As we all know, Rockstar never bothered to bring any Grand Theft Auto titles to the PSVita despite having released two 3D titles for the PSP. However, the hacking scene for this 9 year old console is still kicking and following a GTA III port, GTA San Andreas is coming to the console thanks to TheFlow!
TheFlow ports Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to the Vita
GTA San Andreas may be coming soon to the PlayStation Vita thanks to TheFlow’s latest feat! (Tweet)
Sharing the news through a tweet two days ago, TheFlow surprised the entire Vita community by announcing that he was able to get GTA San Andreas up and running on the Vita. He was able to achieve this by writing a .so (Shared Object) loader for the PlayStation Vita which allowed for running Android’s port of GTA San Andreas albeit after writing a number of hooks to replace shaders coupled with some other work.
While TheFlow’s revelation is undoubtedly exciting, it is important to state that the port is not finished and requires a good deal of optimisation before it runs at an acceptable framerate. As per a video published by Rinnegatamante of the port running (below), it mostly hovers around the 15 FPS mark which visibly degrades the gameplay experience. That being said, TheFlow is known to deliver so it is probable that we’ll see progress on this port sooner rather than later! Furthermore, Rinnegatamante is also helping out specifically with the port’s rendering code which could see progress moving in a swifter manner.
Which other GTA games can I play on the Vita?
While you wait for GTA SA’s port to be perfected, you can always play an arsenal of other GTA titles on your PSVita 
Despite the GTA San Andreas port for the PSVita not being finished or released, there are still many GTA titles you can play on your console while you wait which include:
- GTA Vice City Stories (PSP using Adrenaline)
- GTA Liberty City Stories (PSP using Adrenaline)
- Both of the above PSP games can be enhanced using TheFlow’s GTA Native Resolution Patch and RemasteredControls plugin together with Adrenaline
- These enhancements increase the games’ resolution to the Vita’s 960×544 (albeit with a ~10FPS performance penalty) and implement proper dual analogue stick support respectively
- GTA Chinatown Wars (PSP using Adrenaline)
- GTA III using re3 (native homebrew port)
- GTA I and II (PS1 using Adrenaline)
- GTA: London 1969 (PS1 using Adrenaline)
- GTA Advance (GBA using an emulator such as mGBA)
Conclusion
To keep up to date with developments relating to this Grand Theft Auto SA port, it is recommended to follow TheFlow and Rinnegatamante’s Twitter accounts by following the link below. TheFlow also has a Patreon in which he accepts monetary donations for his work but all of his work is generally released free for the public immediately with a few exceptions in which Patreon supporters got releases a few days earlier. In conclusion, it is important not to ask for ETAs to TheFlow, Rinnegatamante or any other prominent developer that might be working on this port as that would likely just get you a ban from their Twitter account!
TheFlow’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/theflow0
Rinnegatamante’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rinnegatamante
TheFlow’s Patreon Account: https://www.patreon.com/TheOfficialFloW
Rinnegatamante’s Patreon Account: https://www.patreon.com/Rinnegatamante
Video by Rinnegatamante of TheFlow’s GTA San Andreas port running on the Vita
The post PSVita News: TheFlow manages to port GTA San Andreas to the Vita – port needs optimisation but progress is promising! appeared first on Wololo.net.