SA – The Essential Fixes – Steam Solo (2024)

Overview

A guide on how to downgrade the retail Second Edition re-prints, Steam, and Rockstar Games Launcher versions of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to the original v1.0 release, and restore many of the missing features from the PlayStation 2 version, fix leftover issues, and bring modding support back with community-made mods and fixes.

Introduction

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is third PlayStation 2-era Grand Theft Auto ported onto Windows PC in 2005, following after the PC releases of Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City. However, each subsequent re-release on PC manages to become worse than the last with even less features, more problems, and in some cases anti-modding restrictions to deter modding the game ever since the “Hot Coffee” fiasco, making it one of the worst ways to experience or relive one of the most largest and ambitious installments of the Grand Theft Auto series. Thankfully the modding community has not only stepped up and provided us the tools needed to downgrade the “Second Edition” re-prints, the latest Steam version, and now the new Rockstar Games Launcher version back to the original v1.0 release, we can also improve upon the PC version with various mods and fixes, arguably making it the best way to play Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on PC.

Why downgrade the Second Edition, Steam, and RGL versions?

Simply put, there’s a LOT wrong with these newer re-releases. Unlike Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City where downgrading (i.g. simply replace their respective executable files for the non-RGL versions with a v1.0 executable) was required for certain plugins and mods to work in those games, the Second Edition and later the Rockstar Games Launcher versions of San Andreas cannot be modded, while the Steam and Rockstar Games Launcher versions also have a plethora of issues and cutbacks that a simple file replacement can’t fix. For those interested in seeing all the problems the Steam version, check out this video by Vadim M to point them out or see the short version below. While the info on the video pertains to the latest Steam version, many of the same problems from the Rockstar Games Launcher version are apparent as well.

The problem with SE, Steam, and RGL versions: the short version

• The retail Second Edition and Rockstar Games Launcher versions CANNOT BE MODDED, and if you try to do mod it, it will purposefully crash in the former’s case or will actively prevent/undo modifications thanks to the DRM of the latter, most likely as Rockstar’s way of getting back at modders for the “Hot Coffee” fiasco

• The Steam and RGL versions are missing 1/10 of the game’s licensed soundtrack thanks to expired licenses and Rockstar not willing to get them renewed

• The Steam and RGL versions are outright ignores many major bugfixes from previous retail releases in place of a whooping two minor fixes while introducing other bugs (e.g. broken Armor bonus for completing the Vigilante mission that doesn’t work, which is also present in the Second Edition release)

• Save game incompatibilities with previous releases and caused by later updates in the Steam version for certain regions (e.g. Germany, Australia)

• Widescreen support, as with III and Vice City, is implemented very poorly, all while still missing 5:4 resolutions in the Steam and RGL versions

• Mediocre controller support for XInput-based controllers was added for the Steam and RGL versions while non-existent in the retail releases

The New San Andreas Downgraders

In order to bring the Second Edition, Steam, and Rockstar Games Launcher versions of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to a moddable state, you will need a couple of things. For the purpose of this guide, I will be focusing solely on the single-player aspects of the game as I do not have any experience with multiplayer mods such as San Andreas Multi-Player or Multi-Theft Auto, so that will be something you may want to explore on your own. I will also be focusing on restoring elements from the PlayStation 2 version.

How to use the New San Andreas Downgrader

Thanks to this set of new downgrader tools by Sam Lake from the GTA Forums, downgrading San Andreas, whether it’s the retail Second Edition or the digital re-releases on Steam and RGL, has become much easier and efficient to get the game moddable and install fixes afterwards!

1. Download the San Andreas Downgrader[gtaforums.com] that matches with the version of San Andreas that you have installed.
2. Extract the contents of the zip archive you just downloaded and place the files into the root of your Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas folder
3. Run the “install.bat” file and let the downgrader do its work. The tool will delete the files you don’t need anymore and the command prompt window will close automatically after it finishes downgrading the game.
4. Launch the game using the newly created gta-sa.exe executable. Do NOT use the old executable (e.g. gta-sa-steam-backup.exe or gta_sa.exe), especially if you’re using the Rockstar Games Launcher version which will open the launcher and try to undo the downgrade!

After a successful downgrade, you should also delete your game’s setting file to prevent potential crashes when launching the game if there’s one present, which can help preventing a crash when starting up the game. You can usually find the settings file for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas under your Documents folder inside the GTA San Andreas User Files folder as gta_sa.set. I also suggest backing up your downgraded copy if possible in case something happens to break the downgrade (e.g. a sudden Steam update, accidentally running the Rockstar Games Launcher) or rename the folder to something that Steam or the Rockstar Games Launcher can’t detect. All that is left now is to install some essential mods to address many of the issues the v1.0 release has and make even better.

The Essential Fixes

The following download is a collection of various community-made mods and fixes that can address leftover issues from the v1.0 release of the game and improve upon what the PC version can offer.

Before and After Comparison

As you can see on the left, the vanilla Steam and retail Second Edition versions are lacking the colored skies from the PlayStation 2 version, the aspect-ratio is badly distorted when playing in widescreen resolutions (even if you use the in-game widescreen setting), the GUI is in very low resolution and badly stretched out, and overall the game looks very poor, which is made even worse on Second Edition since you can’t mod it. On the right, after a successful downgrade and these fixes applied, you can see a vast improvement over the vanilla Steam and Second Edition versions, such as proper widescreen resolutions, the colored sky and atmosphere restored, better controller support with proper prompts, and higher quality GUI elements with proper HUD scaling.

Benefits of these fixes after downgrading

✔ Proper widescreen resolutions, FOV fixes, custom HUD and subtitles scaling, and an ASI loader for scripts and plugins (via Widescreen Fix and Silent’s ASI Loader respectively)

✔ Improved controller support with working vibration feedback and dynamic prompts between controller and keyboard (via GInput)

✔ The ability to restore the original PlayStation 2 atmosphere along with color filters and visual effects from the PlayStation 2, PC, Xbox, and Mobile versions (via SkyGfx)

✔ Bugs that were ignored in the Steam and Rockstar Games Launcher versions and remaining in previous retail releases can be fixed while restoring some missing features from the PlayStation 2 version (via SilentPatch)

✔ Allows the retail Second Edition, Steam, and Rockstar Games Launcher of the game to be mod-friendly, and with Link2012’s Mod Loader, you can use mods that don’t always require replacing core installation files and manage them through its in-game mod manager.

If you wish to experience these improvements for yourself, see the links below to install these fixes onto your newly downgraded version of San Andreas.

Download The Essential Fixes for San Andreas and Installation

Note: This assumes you have a clean installation and freshly downgraded version of San Andreas to minimize issues after installing these mods and fixes.

1. Download The Essential Fixes for San Andreas below:

   Download – v1.03a[1drv.ms]
   Mirror: mega (dot) nz/#F!uscFhSjL!HDFQY2h4OmAhVmYweRU8Tw

2. Extract the contents of the zip archive and copy the files to your Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas installation folder, overwriting any files in the process.
3. Tweak any settings of each mod’s .ini file if they support configuration files as desired, found under <path-to-GTA_SA>scripts folder or its root installation folder.

If you have any save files that have became incompatible after applying these fixes and downgrading the game to v1.0, see the following section below on how to convert your Steam save files to be compatible with the retail release.

Converting Save Files from the Steam and RGL Versions

Note: This is not guaranteed to work with save files that originated from certain regional versions when converting your save files after downgrading your game, so use this at your own discretion.

If you happen to have save files from the vanilla Steam version or Rockstar Games Launcher and want to fix compatibility issues when loading your save file to a downgraded and modded game, you can try and use this website created by the Grand Theft Auto modding community to convert your save files to an unmodded state that may work with your newly mod-friendly downgrade of the game. This site is also useful if you need to track your game’s progress and which missions you’ve completed.

How to use GTA Save N Play

1. Visit the GTA Save n Play here: [link]
2. Browse to where your save file folder can be found (e.g. “DocumentsGTA San Andreas User Files” ), then upload your save file to the site either by clicking on the dotted rectangle or dragging and dropping those files to the dotted rectangle.
3. Once your save file(s) has been successful uploaded, you can scroll down to the section marked Modifications, and from there you must set Binary/EXE Version, Script/SCM Version, and IPL Flags to the value of Unmodified, and leave everything thing else to No unless you experienced a particular glitch listed that you wish to fix.
4. After you have applied those fixes to your save file, you can now click any of the eight available save slots you wish to save your newly converted save to (use a different slot if you don’t want to overwrite the original Steam/v2.00 save file), then place the file back into your save game folder. Upon loading the save file you have converted, you should be able to resume from where you last left off.

Mobile to PC Research Project

The Mobile to PC Research Project is a community effort to bring many of the enhancements from the mobile port of San Andreas into the PC version, from basic texture replacements to advanced technical changes. The features the mobile version has includes improved character and vehicle models, a newer color palette, improved dynamic shadows, real-time vehicle reflections, a revamped GUI, mid-mission checkpoints and auto-saves, and more. You can find more about this project in the link below and how you download the files needed to recreate the mobile version on PC with Mod Loader.

Download

• Mobile to PC Research Project Forum Page[gtaforums.com]

Other Recommended Mods

Here are some other smaller mods that you can use with your downgraded game. As with the previous guides, this list isn’t meant for mods that drastically game-changing.

• SkyUI[gtaforums.com] — Not to be mistaken for the Skyrim mod of the same name, this mod gives you the ability to restore the menu system à la the PlayStation and Xbox versions with widescreen supported menus. It also supports the Trip Skip feature from those versions and and support for up to five languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian, German). This is mainly recommended for those looking to play the game with a controller more than keyboard and mouse. There are also alternative frontend textures for the controller layout screen ported from Grand Theft Auto V based on the 7th and 8th generation console versions by the community; I have packaged some pre-made SkyUI texture files for these controllers. If you don’t want to replace the language text files from Language Loader, you can load them along with the frontend textures in Mod Loader, but you do need to load the ASI plugin in the “scripts” folder or the root of the installation folder.
• Auto-Save[github.com] — This CLEO script adds an auto-save function to the game, which saves your progress upon completing a mission. Despite what the description says, it always saves on Slot 8, NOT Slot 1 for San Andreas!
• Radio for All Vehicles[github.com] — Allows all vehicles, including emergency vehicles like the Police car and Ambulance trucks, to support the radio.
• Amazing Screenshot[www.gtagarage.com] — A script that allows you to control the camera and allow unique screenshots.

Featured Modding Websites

If you wish to try out some other mods beyond the scope of this guide, you can try the following links and see which mods are to your liking. Please note that I may not be able to help with setting up EVERY mod out there for San Andreas due to the sheer amount of them floating around the net and this guide’s focus is to fix the PC versions and bring back missing features from the PlayStation 2 version.

• PC Gaming Wiki[pcgamingwiki.com] — Features many resources, mods, and fixes for the game and many other PC games.
• GTA Garage[www.gtagarage.com] — A hosting service of the GTA Network where modders from the GTA Forum community can share their creations.

Troubleshooting

Note: If there’s a problem with the mods themselves, please direct them to their respective developers, this list for common and more easily fixable issues that can occur when using some of these mods.

My game is crashing after the downgrade!

Try and perform the following:

• Delete your settings file — You can do this either from the Downgrader tool (Tools → “Delete Settings File”) or deleting it manually by going into your San Andreas’ save file folder and delete gta_sa.set.
• Remove any incompatible/broken mods — There may be mods that could have been install that could be causing the issue, which in that case, you should remove them from where they are installed and try running the game again if they trigger another crash.
• Reinstall the game — If worse comes to worse, you may want to do a re-install of the Steam or retail version from the DVD, check if they work without downgrading the game, and then go through the downgrade process again and try if the game works afterwards.

Steam/RGL updated my game and messed up the downgrade!

While not very likely for the Steam version, but If you didn’t rename your game’s installation folder for the Steam/Rockstar Games Launcher version to prevent the off chances of an update occurring upon launch your respective clients, you can try and re-install the game from a back-up of the downgraded version, otherwise you’ll have to perform another clean re-install of the game and downgrade the game again. If you have mods you don’t want to lose from uninstalling the game, I suggest you copy/move your “modloader” folder and any *.ini files for scripts and plugins you have tweaked to another location on your computer outside of the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas installation folder until you get your downgraded copy of the game working again.

The HUD is too small/big!

I’ve preset the HUD scaling size in Widescreen Fix based around the recommended original scaling settings. If you need to adjust the HUD scaling, open GTASA.WidescreenFix.ini found in <path-to-GTA_SA>scripts with a text editor and adjust the following settings:

HudWidthScale = 0.0 // 0.8 by default. For original scaling, set to 1.0 HudHeightScale = 0.0 // 0.8 by default. For original scaling, set to 1.0 RadarWidthScale = 0.0 // 0.82 by default. For original scaling, set to 1.0 RadarHeightScale = 0.0 // 1.0 by default. SubtitlesScale = 0.0 // 1.0 by default. This can increase or decrease subtitle’s size.

Setting these values to “0.0” also seem to automatically set values to default scaling settings used by Widescreen Fix.

Can I use a DualShock 4 controller with the game?

From my experience, it could be possible by using DS4Windows to wrap XInput to a DualShock 4 controller to use with GInput. You can download and install DS4Windows from this link: [link]

Using Steam’s Input wrapper and enabling PlayStation 4 support can also work. If you need to change button prompts to match, open GInputSA.ini found in the root of your Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas installation folder or the scripts folder and change the following:

PlayStationButtons=0

Setting this value to “1” will swap the Xbox prompts with PlayStation ones and vice-versa.

Credits

Special thanks goes to Steam user LucYfer for the gift Steam copy of San Andreas, this guide wouldn’t be possible without this generous gift. Another major thanks goes out to the Grand Theft Auto modding community for giving us the ability to restore the botched PC versions of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to their former glory and then some. Please share your support for the talented folks for all these great mods and fixes they have given us so we can enjoy games like this for years to come, we can’t thank these guys enough for all their hard work.

The Essential Fixes for the rest of the PS2-era games

[link] [link]

Authors of the mods featured in this guide

• Silent
• ThirteenAG
• Seeman
• Deeji
• Ash_735
• -Quantum-
• The Hero
• Vannimon
• Philips_27
• fastman92
• Wesser
• _AG
• Pirushu
• gts.
• LaDiDa
• YOEL_44
• DK22Pac
• BMWSauberF1.08
• Philips_27
• Leonid Omsk
• HermeSSentinuS
• Zera
• Junior_Djjr
• Mugetsuga
• El Dorado
• Blackbird88
• ernestin1
• Reyks
• RJ
• atfburner
• RJSanModder
• d3jan
• MrFinger
• The GTASnP.net Community