Regardless of whether it makes sense or not: You just have to love the modding community for something like this.
One thing I especially love about playing on the PC is modding. I don’t make my own mods, but I’m always amazed by how much time, effort, and passion players put into them.
They can enhance the gaming experience, customize it to your liking, or even create something entirely new—as in the case of the giant GTA created by modder DryxioGTA.
I don’t know how he came up with the idea, but I love it anyway:He’s made it so thatGTA 3andVice Cityalso run inGTA San Andreas. He’s also added a handy portal gun so you can switch seamlessly back and forth between the games. But see for yourself:
One Game, Three Instances
In a separate comment on the video linked above, the modder goes into more detail about the technical aspects of the implementation, and they are absolutely remarkable:
- All three games run within the same process and share a single Direct3D device.
- Each portal is a live GPU texture—the other game is actually running behind it and is not a video or a captured window.
- Walking through a portal switches control to the respective engine, while the others continue running in the background.
- Bullets can fly through portals and hit NPCs and vehicles in another game.
- Each game maintains its own save files, missions, and settings.
- Each world continues to run its own AI, traffic, and physics in real time.
With this, the modder fulfills a dream over 20 years old—one I only now realize I had.One of my favorite things to do in GTA was to cause mayhem and reach the maximum wanted level—and with this mod, you can do that in three games at once!
Admittedly, the mod doesn’t make much sense from a gameplay perspective. After all, you can ultimately only control one of the GTA titles at a time, and aside from the ability to switch between worlds and shoot at objects in the other world through the portals, there’s no connection between the three games.
Still, it reminds me fondly of *Day of the Tentacle* with its three time levels, and the ability to play the LucasArts classic *Maniac Mansion* within that adventure—and, of course, Valve’s *Portal*.
So, dear game developers: Make more use of portals in your games again, and the more you think outside the box—and let us players think outside the box too—the better!
