Against All Odds, GTA 3 Now Runs Surprisingly Well on the Dreamcast

A group of dedicated developers has been working on what might seem impossible: bringing Grand Theft Auto 3 to the Sega Dreamcast, a console that was discontinued long before the game reached its peak popularity. After releasing an initial alpha version last year that struggled with performance issues, the team has now achieved remarkable improvements that have transformed the port from a slideshow into a surprisingly playable experience.

Developer Falco Girgis recently shared updates on the project, detailing the extensive optimization work that made this transformation possible. The initial alpha version suffered from poor framerates and visual issues, especially during intensive gameplay moments like high-speed chases or scenes with multiple vehicles and dynamic lighting.

Rather than accepting these limitations, Girgis went back to the fundamentals. He meticulously optimized the low-level math infrastructure in both the game engine and the RenderWare driver layer. This included replacing basic floating-point math routines with patterns specifically optimized for the Dreamcast's SH4 architecture.

For those intrigued by the technical details, Girgis rewrote common mathematical operations to take advantage of the Dreamcast's hardware capabilities. He accelerated the matrix math using the console's vector instructions and employed creative techniques like storing extra data in unused memory bits.

One of the biggest improvements came from rethinking how collision detection works. Instead of processing vectors one by one, the new system handles them in batches, which dramatically reduces repetitive operations. This change was particularly important for scenes with multiple cars and physics interactions.

These improvements rippled throughout the game, automatically enhancing lighting calculations, object boundaries, and the shiny reflections on vehicles.

The project is a fascinating glimpse into an alternate gaming timeline. GTA 3 was reportedly in development for the Dreamcast before Rockstar Games ultimately focused on the PlayStation 2 version for commercial reasons. Sadly, the Dreamcast's premature market exit in 2001 prevented it from hosting what would become one of gaming's most influential titles.

While these developers can't change history, they're demonstrating that the Dreamcast might have been more capable than many assumed. The newly optimized port shows Liberty City running with significantly improved performance and a more populated world than previous builds.

Impressively, the same group is already working on bringing GTA: Vice City to the Dreamcast as well. For nostalgic Sega fans with Dreamcasts, these developments provide a pretty compelling reason to resurrect the 26-year-old console.