Frequently Asked Questions

[CharmingCharlie]

***** DO NOT POST IN THIS TOPIC WITHOUT PERMISSION *****

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

The PC version of GTA 4 has been out for some time now and it is great to see we are getting lots of new members to GTAforums. However with such an influx of new users we are also getting the same question topics posted over and over. So I felt it was time we had a "GTA 4 for the PC FAQ". This topic will try and have answers to all those niggly questions. This is currently a work in progress and I will be updating it as much as I can.

 

It's simple to use, just check the table below for your question then click on it and it will take you straight to the answer :-

 

 

Will GTA 4 work on my PC ?	What are the console equivalent settings ?
Where are the save games stored ?	How do I back up my save games ?
Why don't the in game computers work ?	How do I update GTA 4 ?
How do you use the custom radio ?	How do you use Commandlines ?
What can I do to improve stability and remove stuttering ?	Why does my game work fine to start with then starts stuttering ?
Where can I get a list of savegames ?	How do I install the latest graphic drivers PROPERLY ?
Does GTA 4 support SLI and why isn't it showing all my Vram ?	I am an AMD user how can I improve performance in GTA 4 ?
Why is the Rockstar Social Club giving me ulcers ?	How to play GTA IV using your generic controller ?
What do the graphical settings do ?	How do I mod my GTA 4 ?
How do I stop my settings being reset ?	How Do I setup GTA 4 to save without access to the net ?
If memrestrict doesn't help, try cleanmem

If you have any feedback or suggestions for this thread then please contact me via pm and I will be happy to update anything and credit you for the help.

Edited September 16, 2009 by CharmingCharlie

[CharmingCharlie]

Will GTA 4 work on my PC ?

 

Rockstar Toronto released the minimum and recommended requirements a few weeks before GTA 4 hit the shelves. They are as follows :-

 

 

Minimum PC specs
OS	Windows Vista - Service Pack 1 / XP - Service Pack 3
Processor	1.8GHz Intel Core2Duo or 2.4GHz AMD Athlon X2 64
Graphics Card	256MB NVIDIA 7900 / 256MB ATI X1900
Memory	1 GB of RAM (Windows XP) or 1.5 GB of RAM (Windows Vista)
Hard Disc space	16 GB free hard drive space

If you have a PC that meets the minimum specs you should be able to play the game at a decent (20 frames per second or above) with all settings on low. If your PC does not meet the minimum requirements it may still be possible for you to play the game but you will experience less than ideal frame rates and it cannot be guaranteed that the game will run.

 

 

Recommended PC specs
OS	Windows Vista - Service Pack 1 / XP - Service Pack 3
Processor	2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Quad or 2.1GHz AMD Phenom X3
Graphics Card	512MB NVIDIA 8600 / 512MB ATI 3870
Memory	2.5 GB of RAM (Windows XP) or 2.5 GB of RAM (Windows Vista)
Hard Disc space	18 GB Free Hard Drive Space

If you have a PC that meets the recommended specs you should be able to play at similar settings to the console version of the game (medium settings).

 

There are various websites that can "test" your PC to see if it can run GTA 4. However be aware these are best guess benchmarks and not 100% accurate but it doesn't hurt to try them out :-

 

 

Yougamer GTA 4 benchmark test

If you want to discuss issues you may have with your pc specification running the game then please use the stickied topic HERE

 

[CharmingCharlie]

What are the console equivalent settings ?

 

Whilst we know pretty much what the console equivalent settings are for the PC we do not have them fully confirmed by Rockstar :-

 

 

Xbox 360 settings
Resolution	1280 x 720 @ 20 -30 fps
Texture Quality	Medium
Reflection Resolution	Medium
Water Quality	Medium
Shadow Quality	High
Render Quality	Low
View Distance	21
Detail Distance	10
Vehicle Density	33
Shadow Density	does not exist on the Xbox 360
Definition	off
Vsync	off

 

 

Playstation 3 settings
Resolution	1280 x 720 @ 20 -30 fps
Texture Quality	Medium
Reflection Resolution	Medium
Water Quality	Medium
Shadow Quality	High
Render Quality	Low
View Distance	21
Detail Distance	10
Vehicle Density	33
Shadow Density	does not exist on the PS3
Definition	off
Vsync	off

Please NOTE that the settings in RED are unconfirmed by Rockstar Toronto and are my "best guess". I will update this if Rockstar Toronto ever let us in on what the console settings are for the outstanding items.

 

**UPDATE**

Oops my bad apparently I got the vehicle density and detail distance wrong, many thanks to The_Cheese_Man for the corrections.

 

Please note that there seems to be much debate about the settings in RED some say I am being biased . Until we get actual confirmation from Rockstar about what ALL the settings are then we just don't know for sure.

Edited April 21, 2009 by CharmingCharlie

[CharmingCharlie]

Where are the save games stored ?

 

You can find the save games in the following locations :-

 

 

Operating System	Location
Windows XP SP3	C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\savegames
Windows Vista	C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\savegames
Windows 7	C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\savegames

You may need to "view hidden files and folder". If you are backing up your save game files because of a format it is important that you copy everything in the savegames folder to another hard drive.

[CharmingCharlie]

How do I back up my save games ?

 

This guide is courtesy of ANiMeX and should work for both vista and windows XP, but remember vista stores the save game files in a slightly different place :-

 

Vista Guide

1. First you need to back up two folders, the first folder is your Rockstar games folder (which contains the save games) and the second folder is your xlive folder which contains ... well god knows but you need it anyway.
2. You can find your Rockstar folder here C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Rockstar Games <- copy that folder somewhere safe.
3. You can find your xlive folder here C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\XLive <- again back up that folder.
4. After you have formatted and reinstalled the game simply copy those folders back to where they should be overwriting the folders that are there.
5. Now run the game and press "HOME" in-game to sign-in from XLive. Choose your old nick when signing-in. Don't make new account or your save file won't load.
6. After signing-in, play the game and it will load your save file automatically.

Windows XP Guide

1. First you need to back up two folders, the first folder is your Rockstar games folder (which contains the save games) and the second folder is your xlive folder which contains ... well god knows but you need it anyway.
2. You can find your Rockstar folder here C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Rockstar Games\ <- copy that folder somewhere safe.
3. You can find your xlive folder here C:\documents and settings\<user>\Local Settings\Applicationdata\Microsoft\XLive <- again back up that folder.
4. After you have formatted and reinstalled the game simply copy those folders back to where they should be overwriting the folders that are there.
5. Now run the game and press "HOME" in-game to sign-in from XLive. Choose your old nick when signing-in. Don't make new account or your save file won't load.
6. After signing-in, play the game and it will load your save file automatically.

Edited February 19, 2009 by CharmingCharlie

[CharmingCharlie]

Why don't the in game computers work ?

 

Many people think this is a bug in the game, it is actually an anti piracy trigger. Basically when ever you go to a computer either in the internet cafes or your safe house and press E to access the computers nothing happens. There are several anti piracy triggers in the game to make the game unplayable to those that haven't purchased the game, these include :-

 

• drunk camera - your screen constantly shakes even when Niko hasn't been drinking
• car accelerates - your car starts going forward without you doing anything
• car starts smoking and explodes for no reason
• Mission triggers don't happen - NOT confirmed by Rockstar
• Cannot use the computers in the game.

So what should you do to cure yourself of this ailment ? Well firstly make sure you are using a legitimate retail copy of the game. If you are using a legitimate copy of the game then you should next ensure you are not using a third party no dvd crack. Whilst it is understandable that you don't want to risk damaging your dvd you have to understand that no dvd cracks will not work with undiscovered anti piracy measures which Rockstar have yet to activate.

 

If you are using a legitimate version and you are not using a third party crack then you may be experiencing the anti piracy measures because you have modified the files in some way. The only solution so far for users of legitimate copies is to uninstall GTA 4 and reinstall the game.

 

Another thing you can check is LaunchGTAIV.exe many members have been disabling this once the game starts running. By disabling launchgtaiv.exe you are shutting down the process the game uses to check if it is authenticate or not so you will end up experiencing the anti piracy measures.

 

Finally if you have installed and reinstalled the game then you should get in touch with Rockstar support here :-

 

Rockstar GTA 4 PC support page

 

Obviously due to the nature of this problem any topics opened with regard to problems with anti piracy measures will end up being closed due to the fact they get flooded with "buy the game" or "use blah blah crack" posts.

[CharmingCharlie]

How do I update GTA 4 ?

 

There are several ways you can update your copy of GTA 4 to the latest version. The easiest way is to just let games for windows live do all the work for you. When a new patch is available on GFWL it will tell you next time you start the game and will ask you whether you want to update your game.

 

Alternatively if you like a little bit more control you can do it manually by downloading the patch from Rockstars servers here. Once you have downloaded the patch you will have a file called "GTAIV_MAINTENANCE_UPDATE_1004.rar".

 

Unfortunately you cannot use the file untill you have "unrarred" it. To do this you will need an unrarring program like winrar. You can get the trial version from here. Install winrar onto your system and you will then be able to unrar the patch to your hard disc.

 

Once you have unrarred the patch you will have a file on your hard disc called "GTAIV_TU5.exe" it is then just a simple matter of double clicking on that to start the install process, then just follow the onscreen instructions.

 

You can find information on the latest patch here :-

 

 

http://www.rockstargames.com/support/IV/PC/patch/index.html

The patch history of GTA 4 on the PC currently stands as :-

 

 

Patch	Release Date	Patch Notes	Forum Topic
Patch 1.0.1.0	12th December 2008	Link	click here
Patch 1.0.2.0	24th January 2009	Link	click here
Patch 1.0.3.0	21st March 2009	Link	click here
Patch 1.0.4.0	19th June 2009	No Link	click here
Patch 1.0.5.0	10th November 2009	Link	click here

It is important to remember that you do not have to install each individual patch, you only need to install the latest. So if you do a fresh install of GTA 4 you DO NOT need to install patch 1.0.1.0 and then patch 1.0.2.0. You just need to install the latest patch. You should also remember that you will not be able to play online unless you have the latest patch installed.

Edited November 10, 2009 by CharmingCharlie

[CharmingCharlie]

How do you use the custom radio ?

 

One of the great features of the PC version of GTA 4 is the new radio station "Independence FM" this works in a similar way to the old custom radio station in previous PC version of GTA . However this time your own personal music will be interspersed with adverts and radio talk. It is very easy to set up just follow these steps :-

 

1. Simply place your mp3's or shortcuts to your mp3's in the folder called "My Documents\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\User Music"
2. Now start the game up
3. Go too options and select Audio
4. The first thing to do is scan the mp3's in (bit like creating a playlist). You can choose either Auto scan, quick scan or complete scan.
5. it is probably best to choose complete scan, as the scanning happens you will see a countdown of your MP3's
6. Once the scan has finished start the game, select Independence FM on the radio. Then sit back and watch Niko tapping his feet to the "Birdie song"

Additional Information About Independence FM

 

In case you are curious what the three different scanning methods do then her is a run down :-

• Auto Scan - Set this to ON to perform a Quick Scan automatically on game startup.
• Quick Scan - Reads the audio files within your folder, plays back exactly as they are in the folder.
• Complete scan - Reads the audio files within your folder, performs additional analysis to enhance user experience.

There are several play modes for Independence FM which you can select in the audio menu. These are :-

 

• Sequential - Plays through audio files as they appear in your folder, can skip songs.
• Shuffle - Plays through audio files randomly, can skip songs.
• Radio - Plays through audio files randomly with radio adverts and DJ banter in between tracks, cannot skip songs.

[CharmingCharlie]

How do you use Commandlines ?

 

The commandlines feature allows you to tell GTA 4 how it should set itself up when it launches, this allows you to do useful things like use system memory as video memory. It may sound "complexed" but it is really simple. All you need to do is this :-

1. start Notepad up on your PC
2. you can add command lines to this document in the following way "-availablevidmem 1.5" (do not add the quotes)
3. You can add as many command lines as you like as long as each command line is on a new line like this :-

   -availablevidmem 1.5-width 1280-height 800

    

4. When you have added all your command lines then save it as a text file called "commandline.txt" (ignore the quotes) and save it into the main GTA 4 folder where you will find the files "GTAIV.exe" and "LaunchGTAIV.exe"

Now whenever you start GTA 4 up it will check it's folder for the commandline.txt file and execute whatever instructions you have in there.

 

 

Command Lines and what they do

 

Command Line	What it does	Example Usage
-width	sets the horizontal resolution	-width 1280
-height	sets the vertical resolution	-height 720
-texturequality	changes texture quality low/med/high (0-2)	-texturequality 1
-shadowdensity	adjusts shadows thrown up by car lights (0-16)	-shadowdensity 3
-renderquality	adjusts the render quality of the game (0- 4)	-renderquality 3
-viewdistance	adjusts the view distance (0-99)	-viewdistance 25
-detailquality	adjusts the detail distance (0-99)	-detailquality 30
-norestrictions	removes memory restrictions on graphic settings	-norestrictions
-novblank	removes good ole v-sync	-novblank
-safemode	runs GTA 4 with everything set to as low as you can go	-safemode
-fullscreen	runs GTA 4 fullscreen	-fullscreen
-windowed	runs GTA 4 windowed	-windowed
-availablevidmem	allocates some system ram as additional vram	-availablevidmem 1.5
-percentvidmem	how much vram of your gpu GTA 4 can use, 1.0 will be all of it and 0.5 will be half	-percentvidmem 0.5
-frameLimit	limits your framerate to the refresh rate	-frameLimit 1
-refreshrate	adjusts the refresh rate (oddly enough) be careful do not set a refresh rate your monitor can't do	-refreshrate 60
-fullspecaudio	enable high-end cpu audio	-fullspecaudio
-minspecaudio	enable low-end cpu audio	-minspecaudio
-noprecache	turns precache off	-noprecache
-nomemrestrict	turns all memory restrictions off	-nomemrestrict
-benchmark	starts the in game benchmark and then quits the game	-benchmark
-help	lists the commands and usage but doesn't look as snazzy as this	-help

 

Some members on the board have raised concerns that by using command lines you can somehow "damage" your hardware. This is so totally NOT possible. The only command line that could come close to damaging your hardware is the "-refreshrate" command and even then the way modern monitors work it would just not display the picture if you set a refresh rate your monitor can't use.

 

However you should bear in mind the command lines are a powerful set of features and should be used appropriately. Improper use of the command lines can lead to glitches in your game. If you need an example then if you use the "-nomemrestrict" command to remove all memory restrictions and then set your graphics to use 1.5gbs of vram (which you don't have) then you will experience missing textures and graphical glitches.

Edited March 8, 2009 by CharmingCharlie

[CharmingCharlie]

What can I do to improve stability and remove stuttering ?

 

This guide was pm'd to me by mkey82, whilst some of the steps seem extreme they may still help and are worth doing if you want to absolutely maximise the frame rates in the game. If you have troubles (major FPS instability, stuttering) running GTA IV on your PC which meets the minimum or even recommended requirements posted above you can follow these steps to ensure you are doing everything just right

 

1) install a fresh OS

• this may be frowned upon, but GTA IV is a very sensitive game and it minds pretty much everything; old drivers not removed completely, bunch of installed software, any damage done to the OS by some malware etc.
• Vista SP1 is recommended on newer hardware. Its installation will take below 30 minutes on most modern machines and it's almost completely automated
• it's recommended to have a separate partition and a fresh OS on it. Just for GTA IV biggrin.gif This way, if you keep it clean and safe you are sure nothing's wrong on your end (of course, you can use it for other games as well)
• the partition size of 20 GB is enough, if you plan not to clutter it and keep the GTA IV installation on some other partition/drive

2) defrag the drive after the OS installs

• you can use the inbuilt windows defragmenter (My Computer>>right click>manage>>disk defragmenter in the menu on the left)
• alternatively you can use some third party app (like the pretty fast ultradefrag freeware)
• this should take only a few minutes on a fresh partition

3) install a fresh set of drivers. Usually motherboards these days come with unattended CD's - you just pop it in and hit start

• You'll know when it's done
• this will take another 15 minutes

4) grab and install fresh drivers from nvidia or ati site

• choose based on your OS - Vista or XP, 64 or 32 bit
• they usually publish new drivers once per month

5) install the game

• you will need the GFWL update here
• for XP 32 bit users - you will need proper framework packages. Firstly get the 1.1 version from here, install it and restart your machine. Then get the 1.1 SP1 here, install it and restart again. Finally, get the massive 3.5 SP1 version from here (it's a direct download link to full package). Install it and it's probably not a bad idea to reboot again
• Vista users, who don't have it already, will need the SP1 - 32 bit or 64 bit
• this may take a while, 20ish minutes for the game + any possible updates.
• it's probably a good idea to try and play without the updates and see what kind of performance you are getting. Otherwise, the update links are above

6) once again, defrag both the system partition and the GTA IV partition/folder

• if you want to defrag only GTA IV directory, you can use contig. Just drop it in GTA IV install dir and run it with "-s" switch
• defragging can take a while, but it can help the performance a lot. Especially the pop-up

7) yes, finally you get to play

• choose the settings manually as the autoconfigure is not working properly
• at start avoid the norestrictions commandline settings, us the -novblank option only and go from there
• settings should match your system, don't over do it
• if you have 512 MB of VRAM, don't force high textures as it will probably only add to the pop-up
• if your screen resolution is not above 1680x1050 there is no point in forcing a high draw distance (i.e. above 35-40) as you will most probably not see the difference. That setting was intended for cards with loads of VRAM and high resolution monitors
• it's probably a good idea to restart the game after you have made your settings

8) if there are still issues, well I'm sorry

• you might even try the Listener's xliveless which *might* help if you have problems with Rockstar social club. Mind you, it will remove some other stuff (multiplayer, achievements and file checks)
• it goes without saying, you will need loads of patience and love for this game

Edited April 9, 2009 by CharmingCharlie

[CharmingCharlie]

Why does my game work fine to start with then starts stuttering ?

 

If when you start playing GTA 4 things are all hunky dory, you are getting nice frame rates and the bermuda triangle isn't eating your textures then after an unspecified amount of time (could be a few minutes or an hour or so) you start to notice stutter and textures missing. Then you have a memory leak (now don't rush out to get some pampers it isn't that kind of leak). A memory leak is :-

 

a memory leak is a particular type of unintentional memory consumption by a computer program where the program fails to release memory when no longer needed. This condition is normally the result of a bug in a program that prevents it from freeing up memory that it no longer needs.

Anyway enough of the why's and more about the what can you do about it's. The simplest solution which might work for some is to just press alt and tab to go back to the windows desktop, then alt tab back into the game. When you alt tab you clear everything from your gpu memory. However obviously the problem is still there and the memory leak will happen again sooner or later.

 

A more permanent solution has been discovered by swsuk and it was pm'd to him from Rockstar Toronto. It is a relatively easy fix to do but you will need to know how to do the commandline.txt.

1. start Notepad up on your PC
2. you need to enter the following command depending on the texture quality you are using :-

    

   If you are using high textures then use this command "-memrestrict 629145600" (ignore the quotes)If you are using medium textures then use this command "-memrestrict 314572800" (ignore the quotes)If you are using low textures then use this command "-memrestrict 209715200" (ignore the quotes)

    

    

3. If you have done it correctly you should have a text file in notepad that looks like this :-

    

   -memrestrict 314572800

    

    

4. Now save it as a text file called "commandline.txt" (ignore the quotes) and save it into the main GTA 4 folder where you will find the files "GTAIV.exe" and "LaunchGTAIV.exe"

This fix has also been known to help users that suffer from the dreaded RESC10 error. Unfortunately this is not a "fix all" solution, it will work for some people but not for others. However if you are suffering from stuttering gameplay or the RESC10 error then give it a go, you won't hurt anything by trying.

 

If you want to discuss the memory leak or other potential solutions then please use this thread here.

 

[CharmingCharlie]

Where can I get a list of savegames ?

 

Well oddly enough right here :-

 

 

|S|a|v|e|g|a|m|e|s| |G|T|A|I|V| |P|C|

 

Author: Skiaffo from GTA-Expert.com

Website: www.gta-expert.com

 

All GTA IV savegames for PC Version.

 

 

 

BACKUP ALL YOUR SAVEGAMES FILES!

Instructions in the archives.

 

 

Other useful links:

 

 

..: Mission List :..

 

 

..: PS3 Savegame Arena by Fabio206 :..

 

Saves:

 

 

Savegame GTA IV 100% by Neon25

 

Savegames:

# 01 - The Cousin's Bellic [Download]

# 02 - It's Your Call [Download]

# 03 - Three's a Crowd [Download]

# 04 - First Date [Download]

# 05 - Bleed Out [Download]

# 06 - Easy Fare [Download]

# 07 - Jamaican Heat [Download]

# 08 - Concrete Jungle [Download]

# 09 - Bull in a China Shop [Download]

# 10 - Hung Out to Dry [Download]

# 11 - Clean Getaway [Download]

# 12 - Ivan the Not So Terrible [Download]

# 13 - Uncle Vlad [Download]

# 14 - Crime and punishment [Download]

# 15 - Do you have protection? [Download]

# 16 - Shadow [Download]

# 17 - Final Destination [Download]

# 18 - Logging On [Download]

# 19 - No Love Lost [Download]

# 20 - Rigged to blow [Download]

# 21 - The master and the molotov [Download]

# 22 - Russian Revolution [Download]

# 23 - Roman's Sorrow [Download]

# 24 - Search and delete [Download]

# 25 - Easy as can be [Download]

# 26 - Out of the Closet [Download]

# 27 - No. 1 [Download]

# 28 - Escuela of the Streets [Download]

# 29 - Street Sweeper [Download]

# 30 - Luck of the Irish [Download]

# 31 - Blow Your Cover [Download]

# 32 - The Puerto Rican Connection [Download]

# 33 - The Snow Storm [Download]

# 34 - Have a Heart [Download]

# 35 - Deconstruction for Beginners [Download]

# 36 - Photo Shoot [Download]

# 37 - Ruff Rider [Download]

# 38 - Undress to Kill [Download]

# 39 - Call and Collect [Download]

# 40 - Hostile Negotiation [Download]

# 41 - The Holland Play [Download]

# 42 - Final Interview [Download]

# 43 - Wrong is Right [Download]

# 44 - Portrait of a Killer [Download]

# 45 - Dust Off [Download]

# 46 - Holland Nights [Download]

# 47 - Lure [Download]

# 48 - Paper Trail [Download]

# 49 - Harboring a Grudge [Download]

# 50 - Waste Not Want Knots [Download]

# 51 - Three Leaf Clover [Download]

# 52 - A Long Way to Fall [Download]

# 53 - Taking in the Trash [Download]

# 54 - Meltdown [Download]

# 55 - Museum Piece [Download]

# 56 - No Way on the Subway [Download]

# 57 - Late Checkout [Download]

# 58 - Weekend at Florian's [Download]

# 59 - Hating the Haters [Download]

# 60 - Union Drive [Download]

# 61 - Buoys Ahoy [Download]

# 62 - Smackdown [Download]

# 63 - Babysitting [Download]

# 64 - Tunnel of Death [Download]

# 65 - Action Speaks Louder Than Words [Download]

# 66 - I Need Your Clothes, Your Boots, and Your Motorcycle [Download]

# 67 - Blood Brothers [Download]

# 68 - Truck Hustle [Download]

# 69 - Undertaker [Download]

# 70 - Pegorino's Pride [Download]

# 71 - Payback [Download]

# 72 - I'll Take Her [Download]

# 73 - She's a Keeper [Download]

# 74 - Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend [Download]

# 75 - Catch the Wave [Download]

# 76 - Trespass [Download]

# 77 - To Live and Die in Alderney [Download]

# 78 - Flat Line [Download]

# 79 - Pest Control [Download]

# 80 - Entourage [Download]

# 81 - Dining Out [Download]

# 82 - Liquidize the Assets [Download]

# 83 - That Special Someone [Download]

# 84 - One Last Thing [Download]

 

Deal

# 85 - If The Price is Right [Download]

# 86 - Mr. & Mrs. Bellic [Download]

[# 87 - A Revenger's Tragedy [Download]

 

 

Revenge

# 88 - A Dish Served Cold [Download]

# 89 - Mr. & Mrs. Bellic [Download]

# 90 - Out of Commission [Download]

 

Many thanks to Fabio206 for this, remember you must follow the instructions that come with the save game in order to use it with your copy of GTA 4. If you want to discuss the save games you can find the topic here.

 

[CharmingCharlie]

How do I install the latest graphic drivers PROPERLY ?

 

Ok we are all lazy, it seems to be a defining characteristic of all humanity. If there is a half arsed way to do it we will do it. I am of course talking about updating your graphic drivers, most people (me included) just install the new driver over the old one and 9 times out of 10 there is no problem. However that 10th time leads to much cursing, swearing and blaming of Rockstar. So whilst technically nothing to do with GTA 4 here is a guide to how to install your graphics driver properly which should eliminate some issues people have.

 

This guide was done by mkey82, it is very comprehensive and as long as you follow things to the letter you shouldn't have a problem. Many thanks to mkey82 for this :-

 

Q) W'at you talkin' 'bout? Why properly?

A) Properly because some of you guys and gals are doing it wrong. If you have more then one version of drivers installed at the same time, they will cause conflicts and things will start behaving "oddly". There is a proper method which will give you the least problems and compatibility issues.

 

Q) How do I know if this guide relates to me?

A) If you recently updated drivers and by some strange stroke of fate your game started acting quirky on you, read on.

1. Get the latest driver from ATI and/or Nvdia. You might want to look on sites of respective manufacturers (like Sapphire or Asus, they might offer a better solution for their products).

   If using ATI, I would recommend NOT downloading ATI Catalyst Control Panel (CCP) because it's a bloated piece of sh*t and it's not worthy of your precious system resources. Go for the driver installer alone and get the ATI Tray Tools (not!" the same as ATI Tools; funky nomenclature, I know). Here you can get a public beta (for 4000 series, otherwise look here for an older/safer version). IMO it's safe, I'm using it regularly.

    

    

2. Go here and get the Driver sweeper. It's a hefty little tool which can help a lot. Go on and install it.

    

    

3. Go to Control panel and "Add or remove programs" (XP) or "Programs and features" (Vista) and remove all pertaining ATI and Nvidia entries. With ATI you usually have three of those (driver, CCP and installer utility). Reboot your machine.

    

    

4. Now, while at boot screen (that black screen with bunch white letters on it, just before Windows loads)

    

    

   

   (something like this, but not the same) press F8. A menu should appear and first option there will be Safe mode. Choose that one.

    

    

   

    

5. You are now in safe mode. It may ask if you want to restart and get back in normal mode.

    

    

   

   Just say yes to prevent it from restarting. Now go on and run the Driver Sweeper. You will need to choose the ATI or Nvida option there (maybe even both if you changed brands recently) and hit the analyze button. When it does it's thing, hit clean button and kiss those pesky little drivers goodbye!

   **** Important note to DO NOT remove the Nvidia Chipset drivers or you are in for a world of hurt *****

    

    

   

    

   Restart your system.

    

    

6. This is an optional step, but sometimes ATI likes to behave like a little bitch and those drivers just hang the f*ck on. So, maybe you'll want to repeat the steps 4and 5 if you still have some of the files present in your system. Sometimes those files just don't want to let go, so my last resort was to format everything and reinstall afresh.

    

    

7. Now after restart you are back in normal mode without GPU drivers. All you need to do is install the drivers you previously acquired.

    

    

8. If you find GTA IV to be acting up at this point (even more so then it did with previous drivers) you may want to revert back to previous GPU driver version. Just repeat steps 3 to 7 and install the older driver version. If you don't have the installer, their respective sites will have them on stock.

Congratulations, now you know how to properly update GPU drivers

[CharmingCharlie]

Does GTA 4 support SLI and why isn't it showing all my Vram ?

 

When GTA 4 was released on the PC on 2nd/3rd December 2008 it DID NOT support SLI. However by applying update 1 AND using at least the 180.84 driver from Nvidia will enable SLI with GTA 4. Now for those that fancy their GPU's in an ATI flavour then you can rest assured GTA 4 does support Crossfire as long as you use the 8.12 Catalyst driver (or later).

 

Question : I have 2 graphic cards in my machine both with 512mb's yet GTA 4 only shows me as having 512mbs of Vram, what the hell ?

 

OK first up this is not a problem caused by GTA 4. This is just how SLI and Crossfire work, it is down to the fact graphics card (a) cannot use graphic card (b) ram to store textures and geometry. If you have 200mbs of textures in Card (a) memory then you have to have an exact duplicate in card (b) memory. So basically the memory on the second card has to MIRROR the contents of the first card, it does this for ALL games.

 

I believe the reason for this is simply down to bandwidth, if SLI/Crossfire allowed the two gpu's to swap textures between each others memory that would swamp the sli/crossfire bridge and would completely negate any benefit having dual cards would offer you. Now if you don't believe me here it is straight from Nvidia :-

 

 

Question :- In SLi mode, is memory shared (i.e do both 256MB cards become a 512MB configuration)?

 

Answer :- No, each GPU maintains its own frame-buffer so you will not double your memory. Rendering data, such as texture and geometry information, is duplicated across both cards.  This is also the case with Multi-GPU mode when using a single GeForce 7950 GX2 or 9800 GX2 based card

source

 

So if you have two GPU's in cross fire and they each have 512mb you will only see 512mb in GTA4's graphic options. It should also be noted if you have a graphics card that ends with x2 you will encounter the same problem. So if you have a 1gb HD4870x2 then all you will see is 512mbs in GTA 4's graphics menu. This is because the HD4870x2 is TWO cards glued together and they have 2 x 512mbs of memory. It is also the same situation for those that purchase an Nvidia 9800gx2 again in total it might have 1gb of ram but that ram is split in two because it's two graphics cards glued together.

[CharmingCharlie]

I am an AMD user how can I improve performance in GTA 4 ?

 

Ok firstly thanks to Indi for suggesting this, right before I start could all Intel users please leave the topic 5...... 4.....3.......2......1.. Right I think they have gone, it's alright for them they can leave I am a rabid Intel fanboy but I have to stay and do this help topic . I will try not to let my fanboyism shine through........ too much.

 

Right to business, AMD have released several utilities for it's customers that can improve performance gaming wise for ALL games not just GTA 4. There are two key utilities you should be looking at and they are :-

 

AMD Dual-Core Optimizer Version 1.1.4

 

Firstly if you are running Vista you do not need this program, this program is only for people running Windows XP. Here is the official blurb about what it does :-

 

 

The AMD Dual-Core Optimizer can help improve some PC gaming video performance by compensating for those applications that bypass the Windows API for timing by directly using the RDTSC (Read Time Stamp Counter) instruction. Applications that rely on RDTSC do not benefit from the logic in the operating system to properly account for the affect of power management mechanisms on the rate at which a processor core's Time Stamp Counter (TSC) is incremented. The AMD Dual-Core Optimizer helps to correct the resulting video performance effects or other incorrect timing effects that these applications may experience on dual-core processor systems, by periodically adjusting the core time-stamp-counters, so that they are synchronized.

It seems simple enough to install just click HERE to download the program. Then unzip it and double click on the setup.exe to install the optimizer and hey presto you are done. That is all there is too it, if you have any problems regarding it's usage then there is currently a topic on this in the forums, you can find it HERE

 

AMD Fusion Gaming Tool

 

Ok this is the bit that will make Intel users green with envy but we got rid of them so we don't have to worry about them being jealous . So just what is AMD's Fusion program well firstly it is NOT an overclocking program and it will not damage your hardware in any way whatsoever before you start to panic. All fusion does is close down background processes that may be taking up resources. A simpler way to think of it is "it creates a gaming mode" for your PC.

 

Obviously the kind of boost you will get depends on how many background services you have running at any rate it can't hurt to give it a go if you are an AMD user, if it doesn't improve performance then you can just uninstall it. You can get AMD Fusion by clicking HERE you will also find full details on how to get it running on that website.

 

IMPORTANT NOTE

 

Ok Intel users you can come back now and this note is specifically for you. Ok I am saying this to stop my pm box being flooded by pm's from people going "ha ha you noob you can alter the AMD Fusion program to work on an Intel CPU, god you are such a NOOB". Yes I KNOW you can, however that is skating on dodgy ground and I don't believe it has a place in this forum. I think it would be totally unacceptable for me to tell you to use google and search for "amd-fusion-gaming-tool-windows-gaming-mode-waiting-for" and click on the first link that comes up in that story. But like I said that it is unacceptable for me to tell you that, so I won't

Edited March 1, 2009 by CharmingCharlie

[CharmingCharlie]

Why is the Rockstar Social Club giving me ulcers ?

 

Many of the problems we keep seeing crop up in this section always tend to be about the "beloved" social club. It is a scientific fact that the increase of baldness in men is directly linked to the social club's birth (a reference to how much hair pulling this program causes). There are many reasons why the social club may throw a wobbler, but the key culprit is usually MS framework (you just knew Microsoft would be to blame).

 

Anyway mkey82 has provided a lil walk through on how to make sure your .net framework is as correctly installed as it will ever be. So simply follow these easy steps and hopefully banish your social club blues :-

 

1. For Vista and Windows 7, both 32 and 64 bit users this should not be an issue as those OS'es come bundled with the atrocity MS likes to call dot net framework, 3.0 version at that.

    

2. If you do have issues, you can try installing the 3.0 package that can be found in the redistributables folder on the game disk or download the 3.5SP1 version from here which contains all in one package - both 32 bit and 64 bit versions.

    

3. If you use XP then you probably installed the framework over and over again, with loads of updates, service packs and whatnot. This of course can cause problems.

    

4. firstly remove all the present packages via "add or Remove programs". Reboot.

    

5. Now get this nice little tool from here. Run it and reboot once again, just to be on the safe side.

    

6. For 32 bit and 64 bit edition 2003 XP get the 1.1 version from here. If you have a previous 64 bit XP version, according to this .net framework 1.1 is NOT supported. I'm not sure as to what you should do in this situation.

    

7. After the installation has finished, restart your machine. Now get the 1.1 SP1 package from here, install it and restart once again. This package is valid for both 32 and 64 bit systems.
8. Finally, get the 3.5SP1 package from here, install it and ... what? ... yes, restart. This is the full package, 32 and 64 bit.

    

9. If all else fails and RGSC prevents you from playing the game, you can try to reinstall the OS (tutorial here) in hope that this issue will then be gone OR get xliveless (more information about this here) which will disable RGSC all together, but it will also kill our MP. However, you 'll be able to play SP.

As always this is NOT a cure all solution, it will work for some but not for others. However if you are having problems with the Rockstar Social Club it is worth a try. Once again many thanks to mkey82 for this it is appreciated.

[CharmingCharlie]

How to play GTA IV using your generic controller ?

 

Firstly many thanks to ZodiacKiller for this guide on how to get generic controls working. If you want to discuss this guide then please use THIS TOPIC.

 

Guide

 

This extremely simple guide will teach you how to emulate an xbox360 controller, because IV fully supports only that. Now, you can use any controller you wish, granted, it has directinput support. (unsure about wheel and pedals).

1. Download the following archive.
2. Unpack the xinput9_1_0.dll and the xbox360cemu.ini from the archive into your gta4 dir. Optionally, unpack XInputTest.exe to play with the button assignments.
3. Edit the .ini according to your personal controller, or however you may please. The .ini is initially set up to work 100% correctly with Logitech RumblePad 2.
4. Make sure there is no -directinput in your commandline.txt

Note: in order to understand how to edit key mappings, read the included readme.txt.

 

FAQ

 

Q: Is my controller working with this hook?

A: If it supports directinput, it probably does.

 

Q: My xxx and xxx are reversed, what should I do? How do I fix it?

A: Edit the xbox360emu.ini and use the XInputTest.exe to test your changes - no need to load GTA4 to test whethere you've set up the controller correctly.

 

Q: My question is not in this FAQ!!

A: Read the readme.txt and the comments in xbox360emu.ini. If that does not answer your question, only then try to get help in this topic.

 

Last updated: March 7th, 2009.

 

DLL coding by Racer_S.

Guide by CatZilla.

[CharmingCharlie]

What do the graphical settings do ?

 

Many questions have been asked about what the settings in the graphical options menu mean. A user called saberon found this hand readme file on Rockstars site that gives greater information about the settings :-

 

Rockstar Graphical Readme File

 

Most users using current PC hardware as of December 2008 are advised to use medium graphics settings. Higher settings are provided for future generations of PCs with higher specifications than are currently widely available.

 

Graphics settings are limited by system resources by default. 256MB video cards force minimum settings by default. If a user bypasses these safety measures using command line arguments and exceeds their system resources, the users gaming experience may be compromised.

 

Video Mode

 

Resolution scaling effects water, reflections, shadows, mirrors and the visible viewable distance. The resolution settings relate to the amount of available video memory. At 2560*1600 the game will require 320MB of video memory in addition to all the memory required for content. At 800*600 the game will require 32MB of video memory in addition to the content. Medium resolution settings are recommended for most users as higher settings are only usable if there is available video memory.

 

Texture Quality

 

Texture quality affects the visual quality of the content of the game. High setting for textures will require 600MB of video memory at a setting of 21 View Distance in addition to the memory taken by the Video Mode. A medium texture setting is recommended for most users.

 

Render Quality

 

Render quality is the texture filter quality used on most things in the world rendering. Most people would know this as anisotropic filtering. Medium settings are recommended for most users and will provide filtering beyond what the console versions can execute.

 

View Distance

 

View distance scales the distance in which different objects in the world such as building and cars are seen. Raising this option increases the distance in which high quality objects must be loaded and will increase the memory it requires. Restrictions are established to ensure the game runs optimally for most users. A setting of 22 or more will provide PC users an enhanced experience over the console versions.

 

Detail Distance

 

Detail distance scales aspects of the environment that the View Distance setting does not including vegetation, trash and other moveable objects. A setting of 10 would be the equivalent to the performance on a console. This setting has little effect on memory.

 

Vehicle Density

 

Vehicle density scales the traffic density of the traffic in the game. It has no effect on the mission vehicles or difficultly of the game, but can have a significant impact on CPU performance

 

Shadow Density

 

Shadow Density controls the number of shadows generated for positional lights in exterior environments. These shadows are exclusive to the PC version and can have a major impact on CPU and GPU performance.

 

Crossfire/SLI

 

With the latest ATI driver (8-11 series) the game supports crossfire modes (ie. 4870x2)

SLI is currently unsupported. Support will be added through a future game patch as well as an updated Nvidia driver.

 

PLEASE NOTE : - Since this readme file has been written Rockstar HAS ADDED SLI support you can read more about SLI support here.

 

NOTE: Background Processes

 

Certain background processes can have a detrimental effect on system performance when playing GTA IV, especially on systems with minimum required system memory. Users should ensure they disable their Virus scans when running the game to maximize performance.

 

To discuss this please use THIS TOPIC.

[OutOfTimer]

Grand Theft Auto IV and Episodes from Liberty City Modding Guide


Table of Contents

• Liberty City Wizard
• Modding in 4 Steps
• A Selection of Mods
• Multiplayer Modding

 

I. Liberty City Wizard

Grand Theft Auto IV is arguably one of the most imaginative games ever made. One of the highlights of its PC version is the ability to mod, which opens before us unlimited possibilities of altering the in-game world. After reading this guide, you will be a wizard in Liberty City. Want to learn how to do magic? Let me take you on the journey...


II. Modding in 4 Steps

We start with a clean installation of the original retail game. You don't have to reinstall your game to modify it but we have to assume that all the game files were left intact. During the installation process you are forced to install Rockstar Social Club and Games For Windows LIVE. Both of these applications are obligatory for joining multiplayer but may be disabled using XLiveLess. Remember that it is forbidden to join multiplayer with modified files and most ASI mods don't support on-line use, so you will have to restore all the original files to be able to play with your friends. After completing installation you're prompted to activate the game on-line. It's a necessary inconvenience and has to be done.

There are 3 distinct modding scenarios we have to consider now. You either have GTA IV with TLAD and/or TBoGT downloaded from LIVE as DLCs, or two game folders - one for GTA IV and the second for EFLC. You always copy your mods to the game's main folder. If you have the DLCs, GTA IV is still the base (the DLC specific files are hidden in the LIVE directory). The main problem here is that you need to make sure your mods are compatible with the game you want to play. If an .ASI mod is designed to run only with TBoGT, it will not run with the original game. GTA IV, TLAD and TBoGT are in effect 3 separate games. It's also quite difficult to move some of the assets from one game to another. The cars introduced in the DLCs are easily moved to vanilla, but making weapons work properly is very difficult even for an experienced modder. Apart from the DLC hassle, both GTA IV and EFLC are modded in exactly the same way, so everything you learned so far still applies here.


1) Official GTA IV Patch 8 and EFLC Patch 3 (link)

The game should preferably be updated to the latest version. Every patch includes all previous fixes so there is no need to install any other updates. The patch will be applied automatically by LIVE after signing-in or you can do it yourself by downloading the installer from the official site (good for making backups and quick re-installations). This is a very important step since the retail version has a number of modding restrictions. You're no longer required to make automatic backups of the game files and therefore there is no need for a separate program that would do that (in the past it was done by the Magic Patcher). In addition, there's also no need to use Aru's modified "filelist.pak" file. However, I strongly recommend you backup every file you modify for two reasons. Firstly, your game is likely to crash time and again if you mod it heavily (an issue we have to struggle with on a daily basis). Secondly, you may simply be unhappy with the changes you made. This will be particularly important in case of file editing.

Due to the fact there are significant differences between the fully patched GTA IV and its unpatched version, some people prefer not to apply the latest patch. Bear in mind that Patches 4-7 all had EFLC compatibility in mind, so the best choice is to stick to Patch 3 (game version 1.0.3.0) in case you don't like the changes introduced by the newer updates. However, this only applies to users who bought the EFLC DVD and don't care about multiplayer. If you downloaded TLAD and TBoGT from LIVE, you won't be able to access them after disabling the service, which is a necessary step to prevent it from patching the game automatically.


2) ASI Loader

• XLiveLess (xlive.dll) by Listener (link)
• YAASIL (dsound.dll) by HazardX (link)
• ASI Loader (dsound.dll) by Alexander Blade (link)

There are 3 ASI Loaders you can use and each of them is a single .dll file which loads .asi files when the game starts. All the ASI Loaders have different advantages and their own unique drawbacks, so I would recommend you use each one according to the need of the moment. Of course you cannot use all of them at once so you'll have to exchange the .dll files manually. You simply put one .dll file into the game's main directory, which is "C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV" or "C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Episodes from Liberty City" by default. The main difference between the ASI Loaders is that XLiveLess (xlive.dll) disables Games For Windows LIVE and Rockstar Social Club, whereas YAASIL (dsound.dll) and Alexander Blade's ASI Loader (also dsound.dll) do not. Disabling LIVE is sometimes very convenient and should also make your game load and run a little faster since no unnecessary programs run in the background. It's worth mentioning that there were many reports of Alexander Blade's ASI Loader malfunctioning on Windows Vista and since YAASIL is generally more reliable, please be cautious when using the former.


3) ScriptHook.dll by Aru (link)

ScriptHook.dll by Aru is required to run most mods. In order to deal with the fact that every new patch requires all the mods to be updated, Aru prepared a dynamic link library (.dll file) that serves as a link between the mod files and the game's .exe file. When the next patch is released, you will only have to download an updated ScriptHook.dll from Aru's official thread to run all the mods. In the past each mod had to be updated separately with new memory addresses after a patch release. ScriptHook.dll is included in some mod releases (e.g.: Simple Trainer by sjaak327), so it's not always necessary to download it separately. The .dll must be put into the game's main directory along with all other files.


4) Choosing a Mod

The last thing you need to do is to choose the right mod for yourself. It's very important to choose wisely since poorly designed mods may cause your game to be unstable and crash frequently. Remember to always check out README files, which should be included with every mod. Furthermore, you may want to remember that some mods may not work together, so always be ready to exchange them manually. Depending on the type of mod, you will have to put its files in a specific directory. In case of .asi files it's always the main directory. However, mods based on editing original game files may have varying locations. As an example, one of the most famous mods available for the game, "Simple Trainer for GTA IV" by sjaak327, consists of two files (Trainer.asi and Trainer.ini). Both of these files must be put into the game's main directory. The latter file can be edited using NotePad in order to customise its functions. After placing your mod in the right directory you're ready to launch the game and enjoy new possibilities. The next section of this guide is designed to help you choose the right mod. It's a selection of most famous mods with my personal favourites among them. I'm sure there will be something new for everybody to try.


III. A Selection of Mods


1) Simple Trainer by sjaak327 (link)

I encourage you to take a look at arguably the best mod ever created for this game. Sjaak327's Simple Trainer is actually a very advanced piece of software. It features almost every function you can think of and makes you a true wizard in Liberty City. It allows you to fly, spawn cars and custom objects, change player skin, synchronise in-game time with your system clock, freeze weather and time, turn on God Mode, teleport (including teleport to waypoint), turn gravity off, spawn custom bodyguards, drivers and attackers, set pedestrians on fire, blow up cars, sit on benches, talk, force Independence FM in every car and much more. It also includes teleport locations to Pigeons, Stunt Jumps, Random Characters and Liberty City Landmarks (a sightseeing tour with 100 locations). In addition, it features a Mission Help Menu which basically completes missions for you.

The official download includes 2 versions of Aru's Scripthook (one for the latest patch and one for the old GTA IV patches I discussed above) and 3 pairs of core files (.asi and .ini) for use with any of the 3 games. If you have the DLCs, you put all of the files in your GTA IV directory. If you have EFLC, you put the corresponding files in your EFLC directory. When in doubt, always check the README.


2) Snow Mod by jumbo0 (link)

This mod covers Liberty City in snow and looks absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, its size is over 4 GB, which causes major hosting problems. Remember you have to backup the whole GTA IV game folder to be able to revert the changes.


3) File Editing

• SparkIV by Aru (link)
• OpenIV by OpenIV Team (link)

Editing game files allows you to change almost any aspect of Liberty City. Depending on what files you want to edit, you either have to open them with one of the programs listed above (e.g.: exchanging textures and extracting audio from the game) or simply use NotePad (e.g.: handling.dat and weaponsinfo.xml). Remember to backup your files or you may end up reinstalling the game. If you use NotePad to open carcols.dat and then locate "police" and "police 2" (types of police cars), you can change the values to "113,74,113, 74,113,113," so that some police cars in the game will appear blue. If you use SparkIV to open "pc/data/maps/interiors/generic/public_2.img" and then locate "plyrflr_frames.wdr," you will be able to replace pictures from Playboy X's Apartment with any other of your choice. If you decide to add or replace cars, check out this thread. I also encourage you to take a look at my Rocket UZI mod.


IV. Multiplayer Modding

In compliance with the official policy, this guide only discusses single player modding. However, you have to be aware that sooner or later you will meet modders on-line. Some of them may engage in disruptive behaviour ranging from using God Mode in ranked matches or blocking race tracks with ramps to crushing servers by spawning tug boats. There's a difference between modding the game to do something not originally intended by the developer of the game within its imaginary setting and with its imaginary characters and cheating real people sitting in front of their computers when playing a ranked deathmatch by pretending not to have an unfair advantage over them. I advise only using mods when playing single player or against the game's environment. Please do not use mods in ranked player-to-player combat, because you destroy the very reason for playing. It is supposed to be a tournament of skill, not a modding contest. I also recommend that you use mods wisely and do everything you can to complete the single player story without them. You might ruin the whole experience for yourself otherwise. If some parts of the game are too hard or too boring for you, try using the "in-game cheats" available on your mobile phone. It is also very hard to become an expert on the game when using mods excessively, because using them efficiently requires quite a bit of practice and nothing can substitute lack of skill.

Edited April 22, 2017 by OutOfTimer

[CharmingCharlie]

Why do my settings keep resetting?

 

Here is another helpful bit of advice from Mkey82 on how to solve the problem of your graphical settings being reset. You need is to go into the folder that corresponds to your OS

 

 

Windows XP SP3	C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\Settings
Windows Vista	C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\Settings
Windows 7	C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\Settings

There should be three files in that folder so go on and delete them. Once you restart the game you should be able to finally set and save your settings.

 

NOTE

 

The "Local Settings" or "AppData" folder might not be visible. In that case you can do one of these things

• go to Control Panel, Folder Options, View tab, under "Hidden files and folders" check the "Show hidden files and folders". Click OK to confirm and exit
• browse to your user dir, then write "Local Settings\Application data" (or "AppData" for Vista and 7) into the address bar. Now you can navigate the rest of the path

[CharmingCharlie]

How Do I setup GTA 4 to save without access to the net ?

 

Contrary to what many people have been saying, it is entirely possible for you to play GTA 4 without ever touching the net. There is a manual activation scheme which you can read about here. When you have GTA 4 installed there is an OFF LINE mode which we are going to cover here.

 

Note :- YOU DO NOT need a social club account or GFWL account to play GTA 4 singleplayer

 

Guide

1. Start the Rockstar Social Club program and when it asks for login details click on "skip Login"
2. Hit the big PLAY button on the social club splash screen to start GTA 4.
3. A message pops up warning you that you won't have access to certain social club features. Just click "ok".
4. You will now see GTA 4 start up on your PC
5. At the screen where you get the options "start/options/guide/quit" press the HOME key on your keyboard.
6. A drop down menu appears click on "Create New Profile"
7. The drop down menu changes and gives you the option of "create LIVE Profile" or "Create Offline Profile".
8. If you have no intention of using MP then just click on "Create Offline Profile"

   give the profile a name, click submit and you are done.

9. You can now play SP and save without being connected to the net

PLEASE NOTE :- If you have signed into GFWL you will have to SIGN OUT before you can see the "create new profile" drop down menu

 

You will now be able to play GTA 4 single player and save your game. The off line account does mean you won't have access to any multiplayer, nor will you have access to any of the Achievements. You should still be able to use the video editor but you will lose the ability to upload your completed videos to the social club website (although you can save the movies to disc and upload them elsewhere if you wish).

[CharmingCharlie]

If memrestrict doesn't help, try cleanmem

 

Well mkey82 has been busy again and has this handy tip for those having problems. Many thanks to girishb who provided the Vista scheduler instructions.

 

It seems that some machines suffer from memory issues with GTAIV (especially those that have 2GB or less RAM) and memrestrict command line switch just doesn't cut it. Try cleanmem - it's free and it works in the background automatically, running only when it's needed.

 

 

Of course, this goes without saying, if you get the stalls after using command line switches as norestrictions, availablevidmem or nomemrestrict - STOP USING THOSE SWITCHES. K?

1) Download the zip from here (direct link here, a 59k download)

2) Unpack the "cleanmem_v.1.4.2.zip" archive somewhere safe, like "C:\Program Files\Cleanmem" (you'll need to create the dir

 

 

3) Now browse to the directory and double click the "Install_32bit_OS.bat" if you have a 32 bit OS or "Install_64bit_OS.bat" for the 64 bit version. You will see a command prompt flash briefly and exit afterward.

4) If at any time you want to remove the app from your system, simply double click the "Uninstall.bat"

 

Now for the critical part - the app by default clears the RAM every half an hour. So maybe you'll want to decrease that interval if you get to the point when the game starts to stall in less then half an hour. So,

 

If You are using Windows XP then do the following :-

 

1) Go to Control Panel >> Scheduled Tasks and find "Clean System Memory" in the list.

 

 

 

2) Double click that entry or right click and choose properties in the menu. Now choose the "schedule" tab and click the "Advanced" button. In the "Repeat task" field choose how often should your RAM be cleared.

 

 

3) Confirm and exit, that's it!

 

If You are using Vista/Windows 7 then do the following :-

 

1. Navigate to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Task Scheduler.

2. In the left pane, under Task Scheduler (Local), select Task Schedular Library.

3. In the middle pane, select 'Clean System Memory'. Right-click on it and select 'Properties'.

4. In Properties, select 'Triggers'. This is how the window will look like:

 

 

 

5. Highlight it by clicking on it and then click on 'Edit'. From here, you can edit the duration and such. The default settings should look like this:

 

 

 

Select the required repeat duration from the encircled drop down box. Do NOT change the other settings.

 

6. Once you're done, click OK to close all windows and you're set.

 

Hope this helps. Game safely

[razor6162]

Not Working!

[L_dog111]

Hi i may be in the wrong place but how do i start a group on here ? Do i simply start a new topic plus how do i add images i am on my phone does that make any diffrent ls from pc ... sorry guys im a newby to this

[Paisan™]

I am an AMD user how can I improve performance in GTA 4 ?

 

Ok firstly thanks to Indi for suggesting this, right before I start could all Intel users please leave the topic 5...... 4.....3.......2......1.. Right I think they have gone, it's alright for them they can leave I am a rabid Intel fanboy but I have to stay and do this help topic . I will try not to let my fanboyism shine through........ too much.

 

Right to business, AMD have released several utilities for it's customers that can improve performance gaming wise for ALL games not just GTA 4. There are two key utilities you should be looking at and they are :-

 

AMD Dual-Core Optimizer Version 1.1.4

 

Firstly if you are running Vista you do not need this program, this program is only for people running Windows XP. Here is the official blurb about what it does :-

 

QUOTE The AMD Dual-Core Optimizer can help improve some PC gaming video performance by compensating for those applications that bypass the Windows API for timing by directly using the RDTSC (Read Time Stamp Counter) instruction. Applications that rely on RDTSC do not benefit from the logic in the operating system to properly account for the affect of power management mechanisms on the rate at which a processor core's Time Stamp Counter (TSC) is incremented. The AMD Dual-Core Optimizer helps to correct the resulting video performance effects or other incorrect timing effects that these applications may experience on dual-core processor systems, by periodically adjusting the core time-stamp-counters, so that they are synchronized.

It seems simple enough to install just click HERE to download the program. Then unzip it and double click on the setup.exe to install the optimizer and hey presto you are done. That is all there is too it, if you have any problems regarding it's usage then there is currently a topic on this in the forums, you can find it HERE

 

AMD Fusion Gaming Tool

 

Ok this is the bit that will make Intel users green with envy but we got rid of them so we don't have to worry about them being jealous . So just what is AMD's Fusion program well firstly it is NOT an overclocking program and it will not damage your hardware in any way whatsoever before you start to panic. All fusion does is close down background processes that may be taking up resources. A simpler way to think of it is "it creates a gaming mode" for your PC.

 

Obviously the kind of boost you will get depends on how many background services you have running at any rate it can't hurt to give it a go if you are an AMD user, if it doesn't improve performance then you can just uninstall it. You can get AMD Fusion by clicking HERE you will also find full details on how to get it running on that website.

 

IMPORTANT NOTE

 

Ok Intel users you can come back now and this note is specifically for you. Ok I am saying this to stop my pm box being flooded by pm's from people going "ha ha you noob you can alter the AMD Fusion program to work on an Intel CPU, god you are such a NOOB". Yes I KNOW you can, however that is skating on dodgy ground and I don't believe it has a place in this forum. I think it would be totally unacceptable for me to tell you to use google and search for "amd-fusion-gaming-tool-windows-gaming-mode-waiting-for" and click on the first link that comes up in that story. But like I said that it is unacceptable for me to tell you that, so I won't

 

Fusion isn't available where you linked it. Do you know where else I can get it?

[Max.pain]

On 9/23/2017 at 4:44 AM, L_dog111 said:

Hi i may be in the wrong place but how do i start a group on here ?

if you wanna do it for multiplayer, you can make a thread in multiplayer section

[Albany Esperanto]

I have a question, can GTA IV still be modded?

[Technical Prime]

How can I get the EFLC Radio Stations in GTA 4 (and viceversa)?

 

Sorry if I bring back this almost 1-year old topic

[Max Payne]

What is the fastest land vehicle in the game?

[HeheyBoy]

i have a problem in gta IV crashes if i go to the island/city next door when i have a mission on the island next to me when i go to the island i immediately crash is this because the file is corrupted or what?