PipeLink Launcher

PipeLink Launcher

Installer and launcher for the GTA San Andreas × Skate 3 × MW2 mashup: skate (Skate 3) and play Modern Warfare 2 modes inside GTA San Andreas.

What you need

• GTA San Andreas (required), version 1.0 US. If you have the current Steam version, the launcher

  converts it for you ("Convert it" in step 1; downloads about 840 MB of patches from GTA SA Open Downgrader). Other versions (e.g. Rockstar Games Launcher) must be downgraded by hand with a GTA SA downgrader first.

• Skate 3 (optional): your own Skate 3 Xbox 360 disc image (.iso). The free

  Skate 3 Rust Engine it runs on is downloaded by the launcher.

• MW2 (optional): your own Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 game folder with the Multiplayer files.
• Windows 10/11 64-bit and an internet connection for the first setup.

Install

1. Download PipeLinkLauncher.zip from Releases.
2. Unzip the whole folder somewhere (e.g. your Desktop). Keep the payload folder next to the exe.
3. Open PipeLinkLauncher.exe.
4. Follow the three steps on screen until they show a green tick (Skate 3 and MW2 are optional):
   1. GTA San Andreas: the launcher finds it through Steam, or click to show it the folder. Convert it to 1.0

      if asked, and let it add the ASI Loader if your game doesn't have one.

   2. Skate 3: downloads the Skate 3 engine, then asks for your Skate 3 ISO.
   3. MW2: point it at your MW2 Multiplayer folder.
5. Press Install. The first time takes a few minutes.
6. Press Play.

In game: F6 skate (Skate 3). F5 MW2 mode: Tab scoreboard, 1-9 / mouse wheel weapons, 5 killstreak. A controller is recommended for skating.

Uninstall

Open the launcher and click Uninstall (bottom right). Every file it changed in your games is put back. To undo the Steam → 1.0 conversion: Steam > right-click the game > Properties > Installed Files > Verify integrity.

Troubleshooting

• Click Show details in the launcher to see what it did.
• Launcher errors: %LOCALAPPDATA%\PipeLink\launcher_error.log. The game writes PipeLink.log next to

  PipeLink.asi.

• Reinstalled or verified GTA on Steam? Steam puts its own data files back (and can overwrite the ASI loader)

  but leaves an old 1.0 gta_sa.exe in place, which makes the game crash on launch. Reopen the launcher: it spots this and offers Convert it (and Add it for the ASI loader) again. On launcher versions before 1.0.0, rename gta_sa.exe to gta_sa.exe.old first.

How it works

The launcher downloads only free, open tools, each pinned by SHA-256, and builds everything else from your games:

• Converts Steam GTA SA to 1.0 US with GTA SA Open Downgrader's patch set (fetched from its author's server; every

  file is MD5-checked before and after, the exe goes last so an interrupted run resumes). Adds Ultimate ASI Loader if GTA has no ASI loader.

• Converts your GTA collision into a Skate 3 map (tools/gta_to_skate.py) and builds the skateboard model from

  your Skate 3 files (tools/skate_board_to_dff.py).

• Installs PipeLink.asi + PipeLink.ini, the Skate bridge and Lua mod, and IW4L (MW2 runtime, which reads your MW2

  files and changes nothing in them). Uninstall restores every file it replaced (%LOCALAPPDATA%\PipeLink\installed.json).

For developers

The mod's own binaries (PipeLink.asi, xinput1_4.dll, the Skate Lua mod, iw4l.exe) are not in this repo: build.sh takes them from the mod project (MOD=..., default ~/Documents/gtabmxpipe).

Build: Windows, Git Bash, Python 3 with py -m pip install pyinstaller numpy pillow, and the mod project with its toolchain (llvm-mingw) and a built IW4L (cargo build --profile play -p launcher in mw2/iw4l).

sh build.sh            # or: MOD=/path/to/gtabmxpipe sh build.sh

Output: dist/PipeLinkLauncher.zip (~64 MB). The script fails if the self-test or the IW4L patch is empty. Run from source while developing: py launcher/launcher.py (uses build/launcher_payload from the last build).

Release notes:

• Upload the zip as a GitHub Release asset, not into the repo: iw4l.exe is ~100 MB, over GitHub's file limit.
• IW4L is Apache-2.0: ship its LICENSE, NOTICE, font licences and the change patch (all in payload\iw4l).
• The Steam → 1.0 patch set is downloaded from its author's server, never rehosted here. If it changes, the pinned

  hash stops the conversion until DOWNGRADE_SHA256 is updated.

Credits

• IW4L (Apache-2.0; licence files and our changes in third_party/iw4l)
• Skate 3 Rust Engine
• Ultimate ASI Loader by ThirteenAG
• GTA SA Open Downgrader (MIT): its patch set does the Steam → 1.0

  conversion

• xdelta3 by Joshua MacDonald (Apache-2.0; licence in third_party/xdelta3)

License

The launcher and tools in this repository are released under the MIT License: use, copy, modify and share them however you like. Third-party components keep their own licences (see third_party/). Game content is owned by its publishers and is not included or licensed here.