My screens & settings & performance

[0goldeneye0]

excellent tips, I've noticed that after taking the shadow density I gained almost a solid 10FPS

I also hate the shadow density, it makes it look grainy and ugly. Good work.

[GTAMonkey2012]

excellent tips, I've noticed that after taking the shadow density I gained almost a solid 10FPS

I also hate the shadow density, it makes it look grainy and ugly. Good work.

Yes it was really early on I worked out it added more rounded shadows to lights, night time with cast shadows from headlights etc ... only to realise it just casts the fuzzy grid-like poorly rendered shadow effect most dont like ... and for the extra non eye candy you get an fps hit for payment .

 

Well worth a zero slider that one. Until they optimised that and the look of the shadows, plus its not directly in console anyway if your looking to beat the console "look".

[ArkangelJosh]

A nice informative detailed post, Good job.

 

 

[fungus303]

help please.... game wont start with ati tray tools, latest beta, tried CCC 8.12 final.. same sh*t.....

 

Put my bios to default.... still dont work...

 

 

ANY ONE?

 

it works but after the characters in beginning, the game chrases, and my 22" WS just blinks and blinks and then BSOD

 

have installed everything..... the game dont start for me.......................

 

im starting to get really pissed off... tried everything, but game just crashes and monitor just blink....blink....blink.... have to be fast with taskmanager and shut down GTA4.exe or else i get BSOD.......

 

 

i have sapphire radeon HD4870 512mb, i got my 22" WS HP monitor and my HDMI to my 1080p tv in GPU......

 

ANYONE? please

[GTAMonkey2012]

help please.... game wont start with ati tray tools, latest beta, tried CCC 8.12 final.. same sh*t.....

 

Put my bios to default.... still dont work...

 

 

ANY ONE?

 

it works but after the characters in beginning, the game chrases, and my 22" WS just blinks and blinks and then BSOD

 

have installed everything..... the game dont start for me.......................

 

im starting to get really pissed off... tried everything, but game just crashes and monitor just blink....blink....blink.... have to be fast with taskmanager and shut down GTA4.exe or else i get BSOD.......

 

 

i have sapphire radeon HD4870 512mb, i got my 22" WS HP monitor and my HDMI to my 1080p tv in GPU......

 

ANYONE? please

Post in the main technical support area, this thread isn't much help its my thread based on NVidia graphics so I have no clue about ATI issues.

 

Check out and search under the main technical support, plenty of ATI users posting and many threads dealing with ATI.

[GTAMonkey2012]

Just added backing up save games and installing on fresh install part in the first post, here a repeat, this works perfectly tested 3 times on new installs, so if anyone asks just copy this little lot to them or link them to the thread as its in the first post

 

 

USEFULL INFO ON BACKING UP GAME SAVES AND GETTING IT WORKING ON FRESH INSTALL

 

1. Goto you game saves and back them up:

 

Game save locations:

 

Saves are located here in XP:

 

 

C:\Documents and Settings\(USERNAME)\Local Settings\Application Data\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\savegames

 

In vista:

 

 

:\Users\(USERNAME)\AppData\Local\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\savegames

 

All game saves will be under the latest created user_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX folder, copy and paste that someplace safe. The newest date of files/folder will be the one your using if you see more then one.

 

** Also back up the "settings" folder **

 

2. Now delete just the user_xxxxxxxxxxxxx folder (or uninstall game if you doing that and reinstall etc).

3. Go into the Game/login to Live/Social club (important for it to create the right folder to be fully logged in on game start)

4. Start a fresh new game.

5. Play through to first save point (at Romans house) & exit the game.

6. Go to you save game folder again (locations as above)

 

You will see a fresh created user_XXXXXXXXXXXXXX folder with one game slot file with recent date and time stamp.

 

6. Copy all the save game slot files from your backed up saves into this folder and overwrite if prompted.

7. Also depending on how far you have got copy back Limits.dat & Xstring.dat and overwrite those under the "settings" folder.

 

Load back into game as normal either online/offline in GFWL and you should get it loading from your last saved game no problem.

Ive installed this game 3 times doing the same thing and all works no problem in this way.

Edited December 16, 2008 by GTAMonkey2012

[p00se2]

GTX260 and not everything maxed out? Weird.

my gtx260 shuts up because GTA throws some bitching RESC10 errors around

even on all LOW settings

 

 

[GTAMonkey2012]

 

GTX260 and not everything maxed out? Weird.

my gtx260 shuts up because GTA throws some bitching RESC10 errors around

even on all LOW settings

 

 

Its a myth that you can max out and it works mint, becuase if you look it IS maxed out for the graphics card (HIGH render/textures) what ISNT maxxed out are CPU based FPS hitters, its a mis-conception in this game from the get go that anything less than maxxed out = must be wrong, this game works different in that way.

 

People have a notion that if sliders aren't on high the brain says = it must be crap, as I say not the case in this game, draw distance and draw detail lowered or high in comparison & based on CPU hit aren't a massive different in visuals. Shadow density ads the well know crap shadow casting and big FPS hit (no point) and the rest is "nice" if you can get it higher but the main things for look is render detail & texture level as you can see mine are maxxed.

 

Apart from the obvious AA issue and jaggiez it looks completely fine for me now on my XP settings, if I max it out it becomes a stutter show, but why should I? When i look at it maxed, then put it back to my playable settings the extra detail is not that noticeable when your playing the game. Its at a level on lowest (again not talking textures or render quality here). Just remember "Maxxed out" graphics settings for obvious "look" are texture level and render quality. The rest are specific to CPU hit and just make it so you can see a but more detail far from your position and some extra detail near field. Lets face it when you actually playing, driving and running who really bothers to notice such minor detail in the far distance, or a can or rubbish a bit nearer, to have that I need to make it stutter more ... no need, lower settings, after all graphics are high anyway.

 

Or .. to "max out the CPU settings" as I call them, I will go to a faster CPU. At this point i'm not thinking of upgrading as it runs well enough and as I would expect in fps and some stutter in busy areas (much like GTA:SA did many moons ago).

 

As Ive pointed out not a fan of no AA or the shadow casting they need to be sorted that's for sure, extra patches and optimisation is still welcomed, not forgetting issues already noted that are being addresses.

 

PS - if this thread is new to you, its mainly about the first post and my own rig settings and anything that can help, not a "fan" post/thread or a "mine works yours doesn't" thread, just here to help so save those type of posts for the other threads. If you have anything helpful to add to the mix then post away

Edited December 16, 2008 by GTAMonkey2012

[RodC]

Nice, I'm going to try a number of these tweaks tonight and I will report back with the results. I have already done a good amount of tweaking, including OCing the CPU and GPU and eliminating unwanted processes to free up CPU resources. In addition to disabling all unwanted startup processes, you can go into "services.msc" (XP) and disable a whole bunch of unnecessary system services to further free up resources.