reLCS PS3 v1.4alpha by stingziz0u

reLCS (GTA Liberty City Stories) for the PlayStation 3, as homebrew built with PSL1GHT.

No game data is included. You need a legally purchased copy of GTA Liberty City Stories for PS2, converted with the reLCS Asset Converter (see Installation).

Installation

1. Convert your copy of GTA Liberty City Stories for PS2 with the reLCS Asset Converter (on a PC).

2. Install res-ps3-1.1-alpha.pkg on a PS3 with homebrew support (CFW or HEN), e.g. copy it by FTP and install it with the package manager. It appears in the XMB as reLCS.

3. The PKG creates /dev_hdd0/game/RESPS3000/USRDIR with these empty folders. From the converter's output, copy into them (by FTP):

Folder Contents
anim the converted anim folder (ped.ifp, cuts.img, cuts.dir...)
audio the converted audio folder (sfx.raw, sfx.sdt, the streams)
data the converted data folder (gta_lcs.dat, main.scm, timecyc.dat...)
models the converted models folder (gta3.img, gta3.dir...; keep the two res-PS3 .txd already there)
text the converted text folder (american.gxt...)
txd the converted txd folder (loading screens)
mp3 optional: your own music

Filenames are case-sensitive on the PS3: keep them lowercase, exactly as above. The log checks the main files at start ([4] lines) and says which one is missing.

4. Start reLCS from the XMB.

Features

Native 720p, rendered on the RSX: tiled colour/depth buffers, compressed depth and ZCULL.
30 fps by default (the rate the game was made for) or 60 fps: Options > Graphics > Frame rate. Always in sync with the TV (no tearing). At 60 fps the vehicles handle as at 30, and the scripts' per-frame timers (the taxi tip bar and the like) run at the speed they were made for.
PS2 lighting (Options > Graphics, on by default): the buildings lit as on the PS2/PSP, with the time of day (prelight x the time cycle's ambient). Off: as the PC renderers draw them.
Colour filter (on by default) and Gamma 0.8 to 1.6 (Options > Graphics), for the game's dark nights.

Controls with lock-on aiming, pad setups, inverted look, free camera, third and first person sensitivity, 20% to 200% in steps of 5, and stick dead zones, 5% to 70%, in Controller setup > Gamepad settings > Stick settings; vibration in Gamepad settings. Pressure-sensitive accelerator and brake, as on the PS2 (DualShock 3; Gamepad settings > Pressure sensitive). PlayStation buttons in the on-screen help.

Collectibles on the map (Display > Hidden packages / Rampages / Unique jumps on map, each off by default): hidden packages in lime green, rampages in blood red and unique jumps (at the take-off) in orange, on the radar and the pause menu map. One you pick up, pass or jump disappears. The jumps come from the original main.scm: with a modified one they aren't shown.

Car spawner (for testing, off unless there is a file named carspawner.txt in USRDIR, any content): L3 + R3 together on foot. The vehicle shows as "ID: name" over the subtitles; Left/Right go one by one, L1/R1 by 10 (hold to scroll), X puts you in it, O closes.
MP3 player radio station: put .mp3 files in USRDIR/mp3; it is in the radio dial between the last station and off.

Ped and car density sliders in Display.

Options > Graphics:
Mipmaps: textures that come without smaller versions get them (less shimmering in the distance). They are made as textures load: restart the game for all of them. Uses more video memory.
Texture filtering: Default (the game's own), Bilinear, Trilinear, Anisotropic 2x to 16x (sharper ground and roads at an angle). With Mipmaps off, only the textures that have them in their TXD use them.
Antialiasing: Off or FXAA (smoother edges, a filter over the finished picture: ~2 ms of GPU time and 7 MB of video memory at 720p).

DXT textures stay compressed in video memory and the RSX reads them as they are. Mip levels made on the CPU use AltiVec.

Two of the Cell's SPUs: the audio mixer and the particles' sprites (see What's new in 1.1).

Display > Screen size for overscan, FPS counter (Graphics > Show FPS).

Settings saved in USRDIR/reLCS.ini, saves in USRDIR/userfiles.

Changes from the original

The PS2/PSP game was tuned for those consoles' memory and frame rate: a few things are hard for that reason alone. res-PS3 changes these (everything else plays as the original):

Rampages: while one runs, the ped and car limits no longer depend on the density sliders (at least half of their range), the gang or the vehicles of the rampage are asked for and make up half of what appears, so there are enough targets.
60 fps: vehicle rotation damping and the scripts' per-frame steps are scaled to the frame time, so they behave as at 30 fps.

GTA Liberty City Stories can now be finished at 100% on a real PS3: every mission and side activity, 100% in the game's stats.

Performance
In the tests the busiest streets of Portland stay at or near 60 fps.

-Faster collision: every building keeps its collision box in the world, so the lines the game casts (cars on rails, the camera, lines of sight) skip the buildings they can't touch. The big collision models have a grid of their triangles, so a car only looks at the triangles near it (about 3,000 boxes a frame instead of 28,000). Collision went from about 2.5 ms a frame to 1.5, and the cars on rails from 0.8 ms to 0.2–0.4. Same results as before (USRDIR/nocolgrid.txt turns it off).
-Lines of sight and vertical lines only test the triangles their box touches.
-The sound service runs on its own thread while the scene is drawn (USRDIR/noaudiothread.txt turns it off), and the radio's MP3 files are opened on the stream thread (they stalled the frame).
-The peds' bones are worked out on an SPU (USRDIR/nospuanim.txt turns it off).
-A lighter renderer: opaque buildings sorted by texture, sampler registers and shader constants written only when they change, lean flushes, and off-screen LODs culled by their sphere.
-No pause when crossing to another island.

Fixes
-The windows that came and went (glass2_64): depending on the weather, some windows vanished or showed the empty inside of the building.
-Saves with bikes: the LoadVehiclePool / SaveVehiclePool asserts are gone.
-MP3 player: picks up where it was, starts on a random song, doesn't restart while you tune the radio, and doesn't play the save's songs every time.
-Blips: the script's colours and LCS's colours for peds and places; The Sicilian Gambit's wise guy keeps his blip; a blip a mission left in the save goes away.
-The rampages show up on the map again.
-Interiors: the locked camera no longer spins, the camera on foot works as the free one, script cameras get the 4:3 view, Ammu-Nation's camera no longer clips and its display guns stay loaded, and Toshiko's flat shows in her cutscenes.
-The subway seen from its platforms, LODs paired by place, graffiti drawn after their walls, LODs pushed behind the detailed buildings.
-The ferry removed from the car spawner; full health and armour mean the max.

Experimental (off by default)
-'USRDIR/rsplitthread.txt': the buildings are recorded by a second thread into command buffers the RSX calls. Stable in the tests, but some buildings show LOD pop-in the first time you approach them, and it isn't faster yet (the PPU's two hardware threads share one core). Normal play doesn't need it: every fix and speed-up above works without it.

Known issues
Some LOD buildings can still pop in at a distance.
Thin dark lines flicker on some buildings as the camera moves.
If the game crashes or freezes, create an empty 'USRDIR/logson.txt' and send the log with your report. Only tested on real consoles, not on RPCS3.