Hello everyone,
As part of preparing our next OpenIV release, we decided to move OIV Package Format specification from our own wiki to GitHub repository.
Today, we are releasing OpenIV 3.0 with some surprising features, please take a look:
What’s new in OpenIV 3.0
PlayStation 4 support
We are happy to announce new platform support for Grand Theft Auto V, please welcome PlayStation 4 (Orbis). We never actually thought this will be possible, but files for PS4 version of GTA V are available, so why not?
Features. As always in the beginning of the support for new game or platform, not all OpenIV features are available. As for now, we have basic support for Archives, Textures, Models, Collision Bounds, NavMeshes and Audio files. You can open all those files in inbuilt OpenIV tools, but there is no openFormats exporting or editing capabilities. Since PS4 have some specifics in GTA V RAGE Resources please consider this support as BETA and report any issues you may encounter. Please do not expect same level of features support as we have for PC version.
Files. You might also have question, where to get the PS4 game files. We cannot answer this question; this is something you need to figure out by yourself. You need to have game files on your PC. When you got the files, you also need decrypted version of eboot.bin, if you have the files you probably already know where to get it.
Vehicles animations
As our first step in GTA V Animations support, we added new feature for playing vehicles animations. In the model viewer if vehicle has animation you will see controls for playing it. You can play animation forwards and backwards.
We will continue our work on GTA V Animations support and you will see features like cutscenes player and openFormats support in the future.
Multichannel audio support
We added very important option into OpenIV settings. You now can configure how OpenIV plays multichannel audio. The new option “Multichannel audio playback” placed in the “Tools” tab and can have one of the following values:
• Play multichannel audio in mono mode – OpenIV will mix all channels into one mono sound.
• Play multichannel audio in stereo mode – OpenIV will mix channels into two channel stereo sound.
• Play multichannel audio in multichannel mode – OpenIV will not mix any channels; this is how it worked before this update. Unfortunately, in most cases you will not hear anything expect for left and right audio channels. You probably will hear all sounds only if your system is capable of playing surround sound.
To provide the best experience for all users option is set to “Play multichannel audio in stereo mode” for default.
This option only affects audio playback in the OpenIV’s tools such as Audio Player and GTA IV Cutscene Player, the export functionality is not changed. OpenIV Audio Player is now also has ability to export multichannel audio in stereo or mono mode.
Grand Theft Auto V
• We added openFormats support for YVR resources in GTA V. Those files are prerecorded vehicles paths that are used in cut-scenes (and maybe scripts). It’s not big or heavily requested format, we added it just because it was easy and took only few minutes to do.
• We added support for new shaders in openFormats for GTA V models. Those shaders added in the latest game updates.
• We improved import process of .OXT openFormats for GTA V texts. It was processed keys with spaces incorrectly.
• We fixed an issue resulting in crash while importing partial carcols.ymt file from META/XML.
• We fixed an issue when edged faces rendered incorrectly for GTA V ped models with cloth geometries.
• We added new names for objects and models from latest updates. You will see normal names instead of hash values in ymap/ytyp files in the latest GTA V DLCs.
• We added many new names for audio tracks in GTA V. Animals, weapons, vehicles, DLCs, all kind of stuff.
Grand Theft Auto IV
• We fixed an important issue in GTA IV Cutscene player, which was the reason why objects positions not synchronized in the scene.
• We fixed an issue when GTA IV Cutscene player was not able to animate scene without audio file.
• We fixed an issue when GTA IV Cutscene player did not load audio files for some episodes cutscenes. Those cutscenes uses audio files form original GTA IV audio archive.
• We fixed an issue in GTA IV Cutscene player when it was not possible to control free camera while camcorder overlay is shown.
• We fixed an issue in GTA IV when some audio files mistakenly presented as multichannel sounds.
• We added many new names for audio tracks in GTA IV. Mostly for Episodes.
Max Payne 3
• We improved support for .GXT files in Max Payne 3.
• We added few new names for audio tracks in May Payne 3.
General changes, improvements, and fixes
• We added new option to start OpenIV with location from the last session. We use this option for a while now, and it pretty useful and amazing. This option is disabled by default, but you should definitely give it a try.
• We made many changes in main window menus: Edit menu reorganized and all new features from context menu added. Context menu and extended context menu also reorganized. We added extended context menu few versions back, but forgot to mention it here in the news. To invoke extended context menu instead of default one press and hold Shift.
• We added ability to close folders which opened through “File > Open folder…” feature.
• We added new option to display confirmation dialog on exit. This option is disabled by default.
• We fixed an issue resulting in OpenIV crash while importing some DDS files.
• We fixed an issue resulting in incorrect order of channels in exported multichannel WAV.
• We added ability to export multichannel audio as stereo or mono WAV.
• We fixed an issue where OpenIV was not able to open folders if they was drag-n-dropped into game folder using Windows File Explorer.
• We added ability to change color of edged faces in model viewers.
• We added context menus for all kind of elements in model viewers.
• We added search box into OpenIV Texture Editor.
• We added context menu for images in OpenIV Texture Editor.
• In OpenIV Texture Editor when image list is focused, you can press char key to navigate to texture with name starting with this char.
• In OpenIV Text Editor when search box is focused, you can press Enter to search next and Shift + Enter to search previous.
• You now can drag-n-drop OIV Package into OpenIV main window to install it.
• We made some changes regarding DirectX11 initialization in OpenIV.
• We add more debug information to catch some annoying issues.
• We probably fixed some other bugs but forget to mention them here or in bug-tracked change log.
• We probably made other improvements or changes but forget to mention them here or in bug-tracker change log.
You can find change log for this version on our bug-tracker here.
Community update
Since last release, we have several changes in our community:
We now have OpenIV Patreon. You can support OpenIV if you want.
UI Localization
We have an instruction how to translate OpenIV into your own language and we are calling for you to do so. You can find the localization guide on GitHub. As for existing localizations, you can find list of differences between 2.9.1 and 3.0 here.
Special thanks to our supporters
We want to say thank you to all our supporters on Patreon and other platforms.
This release is supported by:
• MXKiN
Thank you.
Download
If you already have OpenIV, it will ask you for update next time you run it. If you still do not have OpenIV, you can use the link below to download it right now.
In order to qualify all of the questions we had received during past weeks, we make some explanations: Unfortunately, we were unable to answer those questions earlier due to real life (yeah we have some).
The community
First of all, we want to say “Thank you” to everyone who supported us in this tough situation. We’re very grateful for your support; for demonstration of the fact, that modding community is still a minority, but very vocal, creative and determined minority. You made the impossible and this story is already scribed into the history of PC gaming and the Internet itself.
Yes, this is your victory! Congratulations and many thanks once again!
OpenIV and modding
The development of OpenIV will be continued as before. OpenIV never supported GTA Online modding and will not support it in the future. Our work will be continued within the Rockstar modding policy.
Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto V
Unfortunately, our highly anticipated mod “Liberty City in GTA V” will not be released because it clearly contradicts with Rockstar modding policy. Liberty City mod is a big loss for us, since it was a huge part of our motivation to push OpenIV functionality.
If you are wondering what is next, well, we are currently revising our plans for the future.
We feared that this day would come… And now it’s here.
The day, when GTA modding was declared illegal.
GTA modding had long and glorious history.
Since GTA III, people have created lots of different mods: from simple texture replacements to impressive full conversions.
And the modding always was a “gray zone” — a battlefield between lawyers and PR…
For almost ten years of OpenIV development, we had tried to play as nice as possible and even more:
Strictly following of Civil Code of Russia (only reverse engineering for interoperability).
Only clean-room reverse engineering.
No distribution of original data and code.
And absolutely no messing with Online…
On June 5th, 2017, we had received an official Cease-and-Desist letter.
It clearly says, that with OpenIV we “allow third parties to defeat security features of its software and modify that software in violation Take-Two’s rights“.
Yes, this letter is illiterate both technically and grammatically (really, they don’t even bothered with proof-reading the text).
Yes, we can go to court and yet again prove that modding is fair use and our actions are legal.
Yes, we could. But we decided not to.
Going to court will take at least few months of our time and huge amount of efforts, and, at best, we’ll get absolutely nothing.
Spending time just to restore status quo is really unproductive, and all the money in the world can’t compensate the loss of time.
So, we decided to agree with their claims and we’re stopping distribution of OpenIV.
It was a hard decision, but when any modding activity has been declared illegal, we can’t see any possibilities to continue this process,
unless top management of Take-Two company makes an official statement about modding, which can be used in court.
We are happy to announce the release of OpenIV 2.9! This release includes new tools, map editing features for Grand Theft Auto V and numerous improvements and bug fixes in the different areas of OpenIV.
Important note
It was almost a year since last major OpenIV release, because of that, we decided to delay some features, move them into future versions and make release with current state. This is means our original schedule for the first half of 2017 will be slightly changed. Instead of one OpenIV 2.9.1 release, we are going to have several 2.9.X versions before OpenIV 3.0. Unfortunately, this also means our Liberty City in GTA V modification also behind the schedule, but we still hope to release first beta around late spring. We hope you can understand our decision.
Text Editor
OpenIV now have brand new inbuilt Text Editor, which allows you to edit XML, META and other text files directly in OpenIV without exporting them from archives. New Text Editor has have many useful features like syntax highlighting, customizable search, code folding and more. We will continue to our work on text editor improvements and new features, please report any issues or suggestions you have.
Grand Theft Auto V
For Grand Theft Auto V we have long awaited editing capabilities for map files, such as .ymap, .ytyp and _manifest.ymt. Now you are able to export those files into META/XML format or edit them directly in new OpenIV Text Editor. We also provided support for carcols.ymt and levels.ymt, you will be able to edit those files as well. We will continue our work to support more .ymt/.ymf files in the future releases.
openFormats for Grand Theft Auto V
We also have made numerous changes and improvements to both models (YDR/ODR) and collisions (YBN/OBN) openFormats for Grand Theft Auto V. With those changes you will have more features in models and collision editing.
The “mods” folder support
The “mods” folder became important addition to Grand Theft Auto V modding and we continue to improve your experience with it. We added new options, which gives you more control of editing game files.
Tools improvements
Besides new Text Editor we made some changes in other OpenIV tools. For example, in the Search tool you now will be able to select area where you want to make search. It can be game or mods folder only or both of them.
Other important changes
We also made many other changes and tried to fix some annoying bugs. As always, you can find full change log here.
UI Localization
Finally we have written an instruction how to translate OpenIV into your own language and we are calling for you to do so. You can find the localization guide here on GitHub. As for existing localizations you can find list of differences between 2.8 and 2.9 here.
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