JClem

We certainly share the concerns mentioned by you and others. However, even if most people behaved "crazy" like you said, there could still be a lot of value in it when looking at tendencies. Is someone even crazier/less crazy when facing event/situation X? It then does not really matter what their overall playstyle is, because you can see nuances depending on the situation. That would still be a very valuable insight.
 
 
This is the first iteration of the new system and we plan to add more interactions by the AI such as verbal warnings or ticketing. Those did not make it into 0.4.9 just yet. The only way for you to trigger the new system in LSPDFR itself currently is when calling in a crime. We now consider non-violent, on foot crimes for the new investigative mode. For instance, if an angry pedestrian shoves you (but not punches/fights) and you were to call that in, it would not turn into a full-blown chase where the suspects immediately starts sprinting away followed by police. Instead, they would walk off not knowing they have been reported. If you then were to call in backup, they would slowly approach and confront the suspect just like in the video. There is a chance the suspect might surrender on sight or resist. 
 
We have many more plans for the system to "de-pursuit" the whole of LSPDFR in upcoming updates, so stay tuned 🙂

I would say virtually all studies have to deal with outliers, and any good study will have a process for taking outliers into consideration.  However, if the majority of data is what you describe, then the research will just show that LSPDFR isn't a good litmus test for "helping to understand how people react and behave in a law enforcement environment."

I'm convinced the LSPDFR team has it out for me. This is the second time where I've recently reinstalled GTA V, LSPDFR, with all my plugins & callouts, and then a day-or-two later, there's an update for the whole plugin. Happened with 0.4.8, now 0.4.9.

Still happy though, no complaints. Just slight bitterness. 😒👌

Lessons from the virtual world, for the real world, in LSPDFR 0.4.9  
We're back with another update for LSPDFR 0.4 which introduces a small handful of new features, as well as a couple of changes to the way in which the core pursuit system within the mod works.  
 
Before we get to that though, the key headline of LSPDFR 0.4.9 - and something that we're really excited about - is that we've partnered with researchers at two major North American research universities: Brigham Young University (BYU) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) to explore the real-world research potential of LSPDFR, and the role that it could play in helping to understand how people react and behave in a law enforcement environment.
 
I know this might sound like a big change from the sort of updates that most of you who follow our work will be familiar with - and it certainly is in many aspects, but this doesn’t represent a fundamental change to LSPDFR itself, nor does it imply any significant changes to the way in which players will approach or interact with the mod.  Instead, we've created an opt-in system, similar to the statistics features already integrated into the mod with LSPDFR Sync, where with merely an enhanced level of in-game stats tracking, you'll be able to contribute towards our research with two top institutions by simply playing the mod.  
 
To this end, we've added a new, simple call to LSPDFR that is used to support the survey data by following a more predictable pattern as compared to our traditional callouts within the mod.  Note that nothing changes in this regard if you choose not to take part in the study, and you can still play the new call as normal.
 

The new 'Arrest Warrant' call in LSPDFR 0.4.9 has you query the Police Computer and respond to a suspect's residence.
 
By gathering together these statistics with the player’s response to a couple of in-game scenarios, we’re hopeful that we can use this data to better understand how players, and by extension, law enforcement might react in certain situations in the real world.
 
There's more information about our research study over at https://research.lcpdfr.com/ where you can also opt in to take part.  I should note that as a thank you for helping with this, the universities have given us a couple of $50 Amazon gift cards that anyone who participates in the study will be entered into a lottery to win.
 
 
Changes to pursuits, a new apartment and more interaction.
 
Back on the topic of the other stuff in LSPDFR 0.4.9, though, one of the biggest changes that you'll notice affects the NPC police response to pursuits, bringing a new sense of variety to the way in which situations can be handled by responding officers.  Instead of all pursuits within LSPDFR being treated exactly the same, we've split up the system into two modes: Investigation and Chase.
 
A new 'confrontation' during an investigation, conducted entirely by NPC officers.
 
In the Investigation state, we no longer consider a Pursuit to be an actual chase - if that makes sense.  Instead, there's a little room for diversity in the actions of the officers and the suspects, rather than just someone running and the officers following.  So, in our initial implantation of this we've created a new response scenario where the responding officers will approach a suspect at a walking pace, usually with a hand on their holster.  They'll point at the suspect, call out for them to stop, and the system then takes over from there depending on the suspect's response, with the potential the suspect to either resist and escalate the Pursuit into the Chase state (which is what we're all currently familiar with), or for them to surrender peacefully and be arrested without any theatrics.
 
Moving on from this change, there's a couple of new features that've snuck their way in to LSPDFR 0.4.9 as well, including a new Downtown Los Santos apartment that not only boasts an absolutely killer city view, but is also conveniently opposite the FIB and IAA buildings - perfect for those of you that like your LSPDFR with a side of paperwork and federal bureaucracy.
 
You can also now seamlessly sit down on most chairs and benches throughout the game world with the tap of a button.
 
LSPDFR 0.4.9:
Download and release notes: https://www.lcpdfr.com/files/file/7792-lspd-first-response Release Highlights: https://www.lcpdfr.com/lspdfr/04/highlights/  
Our Research Study with BYU and UBC:
More Information: https://research.lcpdfr.com/  
We hope that you enjoy this update for LSPDFR and that you'll also help us out with our new research project, which we think is a really worthwhile opportunity for all of us and something that will be genuinely rewarding to take part in - it's not every day that major universities partner up with a game mod and we're thrilled to be able to take part in this.
 
If you are having problems with LSPDFR 0.4.9, please do not post about them in this topic, but use the support forums instead.
Before you do, though, read through this topic: https://www.lcpdfr.com/forums/topic/89691-read-will-save-your-time-common-issues-fixes-and-bugs/
 
There are a lot of fixes for common problems in there.

Updated for the latest GTA Online update: Further Adventures in Finance and Felony.
Alright, I've been thinking about doing this since a while. "But, Hystery, why would you bother doing a whole thread about this? Especially since it seems to have taken quite some time to write." you may ask. Well, I could say that it is because I'm a philantropist, but I'm not a good liar. Nah, the main reason is that I find it a bit sad and irritating to see the same topics popping out over and over again in the support section with the same questions and the same fixes that have already been repeated when it comes to installing car mods. So I thought I'd actually give a bit of myself to try and solve the problem. Yes, I'm nice like that. Anyway, now that this introduction is done, let's jump into the fun stuff.
Note: if you see clicky stuff, click it, it'll lead you to a page related to what I'm talking about.
First, you have to make sure you've the tools to mod your game properly for modded cars. Those tools include:
OpenIV (includes the OpenIV.asi and ASI loader that have to be installed with it)
Common sense
Yes, common sense is a tool, and can come incredibly handy. But gladly for you, thanks to this thread, it will not be mandatory (even though strongly recommended) as I'll address most of the common problems encountered when a car mod is not working as intended. Don't worry, you'll get used to my passive-aggressiveness. It's part of my charm! Jokes aside, let's move on.

 
/!\ IMPORTANT /!\: USE A MODS FOLDER. IF YOU DON'T AND END UP SCREWING YOUR GAME, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT.

 

 
Basic information: the whys

 
Something to understand very well and is important to know before starting to install car mods is how Rockstar organized their files, and what are those files. Let's take a look at the second before talking about the first. Files come in various forms. The ones that will be of interest to us are .rpf archives (Rage Package File). Why? Because they contain all data of the game, and most importantly all the 3D models of the game, from the subway wagons to the trashmaster truck, passing by the different kinds of peds in the game. Though only the ones containing cars will be of use: the vehicles.rpf archives. They contain ALL the vehicles of the game. No exception. So far so good? Alright, let's talk about the file organization.
Over time, Rockstar released different updates for GTA Online. You may have heard of it, that's the updates breaking Ragehook and Scripthook every time they are released. Those DLCs are all located in one single location. The thing is, when Rockstar released new vehicles, they released them in the form of new vehicles.rpf archives. Sometimes it contains just 2 or 3 new cars, sometimes more, and sometimes it contains updated versions of already existing models. This last part is VERY important. The game works in such a way that it will load the cars of the game starting from the most recent released vehicles.rpf, and then will go back in time in the different updates installed. That means that the most recent versions of the cars will be loaded first and will override the previous versions of the said cars as they are judged obsolete. That's why you can find the police3 model in the vehicles.rpf archive in the DLC folder called patchday4ng, but it is also present in an older vehicles.rpf archive in an older DLC folder. The one in the patchday4ng DLC folder was released more recently on the timeline and thus is loaded first in the game, and overrides its previous version. Keep that in mind, it's very important for the next part.

 

 
Installing car mods in my game: the hows

 
To install a police car mod, you need to replace the in-game model with the car you want. It must fill one of the existing slots, that are detailed below.
fbi (unmarked Bravado Buffalo 1st Gen)
fbi2 (unmarked Declasse Granger)
police (LSPD Vapid Stanier 2nd Gen)
police2 (LSPD Bravado Buffalo 1st Gen)
police3 (LSPD Vapid Interceptor)
police4 (unmarked Vapid Stanier 2nd Gen)
policeb (LSPD police bike)
policet (LSPD police transport)
policeold1 (North Yankton Declasse Rancher)
policeold2 (North Yankton Albany Esperanto)
pranger (Park Ranger Declasse Granger)
riot (LSPD/NOoSE Riot)
sheriff (LSSD Vapid Stanier 2nd Gen)
sheriff2 (LSSD Declasse Granger)
Any police car that does not replace one of those slots is considered an add-on and needs specific manipulations that WILL NOT BE EXPLAINED HERE. We're here to talk about original police car slots.
Now. Those cars are actually not located in one single vehicles.rpf archive. They are scattered a bit everywhere. If you wanted to be really cautious and tidy, you would have to replace each model in its actual location. For example, if you wanted to replace the police2 model, you would have to go to the DLC folder called patchday3ng, and replace the model in the vehicles.rpf archive it contains. If you wanted to replace the police3 model, you would have to go to the DLC folder called patchday4ng, and replace the model in the vehicles.rpf archive it contains, and so on with the different models and their actual locations. BUT! Do you remember when I said the game was loading cars starting from the most recent vehicles.rpf archives and then was going back in time? That's where the trick is, we can abuse this system. Basically, if you install ALL your police car mods within the most recent DLC patch, they will be loaded first and override the previous versions of the car slots you placed your cars in. That means that you need only ONE DLC folder with only ONE vehicles.rpf archive to install your police car mods. It makes everything easier. Let's put this in practice.
Installation: At the date of 09/06/2016, the latest DLC patch that has been released by Rockstar is the patch called patchday10ng. This DLC patch is located with all the other DLC patches, at this location: update/x64/dlcpacks. You will find the folder called patchday10ng there. Inside, you'll find a dlc.rpf. You will right click on it and click on "Copy to mods folder". Once done, you'll automatically be in the dlc.rpf archive, so you'll just have to navigate to x64/level/gta5, and you will find the vehicles.rpf archive. Open it, and as you'll find out, there's no police car in it. But we can make the game believe that there are police cars. Click on the Edit mod button and then on the green cross to IMPORT cars. Select the cars you want, don't forget to rename them to the name of the slot you want them to be, and simply import them. DONE! Yes, that's all you need to do. From there, the cars will spawn in your game at the slots you placed them into, because the game will load them and believe they are more recent version of the already existing police cars, and thus will override those. Crazy right?
Now now, let's calm our tatas there. That was only to install the 3D models. Most cars don't need more to work in your game. But some cars require a bit more attention than that, and when those cars need more manipulations, those manipulations are often detailed in readme files or similar provided with the said cars. Please. PLEASE. IF YOU SEE A README FILE, READ IT. It might seem like a silly request, but that's where common sense mentioned earlier comes into play. Many people ask for support when most of the time they simply did not read those installation instructions and slapped the car into their game without doing the manipulations mentioned. But before we get to that, let's talk about technical stuff.
As you may have noticed, the police model has halogen and LED lightbar, the police2 model has only LED lightbar, and the police3 model has rambar LEDs on top of having a LED lightbar. Because of those different setups, the lighting setups are different depending on the car, because the lights have to flash differently depending on what setup is on what car. That's why sometimes you will install a car in the police slot, and find out once in-game that the lights are actually not flashing properly and do weird stuff. That's because the lighting setup needs to be modified for the lights to work properly.
Those light setups are written in files called carvariation.meta. When a car mod works with a different lighting setup than the original model it is supposed to replace, you will find in the installation instructions something called carvariation.meta lines. Those lines of code will have to be installed in a carvariation.meta file that will be specified in the installation instructions. They are absolutely needed for the lights of the car to work properly. At this point, all you have to do is follow the instructions, do as they say and you're good to go. To modify a carvariation.meta file, or any .meta file, you will have to extract it somewhere with OpenIV, open it with a software like notepad, modify what has to be modified and then replace the original .meta file with the one you modified.
That's pretty much it. That doesn't seem that complicated now, does it? Well then, why do people encounter problems? I wonder as well. But let's look at the most common problems encoutered, and how to fix them.

 

 
Troubleshooting

 
"Help, the car I installed does not appear in game!"
Easy fix for that: install cars as I mentioned above. Most of the time, when the installed car doesn't spawn in game, that means that it has been installed in a specific vehicles.rpf that contains an obsolete version of the police model you wanted to replace. A more recent vehicles.rpf was released with an updated version of that police model, and thus the game loads it first, overriding the car you installed. As said, to fix this, install your car mods in the most recent DLC patch. Alternatively, it might also be caused by the fact you did not install the OpenIV.asi and the ASI loader, which you can do by clicking on the Tools tab in OpenIV and clicking on ASI Manager. You'll just have to click to install those two things.

 
"Help, the lights of my car are flashing weirdly/seem to be misplaced!"
Once again, easy fix. I see it happen often with cars having to be installed in the police, police3 and sheriff slot, but it can happen in different slots occasionally. When lights are not flashing properly or seem weird, like lights appearing mid-air, floating over the car and so on, that means that you did not modify the carvariation.meta lines I mentioned earlier and that should be included with the car you downloaded. Simply follow the installation instructions provided with the car and you should be good to go. Scroll up if you want to know the reasons behind this.

 
"Help, my car rolls over when I steer/take a corner!"
This is a specific problem. You see, every car in the game has what is called a handling line. That's what is defining how the car accelerate, brakes, turns, the weight of the car, how the weight is moved with inertia when the car is on movement, and so on. When a car is rolling over in corners and ends on the roof, most of the time it means that the original handling line is incompatible with the installed car. In those cases, most of the time a handling line is provided with the downloaded car to replace the original handling line with the modified one for the car to act normally/with specific perfomance. Those handling lines are in a file called handling.meta which is located in update/update.rpf/common/data. Remember to modify those files only once you copied them in the mods folder. In the rare cases were there are no handling line provided, there are two possible explanation: either you have to change the handling line by yourself, or you made a mistake at some point, and there's no real way we can help you. For the first case, you can modify what handling line the car you replaced uses by modifying the vehicles.meta file which is located in update/update.rpf/common/data/level/gta5. In this file, you'll find all the cars specifications. Simply press ctrl+F to open the search box, type what car you want to find, then once you found the dedicated lines for that model just scroll down to find a line starting with <handling> and finishing by </handling>. Between those two is the name of the handling line, which is often the name of the car it was made for. Just change the name to a car you think it fits better and see if it gives better results.

 
"Help, the lights of the lightbar are all white!"
Dear, I've seen this question one too many times. Just set your Shaders and PostFX settings to High or above in the graphic options tab of your game. Also, USE THE DAMN SEARCH BAR BEFORE ASKING THAT AGAIN. Dozens of people already created threads about that, you can get your answer from them instead of creating another thread. Matter of politeness for the moderators trying to keep the forums clean.

 
"Help, how do I install textures on my car!"/"Help, the texture I installed is all distorded/misplaced!"
Unrelated to car installation, but since I'm a nice guy, I'll tell you anyway. For that, you'll have to open the .ytd file(s) of the car model you want to install the texture on in OpenIV. The .ytd are where all the textures of the car are located. Once opened, just scroll down and browse through all the textures to find where the original car texture is and simply click on replace once you selected it, and select what texture you want to replace it with. Alternatively, you can find how this texture is actually called, give the texture you want to apply the same name, click on import and select that texture for it to automatically replace the original one. Now, for the second question. Every car has what we call a template. It's basically a 2D scheme of the car's bodywork. It allows skin modders to make skins properly. Every car has its own template. Sometimes, similar models even have different templates! Yes, I know it's a bit annoying, but you'll have to live with it. Any texture released is made for specific templates/cars, and works only on those models. Don't try to apply a texture made for a 2014 Dodge Charger on a 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe, it won't work.
 
 
"Help, I installed many textures on a car but only the first one shows up in game!" A particular problem that occurs only for a few police slots. You see, there are two categories of police cars in the game. The ones that have a pool of unit numbers so the cars can spawn with random unit numbers when they dispatch, and the cars that don't have that. In the first category, you can find police, police2, police3 for example. In the second category, you can find fbi, fbi2, police4 for example. For that category, we say that the cars are not multi-livery enabled, means they only have one livery and spawn always with the same, on the contrary of the cars in the first category that can spawn with various, different liveries. To solve this, it's very easy. You installed a car and only one livery shows up when there are supposed to be more than that? Find in what slot you installed that car, then go to update/update.rpf/common/data/level/gta. You'll find a file called vehicles.meta. Extract it somewhere. Once done, open it with notepad or a similar software and look for the name of the police slot you installed the car in. Once you find them, scroll down to find a line filled with a bunch of 'FLAG_HAS_STUFF'. Simply add 'FLAG_HAS_LIVERY' at the end of it, and save. Then replace the original vehicles.meta file with the one you modifed, and you're good to go.
 
 
"Help, all my windows are tinted pitch black, and my lightbar doesn't light up because of that! It's a problem that is, to my knowledge, inherent to only the sheriff2 and pranger files. It makes some models having pitch black tinted windows, and since many models have the lightbar glass of the same material as the windows, it tints the lightbar glass as well, preventing the lights from flashing through. There's a very easy fix for that. Search for the vehicles.meta file located in update/update.rpf/common/data/level/gta5, and extract it somewhere. Open the extracted file with notepad or similar software, and press Ctrl+F to open the search bar. Search for the name of the car slot you installed your modded car in and causing this problem. Once you found the car lines, scroll down until you find a line that looks like this:
<diffuseTint value="0xAA0A0A0A" />
And replace it with this:
<diffuseTint value="0x00FFFFFF" />
It'll make the windows transparent and make the lightbar light up.
 
 
That's all I can think of on top of my head. Hopefully this will help people. If you see someone creating a support thread about a non-working car mod, feel free to redirect them here. If this helped you in any way, feel free to leave a like. Took me forever to write all that down.

Hot off the release of LSPDFR 0.4 a couple of months ago, we're upping the ante with another update which brings not only sweeping improvements to the LSPDFR 0.4 API, but also some unique features which have long been requested.
 
Originally, the plan was merely to release 0.4.2 as a quick follow-up to 0.4 and 0.4.1 - just simple fixes and changes, plus the API improvements to help developers make the most of 0.4.  Necessary changes, but not really cool enough, right?  So, with that in mind we took a little time to dig back into the archives of LSPDFR and revisit some of our old concepts and ideas.  Now, while some of these are actually in the mod - they're most likely either tucked away as 'easter eggs' or just disabled because they weren't quite right.
 
If you're a connoisseur of traffic stops, for example, you might've noticed that occasionally the unexpected and oh so demoralizing experience of pulling over a federal agent hits you right in the feels as they arrogantly flash their shiny badge, tell you where to stick your comparatively less shiny badge, and drive off.  (If you haven't seen this before, here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNOxZR2ak0M)
 
Originally the plan was to add this as a feature for players to use, but it just didn't quite fit in with 0.3, and we had some trouble with the animation not being quite as fluid as we'd like.  That was then, though, and given that you now play as your own character both on and off duty, we thought it'd be a bit of a must-have now, so we've tidied it up and are introducing it as a player action in 0.4.2.
 

 
With one quick glance at the shimmering shield, her problems are suddenly your problems.  (Note, a custom badge model is shown instead of the default FIB one - you will be able to define custom models to use on a per-agency basis)
 
Now, not only does this look exceedingly awesome, but it serves a practical purpose too.  Available both on and off-duty, showing your badge will clear any wanted level and may also instill the fear of the law in nearby citizens, potentially de-escalating the otherwise unavoidable confrontations that flare when you walk around Mirror Park without the latest iFruit phone, for example!
 
Of course, that's not all.  Continuing with the idea of adding things that are just generally cool, we know that people have wanted a ballistic shield feature in LSPDFR for quite some time.  Sure, you can spawn one with a trainer or download another mod, but it's just not quite the same is it? 
 
We thought it'd be particularly sweet to have it at your fingertips instead, fully integrated with LSPDFR, ready to kick some butt.
 

 
As if being Frank Tenpenny isn't cool enough...
 
Our ballistic shield, accessed from the Interaction Menu, uses our new animation system in 0.4.2 which we think looks absolutely gorgeous.  There's also the freedom to switch between Stealth and Action mode which will vary your pose accordingly, compatibility with most weapons and the potential for future AI support.
 
Oh yeah, did we mention you can actually arrest people at gunpoint while holding a freaking shield?!
 
Keep your eyes open for LSPDFR 0.4.2, coming soon.
 

So, it's been a while since we've provided an update on LSPDFR 0.4.  As you might've guessed from the title, though, there's a good reason for this...  It has taken us a lot of work to get to this point, and in the last couple of months alone we've made hundreds and hundreds of changes.  Anyway, here we are - who knows how many months late - but we're here.  No riddles, no treasure hunts, no @MSA (at least I'm pretty sure they're not here), but straight to the point!  We can now confirm that we'll be releasing LSPDFR 0.4 in February, 2019.  
 
Anyway... with the scary part out of the way, I wanted to take the opportunity to explain ourselves a little.  No, @LMS wasn't renditioned to an IAA black site, no I didn't fall victim to the Orbital Cannon, and no...  the ghost of @ineseri didn't drive a train into us.  Perfectly plausible scenarios given our silence about 0.4 as of late, but we're actually still alive.  Instead, we've been pretty busy rushing to the finish line as far as 0.4 is concerned, and to complement the big news above, we thought we'd throw in a couple of sweeteners below to show just how much 0.4 is going to change things. 
 
We've talked a lot about our Character system in LSPDFR 0.4.  It's one of the biggest changes to the mod, but we also think it represents an entirely new direction in general.  I say this because, not only does it allow us to have a bunch of really cool stuff natively integrated into the mod, like customizing a character, but it also lets us have a bunch of other really cool stuff natively integrated into the mod!  Having your own character dials up the immersion quite substantially, but we wanted to take things to another level.  We thought, for example, wouldn't it be cool if instead of spawning as Franklin in Franklin's house, you could instead, say, I don't know?  Actually spawn as your own character, in their house.  Or maybe, instead of switching to Trevor and your camera panning down to him being pursued by the LSPD, you could switch to one of your other characters, and "Google Earth" down to them being the LSPD. 
 
LSPDFR 0.4 introduces a fully functional GTA Online Apartment to single-player, complete with transition sequences, working interactions and more Steve Haines than you can handle.
 
It's not just that, though, we really wanted to dial it up.  Having your own character, them having an apartment, switching, customizing, it's all cool, right?  But you might be thinking, what's the point?  These are "multiplayer features".  And sure, LSPDFR is and most likely always will be a single-player mod, but that doesn't mean we can't think outside of the box every once in a while. 
 
Recently, @Cyan, in addition to all of her work on the website, has also been developing an all new framework called LSPDFR Sync.  LSPDFR Sync lets you connect up to your LSPDFR.com account in-game, and you can then synchronize your LSPDFR characters with your LSPDFR.com profile.  To top it off, we've brought back statistics too.  Ever wanted to know how many shots your character has fired?  It's as simple as taking a look at your character's profile on the site - which, we should add, you can actually edit.
 

 

 
LSPDFR Sync provides all-new, seamless connectivity with your LSPDFR.com profile.
 
And frankly, it doesn't even end there.  When I said before that we wanted to dial the immersion up to the max, I guess I lied.  What I actually meant to say was that we'd just ripped the dial clean off the controls, strapped it to a rocket, and sent the damn thing up to the moon.  Not only can you now create a character, customize them, share them, spawn as them...  You can actually do things as them too!  Like, actual game things.  Ever wanted to run the triathalon as your LSPDFR Character?  Now you can.  Or, how about practicing with your sidearm down at the range?  Yep, got that too.  Simply want a can of sprunk from a vending machine?  No problem.
 

 
With the introduction of a new innovative system by @LMS, it's now possible to do many of the single-player minigames while playing as your LSPDFR Character.
 
Of course, with the Character system, and all of the features that come with it, being such a huge part of LSPDFR 0.4 it'd be easy to forget that this is a police mod.  Indeed, I think we almost did given the grotesquely gargantuan amount of work that has gone into it.  Fear not, though, as we have also been working on some incredible new gameplay features too, including massive improvements to interaction with suspects and people that you arrest.
 
LSPDFR 0.4 introduces, in a game-changing way, the ability to take hold of and drag arrested suspects.  Yes, we know that there's some great API mods which have held the fort, and we're grateful for that, but this is something we wanted to get absolutely right, and indeed, we think the result is simply stunning.  The possibilities are pretty far-reaching too and encompass just about everything from shoving suspects up against cruisers, to personally escorting them into their cells.  
 

 

 
No, these aren't cutscenes.  No, they're not edited screenshots.  With 0.4, this is real.

Will probably never happen. Our governments have unofficial "buy American" mandates.  And I doubt the cost of importing, outfitting and maintaining European vehicles can compete with the costs of sticking with American.

Heathen!

All I can say is, Sam and LMS are extremely busy with LSPDFR - It takes up a lot of their time. You have to keep in mind, they're not some triple A company with unlimited budgets. They're fans of this video game we all love to hate, and play. 
It's done when it's done, as always! I'm in no rush, there are other games out there to play as well. I promise. Enjoy GTA Online, for example 😉

Thanks to the devs for this free content they are providing to us on their free time.  Perhaps they intended to release it earlier and got busy with real life / family.  Occupy your time with other games and all of your hype will return when you read "LSPDFR 0.4 - Now Released."

This is the fifth and final part of our LSPDFR 0.4 Preview Series.  Not caught up yet?  Check out the rest of this series here: https://www.lcpdfr.com/forums/forum/880-news-updates/
 
One of the things we like most about developing new versions of LSPDFR is that with each version we have the opportunity not only to work on major new features, but also the smaller details that our mods have come to be known for over the years.  Of course, 0.4 is no different in this regard and a lot has obviously changed since the early days of LSPDFR, offering us with a bunch of new ways to focus our attention to detail.
 
More Realism
 
Getting straight to the point, a significant change that we're making in 0.4 relates to how the player is perceived within the game's world.  Now, while this obviously isn't a sexy, new, video-worthy showstopper of a feature, it is nonetheless an important development behind-the-scenes - one that we think, despite its subtlety, will have a positive impact on your gameplay.
 
In 0.4, you'll notice that while on duty, other characters within the world will treat and react to you differently.  As GTA V was never a game about being a cop, it's easily understandable that when you quite simplistically do become a cop - while keeping the underlying theme of the game - there's going to be things that don't feel quite right.  You might notice, for example, that other characters within the world are overly aggressive towards you, itching for a fight at the slightest confrontation, or sometimes in the absence of any confrontation at all.  Conversely, the opposite is often true where the most banal or routine encounter can send people hurrying away in abject panic.  Both of these reactions are problematic as people generally don't just spontaneously approach a cop and proceed to cuss them out, nor do they begin hysterically fleeing at the sight of a stun gun. 
 

 
Stun gun hysteria and stampedes no longer, LSPDFR 0.4 introduces more 'contemporary' reactions, like everyone summoning their inner videographer.
 
These adjustments to the game's core apply in a number of other cases too, of course.  We thought it was pretty unlikely that the typical reaction to a police officer standing in front of someone's car would be for the driver to flip them off, and then - as if that wasn't enough - to then run them over for good measure.  Likewise, it was always pretty ridiculous that you can't enter another police officer's car as a passenger without them freaking out and thinking that you're trying to steal it.  All of these behaviors have been adjusted, and we think that you'll feel far more like an actual cop within the world - rather than just a retired bank robber dressing up with a badge.
 
And yes, while there are a number of mods out there that can help to mitigate many of the scenarios I've described above, they don't really offer a comprehensive and consistent solution simply due to technical restraints.  Our changes are at a much lower level and offer us a higher degree of control on a per-character basis.  This is great for flexibility and performance, and we think you'll really notice the difference when out and about on patrols.
 
New Interaction Menu
 
Sticking with the topic of small detail, increasing the level of interaction in LSPDFR is something that's very important to us - especially with the new focus on character in LSPDFR 0.4.  Indeed, we previously showed off a number of new interaction options that will be available during vehicle pursuits, but we've also taken the time to make big improvements to the more general Interaction Menu, offering you most of the features currently available in GTA Online, but with an LSPDFR twist.  Among the changes to the Interaction Menu are "quality of life" improvements like being able to quickly waypoint the nearest police station, as well as additions like new dialogue, actions and the ability to set your character's mood.
 
Similarly, you can now also change the way that your character walks, but it doesn't quite stop there as in keeping with the general idea we outlined above of making the game feel more suited towards being a cop, there's a special "Cop" walk style that not only makes your character walk around like an officer, but also completely replaces their generic "idle" animations - subtle movements that your character makes while stationary - with more appropriate police styled ones.
 

 
The more feature-complete Interaction Menu in LSPDFR 0.4 enhances your control, allowing for greater immersion.
 
Additionally, we've carried over this level of detail to the Police Radio options too, replacing the static animation that currently plays in this menu with a number of different options that can be cycled between instead, including a nifty new LAPD style handheld radio (as well as the option to play no animation at all).  Again, this is a small detail, but we hope that the enhanced level of immersion will be welcomed - especially if playing as an FIB Agent and communicating via an earpiece instead of a shoulder mic, for example.
 

 
New technology in LSPDFR 0.4 produces incredibly lifelike scenes - you can freely move while using the police radio without any animation issues like arms being locked in place, etc.
 
Finally, still on the topic of detail, we've topped things off by adding a proper police flashlight to LSPDFR 0.4.  Yes, we know that there's a bunch of ways to use a flashlight currently whether it be the vanilla one that looks like it's straight out of a horror movie, or through other mods which suffer from animation problems, but ours is a little different.
 
Already alluded to in the first preview we gave of LSPDFR 0.4, our flashlight is properly held above the head and can be used both by the player and other NPC officers.  It doesn't affect player movement, and you can freely walk, run, sprint, etc. while still holding the light.  If enabled, equipping it is a seamless process too - simply select the flashlight from the weapon wheel and LSPDFR will take care of the rest.
 

 
The new flashlight in LSPDFR 0.4 tops off our efforts to bring more immersion and realism to the mod.
 
Ambient Crime
 
In our previous post detailing some of the technology behind LSPDFR 0.4, we mentioned that we had added Scenarios to 0.4 - scripted events that could take place during pursuits and traffic stops.  Similarly, we also noted that 0.4 introduces a new Crime System, capable of actually recognizing crimes that take place in the game world and providing functionality for the player to get involved by reporting these.   Expanding upon this idea, we wanted to make sure that we fully realised the ambient world that Grand Theft Auto V provides, and to do this we've manipulated a couple of lesser-used features within the original game.
 
In the normal game, the player will sometimes be confronted by other characters within the world as a result of the agitation system built into the game which allows NPCs to insult or shove the player, for example.  In LSPDFR 0.4, as a result of some research by @LMS,  we've now been able to implement the same system, but for NPCs instead.  This means that NPCs can become agitated with each other, begin trading insults, get into angry shouting matches, or eventually, physical confrontations.  Plus, as these are actually 'legitimate' game events, other characters nearby will react appropriately, which also ties in really nicely with the Crime System and provides the player with something other to do than respond to dispatches or pull over vehicles - there's now hopefully much more actually happening within the world and consequently, more things for the player to notice while on patrol.
 

 
Manipulating the game's agitation system results in a much richer world - seen here are two NPCs engaging in a spontaneous confrontation.
 
Note that screenshots show LSPDFR player and non-player-characters wearing some outfits from EUP - which is entirely optional - special thanks to @Alex_Ashfold for his collaboration with us and for providing a development copy of EUP 8.0.
 
Thanks for reading the preview.  We appreciate your patience as we put the finishing touches on LSPDFR 0.4 and hope to have more news soon.

Good god, you guys made the police pursuit AI actually sensible in V? There's no other word for you, you're wizards.

Everytime you guys release a new update, I feel like a child on christmas evening 😄
Keep up the good work, I'm really looking forward to lspdfr 0.4!

This is the fourth part of our LSPDFR 0.4 Preview Series.  Not caught up yet?  Check out the rest of this series here: https://www.lcpdfr.com/forums/forum/880-news-updates/
 
It's probably the most critical component of the mod, so it follows that with any new version of LSPDFR, you can be pretty confident that the underlying systems which enable police pursuit gameplay will be updated.  LSPDFR 0.4 is, of course, no different in this regard, and following on with the general theme of 0.4's development (which is more less pulling everything out and ripping it to pieces), we've taken the opportunity to revamp much of the pursuit gameplay in the mod.
 
As an aside, we had hoped to publish this preview at an earlier date but unfortunately due to both @LMS and myself being away from home, on various different continents in the past month or so this was a little difficult.  Nonetheless, we hope that you enjoy this preview and that it nicely illustrates just a couple of the changes that we've made to pursuits, as alluded to in our last post about AI improvements.
 
 
Pursuit Interaction Menu
 
Since LSPDFR 0.3, we've had an Interaction Menu, à la GTA Online, which has, as you would expect, facilitated interaction between you as a player and your character and their job as a cop.  While this is cool and all, there's definitely a number of areas where the interaction in LSPDFR falls a little short, with pursuits being perhaps the most obvious.
 
In LCPDFR for GTA IV, there were a couple of toggles available during pursuits - notably the option to force or disable the usage of lethal force.  With 0.4, however, we think we've far surpassed that by introducing a handful of new options which definitely provide more control than ever.  
 

 
The Pursuit Interaction Menu in LSPDFR 0.4 offers advanced controls for the current pursuit, as well as the ability to disengage.
 
The cool thing about the new Interaction options for Pursuits is that it ties in nicely with the new customization options introduced in 0.4, and covered earlier in our previews.  So, not only can you define and configure law enforcement agencies to your liking, but you can also carry this through to pursuits too by designating a specific agency to handle the chase.  If, for example, a pursuit that starts in Los Santos crosses multiple jurisdictions then it's entirely probable that you'll end up with a number of agencies joining, which depending on the circumstances and/or your own preferences, might not be so desirable.  With the new Interaction options, you could simply specify that the initiating agency (i.e. the LSPD in this case) handles the pursuit, leaving the other agencies to mind their own business.
 
Similarly, there's a lot of other practical usefulness be found in these options: we've brought back the ability to force on/off the usage of lethal force against pursuit suspects, and there's also the ability to enable or disable pursuit intervention tactics (more on these below).
 
And of course, for those in search of the ultimate exercise in boredom (I mean, err, realism), then you might find that setting a pursuit into Tracking Mode - where ground units will hang back and follow from a distance, leaving your small air force of helicopters following above to do all the work in true Angeleno fashion - makes you feel so much more at home.
 
 
Pursuit Intervention Techniques
 
As alluded to above, LSPDFR 0.4 also introduces a number of changes to the artificial intelligence in pursuits.  Currently, the main tactic employed by NPCs in GTA V during pursuits is to rather aimlessly ram into the back of the suspect vehicle in the unrealistic belief that this is actually going to help end the pursuit.  Of course, this usually just results in the cop crashing into oblivion, and it looks really, really dumb too. 
 
So, naturally, one of the coolest new additions to LSPDFR 0.4 is the implementation of a working PIT maneuver:
Demonstration of NPC officers bringing a pursuit to a safe conclusion through successful usage of the new PIT maneuver in LSPDFR 0.4
YouTube version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiFFFho3hd0
 
 
As cool as this is, we know that NPCs performing PITs may not be to everyone's taste, and that it may not be suitable in every circumstance, so these can easily be enabled or disabled on-the-fly, during a pursuit, through the Interaction menu by changing the Tactics option.  If pursuit Tactics are disabled, pursuing NPCs will not attempt PIT maneuvers, and they will also shy away from most other advanced tactics, like blocking.
 

 
A closer look at the termination of the pursuit, with the suspects surrendering, after a successful usage of the PIT maneuver.
 
 
Air Support
 
Throughout the history of our two mods, air support has always been a touchy subject.  For those of you who played LCPDFR, you will likely still carry with you many terrifying memories of those white and blue flying death machines.  In previous versions of LSPDFR, things generally weren't that much better either - especially when your pilot decides, in a moment of wisdom, that flying through the bridge, rather than over it, is the best course of action.
 
With 0.4, we've taken the time to address some of the most frustrating issues with air support, with a particular focus on dramatically increasing both the usefulness, and lifespan, of our helicopters.  Specifically, you'll notice that helicopters in LSPDFR now fly at a much more realistic height and will properly increase or decrease their altitude as the situation requires, such as when a pursuit is passing through a heavily built up area.  They're also far more competent at actually keeping up with the suspects they are pursuing and will do so with a degree of intelligence, rather than just trying to fly directly above them.
 

 
A watchful LSPD air support unit circles overhead, tracking as a suspect attempts to flee on foot.
 
Furthermore, we've built in special modes for our air units, giving them the ability not only to follow suspects, but also to conduct searches over wide areas - something which is especially useful when ground units have lost visual, or are attempting to locate a target.
 
In addition, our helicopters are also responsive to changes in the conditions of pursuits they follow - such as if a suspect is in a vehicle or not - and will adapt accordingly.  When tracking a suspect on foot, air units won't simply hover above them but will engage in a more realistic flying pattern where the aircraft seeks to maintain continuous movement, while operating varying angles to compensate for possible obstructions like buildings.
 

 
Not a helicopter, but just in case you were wondering what happened to the guy pictured above...
 

 
This, though, definitely is a helicopter.  It's also not flying at street level!
 
As always, stay tuned for more news about LSPDFR 0.4 as we progress towards its completion.

Likewise; I'm waiting for 0.4 to re-up LSPDFR and start policing again. Can't wait!

Likewise; I'm waiting for 0.4 to re-up LSPDFR and start policing again. Can't wait!

Not gonna lie, when the site was down the other day I was thinking LSPDFR was updated. Sigh.
Well, good to hear another update though.
 
I made a vow to not reinstall LSPDFR until the 0.4 release though. I'd rather not install 2000000 scripts for them to be useless the next day (or there about).
 
Thanks for the amazing work and making LSPDFR what it is! I would've never found my creative abilities in texture designs if it wasn't for this mod. Keep up the outstanding job, and here's to many more years; Cheers!

This sounds amazing! We probably need a clean install of GTA (do we?) which is all set up and done. But now I'm really in the mood to go out policing again, but that would mean I need to reinstall again soon. What to do, what to do...

This is the third part of our LSPDFR 0.4 Preview Series.  Not caught up yet?  Check out the initial announcement here: https://www.lcpdfr.com/forums/topic/81745-lspdfr-04-announcement-first-preview
 
So, this article is a little bit different than most.  Recently, a number of people have expressed an interest in hearing some more details about the technology behind LSPDFR 0.4, including some of the developments that we've made with respect to artificial intelligence in the mod and also perhaps some more information about the ways in which LSPDFR 0.4 can be customized through code.  While exact details like this are a little difficult to provide as plans can, and often do, change - we've gathered together a number of new systems and features to present here which we think both developers and players alike will be looking forward to.
 
 
The Crime System
 
To start with, one of the new systems that we've introduced in LSPDFR 0.4 is the not-very-originally-named Crime System.  The Crime System was originally developed as an expansion of what we had previously done in LCPDFR 1.0 where players could press ALT + E to 'call in' things that had happened, with the key example being a suspect taking off from a traffic stop - units wouldn't respond until it had been called in.
 
This is back in LSPDFR 0.4, but with a big twist.  The Crime System recognises a number of different events which could take place in-game (called Crime Events), such as a person firing a weapon, a car being stolen or somebody being run over.  Each time one of these things (and a couple of others) happens in-game, it's picked up by LSPDFR so that our systems can react to it.  This gives us similar functionality to LCPDFR 1.0, where if you're attacked by a criminal then you're able to report this and the criminal will be targeted properly by other units, but it also opens up some new possibilities that we've added for LSPDFR, including the ability for nearby civilians to actually call 911 if they witness a crime.
 

 
The Crime System allows for far greater interaction with GTA V's rich environment, providing a more dynamic experience during patrols.
 
The cool thing about this is that since GTA V is a very rich game in terms of the ambient environment, it's actually quite possible that crimes like this can take place in the game and we think it makes things a whole lot more immersive when you can actually react to them with the full support of LSPDFR behind you, rather than having to engage in a mad dash after someone in the vain hope that you'll catch up before they turn a corner and disappear! 
 
Plus, the Crime System will be available in the API for LSPDFR 0.4, easily allowing developers to add new Crime Events by specifying the crime, victim and suspect.  This could be useful, for example, in a drunk driver callout where the player searches for the offending vehicle.  Once they've found it, they'll be able to report this to dispatch and trigger a pursuit, without the need for any additional code - a lot more convenient than having to handle this manually.
 
 
Scenarios
 
Sticking with the topic of improvements to a lot of the technology that powers LSPDFR, we've added all new functionality throughout the mod for custom Scenarios.  In general, we like to think of Scenarios as short ambient sequences which can just spontaneously happen within the world.  In addition to this, though, we also support Scenarios across a couple of our other systems, like both pursuits and traffic stops.  This opens up a bunch of new opportunities for gameplay as just like in real life, there's now so much more that could happen during a traffic stop.  Perhaps they exit their vehicle while you're approaching?  Do they have a weapon, or are they just angry and complaining?
 

 
From 'routine' traffic stops gone totally wrong to suspects ditching their cars and bailing, Scenarios add all new depth to LSPDFR.
 
The best bit about Scenarios, though, is that we've also added them to the LSPDFR 0.4 API, and while we've come up with a few of our own, we know that there's many developers who will knock it out of the park in their attempts to find new and interesting ways of enhancing the experience with Scenarios.   Be it by creating new situations that can happen during traffic stops, devising new ways that pursuit suspects will attempt to elude officers, or even by taking advantage of some of the other additions to 0.4, like the Crime System for example, to add a bunch of new ambient crimes throughout the game, we think that the new Scenario system will add much more depth and variety to LSPDFR.
 

 
The scene after an escaped pursuit suspect's burned out vehicle was located.
 
 
Artificial Intelligence
 
Finally, in 0.4, we've re-worked a lot of our artificial intelligence.  We'll be sharing more details about these improvements, particularly as it relates to the overhauled pursuit system, in the near future but for now here's a taste of things to come, with some technical explanation, from our very own @LMS
 
 
Stay tuned for more news about 0.4, coming soon.

hopefully this gets released soon been checking back for what feels like months now

Now if only ELS would get updated...

Now if only ELS would get updated...

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

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.