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G r a n d T h e f t A u t o : V i c e C i t y
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ReadMe.txt
Thank you for purchasing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
This ReadMe contains last minute information and troubleshooting tips.
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CONTENTS
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1) SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
2) INSTALLATION
3) GENERAL INFORMATION
4) CONFIGURATION
5) PC SPECIFIC EXTRAS
6) KNOWN ISSUES
7) DRIVERS
8) CONTACT INFORMATION
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1) SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
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Grand Theft Auto: Vice City uses Microsoft DirectX 9.0.
Supported Operating Systems are:
Windows 98
Windows 98 Second Edition
Windows Millennium
Windows 2000 Professional (Workstation) plus Service Pack 3
Windows XP (Home and Professional) plus Service Pack 1
The following operating systems are NOT supported:
Windows 95 (any version)
Windows NT (any version)
Minimum Hardware Requirements
800 MHz Intel Pentium III or 800 MHz AMD Athlon or 1.2GHz Intel Celeron or 1.2 GHz AMD Duron processor 128 MB of RAM
8 speed CD / DVD drive
915 MB of free hard disk space (+ 635 MB if video card does NOT support DirectX Texture Compression)
32 MB video card with DirectX 9.0 compatible drivers ("GeForce" or better)
Sound Card with DirectX 9.0 compatible drivers
Keyboard
Mouse
Recommended Hardware Requirements
Intel Pentium IV or AMD Athlon XP processor
256(+) MB of RAM
16 speed CD / DVD drive
1.55 GB of free hard disk space (+ 635 MB if video card does NOT support DirectX Texture
Compression)
64(+) MB video card with DirectX 9.0 compatible drivers ("GeForce 3" / "Radeon 8500" or better with DirectX Texture Compression support)
DirectX 9.0 compatible sound card with surround sound
Gamepad (USB or Joystick Port)
Keyboard
Mouse
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2) INSTALLATION
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Insert Grand Theft Auto: Vice City disc one ("INSTALL" disc) into the CD /
DVD drive. If you have Autoplay enabled then the setup routine will automatically
launch. If you do not have Autoplay enabled, then use Explorer to navigate Grand
Theft Auto: Vice City disc one, and manually launch setup.exe
2000 / XP User Accounts:
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City requires to be installed, and run for the first time,
with a user account that has ADMINISTRATOR privileges. On the first run of the game,
we decide whether or not to use DirectX Texture Compression, and then if necessary
un-compress the games textures to your Hard Disk. For more information on ADMINISTRATOR user accounts, see your Windows 2000 / XP manual.
Footprint:
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City requires approximately 915 MB of hard disk space if you choose not to install the radio stations to your hard disk. If you copy the Radio Stations to your hard disk then you will need to have approximately 1.55 GB of free space. If the video card in your computer does not support DirectX Texture Compression, then this means an EXTRA 635 MB is required for the un-compressed textures.
Radio Stations:
During Installation, we offer the user the option to copy the Radio Station files from the "PLAY" disc to your hard disk. On some machines this will provide a performance benefit, though you will need to weigh up the benefits, as on slower machines it is preferable to have the Radio Stations being played from a device on a separate IDE channel. Note that whether you copy the Radio Stations to hard disk or not, the game still requires the "PLAY" disc to be in your CD / DVD disk at all times.
Save Games:
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City uses the "My Documents" directory of the currently logged in user to store the "GTA VICE CITY USER FILES" directory. This is where we store your save games, individual settings files and gameplay statistics. This was chosen to allow each user on a Windows 2000 or Windows XP system to have their own
set of saves, configurations and statistics.
Un-installation:
When Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is uninstalled, we do not delete the "MP3", "SKINS" and "GTA VICE CITY USER FILES" directories. It is up to the user to remove these manually.
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3) GENERAL INFORMATION
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DirectX:
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City requires Microsoft DirectX 9.0 to run. As a consequence
we recommend that the video and sound drivers installed are also DirectX 9.0 compliant. DirectX Texture Compression:
Where available, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City will use DirectX Texture Compression. If the video card does NOT offer DirectX Texture Compression, then we require an EXTRA 635 MB of hard disk space to create the un-compressed textures (over and above the
915 MB minimum install / 1.55 GB maximum install).
Windows XP:
We recommend manufacturer distributed drivers for Windows XP (i.e. drivers that expose
the user controls for changing settings on the particular piece of hardware), instead
of the default drivers installed by Microsoft as part of the machine setup process. Memory:
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City requires at least 128 MB of memory to run. In most cases on a computer with 128 MB of Ram, disk swapping will occur. For optimal performance
at least 256 MB is recommended.
Running Applications:
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City has been designed to take best advantage of the available
machine it is running upon, therefore we recommend that you close down all applications before running Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. We do not support the use of CD emulators,
and as such these programs will be closed down when run in the background. Video Memory:
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City requires a video card with at least 32 MB of video memory to run. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City will refuse to run if launched on a machine with
less than 32 MB of video memory. Intel Celeron and AMD Duron Processors:
These processors play slower than their direct MHz equivalent Pentium III and AMD Athlon, as a consequence we recommend 1.2 GHz as the base speed for these processors.
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4) CONFIGURATION
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Sound Provider:
The first time you launch Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, we auto-detect the best sound provider for your available Sound Card. You can also manually select alternatives.
Providers which are not compatible with your Sound Card will not be selectable.
MP3 Volume Boost:
This setting allows you to assign an additional boost in the volume that your available
MP3 files are played back with. This will only be selectable if the game detects the
presence of MP3 files in the MP3 directory.
Dynamic Acoustic Modeling:
Turning off Dynamic Acoustic Modeling in the Sound Options will give a small performance
gain.
Screen Resolution:
Selecting lower Screen Resolutions in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City display setup will
allow faster gameplay on lower end machines. Also, using 16 bit color, instead of 32 bit color, will help in these circumstances.
Frame Limit:
We do not suggest disabling the "Frame Limit" in the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City display
Setup page, as this will lead to a more "variable" rate of playback.
VSYNC:
We recommend that you make sure you have set your video card to VSYNC ON in your video
card advanced options (from Control Panel/Display Properties). _____________________________________________________________________________________
5) PC SPECIFIC EXTRAS
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Skins:
The appearance of Tommy can be altered or changed by editing inside a paint program
a skin file. Skin files need to be 24 bit un-compressed bitmaps of size 256 * 256.
An example file is provided in your "SKINS" directory called "TEXTURE_GUIDE.JPG".
When applied, the skins will only affect Tommy's street outfit, and only in-game,
not in cut-scenes.
MP3 Radio Station files:
We have provided the ability to play the users own music files instead of the Radio Stations. Simply place your MP3 files into your "Grand Theft Auto Vice City/MP3"
directory, and then use the "change station" key to cycle to the MP3 radio station.
Use the MP3 boost volume control to add extra amplification to your MP3 music files
to equalize the volume relative to the Radio Stations and Sound Effects.
Stat Saving:
During a game, you can output the detailed list of your in-game accomplishments from
the STATS menu. On this menu pressing "S" will output a "STATS.TXT" file and a "STATS.HTML"
file to the "GTA VICE CITY USER FILES" directory of the currently logged in user.
Standard / Classic mode:
Standard mode allows for the control of Tommy with Keyboard and Mouse; Classic mode
is similar to the control system employed in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the PlayStation2 using a control pad.
Mouse Steering:
In Standard mode, there is an option to allow you to use your mouse to steer vehicles.
This is not available in Classic mode.
Replays:
The last 30 seconds of gameplay is available as a replay to play back at any time.
To use a replay:-
F1 - Replay the last 30 seconds of gameplay. F2 - Save the last 30 seconds of gameplay as a file. F3 - Recall and show the last saved replay file.
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6) KNOWN ISSUES
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Windows 98 Installation
On some Windows 98 machines, there can be problems with the Installshield version that
we use. This can be caused by an invalid "OLEAUT32.DLL" file. Often this file is an
updated version to the one that is installed during the machine setup routine. This problem usually manifests itself as an error message when you re-boot your machine after
DirectX 9.0 setup. This error message is often of the form:- Error number: 0x80070725
Description: Incompatible version of the RPC stub
To correct this problem, un-install Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (If the "Start Bar" and
"Add/Remove Programs" un-install shortcuts do not work, then un-install by launching the
setup routine from the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City "INSTALL" disc - this is one of the
symptoms of this DCOM error). Once you have un-installed Grand Theft Auto: Vice City,
perform the following procedure to fix your DCOM installation, then you will be able
to install Grand Theft Auto: Vice City correctly. We are sorry that we cannot redistribute this file, but the Microsoft EULA for this file prevents us doing this.
Instructions to correct this problem (From Microsoft Installshield Support)
1) Download to your Desktop, but do not run, the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) file. Windows 98: http://support.installshield.com/kb/files/Q105810/dcom98.exe
2) Select Start > Shutdown 3) Select Restart in MS-DOS mode. 4) At the command prompt c:\WINDOWS, enter the following commands on separate lines
as shown. Windows automatically restarts. CD c:\windows\system
rename oleaut32.dll oleaut32.old
exit
5) Ignore the error message: "A required .DLL file, C:\windows\system\oleaut32.dll,
was not found." This error message appears because the file was renamed in step 4. 6) Log in as you normally would. 7) Double-click the file you downloaded to your Desktop in step 1. Click Yes
to the dialog that opens. The dcom.exe file installs a new oleaut32.dll file. 8) After DCOM has been installed, select Start > Restart.
More information on this problem, and DCOM:-
http://support.installshield.com/kb/view.asp?pcode=ALL&articleid=Q105810#addinfo
http://www.microsoft.com/com/dcom/dcom98/dcom1_3.asp
S3 Pro Savage, Savage 4 and Savage 2000 video cards:
We found these video cards have missing texture problems in 16 bit color which are
cured in 32 bit color, so we suggest using these video cards in 32 bit color.
3dfx Voodoo 5 video cards:
While Grand Theft Auto: Vice City does run on Voodoo 5 video cards, the age of the
drivers means that there are minor visual artifacts that cannot be corrected, and
so we do not support this chipset, or previous 3dfx chipsets.
Matrox surround gaming:
We have not implemented any support for Matrox Surround Gaming / 3 monitor mode. Please use single monitor mode on Matrox Parhelia video cards.
Matrox G550 and G400 video cards:
Minor graphic corruptions in the distance while playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
and during the intro movie.
ATI Rage 128 video cards:
Minor graphic corruptions during the intro movie.
SIS 315 video cards:
Minor graphic corruptions during the intro movie.
Motherboard based sound chips:
We have found certain motherboard based sound chipsets do not report having a
hardware sound buffer, and crash with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. We found that running Microsoft's "DXDIAG" and performing the sound tests, will present the user
with an error message saying that a hardware buffer is not supported, and would you like to use a software buffer. Selecting a software buffer will allow this sound chipset
to work with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
Hard disk de-fragmentation:
If you are experiencing short, periodic slowdowns whilst driving, Grand Theft Auto:
Vice City may be having trouble retrieving data at a fast enough rate from your hard
disk. It is recommended that you run your systems De-fragmentation utility regularly
to allow optimum performance.
Changing hardware / re-initialization:
Changing either your video card or soundcard may mean that you get Grand Theft Auto:
Vice City into an "invalid" settings state for the particular hardware. If you change hardware, to prevent having to un-install and re-install Grand Theft Auto: Vice City,
perform the following:-
Video card:- - delete from the "Grand Theft Auto Vice City/models" directory the files
"TXD.DIR" and "TXD.IMG" (if they exist)
- delete from the "Grand Theft Auto Vice City/data" directory the file
"CAPS.DAT"
- delete from the "Documents and Settings/Current logged-in User/
My Documents/GTA Vice City User Files" directory the "GTA_VC.SET" file.
Sound Card:- - delete from the "Documents and Settings/Current logged-in User/
My Documents/GTA Vice City User Files" directory the "GTA_VC.SET" file.
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7) DRIVERS
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Video Drivers:
We recommend using the latest available Video drivers for your video card. Where
available use the video chipset manufacturers "Reference" drivers in preference to
video card manufacturer customized drivers or Microsoft WHQL certified drivers.
This means for nVidia based cards Detonator 4 series drivers, and for ATI based cards
Catalyst 3 series drivers.
Below for convenience are common video card manufacturer's websites. Grand Theft Auto:
Vice City may not support some or all video cards by a particular manufacturer. Inclusion
of a manufacturer in this list does not mean there are any assurances of compatibility.
3Dlabs - http://www.3dlabs.com/
Asus - http://www.asus.com/
ATI - http://support.atitech.ca/
Creative Labs - http://www.creativelabs.com/
Guillemot - http://www.guillemot.com/
Hercules - http://www.hercules.com/
Intel- http://www.intel.com/
Leadtek - http://www.leadtek.com/
Matrox - http://www.matrox.com/
nVidia - http://www.nvidia.com/
S3 Graphics - http://www.s3graphics.com/
Sis - http://www.sis.com.tw/
VIA- http://www.viatech.com/
VideoLogic - http://www.videologic.com/
Motherboard Chipset Drivers:
Please ensure your motherboard chipset drivers are updated to the latest available
versions. Also ensure you are using the correct IDE drivers for your Chipset / Operating
System combination. We have noted better performance with the use of the "Intel Application
Accelerator" on Intel 800 series chipsets.
Intel- http://www.intel.com/
VIA- http://www.viatech.com/
nVidia- http://www.nvidia.com/
SIS- http://www.sis.com/
ALI- http://www.aliusa.com/
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8) CONTACT INFORMATION
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For news, hints, and the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City community, check out http://www.rockstargames.com/
http://www.take2games.com/
http://www.rockstarnorth.com/
http://www.gtavicecity.com/
For Technical Support:-
United States:
Web : www.take2games.com
Email: support@take2baltimore.com
Phone: 410-933-9191 Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm EST.
United Kingdom:
Post: Take 2 Interactive Technical Support
Unit A, Sovereign Park
Brenda Road
Hartlepool
TS25 1NN
Telephone: (0870) 1242222 / calls charged at the UK national rate
(7 days a week from 8am to 10pm (GMT) excluding bank holidays)
Fax:(01429) 233677 Email:take2@europesupport.com
tech.support@take2europe.com
Web Site:www.take2games.co.uk
If necessary, you may be asked by Technical Support to obtain an analysis of your
machine to help troubleshoot problems. Forward this file to Technical Support only when
requested to do so.
To perform an analysis:-
Using Explorer, locate the "Grand Theft Auto Vice City" main directory, and right
click on "GTA-VC.EXE", then select the option "Launch Analysis". This will create the file "AnalysisLog.sr0" in the root directory of hard disk C: _____________________________________________________________________________________
This software and documentation Copyright (c) 2003 Rockstar Games.
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