Hello and welcome to the GTA:SA speedrunning community forums! [section=Useful Links]

• [big]Discord[/big] server of the community where the general discussions happen, if you have any vague/general questions make sure to ask them here! • The sidebar has a lot of useful stuff like [big]Resources, Guides[/big] and [big]Streams[/big] • [big]Twitch team[/big] of the community where you can find GTA speedrunners • [big]Leaderboards extensions[/big] (such as Los Santos% and other meme categories) • [big]List of allowed Mods and fixes[/big]

[section=Frequently Asked Questions] [big]Where can I find the rules for the leaderboards?[/big] • On the Leaderboard page there is a "View rules button" at the top. Pressing it gives you an annoyingly small window with the rules for the category you're looking at.

[big]Why do runs have to be done with the frame limiter on?[/big] • The game behaves differently at different FPSes and in order to play the game "as intended" and as similarly to everyone else all runs should be done with the same in-game frame limiter as provided by Rockstar. For more information refer to this lengthy and old explanation by Oasiz [small][small]Anyone know of a better explanation I could link?[/small][/small]

[big]Why should runs start from a fresh game start?[/big] • The game's RPG elements (CJ's stats) do not reset correctly between saves. Therefore its possible to to gain an advantage (intentionally or not) before the run has begun which is commonly classified as "New Game+". To counter this the game should be completely closed and re-opened between attempts. Currently this rule is only enforced for high tier runs as restarting the game repeatedly is pretty annoying, and lower tier runs are less likely to abuse this

[big]I want to learn runs, how do?[/big] • A lot of people start from watching streams or runs from the leaderboard to gain a general overview/ask general questions in chat. Beyond that there is the Guides section, @Hugo_One has a Beginners Guide Video Playlist, @KZ_FREW has an in progress Speedrun Commentary Videos and @tduva [small] (maybe others sorry if I don't credit you) [/small] has done a lot of in depth work on the SpeedDemosArchive Wiki. Unfortunately with such a large game a lot of these are out of date or not completely exhaustive in detail.

[big]What version of the game is best?[/big] • Almost all runners use the PC version of the game. There are several PC versions but the most commonly used and recommended is v1.01. The steam version(s) has some differences in technical details (some dupes work different/don't work) and other changes so you shouldn't use that. For help downgrading to v1.00 I recommend This video by Vadim M. After that you can use This dropbox folder to get the v1.01 EU (No-DVD) .exe and replace the v1.00 .exe in your game folder.

[big]I see a lot of people playing in 4:3, why?[/big] • People prefer 4:3 due to the lack of stretching the game does on HUD elements compared to 16:9, also using widescreen mode decreases vertical FoV. Check out this thread by @Jolzi for visual comparisons.

[small]If anyone has any amendments they would like to make to this post please let me know[/small]