Known Issues - FAQ

Post here your proposed Q&A, regarding the known problems with MTA:SA DM and their solutions, especially problems we're encountering now, that might be also encountered by users in the final release. You're also welcome to edit them grammar/style wise.

Client

General

No chat response and black screen when in-game

• After connecting to a server, my chat doesn't seem to work and nothing seems to happen. I can only see a black screen, I'm not getting spawned but I can see other people.

This problem occurs due to the server-side packet size being set too high (close to the Ethernet maximum of 1500 bytes), resulting in the loss of all packets with this size somewhere on their way from the server to client (e.g. they are dropped by a switch, your local router, or your NIC), the above problems and possibly a Connection Lost message after a while.

Initial black screen/hanging GTA splash screens

• MTA shows a permanent black screen or hanging GTA splash screens.

It may be necessary that during/after the logo splash screens in Grand Theft Auto you have to give some input in order to skip the videos correctly. Try to click your left-mouse button a few times, or tapping a few keys.

• MTA shows a permanent black screen after the GTA splash screens (possibly with text in the bottom right corner).

This can be related to a lack of support for DirectX or video card features, on your system, which are needed to run the dynamically rendered menu. This dynamic menu is enabled by default. Try disabling the dynamic menu by downloading the adjusted coreconfig.xml file and placing it in our GTA San Andreas\MTA directory (overwriting any existing files).

Halt after MTA splash screen

• Nothing happens after the 'Stop playing with yourself' splash screen

If you use nVidia GeForce, try turning off nView Desktop Manager before starting MTA.

Also try deleting GTA San Andreas settings file ("gta_sa.set") in "Documents\GTA San Andreas User Files" folder

Crash after MTA splash screen

• MTA crashes after the 'Stop playing with yourself' logo. Both single player and the MTA: Race ran fine before.

Try downloading the latest DirectX Runtime files from Microsoft. Also check in Task Manager, if gta_sa.exe process isn't already running.

If you run at any substandard resolutions (e.g. 960x720), try to change your resolution to a commonly supported one (e.g. 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×1024) by launching Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in normal mode, setting the new resolution and exiting.

Controls not working

• My controls don't seem to work as they should.

Try using the 'copygtacontrols' command in the console.

Incorrect models

• Woman model's breasts look awkward ingame / I'm seeing odd, spider-like shaped player models.

This is caused by the way GTA handles player stats. To fix this, be sure to set both fat and muscles player stats to 0, when you're changing player skin.

Incorrect drive-by functionality

• Drivebys arent working as they should

Drivebys are handled by script, and will change depending on the loaded gamemode.

Unsaved settings

• My MTA setting(s) didn't get saved (...) I crashed.

First, configure the MTA the way you want to, then exit the game and launch it again. Settings should get saved. Alternatively, try removing the coreconfig.xml file, then configure it and quit the game.

Gamepad support

• MTA doesnt recognise my gamepad

This is a known issue - MTA's keybinds system does not support direct input. As an alternative, XPadder can be used. This emulates joypad buttons as keyboard/mouse so that it can be used in MTA.

Sky flickering

• My screen/sky flickers when weather or sky effects are enabled.

MTA:SA DM uses a new text rendering system from race, which is much more efficient in terms of FPS. However, this can cause conflicts within the game, particularly with ATI based cards. To fix this, bring up the console with ¬(tilde), and type the command ceguitext 1. This reverts the rendering method to that of Race. All glitches should no longer happen, at the cost of lower FPS.

Invalid serial number

This seems to happen randomly to a few people. The best way to fix this is to install without a serial number at all (choose the bottom option on the MTA accounts page of the installer). We'll be looking into fixing this as soon as possible.

Windows Vista®-related

Crash on launch

• I've successfully upgraded from MTA Race to MTASA DM on Vista, but it seems to crash on launch.

Go to your Program Files\MTA San Andreas\mods\race directory, and rename client.dll to something else.

Crash on connect

• I seem to crash whenever I connect to a server just before I go in-game on Vista

This seems to be an issue with the Microsoft DirectX April 2006 SDK Redistributable DLL file (d3dx9_30.dll) when running in compatibility mode. Please make sure that compatibility mode is competely turned off for both your GTA_SA.exe and Multi Theft Auto.exe executables.

Invalid serial error

• MTASA DM installer complains about wrong serial provided. I'm running it for the first time.

You need to run the installer with Administrator privileges. To do so, right click on the installer executable, choose 'Properties', go into 'Compatibility' tab and tick the check box on the last field.

Some have found that setting compatibility to Windows XP/2000 have fixed the problem.

If User Account Control is disabled, you might need to enable it and run the installer with admin privileges (like said above) in order to install MTA:SA DM.

Clock manipulation error

• I am getting 'Clock manipulation detected!' error message upon launching MTA:SA DM

Further info coming soon.

Halt on launch

• When I launch MTA:SA DM, nothing happens (GTA_SA.exe is running but not loading up)

Run MTA:SA DM with Administrator privileges. To do this, right click on the installer executable, choose 'Properties', go into 'Compatibility' tab and tick the check box on the last field and try again.

General GTA problems

• I have unexplainable GTA problems or crashes

Make sure your computer as well as your GTA install meet the minimum requirements and that you are not running in any 98/2000/XP/2003 compatibility modes.

Also try the solutions from these pages:

• http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=273549&view=findpost&p=4537502
• http://pullmonkey.com/2007/4/30/how-i-got-gta-san-andreas-to-work-with-a-crappy-os-vista

Server

General

Fatal error 3

• I'm getting Fatal Error 3 whenever I connect to my server

This error happens when the server you are trying to connect to is unable to provide you the required downloads, because it does not have http downloading enabled. Be sure to set the httpdownload configuration tag in your configuration to 1.

Download error 9: Error downloading requested files

• I'm getting Download Error 9: Error downloading requested files whenever I connect to my server

This error happens when the server you are trying to connect to is unable to provide you with a valid link. This results in a 404 (Not found) HTTP error and an error at your end.

• If you are running the built-in server (httpserver is set to 1 and httpdownloadurl is empty), make sure that your HTTP server is accessible (you can try to access it by using a browser) for everyone.

• If you have configured an external web server (httpdownloadurl is set to your custom URL), make sure that your HTTP is accessible and make sure you have read the Configuring an external web server guide.

Crashing when banning a player

The banPlayer script function will crash. Avoid using it. You can modify the xml file manually instead. This will be fixed in the next release.

Windows-related

No known reported issues.

Linux-related

libcurl.so.<version>: cannot open shared object file

• My dedicated server gives a libcurl.so.<version>: cannot open shared object file error on startup (where <version> is to be replaced with 3 or 4)

This means one of the dynamic dependencies (libcurl, CURL) needed in order to run the server cannot be found on your server.

• If your server reports that it cannot find libcurl.so.4, it's most likely due to an old version of libcurl that is installed on your system. You can either choose to upgrade libcurl to the latest version (check out your distribution package manager, or download/compile/install from the CURL website), or you can choose to pick another Linux build (e.g. the Generic Linux build, which contains a statically linked version of the library).
• If your server reports that it cannot find libcurl.so.3, libcurl is either not installed on your system, you are running an outdated version or you are running a newer version of libcurl (and downloaded a build that relied on the old version).
  • If libcurl.so.4 is present on your system (e.g. in /usr/lib), it means you have a newer version than the one required and you can most likely solve the problem by creating a symbolic to libcurl.so.3:

    $ ln -s /usr/lib/libcurl.so.4 /usr/lib/libcurl.so.3

  • If libcurl.so.2 is present on your system (e.g. in /usr/lib), it means you have an older version and you can solve the problem by installing the most recent version of libcurl. This should be done through your package manager (check your distribution's documentation), or no such manager is present, by manually compiling and installing the latest CURL source from the CURL website).
  • If libcurl is not present on your system, see how to install libcurl by reading the instructions above.

ERROR: Couldn't find meta.xml

• My dedicated server console reports one of the following errors:
• ERROR: Couldn't find meta.xml file for resource '.'
• ERROR: Couldn't find meta.xml file for resource '..'

This is a minor (visual) issue with the directory handling code in the Linux server. The server tries to read the . and .. operators that are available in every directory, resulting in an error. You can safely ignore this issue.

ERROR: Could not parse 'settings.xml' file

• 'My dedicated server reports the ERROR: Could not parse 'settings.xml' file (Invalid file). Starting with an empty settings registry. error.

This is because a default settings.xml file isn't shipped with the server. After this error is encountered, the server should be automatically created by the server. To be sure that the creation was successful, and that you have appropriate rights to the file, you can execute the following commands:

/mtasa_server_directory/mods/deathmatch $ touch settings.xml
/mtasa_server_directory/mods/deathmatch $ chmod 755 settings.xml

Please note that the word settings here doesn't reflect your server configuration, but rather the scriptable Settings system.