Mod Quality vs Performance

[s1xty7]

So, in preparation for GTAV I have been making some changes to my PC setup and replaying GTAIV on the PC (played it first on PS3 and it looks SOOO much better on the PC). I have managed to get it so I am running 60 - 100 FPS most of the time at 1920 x 1080 with everything maxed but AF at 2x, shadows at High, and draw and detail at 50. I'm currently running Steam version 1.0.7.0 and I don't really want to downgrade to 1.0.4.0 (tried that and I'd just prefer not to hassle but I will if thats what it takes).

 

With all that out of the way, what graphics mods have the best impact visually with the least amount of performance decrease? I'm looking for realism, not extra high gloss. SMAA injection is alright but it seems to introduce some unwanted blurring/bloom but, on the plus side, it doesn't have a huge impact on my FPS. Would icenhancer or ENB do well? If so, which version (I understand you may have to downgrade versions or replace the sky texture to fix some sort of red sky bug)? Is there a collection of mods bundled together or is it all sort of haphazard?

 

I'm a technical kind of guy, but there seems to be such a huge volume of mods that I have no idea where to start with modding IV. I appreciate any feedback you can give and let me know if I posted this in the wrong place.

[Legend of the West]

Excellent! I'm glad someone asked this, as I had planned to myself after I've completed my PC and had the game and everything running smoothly. I'm interested in improving the textures and graphics while maintaining a high FPS rate. I am also curious about ICEnhancer like the OP mentioned, but also in replacing the stock vehicles with upgraded models of real vehicles, particularly the Ultimate Vehicle Pack project and its effect on graphics performance.

 

Also, I have several related questions about modding in general and wondering if I should start a new thread, or ask here. Don't want to hijack it from OP. And yes, I already used TFSE, but to no avail.

[jpm1]

if you're looking for realism , smoothness is very important so my only advice would be not to install too heavy sized textures , whatever they are cars textures or enhancing textures . GTA will vanilla textures with good fps is breathtaking and does not need IMHO any kind of major textures overhaul

[s1xty7]

Don't get me wrong. I think the game looks great as it is. I was curious about some of the lighter weight mods that people thought made huge differences. I certainly have no desire to sacrifice very many FPS but I thought I'd see what was out there. I saw mention of a mod that added even more traffic and pedestrians that seemed like it would be more realistic. Any idea if that slows things down a lot?

 

Thanks for helping out some new folk. Apparently there are a few of us after similar information and I'm sure we all appreciate your guidance.

[jpm1]

no doubt that guys that made enb mods (enb , icehancer ..) made some tremendous and probably great work with these mods but my experience in modding tells me that when modding the more you reduce to the strict minimum the cooler your game experience will be . cause the chances of bugs/crash are reduced to minimum . as i said i took lot of attention to my installed mods sizes and i didn't have any crash for monthes now . concerning traffic fixes there are some out there but the only way to make them work it's to have a small vehicles.img file . if you want to increase the peds/cars density you can do it yourself by tweaking a file called popcycle.dat with a tool called IV needle , or you can download an already tweaked file

[mkey82]

There are some environment mods that can make the difference (google's the word of the day,) some of them rely on ENB, while others don't. All mods that use ENB will cause performance loss, but at a rather impressive gain. However, ENB will work best on patch 4.

Icenhacer can have marvellous effects, for people who like that sort of thing, but again, it works best on patch 4 as it uses ENB.

You can also use ENB on its own, working out a configuration that work best for you.

 

You can download some texture packs, like the better city textures. There's a number of high res texture packs, again use google or search a bit in the gtagarage, everything of importance should be findable there. Beware, those are usually some big ass downloads, in excess of 5GB.

 

I recommend starting with some simple timecyc mods, those usually can give you a lot nicer weather and lighting which usually boosts FPS while providing for a visually more appealing game. Also, find some better tree textures, there are some mods that reduce the eye sore jagged tree lines are in this game.

[Legend of the West]

I found the FAQ link in mkey82's sig to be very helpful and it answered several questions I had on this topic.

[GTALegacy]

Here is a mod I am currently using / experimenting with using a 1.0.7 install:

 

City Car Mods Pack 1.3

 

The beauty of this pack is...

 

A) It replaces over 90 default cars with their closest real life counter-parts. This is something a lot of car packs claim to do, but most of the time it is the author choosing vehicles that aren't even remotely close to the original car and/or just filling the pack with super expensive cars which makes Liberty City traffic look like something you would see in Beverly Hills, or at a high-end car show. The other draw back is a lot of the packs don't have the proper cars required to play through the campaign e.g. four door cars for "Three Leaf Clover", "Peggorino's Pride", etc.

 

B) It has a small footprint, so it doesn't add too much of a performance hit. Most of the models are low poly, but don't lack any details whatsoever.

 

C) It has a nice variety of cars (extension of point "A")

 

D) It comes with a Taxi Bug fix, but I downloaded the Traffic Load Script and used that one instead since it is more stable and has been in development longer than the Beta one included with the car pack.

 

I am also thinking about trying out this car pack, too...

 

Essential Car Pack V 1.0 + It's updated expansion packs.

 

[jpm1]

Here is a mod I am currently using / experimenting with using a 1.0.7 install:

 

City Car Mods Pack 1.3

 

The beauty of this pack is...

 

A) It replaces over 90 default cars with their closest real life counter-parts. This is something a lot of car packs claim to do, but most of the time it is the author choosing vehicles that aren't even remotely close to the original car and/or just filling the pack with super expensive cars which makes Liberty City traffic look like something you would see in Beverly Hills, or at a high-end car show. The other draw back is a lot of the packs don't have the proper cars required to play through the campaign e.g. four door cars for "Three Leaf Clover", "Peggorino's Pride", etc.

 

B) It has a small footprint, so it doesn't add too much of a performance hit. Most of the models are low poly, but don't lack any details whatsoever.

 

C) It has a nice variety of cars (extension of point "A")

 

D) It comes with a Taxi Bug fix, but I downloaded the Traffic Load Script and used that one instead since it is more stable and has been in development longer than the Beta one included with the car pack.

 

I am also thinking about trying out this car pack, too...

 

Essential Car Pack V 1.0 + It's updated expansion packs.

 

a car pack does not need to replace exactly original car by their equivalent to be good . sound engines in GTA are sometimes far from what we could see with real life cars and this probably cause R* wants to avoid a trial . i installed the suburban on the washington and an avalanche on the admiral and the muffled sound engines with these huge luxury 4x4 are just awesome . don't know about that car pack , i have a 100 % homemade one but in general if it has lot of downloads it's something at least worth to be tested

[GTALegacy]

No, car packs don't need to replace all cars, or even ones close to the original... BUT that is the goal of a lot of car packs because that is something a majority of players want. They want to play the game using real cars (as close to real as possible) with their real names and accurate handling because it makes the immersion in the world of Liberty City that much more real than the default

[GTALegacy]

To keep this thread going and for those interested in visual quality vs. performance...

 

I have settled on the following mods for GTA IV, 1.0.4:

 

1) Extended Car Pack v 2.0

 

This is one of many compilation car packs that replace default cars with their appropriate real life counter-parts and their real life names. The models are all nicely done, are high quality, but low poly count and have no glitches or errors. The best part is it doesn't substitute cars, but replace them e.g. a four door car = a four door car, a pickup truck = a pickup truck, etc.

 

2) RealityIV 1.62

 

This is similar to ENB, but it doesn't use ENB and that means ZERO performance hit. It's a timecycle mod that adjusts visual settings via the timecycle files in your GTA installation. Not only is there no performance hit like with ENB, but it also has realistic color corrections that aren't overly bright (saturated), or too dark like a lot of custom ENB settings tend to be.

 

3) Chikamru Real Traffic

 

This is a must-have if you are using custom car packs because not only does it solve the Taxi Bug, but it also makes Liberty city feel like a real city since it triples the amount of traffic in the game. This is the ONLY resource intensive mod of the three I have installed, and I had to over clock my i7 920 to 4.0 GHz for smooth performance. I had been running at 3.3 GHz with lower voltage, but because of the increased amount of traffic I needed the extra horsepower to make sure the game play is smooth. And this is with Traffic Density set to just 20%!

 

4) SMAA Injector

 

This is also a must-have regardless of whether you have any mods installed, or not. It gives GTA IV Subpixel Morphological Antialiasing which this game desperately needs. I always change the "injector'ini" to SMAA_PRESET_ULTRA which is like 4xAA. Be warned: AMD cards do much better at SMAA, so it might not work that well if you have an Nvidia card. Nvidia does FXAA better than AMD.

[MrMateczko]

VisualIV is highely recommended for you, OP.