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GTAIV PC Console Commands = Working


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This thread is a compilation of several sources I used to fix (some of) my issues.

 

If you have GeForce card that passes atleast the minimum requirements, this will most likely work for you. If you tried changing your resolution/settings with command line but your textures disappeared, this is what I found out to make the textures visible again.

 

First of all, you got to have the latest drivers. For GeForce cards, the ones that nVidia released.

http://www.gta4.net/news/4162/nvidia-relea...river-for-gta4/

 

And if you're using XP, of course, Service Pack 3. I bit my lips when I read that it's a requirement, but now that I installed, it doesn't seem to be so bad.

 

Now that you're all patched up, let's get in to the command line.

 

Easiest (and most clean) way to put those command lines function is to make a commandline.txt file in your \Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV\ folder (the same where GTAIV.exe is) and put the commands below, there. No messing around with shortcuts and stuff.

 

Many of you know the basic settings that help getting big resolution and better quality by removing the restrictions.

-norestrictions -nomemrestrict

 

I tried these 2 too, but the result was bigger resolution, crap quality (still) and missing textures. Then I read a thread on the forums about fixing this texture problem.

Apparently putting -norestrictions into the command line doesn't work so good, causing those textures to go away. I don't know the reason, but it just didn't work.

 

So, I changed my commandline.txt content a bit. First of all, I switched into windowed mode. Then I put my resolution, quality settings and distances to the file.

I ended up with:

-nomemrestrict -windowed -novblank -framelimit -texturequality=2 -renderquality=4 -detailquality=99 -shadowdensity=16 -viewdistance=45 -width=1600 -height=900

(I have 1980x1080 desktop resolution, hence 1600x900 game resolution) I underlined the things you can/must change. Go with what you think your computer can handle.

 

This made my game exactly as I wanted it. Textures worked, I got the resolution, (almost) the quality and the distances I wanted. Before the commandline.txt my game was 800x600, 1 viewdistance and low texture quality. Now, I can't see the difference between XBox360 version and the PC version I have.

 

Below are all the commands you can put into the commandline, above is the ones I suggest you to put there.

 

Tools

 

-benchmark: Runs the benchmark tool and immediately exits game.

-help: Display list of all command line options

 

Graphics

 

-renderquality: Set the render quality of the game. (0-4)

-shadowdensity: Set the shadow density of the game. (0-16)

-texturequality: Set the texture quality of the game. (0-2)

-viewdistance: Set the view distance of the game (0-99)

-detailquality: Set the detail quality of the game. (0-99)

-novblank: Disable wait for vblank (No Vsync)

-norestrictions: Do not limit graphics settings

-width: Set width of main render window (default is 800)

-height: Set height of main render window (default is 600)

-safemode: Run the graphics in the lowest setting possible

-frameLimit: Limit frame to interval of refresh rate (ex If refreshrate is 60HZ –frameLimit 1 = Locks down to 60HZ)

-refreshrate: Set the refresh rate of main render window – Warning - Monitor must support (ex. –refreshrate 60)

-fullscreen: Force fullscreen mode

-windowed: Force windowed mode

-availablevidmem: Set amount of physical Video Memory(ex. –availablevidmem 0.9)

-percentvidmem: Percentage of video memory to make available to GTA

 

Audio

 

-fullspecaudio: Force high-end CPU audio footprint

-minspecaudio: Force low-end CPU audio footprint

 

System

 

-noprecache: Disable precache of resources

-nomemrestrict: Disable memory restrictions

 

My rig:

GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB

Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.13GHz

2Gb DDR2 RAM

Windows XP Professional SP3

 

I'm very relieved 'cause I got it working, so I wanted to share my knowledge with others that might suffer this same problem. My videos still lag, they're like a diashow, but I doubt that fixable, not by me that is. I just stopped playing multiplayer with my friend who tried this out too and got it working the same I did.

 

P.S I'm not sure how this will work on other systems, like Vista or different graphics card, but it's worth testing.

Also, I didn't much care about the texture quality itself, I just wanted to get it working so I didn't try putting texture quality any higher. I got some screens about how it looks for me. Definitely needs moar anti-aliasing, but hey, what can I do.. Waiting for the patch..

user posted image

(click bigger)

 

user posted image

(click bigger)

 

And here's a picture before I removed -norestrictions: (some of the buildings are missing)

user posted image

(click bigger)

 

Quality isn't at the best, but it's nothing to make this game not playable.

Hope this thread helped you!

 

P.P.S I also don't suggest you go exploring the 'Graphics' panel in your settings, not even open it. It might not let you get away from the panel, since the settings are forced VIA the command line. If you wish to change your graphics settings, do it from the commandline.txt. This is a temporary "boost" for those who get this working.

Edited by MicroBit
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I've got to ask what frame rate gains you've noticed. I'll be trying something similar in my ongoing effort to get me a constant fps that is playable.

 

Also whats the whole point of going windowed mode? From what I can tell I don't see much of a difference.

Wow, I used your EXACT command line and I have NO missing textures. I played the game for 30 min or so with no glitches. Unfortunately my performance still sucks... and I have a Q6600/8800GTS/2GB RAM and can play Crysis with better framerates. And the shadows look like CRAP. Either way, Im getting close® to getting this game to a playable state.

 

is there a reason why you didnt add in the shadowdensity?

I'm only a mere human..? sad.gif

 

I haven't checked my FPS, but as I was flying with the helicopter (Annihilator) in multiplayer full speed through cities, it didn't lag at all. My guess is that the FPS is somewhat 30'ish. I can't benchmark, since according to the other sources, benchmark displays false info.

 

Added shadow density.

bah you got in before my ninja edit tounge.gif

 

i think I read somewhere that you can do a benchmark via the commandline thing, and it forces the game to open and just do a benchmark, will have a look around and see whether it works doing that

Well, yeah, just do "-benchmark" like it says there in my quote in the first post.

Interesting stuff.

 

What exactly does the "-nomemrestrict" do?

 

I can't believe that R* have written a game that doesn't use all of the resources available. e.g. If you have 2GB of RAM then it'll quite happily hoover up 1.5GB (assuming the OS and associated crap you have to run takes up 0.5GB).

 

I quite like the way they show you how much graphics memory is being used, but it's not clear whether this really is memory on the graphics card, memory in the system RAM, or a combination of both.

 

R* could possibly save themselves (and us) a great deal of pain by being a bit more informative about what the various settings do, and how they interact with the system components.

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH for posting this dude. It works finally. No loss of textures with all settings maxed out, I seriously want to give you a hug. I used exactly the comand line you used but changed the res to 1680x1050 and upped all the settings. I'm so happy I finally got this working. I still think it's bull that R* thinks current PC's can't run this game maxed out. The resource limiter is BS and should be tossed out. We shouldn't have to do command lines to get the settings we want. But whatever. I finally got it. Thanks a lot for sharing, you totally hooked me up.

 

My specs:

 

Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 @3.9Ghz (water cooled)

Gigabyte DS3L Motherboard

Western Digi HDD's (1x250GB, 1x1TB)

EVGA Geforce 8800GTS 320MB @650/1150 180.84 Drivers

Soundbloaster Audigy Gamer Platinum

Thermaltake TR2-500 PSU

 

Ever since I added this sh*t I keep getting a fatal error. The code is like DD3D80 (restart program). What do I have to do to get this to run right?

Try skipping to run it from the Social Club.

 

Go to your GTA IV folder, make a shortcut of LaunchGTAIV.exe and move it on your desktop. Then login to Social Club, but instead of starting the game from the "Play"-button, double-click the shortcut you made from LaunchGTAIV.exe.

 

Tell me if this works, my friend had the same problem but this fixed it for him.

In reply to jermsz: As far as I know, I don't think you can change traffic density at all. Think all the command line arguements are at the first post of this thread, in the quote.

 

In reply to EntropicLqd: Every command line arguement is explained in the first posts quote. As simple as it is, -nomemrestrict removes memory restrictions. smile.gif

 

I don't think this actually went how they wanted it to go. Mistakes happen and they're only human. We'll patiently have to wait for the patch to come out and hopefully it makes something else, than their logo better.

Edited by MicroBit

I also found out, that trying to put your texturequality=3 can cause HIDEOUS texture quality. I don't know the reason, but when I did that, it seemed the actual value I put there was -2, not 3.

 

And let me highlight this information again, do not go to graphics panel in your settings. The settings in there aren't the ones the game is going with.

 

I've also thought of creating a massive thread with solutions to several problems that are on this forum, so you don't have to go to page 12 to find your answer, for example.

DELETE THIS ACCOUNT

It was just an illusion!! I was able to play only for few minutes before it crashes and freezes my pc... then I had to hold power button for a seconds and reboot my pc... I tried to put less quality but it still freezes

 

WE WANT THE PATCH!!

I solved my problem by buying a 9800 GT with 1GB RAM.

 

I'm able to play the game on High+Highest with 1680x1050 res and a draw distance of about 47.

 

the missing textures occur when you exceed your available graphics card RAM, if you stay within the limit, it simply doesn't occur.

 

frankly though, the fact I needed to get a 1GB graphics card and STILL can't have a full draw distance takes the f*cking piss considering the specs of the consoles it runs on and the quality level there.

Edited by Olipro
I solved my problem by buying a 9800 GT with 1GB RAM.

 

I'm able to play the game on High+Highest with 1680x1050 res and a draw distance of about 47.

 

the missing textures occur when you exceed your available graphics card RAM, if you stay within the limit, it simply doesn't occur.

 

frankly though, the fact I needed to get a 1GB graphics card and STILL can't have a full draw distance takes the f*cking piss considering the specs of the consoles it runs on and the quality level there.

The bad optimization issues caused the game to use computers resources bad, hence you could turn the settings higher with graphics card that has more memory.

 

The fact remains, that even though if you have a good GFX card, all that matters getting your settings high is the RAM in your card. I used these commandline arguements and got more off from my video card than the optimization limits me to.

You shouldn't upgrade your rig just because you hope it'll work better when really it's badly optimized.

 

Plus Rockstar kinda planned GTA IV on PC to be for future machines; When the best gaming rig nowadays is a standard in the future. So I doubt anyone can run it max settings, keeping the game playable.

I used the same setting as the orignal poster , but i change the resolution to 1680X1050.

I started the game up and had a look in the graphics setting and it was running at 800X600 and the view/car/textures were all ste to 1

so it don't work. here is my specs

 

XP sp3

Thermaltake 750W PSU

Thermaltake V1 CPU cooling unit

(so i can OC when i know how to do it safely)

Gigabyte Ep45-DS3l M/Board

core 2 quad Q6600

4gb ddr2 800htz ram

800gb free HDD space

XFX Nvidia 9600gt 512mb o/c 740htz Alpha dog GPU

 

 

P.P.S I also don't suggest you go exploring the 'Graphics' panel in your settings, not even open it. It might not let you get away from the panel, since the settings are forced VIA the command line. If you wish to change your graphics settings, do it from the commandline.txt. This is a temporary "boost" for those who get this working.

Do read the original post entirely and you'll see my point.

 

Using this commandline.txt method TRICKS the game to use the commands you want. So forth, the graphics panel displays false info. I mean come on, try to put windowed and some resolution that's smaller than your desktop resolution (not 800x600) and then start the game and take a look at the graphics panel. You know it's not 800x600, 'cause it would be smaller.

GRAPHICS PANEL INGAME DISPLAYS FALSE SETTINGS

Julias Caesar

Hello,

 

these settings just reset my graphic values all to lowest.

And I really mean it, I checked it up.

 

 

Strange enough I have not worked it out to run the stuff on commandline.txt, additions like -nomemrestrict work in shortcuts only for me. But using shortcuts, it also was all on "low" or "1"

 

Adding to this, are u sure you must add "=" between this? I only saw adjustments just using space. And I also believe "framelimit" has to have a "1" behind. But might be both is working for these.

Hello,

 

these settings just reset my graphic values all to lowest.

And I really mean it, I checked it up.

 

 

Strange enough I have not worked it out to run the stuff on commandline.txt, additions like -nomemrestrict work in shortcuts only for me. But using shortcuts, it also was all on "low" or "1"

 

Adding to this, are u sure you must add "=" between this? I only saw adjustments just using space. And I also believe "framelimit" has to have a "1" behind. But might be both is working for these.

Either your rig is completely too crap to even run this game or you just simply trusted in what the graphics setting say.

Julias Caesar
Hello,

 

these settings just reset my graphic values all to lowest.

And I really mean it, I checked it up.

 

 

Strange enough I have not worked it out to run the stuff on commandline.txt,  additions like -nomemrestrict work in shortcuts only for me. But using shortcuts, it also was all on "low" or "1"

 

Adding to this, are u sure you must add "=" between this? I only saw adjustments just using space. And I also believe "framelimit" has to have a "1" behind. But might be both is working for these.

Either your rig is completely too crap to even run this game or you just simply trusted in what the graphics setting say.

hmm no.

 

I can run it ok on my Q6600.

in game graphic settings did not matter for me. but I saw low drawing distance and the like, and looked at the settings. everthing was on low, but I could check up by dragging sliders up that view distance really was on Lowest.

 

It seems to be another problem, and I bet many players have this and it adds to the confusion about the graphic settings:

Sometimes it seems running shortcuts or commandline works, sometimes not. May be it has to do with the call of GTAIV.exe from the launcher exe, I don't know.

 

  • 2 weeks later...

I'm also having the same problems as some other users where using the commandline.txt (or putting the commands directly at the end of the shortcut) are resetting all my video settings to 1. I was able to get the commandline.txt working earlier, now it just keeps resetting things. Any ideas?

 

 

Either your rig is completely too crap to even run this game or you just simply trusted in what the graphics setting say.

 

That's a pretty ignorant and disrespectful coment. First, all settings going to 1 has nothing to do with your 'rig' (It's caused on any machine by the commandline.txt sometimes), and you don't even need to "trust" the graphics settings. It's obvious it's all at 1 or 0 when you get in-game. The options screen always reports all the settings correctly except for resolution, which will show the last one you set in-game.

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