A band of Russian developers behind OpenIV took it upon themselves to undertake the ambitious task of relocating the entire Liberty City into the Grand Theft Auto V game.
What is particularly interesting especially for GTA gamers is that Liberty City is quite dense, and porting it right in the GTA V map itself is analogous to moving a mountain on top of another mountain.
Relocating Liberty City
The project is said to be already underway, and the OpenIV team itself has provided some insights as to how it intends to execute its goal. First, they tout their proprietary OpenIV system and openFormats, tools that can allow Liberty City's relocation.
According to the team, the city will not replace any existing locations such as Los Santos and Blaine County. They indicated that it will be installed across the sea.
When asked why the team even bothers with the initiative, they only said, "Why not?"
OpenIV could also harbor some sentimental reasoning in its effort to take a slice from GTA IV and install it in GTA V. Although the OpenIV system has been known as the developers' tool for modding GTA V and Max Payne, it was first used to crack GTA IV.
"It is time to go back where it all started," OpenIV said in a released teaser trailer.
Modding Challenge
There are sources that also provided more contexts about the enormity of OpenIV's task. For instance, Kotaku cited that the developers will need to crack both GTA IV and GTA V and then convert Liberty City from one game file into another for the plan to work.
Liberty City is part of GTA IV. Those who also have played GTA: San Andreas must have flown to the city because it was part of one of that game's missions.
The output will purportedly be in the form of downloadable content that will be installed into GTA V.
Still, the task is not entirely impossible as demonstrated by a mod that completely changed GTA V's graphics and gameplay last year.
Mod Release, Compatibility, And Requirements
OpenIV has not confirmed any release date for the GTA V mod. It was only able to say that it will be coming as soon as possible.
When the mod finally lands, one should remember that it is not compatible with GTA Online and, therefore, multiplayer gameplay. Rockstar Games does not allow mods on the platform so its use will be your surest ticket to the door.
In addition, gamers are expected to reserve huge hard drive space to allow the converter to get the mod working successfully.
