Vita hack that will allow the PSP Grand Theft Auto games to run at native Vita resolution! Update: Released!

[Inugami]

As its title suggests, this patch makes the PSP's Grand Theft Auto games (GTA Vice City Stories and GTA Liberty City Stories) render at native resolution on the PSVita (960×544).


This allows for a sharper and much-nicer looking image without the blurriness that upscaling a 480×272 (PSP's native resolution) image brings about. Work on this patch started a short while ago with TheFlow first mentioning it publicly on March 1st and yesterday, he made another Reddit thread demonstrating his progress.

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"First picture is original, second is native res, third is native res with mipmap patch"


And for those wondering, no this will not work on all PSP games.

These type of patches are game-specific so don't expect the ability to render all games at a higher resolution similar to what PPSSPP does

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I don't fully remember the details right now but I think the reason this is doable with both PSP GTA games is because they actually render an internal framebuffer at 512x320 which is then supersampled/downscaled to the PSP native 480x272 with code that decently handles arbitrary resolution arguments (lower or higher than default), so patching an increased internal resolution is enough to render at higher resolutions, or maybe as a different approach even bypass the whole downscaling process/code...

...BUT only as a starting point, because in my case there were a lot of things that still needed manual adjustments and patching: some texts and HUD elements were displaced, some effects were off (glowing weapons), so a bunch of random little details were slightly broken because of the now different game resolution. I briefly wrote about my findings on here, here and here (last part of the forum posts).

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More details can be found on the Wololo post and this reddit thread.


(Edit) And released! Check the threadmark for links and instructions!

 

[Squarealex]

Impressive.
So, it's better than PS2 now.
I wonder why Rockstar never made a PC port of this two games.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

That's amazing, wow. I'm really looking forward to the kind of modding and custom code Vita fans will yield. Such a fantastic machine with so much potential to unlock.

 

[donhonk]

Amazing! I jumped in on Vita last week and Im glad I got one already

 

[Greatest Ever]

I fucking love LCS. Might go for round three.

 

[Adamska]

So, it's better than PS2 now.

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Only if it allows for use of the second analog stick. I played both LCS and VCS on PS2 because their controls were much closer to San Andreas what with the free camera.

 

[Anth0ny]

das coo

Very weird they never ported the two PSP games to PC.

 

[Aadiboy]

Is this using the native Vita emulator?

 

[Inugami]

Only if it allows for use of the second analog stick. I played both LCS and VCS on PS2 because their controls were much closer to San Andreas what with the free camera.

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I believe there are already hacks out for both games to use the Vita second analogue stick. There shouldn't be any reason why you couldn't use both hacks.

Is this using the native Vita emulator?

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It's not really an emulator (it's using actual hardware, not software), but yes. That means it IS limited in some factors, mainly 2MB of video ram that is accessible in PSP mode.

 

[Deleted member 10549]

Only if it allows for use of the second analog stick. I played both LCS and VCS on PS2 because their controls were much closer to San Andreas what with the free camera.

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IIRC there is actually a mod that allows you to use second analog stick on Vita.
EDIT: Beaten.

 

[.exe]

IIRC there is actually a mod that allows you to use second analog stick on Vita.
EDIT: Beaten.

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Can't you just use the accessibility settings to map the camera to the right stick?

 

[Inugami]

Can't you just use the accessibility settings to map the camera to the right stick?

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For some games, yes but that also doesn't offer true analogue capability. It will read the second stick as a digital pad. The point of the other hack/plugin is to get real analogue support.

 

[.exe]

For some games, yes but that also doesn't offer true analogue capability. It will read the second stick as a digital pad. The point of the other hack/plugin is to get real analogue support.

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Ah, I see. Thanks for clarifying that!

 

[mute]

Better in death than in life.

 

[Adamska]

I believe there are already hacks out for both games to use the Vita second analogue stick. There shouldn't be any reason why you couldn't use both hacks.

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That's interesting, though it seems it's not quite the same as it works in games that actually support a two-stick configuration. You probably have to stop moving once you use the right stick with the hack, that is. But still, I might try it out on a few games.

 

[artemis]

One step closer to the new FW hack.

 

[Inugami]

And released!

• The GTA Native Resolution Patch works with both GTA Vice City Stories and GTA Liberty City Stories (PSP games) and it increases the games' rendering resolution to 960×544 (the PSVita's native resolution, with 4 times as much pixels as the PSP's resolution)
  • Only version 3.0.0 (aka version 1.0.3) of the games is supported
  • US versions ONLY are supported at the moment
• The colour depth has been changed from 32-bit to 16-bit so there may minimal dithering but this won't greatly affect visual quality
  • This is because the PSP only has 2MB Video RAM which isn't enough to maintain a 32-bit colour space when rendering at 4 times the pixels.
• Performance takes a bit of a hit as frame rates with this plugin are in the ~20 FPS range rather than the ~30 FPS range but this still leaves the games playable.
  • From my short playing experience, I noticed a bit of lag in Vice City Stories while driving but it's nothing that greatly affects the gaming experience

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• Firstly, you need to update Adrenaline to version 6.9 by grabbing the VPK from this link.
  • You can either replace the modules (found in ux0:/app/PSPEMUCFW/sce_module) or install the VPK (if you install the VPK, you need to provide the PSP's FW 6.61 PBP to install the PSP's FW again)
  • It comes without saying that you need a hacked PSVita/PSTV to use Adrenaline and this plugin
• Make sure the "Force high memory layout" option found in the Advanced->Advanced configuration section in the recovery menu is DISABLED (this isn't enabled by default)
• Download the GTA Native Resolution patch from here
• Copy it (gta_native.prx) to ux0:/pspemu/seplugins via either USB or FTP (ux0 may be ur0 or uma0 depending on the memory stick location you're using for Adrenaline)
• Add the following line "ms0:/seplugins/gta_native.prx 1" to the game.txt file in your SEPLUGINS folder.
• Enjoy playing the PSP GTA games on your PSVita at its native resolution!
  • You should also use GTA Remastered to get dual analogue stick support for the best playing experience

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