updates and fixes for both mods, but in general it was silent around future releases. This had a reason. In summer 2007 the leaders of the modifications – Aschratt and decided to go future ways together and unite boths maps. It was the birthday of GTA United, which was firstly announced November, 21st 2007 to be released in April 2008 – 2 years after the birth of the modification. And finaly it came this day. Untill today it has been downloaded more than 250000 times and impressed more modders than most mods ever did before with 2 major releases as milestones (BETA 1.0 and 1.1) and a breakthrough in modding with the first mod which proved using an limit adjustment system or working paths and traffic, just as an insane script which is not yet been finished.

The setting

GTA United takes the player back to the ancestors of San Andreas: Liberty City (LC) and Vice City (VC). Both cities are combined on the map, but there is no direct way to get from one island to the other (like a tunnel or a bridge). Although some people wanted this feature to be includet it is not in the point of our interest, since this would destroy the unique look of both islands on their own. But for those wo realy want the cities to be connected there are various custom modifications. Also since BETA 1.1 there is a ferry which you can use to get from one island to the other and back. Of course you may also use a boat or swim.
The cities are orientated on their original patterns. But they are also customized on some places, to include features of the San Andreas engine, such as clothing, buying houses, tuning cars or other things. There are just a few missions yet, but it is planned to add more forming a storyline in general.

Modding ability & Multiplayer

With BETA 1.1 more and more people wanted to share their hours playing GTA United with others, so the voices desireing an multiplayer got louder. Since the modification requires more ressources than the original game it was delivered together with an tool called Limit Adjuster, which is based on an DirectX hook. Since the most important multiplayer modifications for San Andreas – Multi Theft Auto and San Andreas Multiplayer – are based on DirectX hooks, too, it was impossible to play the modification online. With version 1.2 a new Limit Adjustment system has been announced, which works different from the hook and allows the player to play simple multiplayer modifications. In 2008 the San Andreas: Multiplayer development team released a special client model for GTA United, which sets it's limits internaly new and allows the player to play online, too. Due the seperate limit adjustment system the United SA-MP client is compatible to all major release versions of the modification, including the upcoming version 1.2. However the GTA United Development team is not related into the development of this client and so it is just released as a seperate download.

Note that MTA will not work with GTA United 1.2, since MTA also sets limits internaly and those are not compatible with the ones the modification uses.

Modding is also no problem. Since GTA United on itself is just a modification you can mod it like you are used with San Andreas.

Where to download?

Since GTA United is a community project born and raised on GTAinside and GTA-Worldmods it is protected through exclusive rights and only downloadable on those 2 sites.

Plans for the future

The next milestone will be version 1.2 which is planned to be a stable candidate for the final version. This means we are not concentrating on adding much stuff (Although we already did), our major goal is to get the mod run as stable as possible on nearly all modding-usual systems (game version 1.0).

The team

(Also known as "Who are the mad guys behind this sh!t?")

• Aschratt
• ColdDeath
• MAL_ONE
• ATP
• Chezy
• Robin

There are many former members, which all contibuted their part to the whole project, but the list would simply be too long to list it here. But there goes out a great thanks to all out supporters here. Of course all former members will be added to the creditslist of the mod.