After an update for Windows 11, a plane disappears in GTA: San Andreas. A bug in the code is behind this, which has only now been triggered. A developer explains what might be behind it.
Those who started GTA: San Andreas after the Windows update to Windows 11 24H2 will have noticed that suddenly a popular mode of transportation was missing: The Skimmer. This is a seaplane that you can control in GTA: San Andreas and is also needed for a quest.
However, after the update to Windows 11 24H2, the plane suddenly disappeared from the game. The English magazine TomsHardware reports on this. A developer who works on fixing game bugs in his spare time explained in his blog that the bug had been in the game files for 20 years but was “activated” with the update of Windows.
Four missing parameters cause a missing seaplane
What kind of bug is this? According to the developer, the problem lies in a configuration file of the game, which is read differently by Windows 11 24H2 than by earlier versions. This is the configuration file vehicles.ide. In the line for the Skimmer, the last four parameters that contain the scale for the front and rear wheels are missing.
However, according to the developer, this is not a Windows error because there are no official regulations on how the Windows-internal WinAPI is to be used by games or programs. Therefore, it has always been a matter of luck that the bug has never been triggered. A few years ago, they were close to triggering the bug at times.
In its new update, however, the Windows API apparently requires more space (Stack Space) to use the code. This triggers exactly the bug that has been hidden: it causes writing errors that are then adopted, and the plane disappears.
And he also has an answer as to how the bug occurred:
I have a probable explanation for why Rockstar made this particular error in the data – in Vice City, Skimmer was defined as a boat and therefore did not have these values set from the beginning! When they changed the vehicle type of Skimmer to a plane in San Andreas, someone forgot to add these additional parameters now required. Since the game rarely checks the completeness of its data, this bug simply slipped under the radar.
Glitches and bugs are usually either annoying or funny. Small game bugs can unexpectedly – and unintentionally – lighten a serious scene, but can also completely ruin the dramatic climax of a game: A glitch ruined the most dramatic scene in gaming
