Update #2 [Fri 16th Aug, 2024 09:30 BST]: Since we first reported on the fan-made Dreamcast port of GTA III, the project has seen a fair amount of development and is now in an even more impressive state:
"First thing you'll notice is that the majority of the glitched out polygons have been fixed, with the only exception being missing polygons which are intersecting the near-plane, which we still need to properly clip," says @falco_girgis, who also confirms that there's a lot of additional hardware acceleration present in this new build.
"The Dreamcast still has the PC's draw distance by default, which is further than the PS2's, so it's probably already full-speed at the PS2's draw distance," he adds. "The PS2 version features a dynamic lighting system implementing the full phong shading model, which we haven't even looked into yet... and to pull that off is going to take every Dreamcast optimization trick in the book... Stay tuned!"
Update #1 [Wed 24th Jul, 2024 11:00 BST]: Since we last reported on the fan effort to bring Grand Theft Auto III to the Dreamcast, there have been some pretty exciting developments (as spotted by the YouTuber The Sega Guru).
Among the biggest updates are that the game can now technically run on unmodded hardware and that there seems to now be a team of other Dreamcast developers helping SKMP to bring the project to life.
For instance, the fan developer Frogbull (who is well known in the Sega homebrew community for their impressive work on unofficial tech demos of Metal Gear Solid 2 for Dreamcast and Final Fantasy VII for Saturn) has now come on board the project to help out and has already employed some clever speed hacks alongside correcting the colours from "the purple nightmare" that was shown off in previous videos. Meanwhile, the GUI designer Adam Burrell has done some amazing VMU art for the game, which could also potentially find its way into the finished port.
You can watch Frogbull's demonstration of the game on real hardware below, as well as The Sega Guru's video on the progress made so far:
Original Article [Tue 16th Jul, 2024 10:00 BST]: When it comes to the most requested fan ports for Sega Dreamcast, Grand Theft Auto III for PS2 is often high on the list. And it's easy to understand why.
Not only is it a landmark title that pushed the game industry forward with its 3D open-world exploration but it also famously began life on the Dreamcast before development was shifted over to the Sony platform, with former Rockstar staff claiming in the years since that progress was only abandoned due to the Sega console no longer being considered a commercially viable project.
This has left Sega fans to question what the game might have looked like if it came out for the console and to await someone who is dedicated enough to try and port the game over themselves. Well, it appears their wait is finally over.
As spotted by The Sega Guru, a developer called SKMP is currently in the process of developing a fanmade port of the game for Dreamcast and is documenting their progress over on Twitter. The port is being built using DreamSDK3 and KalistiOS and is using PC assets. As The Sega Guru details in their video on the port, debugging is being done in reicast, a Dreamcast emulator that they developed, alongside a software renderer debugger called refsw, and another Dreamcast emulator called ldxdream.
As you can see from the image above, the port of the game is still in its early development stages and has a fair few problems still to overcome.
Right now, for instance, the port is taking advantage of a 32MB mod to expand the available memory, meaning only modded Dreamcast consoles will be able to run it. In addition to that, there are apparently issues with the VRAM still not being enough, and parts of the engine also needing to be rewritten to be more Dreamcast-friendly. In other words, it's a work in progress and one we'll need to keep an eye on in the future.
You can watch The Sega Guru's full video on the in-development port below: