What was IV:Network?
IV: Network (IV:Net) was a modification for Grand Theft Auto: IV (GTA:IV) founded in 2013 - Development ceased due to shifting to GTA V with GTA:MP, which was later shut down by Take 2. It turns GTA:IV into an alternative multiplayer game. You can play over the internet (or LAN). You will need the original GTA:IV PC game in order to play IV:Net.
In IVNet you are able to do almost anything that you can do in single player GTA:IV. IV:Net features the possibility to create your own scripted modes. There are many game modes that feature a series of different and fun things to do. Many of which are not possible in single player.
Who am I?
I’m Neproify, a hobbyist programmer. I love MTA:SA, I love open source and I love customization. Why I am writing this? 1 year ago I created this topic: http://www.argonathrpg.eu/index.php?topic=115201.0. I was trying to improve IV:MP RC3, but I failed. Then I tried to write my own multiplayer. It was working, but really simple, not polished, it needed a lot of work. I abandoned this project too. 6 months ago I found the IV:Network source code. It is a really good basis for IV based multiplayer.
What I did already?
- Fixed crash that was happening on death,
- Synchronized vehicle’s engine state, dirt level and lock state,
- Created basic objects synchronization,
- Fixed linux server synchronization(caused by linux differences on time handling),
- Improved resource system(reloading, loading, unloading, etc.),
- Finished client scripts,
- Communication between client and server scripts(MTA like triggerServerEvent and triggerClientEvent),
- Basics for client GUI’s(onClientRender event, getScreenSize(), dxDrawText(), more coming soon).
Where can you contact me?
- There is domain(redirecting to google, coming in future): www.ivnetwork.tk (http://www.ivnetwork.tk)
- Discord: www.discord.gg/TmK2RBp (http://www.discord.gg/TmK2RBp)
- My PM at this forum.
- https://github.com/Neproify/IV-Network/issues (https://github.com/Neproify/IV-Network/issues) for bugs.
Technical stuff:
- Scripts can be wrote in both Squirrel and Lua.
- Using EFLC, not clean GTA IV.
Links:
- Forum is back online - http://forum.ivnetwork.tk/ (http://forum.ivnetwork.tk/)
- Always latest windows builds - https://ci.appveyor.com/project/Neproify/iv-network/build/artifacts (https://ci.appveyor.com/project/Neproify/iv-network/build/artifacts)
Anyway, staying on topic, Neproify has announced on the Discord group (http://www.discord.gg/TmK2RBp), the forum (http://forum.ivnetwork.tk/) is online and also, the first build is actually working, but the screen is blank, without GUIs, having only some testing text. Anyway, he's still looking for a scripter for the freeroam resource for EFLC, who knows Squirrel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirrel_(programming_language)) and Lua (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lua_(programming_language)).
Here's how the login image looks like at the moment:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/300710700555304964/305456605485596683/ivn-2017.04.22-23.28.23.png)
This is how the default IV:N server performs (you can notice the health bar is available to players right now, unlike IV:MP):
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/300710700555304964/307796879800795136/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV_Expansion_-_Episodes_from_Liberty_City_04.29.2017_-_10.36.09.04.png)
If you are curious to see how synced vehicles (as you can see, tires can be deflated when shooting them, unlike IV:MP) are and how IV:Network basically works, check out this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EnvnZPIuWs
This is the IV:Network aftermath after testing it:
The port overall is working really fine, with vehicle damage enabled, as you can see in the image below:(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/300710700555304964/312612711550943232/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV_Expansion_-_Episodes_from_Liberty_City_05.12.2017_-_17.30.31.09.png)
Unfortunately, the damage sync isn't the best, and as you can see in the image above, player in car sync towards others is worse compared to IV:MP. Even though vehicle damage is enabled in IV:Network, it really needs some work when it comes to syncing burned vehicles to other players, as you can see in the spoiler below:(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/300710700555304964/312617236718419968/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV_Expansion_-_Episodes_from_Liberty_City_05.12.2017_-_17.47.25.15.png)(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/300710700555304964/312617502808997888/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV_Expansion_-_Episodes_from_Liberty_City_05.12.2017_-_17.48.49.16.png)(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/300710700555304964/312617615145041920/image.png)
As you can see in the images above, the white Turismo appears to be burnt to one player, while to the other it is not burnt, and not put where it actually is.(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/300710700555304964/312619511087890432/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV_Expansion_-_Episodes_from_Liberty_City_05.12.2017_-_17.56.25.19.png)
As you can see in the image above me, the player Kendal can see the player Vittorio drive a burnt car, while, at Vittorio, it isn't burnt. Weird, isn't it? :eek:
One more thing to note, even though this multiplayer port uses EFLC, it uses only the EFLC renditions of the radio stations, among specific radio stations: Vice City FM, Self-Actualization FM and RamJam FM (those stations appear to be white rectangles here, though). So, be surprised to not enter EFLC buildings.(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/300710700555304964/312667521906114560/image.png)
(https://images-ext-2.discordapp.net/eyJ1cmwiOiJodHRwOi8vdmlnbmV0dGUxLndpa2lhLm5vY29va2llLm5ldC9lcy5ndGEvaW1hZ2VzLzUvNWYvVGhlX0xvc3RfQ2x1Yi5QTkcvcmV2aXNpb24vbGF0ZXN0P2NiPTIwMTAxMTIzMDYxMDU3In0.Ne87RCLwwTjXvErg-EjD5fFIm9o?width=960&height=540)
All in all, IV:Network is a place with well synced health bars and vehicle damage, but, still needs work with player sync in vehicles and showing the state of vehicles properly. In rest, it needs work. I am planning on using freeroam to make some roleplay commands to start testing the possible Argonath RPG EFLC community. Also, @Neproify, the guy who made slight improvements to the port overall, needs our help. He said that he needs people coding in Lua (https://www.lua.org/) and Squirrel (http://squirrel-lang.org/), so, if you want to give him a helping hand, it would be appreciated.
Some server gameplay footage
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/300710700555304964/312611827848839169/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV_Expansion_-_Episodes_from_Liberty_City_05.12.2017_-_17.26.59.08.png)
Also, please note that if a vehicle limit is exceeded, all players get crashed from the server (I think it's around 30 or 40).
This is ain't T4. Completely different projects by different developers.
This project (IV:Network) doesn't have any weapons or vehicles from TLAD or TBOGT, while IV:MP T4 does. You can see the Bullet GT (http://gta.wikia.com/wiki/Bullet) in the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwe-SKvAm8w