rjp2525

Been a while, huh?
 
You know, when we first started making LSPDFR, the whole process was pretty much one big roller-coaster that didn't have any brakes:  there were the obvious highs when we'd finally add in something cool, but the low points were pretty hard as well - the amount of work that went into simply researching how things worked really took its toll as well.  And, of course, while this was all going on there just simply wasn't any stopping, we were a couple of (somewhat) real people who essentially lived in Los Santos for just about all of 2015, spending month after month pushing forward and trying to come up with things that everyone here would like to see.
 
So, of course, the grind and the pace of everything simply just wasn't sustainable and after 0.3, it's no secret that while the numbers and everything for our site are still on the up, month after month, things did slow down quite substantially for the actual mod itself.  But, we can tell you, this wasn't all bad news - it's afforded us the opportunity to take a step back and really look at the mod and figure out where we want to go next with it.  While our approach before was all about cramming as much new stuff as we could into a couple of months of development, we've now been able to look back at many of the original ideas and concepts that we had for LSPDFR and build on them.  Of course, with that being said, there's still a lot of new stuff crammed into 0.4!
 

 
With 0.4, we've taken the time to fix a couple of those "how the hell didn't they add this yet" moments :)
 
Aside from the cool little additions like this, though, the major theme of 0.4 is Character.  Ever since seeing the character system for GTA Online, it was always our goal to implement something similar in LSPDFR.  There's just something that much more personal and immersive about playing a game with your own character, and the possibilities that it offers are staggering too.  And yes, while mods like EUP are fantastic (and awesomely compatible with 0.4!), they still feel somewhat separate or distant.  With 0.4, this separation is gone.
 

 

 
No, these shots aren't taken from GTA Online.  This is our own, fully-featured, LSPDFR Character Creator.
 
Of course, we'll talk more about the new Character features in LSPDFR 0.4 later.  The Character Creator menu shown above is obviously only one part of what's new in this regard, although hopefully it emphasizes the effort that we've gone to.  Thanks to some of the new additions like this, much of 0.4 actually looks and feels like an entirely new mod altogether.
 

 
Officer Ronson and his clones obviously couldn't make it to the flashlight party. 
 
Stay tuned!  We'll be sharing more about 0.4 soon.

Emergency Lighting System for GTA V 
 
After much waiting and anticipation, the time has finally come.  Emergency Lighting System for Grand Theft Auto V is now available.  Much like its predecessor for GTA IV, ELS-V brings hundreds of new lighting patterns, a bunch of siren options and a beautiful new interface for controlling your vehicle's emergency equipment.  Developed by our own @Lt.Caine and @LMS, ELS-V is a must-have for any one that enjoys realistic police and emergency vehicles in their game.  
 

 
Realism Dispatch Enhanced 
 
As if the release of ELS-V wasn't enough, we've also been spoiled today by the latest release of Realism Dispatch Enhanced.  RDE is a massive modification that brings loads of new lore-friendly models and textures for vehicles, models and even police stations.  Also new in RDE 3.0 is a custom wanted level system that not only re-introduces the six star wanted level, but also fully utilizes all of the new assets added by the RDE modification, meaning that should the player become wanted in the airport, for example, they will be chased by airport police.
 

 
Both of these modifications are available in our Downloads section now

Hey all,
Recently the OpenIV team has made the carcols.ymt file available as an XML file which allows editing. Big thanks to them for that as this is what makes this project possible. You can find the carcols.xml here: https://www.gta5-mods.com/tools/carcols-ymt-converted-into-xml-format
 
Anyways on to the meat of it. The carcols is where all vehicle sirensettings are configured. Vehicle developers are probably familiar with this and most, but not all, vehicles currently released have been configured to work with sirensettings 1. Looking in the carcols we can see exactly where siren setting 1 is configured and learn about the structure of sirens. This is a shortened portion of the configuration for siren setting 1:
The full xml contains definitions for all 20 siren elements in order, but I have removed sirens 2-20 for the sake of making it easier to read. So far, here is what I have learned:
The game engine caps the maximum number of sirens at 20 per sirensetting. Custom sirensettings can be added to the file and used. Corona colors and intensity can be edited for each individual siren (format for color: AARRGGBB). They can also be removed completely. Each individual siren can have it's own individual flash pattern (and these can be user created, not just selected from a list) Headlight and taillight flashing can be configured with custom flash patterns - one user has already released a modification that enables headlight flashing. You can set the number of "beats" per minute that the lights will flash using sequencerBPM value. This value will apply to all of the sirens for that specific sirensetting. You can set individual sirens to be rotating or non-rotating and configure their speeds.  
So far I have not done any work with rotating lights. For non-rotating lights, the flash pattern can be custom configured by editing the sequencer value under "flashiness" for each siren. In the snippet of code posted above, the siren uses the following configuration:
<sequencer value="1431655765"/> At first glance it looks to be just a random number. This is actually a 32-bit integer, and when you view it in binary, the flash pattern becomes clear:
01010101010101010101010101010101 So this siren uses a simple alternating flash pattern - off, on, off, on, off, on, etc. These can be configured to create new and far more complex flash patterns than are currently in the game. Along with increasing the sequencer beats per minute you can create some neat stuff.
 
Here is a (very quickly) thrown together demo to showcase possible patterns. This vehicle uses 6 sirens: two for all the red and blue lights, two for the traffic advisor (which is an extra), and two for the headlight strobes. The headlight strobe coronas have been modified to be white and the vehicle uses a completely custom sirensetting. The pattern for the red and blue lights has been customized for alternating speeds.
 
Again, this is just rough stages of research so far, but I wanted to share what I had found with the community. Hopefully this will be useful for vehicle developers in designing cars which are non-ELS but offer similar levels of functionality. I will be updating this thread with further research as I discover new things.
 
Thanks for reading and happy modding!

Some of us want to use specific flash patterns, custom lightbars and to be able to use colors specific to our departments.
For example, the police in my state use all blue emergency lighting, fire and ambulance use red. That's essentially all we'd like ELS for. (or I at least)

oh boy...

To add to that I'd like to be able to burst my siren when clearing intersections  without going code 3 or having to  cycle through the current  light function 

Some of us want to use specific flash patterns, custom lightbars and to be able to use colors specific to our departments.
For example, the police in my state use all blue emergency lighting, fire and ambulance use red. That's essentially all we'd like ELS for. (or I at least)

I'm out of breath from reading that lol

I am part of the ELS team and I feel confident to report what is the latest status.   A little over eleven years ago, Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas was released to PC. GTA San Andreas, for many of us, was the start of our first serious 'gaming career' that afforded us the opportunity to introduce a new kind of entertainment aspect to the game, unknown to many : roleplaying as an Emergency First Responders. From driving a crown Victoria police cruiser outfitted with real life products and with custom sirens in single player, to being part of an immersive multiplayer platform where you can role-play as a Police Officer, Firefighter, or Paramedic. SA-MP has helped paved the way for communities to plant imaginative seeds and to solidify the foundation of creating mods achieving a realistic atmosphere. Police, Fire, and EMS vehicles, textures, sirens, and many other layers that was given birth by members who wanted to contribute to the greater cause, allowing a minority group to become a vital key in creating the gameplay that allows us to experience the imagination and dreams that we all have . From watching COPS to being part of visually unique worlds where we can pretend the roles some of us dream of becoming. GTA SA San Andreas helped us create a community where we can share our interest as a collective hive. Naturally, we wanted more.   Grand Theft Auto IV was next to come out, and the game opened many new possibilities that was not achievable in San Andreas. It gave us a platform to expand our creativity and imagination and broaden the horizon of emergency services modifications. One of the many successful mods that helped lay solid foundation to achieve a dynamic realistic gameplay was ELS created by Lt.Caine and his A-team. Emergency Lighting System opened a new door for modelers to design their vehicle models beyond a limit and achieve the vision they had imagined. They created the image that we all see in the real world, on COPS, or in front of us and we are lucky enough to experience it. Multiple patterns, custom siren tones, interactive control panel -- it was art. It inspired people to follow their dreams, it inspired people to show their interest in law enforcement, firefighting and emergency services. It inspired others to lay down an example for others to follow because we all knew that there will be the next big bang ... and we wanted to make sure that we had a community healthy enough to grow into the next chapter ... Grand Theft Auto V.   When we first saw early concepts for Grand Theft Auto 5, we were struck by how far Rockstar Games had come. We all had realized that GTA 5 was going to be the game that we all waited for since SA. We all knew that this game will allow us to introduce a new kind of level of entertainment that was not possible in SA, or IV. We all knew that GTA 5 was going to help all of us create a perfect emergency services platform with many finer details to depict and sculpture the virtual reality to emulate what many first responders in real life have to go through.   Many of us are excited to experience the new journey and it is still just beginning. With a community as large and passionate as the one we're proud to be a part of, we’ll continue to refine, iterate, and update as we experience and share new epic moments on Grand Theft Auto V, together. Lt. Caine has the opportunity to do more than slap a fresh paint on his ELS program. He has the opportunity to design an ELS system that will shape the course of emergency services roleplaying in many years to come. It will allow us to experience the advance features of ELS that was not introduced in IV. It will contain a finer and detailed ELS control box with many options, many new patterns and a reliable tool that we all can put our trust in 100 %. It is a tool that will be designed to keep every one of you as a mission to be accomplished. It comes with a goal to ensure that every user of ELS are safe, noticed and guarded by those who intents to deface your integrity as a Law enforcement officer, firefighter or paramedic on the streets of Los Santos, against live players or AI characters. It will be designed to ensure that you will win the fight.    Right now as I am typing this, ELS is on a steady course with strong strides being done. Unfortunately, it cannot go so far without a resource package that depends on LMS. Without this package that Lt.Caine is waiting for, ELS will not be released.  This resource package will allow us to introduce new layers to the program that eliminate the need of depending on GTA V natural minerals and resources, which comes with limitations. LMS is the key in breaking down the wall in order for ELS to be the light tower that will show the way of the virtual reality we all want.   It became very clear to us that we were going to need a long period of design.  There is no release date set in stone, and we have no idea when it will be finished. It will take a matter of months before we are confident to share this kind of information. But we want to let you know that the program will done when we feel that the quality is beyond the vision that are highly replayable. To foster the most direct relationship with our fans possible, we will focus exclusively on content delivered complete and not broken. All we ask from you guys is your patience because it will pay off with great rewards in the end.   Thank you.

Some of us want to use specific flash patterns, custom lightbars and to be able to use colors specific to our departments.
For example, the police in my state use all blue emergency lighting, fire and ambulance use red. That's essentially all we'd like ELS for. (or I at least)

Some of us want to use specific flash patterns, custom lightbars and to be able to use colors specific to our departments.
For example, the police in my state use all blue emergency lighting, fire and ambulance use red. That's essentially all we'd like ELS for. (or I at least)

Some of us want to use specific flash patterns, custom lightbars and to be able to use colors specific to our departments.
For example, the police in my state use all blue emergency lighting, fire and ambulance use red. That's essentially all we'd like ELS for. (or I at least)

Its a ... RageHook Plugin... 
-.-

One of the LCPDFR's core ToS is "Respect" and for good reason.  You cannot build a strong, healthy, happy community without having community members displaying mutual respect for one another.  Depending on how long you've been in the community you'll hear this hot topic of "modder rights" come up over and over again.  At it's core is this idea of "Respect".  When we look past the distracting side discussions, (like copyright/trademark issues that none of these game studios pursue), we see a small group of ambitious, energetic, and very generous individuals, that are willing to invest their own time and energy into creating something new for the games we all enjoy (like the GTA series).  These individuals will release their content (sometimes in "locked" form, sometimes it's "unlocked" for the public).  They will include a credits file (often overlooked by the end user) and those authors who have contributed to the work in the final release are acknowledged by name.  All of those authors cited in the credits file have been contacted for proper permissions and have given their consent through direct contact, or have done so in a text file included with the original authors creation.  
Side note:  If a gaming studio ever directly contacted us, and requested us to remove any content using their work, we would gladly comply.  We're not profiting from their work.  We're not competing with their companies business interests.  So I believe it would be a fair assessment to believe that these gaming studio's are well aware that their content is being used for various mods in a lot of different games (not just the GTA series), and do not particularly care enough to warrant some kind of legal action.  Maybe if we were making thousands of dollars it would catch someone's attention, but that's simply not the case in our community.  
    So the original authors have given their permission to use their work, and have been properly cited as a contributing author to the final released modification.  Anyone not complying with these basic steps are contacted directly and asked to A) contact the original author (in the case of permissions) or B) properly credit who made what for their release.  Anyone who refuses to comply with these simple requirements are punished by having the file removed, and possibly having their account suspended or banned.  This is exactly how things are suppose to work in a community that shows respect for each other.  
    Why is it so important to get permissions and/or credit properly?  It goes back to the original point of having respect for one another.  You're acknowledging that someone else has invested time and energy into creating something new.  Even in cases where an individual has taken an existing model from another game, their is significant time and energy invested in editing the model to meet the requirements of GTA SA/IV/V.  Parts are needed, proper LOD's created, materials assigned, etc.  A direct example of this would be vehicle doors.  Some video games do not have vehicle doors that open in game and thus save geometry by deleting the edges of the door that are unseen in their game.  All of this geometry needs to be added and fixed for the GTA series, as this area is displayed in game.  Often times a base vehicle model is older or different from a police model, and thus require all of those edits.  The whole time process can vary dramatically (vehicle to vehicle, modder experience, etc.), but regardless their is always a significant amount of time and energy being invested by that individual.  When we ask permission from an author to use something that they've worked on, we're recognizing that significant investment of time and energy and we're respecting their time and energy contributions.  Anyone who doesn't, is showing a tremendous amount of disrespect for this individual by minimizing the value of that individuals personal contributions.  You're basically saying, "I don't care about the amount of hours you've spent working on your mod, and I don't care about the energy you've invested in the project.  It's all insignificant.".  That's really a terrible thing to say to someone don't you think?  They've just spent time that they'll never get back and an enormous amount of energy, not to mention a significant amount of passionate devotion to their project to finish it, and you've minimized those contributions by saying that they're insignificant.  That's not exactly the stuff we build a healthy, harmonious community on (something to think about).
    This is a really important concept that anyone not understanding what all the fuss is about needs to understand.   Believe me I understand your confusion.  I never understood it myself until I actually started modeling, and editing these models and realized that there is a tremendous amount of time and effort involved, which completely changed my mind on the subject.  At that significant point in time, I realized it should completely be up to the individual authors to determine how (and by whom) their work should be used.  Modders rights, are basic rights that respect the individual authors time and energy contributions by asking for and getting their permissions to use their work and properly crediting them for that work.  The facts are these models aren't hidden away on the internet.  The models themselves and the techniques to convert them for the GTA series are available for anyone willing to invest the time and energy into a similar project.  Important note: Most modders are more then willing to answer modding related questions and give you constructive feedback on your work to help you improve your work.
    Everyone in this discussion wants the same thing.  A friendly place, where people treat each other fairly and with mutual respect.  A place to be able to share your ideas, and freely share your content with others, without a healthy fear people will take advantage of your generosity and use your content without proper permissions.  We all want access to play these amazing modifications in our own game.  We all want to see the community expand, and we all want to see more people willing to get their hands dirty and contribute themselves (this is exactly how we get more mods for the game).  We (modders) are not the enemy here, we're just asking the community to respect our time and energy contributions by asking before using our content, and to properly credit us when we do give permissions.  If you're frustrated by this, then do what I did 4 years ago, and start learning everything you can about modding, and start releasing your own content to the public (then you'll understand our perspective better). This is about building a better community and this is exactly how we start to achieve that goal.
 

Being teased by these fully functional crown vics for 2 weeks now.
This is getting old.

Hey Guys,
Before I begin, I'd like to state that I have been either watching from a distance, or involved in the GTA police community since about 2012. I have experience in skinning and modeling in GTA SA, and GTA IV. I've spent countless hours in ZModeler working on private mods, and while I've never done a major project like porting a car, I do completely understand the frustrations that modders face during their time working on mods. I just mention this so that you are aware that I can look at the whole situation of locked vs. unlocked models from both the perspective of someone who enjoys the wonderful mods created, and from that of someone who has spend many hours creating mods myself.
Now that being said, the thing I find incredibly sad about this is the us versus them approach that suddenly everyone seems to have regarding mods. One thing I'd like to bring up and ask everyone to keep in mind in the coming weeks, is that there is no divide between people who mod and those who don't! We are all part of the wider GTA police community, and whether or not you have the skills to create vehicles, as awesome as that may be, should not determine how you are treated. I think we all recognize and admit how much we appreciate modders and their commitment to the community, but we shouldn't let a few assholes who rip people off destroy our trust in each other. We are all here because we share a common interest, and enjoy sharing that and improving that interest for everyone. 
Now that the LCPDFR staff have taken a stance and asked that all content should be unlocked, I think it is time that we work forward to the next steps in building our community, together.
To modders, I completely understand your frustration why you want to be given credit. It is credit you have most definitely earned. I put forward that instead of denying the community access to your talent, that we work together to ensure that when people are building upon your work, and improving it for everyone, we are all giving you the credit and appreciation that you deserve, as well as calling out and punishing those who are not. This benefits everyone. Credit is given to you, and the community benefits from having an even richer selection of content livable
To the wider community, I ask that we please keep in mind the amazing work that modders do for the whole community, and that we work with them to ensure that nothing is ever plagiarized and passed off as original when we all know better. Let's work together to create a place where modders can be confident that by releasing their work, it will only be improved or remixed, and never stolen and claimed as original. Let's make sure credit is given where it is due, instead of being frustrated when it is not.
These are my thoughts on the current situation. If you would like to leave your thoughts, I'd love to hear them, but please keep it kind and respectful, and try to avoid any pointing fingers or attacking anyone. This is a discussion I think we all need to have in a calm and civilized way in order to move forward.
Thank you, and happy policing!

no worries, if I find out that it is not a ALPHA and continues to be private you won't see it on my channel.