A peek behind the curtain on our Cake Day!

It was on this day, 11 years ago, that LCPDFR - our original police mod for GTA IV was first posted on GTAForums.  To mark the occasion, I have a couple of pictures from some of our recent development work on LSPDFR, which I think show just how far our modding has come since the early days of GTA IV.

On the topic of LCPDFR though, for those who don't already know, LMS recently restored our one-year-older classic to its former glory with an updated compatibility patch which works on the latest version of GTA IV.  If you're interested in revisiting Liberty City, you can check it out here.

With that being said, there's a couple of nifty updates that we're working on introducing to LSPDFR in the near future, and I thought it'd be nice, considering our last post here was a little while ago, to share with you the more visual aspects of some of our recent work.  

To give a little context, with recent LSPDFR updates we've been trying to enhance the overall 'experience' as much as we can.  We hope that LSPDFR feels as though it's much more than simply a 'mod' and to this end we're always looking for new ways in which we can make things just that much more immersive, which I think these changes certainly do.

The new 'hand-on-holster' action replaces the current 'Intimidate' option in the Interaction Menu.  It's a slick new animation which takes full advantage of some new code features we introduced in 0.4, so it's very fluid and flexible, won't change your underlying walking style and works when running too.  I know it's just an animation, but there's some nifty code behind it to make it work, and I think that it looks incredibly realistic as a result.

Similarly, the actions that play while using the Police Radio feature in LSPDFR now work when you're in vehicles, too.  Basically, as the picture shows, you can feel that little bit more like a real cop, barking into your radio as you blaze it down the highway.  Better yet, we're opening up this functionality to our API, so that mods like Grammar Police can make full use of the different radio styles, and also use the one that you've chosen in the menu.

In the Diamond Casino Heist update, Rockstar added a small yellow evidence marker prop which is used in one of the heist prep missions in GTA Online.  We thought it'd be nice to include this into LSPDFR, and a couple of people have asked for it, so we've added these to the Interaction Menu too.  Like most things in LSPDFR, it'll support modding, so modders would be able to create their own evidence marker models, and then use those instead of the vanilla Rockstar model by editing the XML, just like how different agencies can use different badge models.  You can freely place as many of these markers as you like, and picking them back up is a piece of cake too.

Finally, we are in the process of improving a lot of our code which runs behind-the-scenes and powers the Dispatches/Calls in LSPDFR.  Much of this is a hassle for us to work with at the moment and means that creating new calls is far more tedious than it should be.  In the picture, you'll notice as well that I'm playing a new 'warrant service' call.  This is being created using our new system, so it has a little more depth to it.  We're able to create specific people in calls now, give them their own traits, vehicles, residences and so on which lends itself nicely to this particular type of call which is somewhat more investigative in nature.

Of course, we'll have more to say about what's coming next in LSPDFR - this is just a small slice - in due course, but I hope that this little peek behind the curtains helps to satisfy your appetite for now.

Finally, on behalf of the team here at LSPDFR, allow me to wish you, your family and friends all the best during these difficult times.

Please keep safe, and thank you for your continued support.

Sam.