Strange Problem with GTA Vice City

[Nojustice]

Hi .

I have a problem with Vice City and cannot see anywhere this has been mentioned previously.

I made a backup of vice city using RecordNow Max

The game boots with no problems . However when i come to go down the long road ... (To go to another city)

The game says loading.. but goes no further...

Does it need patching ?

Please help me ... I have no ideas.

[KTran]

Bad media, I reckon. I had these cheap Monarc Disc (just bumped into them by chance) and burnt GTA VC on one. Worked OK on my machine but when I tried it on some others, that was a different story.

There are others things as well; cleaning the laser helps and of course looking after the disc, letting the disc get scratched even a little bit just before burning is aweful. I've even noticed slight differences depending on what model PS2 and mod-chip you are actually using. I wouldn't blame RNM.

[RAISTLIN]

GTA-VC is one of those games that renders a lot of data on the fly. Your media and burn needs to be able to sustain a CONSTANT bit rate around 2X to ensure proper loading. For this you will need quality media at a solid 2X burn or higher. Test your copy's read speed in a straight DVD ROM (not a burner) with the CDSpeed utility mentioned in the Pioneer testing sticky. If it doesn't keep a steady stream up around 2X, you DEFINATELY should try either a different media or a different burn speed.

Good Luck!

Raist

[Nojustice]

Thanks I will give that a try


Thankyou for your comments

[ChrisOne2]

GTA Vice City renders the buildings and scenery on the fly. This why when you go down that street, your laser is having trouble reading the disk fast enough. It stems from the type of media you are using. If the laser cannot read the disk fast enough, your game will skip or freeze. Sony manufactered disks(pressed not burned) have a high reflectivity, so the laser doesn't have to work as hard to read the data. Sony manufactered their lasers to accomodate their disks, not DVD-R. So you must do 3 things. First, use high quality DVD-R disks(i.e., TDK, Verbatim). I use Verbatim and have found them to work the best. Verbatim uses Metal Azo dye in their disks which have a high reflectivity. Second, clean your laser. This may require taking your ps2 apart and voiding your warranty. Using a q-tip and some alcohol, you can usually achieve a fairly large improvement. And last, if your system is still having trouble reading the disks, you can adjust the laser so that it shoots a stronger beam. Sony does not turn the laser to full capacity because it prolongs the life of the laser. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN ADJUSTING YOUR LASER! You can make things a lot worse than better. Search on the internet for PS2 Laser adjustment. You will find many examples and pictures of how to do this.

Hope that helps.