Grand Theft Auto IV - Work In Progress

Let's go back to 2020 when I said that I envisioned Regression to be a complete saga of multiple films. I still think about it this way. I can safely say that Regression 3 is not the final installment in the Regression-series. To be honest, when I said that 'time would only tell whether more Regression films were coming',  I was lying. Ever since the first Regression film came out I already made a list of possible Regression films and their respective Grand Theft Auto games that they will take place in. That list will remain a secret until it's been decided that the series has come to an end and all films have been released. Although I have a good idea what I want and don't want with this series, I am not set on the amount of films that are going to be made as I am still exploring other GTA games beyond GTA V, such as GTA IV and others. To be honest I am shifting this list all the time so it's better to keep any form of confusion away. The only thing that I want to say about Regression is that potential good news is on its way.

There was a lingering issue that prevented me from making more Regression films post-2020. This was mainly due to suitable hardware. At this moment, that issue remains unfixed. But the past month there has been a huge development going on that resulted in a very bright light at the end of the tunnel. I have been FINALLY able to get a virtual machine working on my M1MAX machine. Not only that, the VM works pretty well and performance within an extensive list of games that I want to utilize for machinima has been very solid. One of these: Grand Theft Auto IV.

If Regression IV were to be made, it would take place in Grand Theft Auto IV, and the runtime of the film would be immensely extended to somewhere between 30-40 minutes in order to become a fully dedicated city symphony / visual study of Liberty City. Emphasis is placed on 'were' because as of this moment I am still highly experimenting with the game and I do not want to raise too many expectations. Regression IV in terms of feasibility in 2023 looks good so far, but I've done this long enough to know that issues can arise from every corner. That is why I do not want to be too euphoric yet and first want to go through an extensive testing period this winter to make sure everything works as it's supposed to be before I am leaving any dedicated dates behind. Besides testing, I would need to explore the map in great lengths and detail in order to come up with shots, shot contents and the time of day/weather during the shot.

At this moment, I am busy with making small sequences, editing these in the Rockstar Editor, color grading these sequences and testing out various mods. I am using various trainers and the well-known OpenCamera mod to make machinimating a bit easier. Especially the OpenCamera mod; installed by default in GTA V with OpenIV, gets rid of that annoying camera barrier. Problem is that unlike GTA V, GTA IV suffers from object, light and texture popping in game if the camera is too far away from the player due to the game's draw distance. I'm still currently trying to find a good balance between the camera and the draw distance. I have managed to downgrade GTA IV - The complete edition as well to 1.0.0.7 in order for these mods to work. 

Another issue with GTA IV, is that unlike GTA V, GTA IV can only export in wmv encoded video files that are heavily compressed. GTA V has 'EVE' for example, a mod that allows you to export in lossless Apple ProRes. Unfortunately GTA IV does not have this feature so this means I need to fix a lot in post, I am still trying to figure out if there is a way to digitally enhance and upscale the video's (with Topaz, for example). I have managed to conceal a lot in grading already, but I do want to see whether I can go beyond 1080p during this project.

Also a couple more things I still need to test and figure out in the coming months:

• Get more stable framerates as the frame sometimes plays at 30 fps and at times dips between 15-20 frames;
• I need to figure out whether like GTA V, GTA IV can be played on low settings, and before exporting the video's graphics can be maxed out in order to get the best rendering quality possible.
• Need more testing with mods, need to find more mods to add as well.
• I am thinking about using texture replacements in this film. That means I need to learn texture modding.

 Here is a test that I made earlier this afternoon with a little crash sequence. It contains a GIF of the original WMV from the rockstar editor, before/after screenshots and the final film. Enjoy!

More updates will be posted about this work-in-progress if there is anything new to report. Production on ARENA is still going strong - nothing new to report about that one so far. The entire video-part of the film has almost been completed. Audio post-production will start soon! Cheers!

 

GIF of the original WMV - straight out of the Rockstar Editor

Before grading

After Grading