GTA 4 - tweaking performance and fixing issues guide

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Wildside

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UPDATE:

two new tweaks requires editing the configuration files. Dirty work here folks!

The first one is complex but perhaps fully unlocks the configuration files so u can manually edit the settings in game, thus no restrictions then what i previously posted (-norestrictions and -nomemrestrict, doesnt work through 'Target'?). Risky! I have not attempted this one myself yet! I'm not for certain that -norestrictions and -nomemrestrict work correctly as it should so u might as well as skip that part.

second one is taking about turning off/reducing the Boom Effect.

links posted down towards the end of this post.

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KEEP IN MIND THAT THESE FIRST TWEAKS I POSTED EARLIER ARE POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS FOR GTA4 FOR PC! Is still a read though for some do work.

Unlike previous PC ports of the GTA series, Grand Theft Auto 4 does not seem to be optimized that well. There are reports of the game running poorly on even high end graphics hardware such as ATI 4870X2,4870X2 and nVIDIA GTX 260, 280 etc. Video memory (VRAM) on the card plays a critical role here; even mid range cards such as Geforce 8800 or 8800GTX with lower than 512MB video memory can have trouble running GTA 4 at high settings. Also, having a quad core processor can help immensely. Even if you have a high end video card with a lot of video memory, an older dual core processor can become a bottleneck.

^^^ sounds about right, but i have found a blog that explains tweaks to improve the performance, lay off restrictions in settings in GTA4 so u can have the freedom to do what u want but it will take some of ur time to do so.

tweaking in performance and fixing issues for GTA4 can be found here:

FILEnetworks Blog: Possible solutions for Grand Theft Auto 4 fatal errors, crashes and performance issues

To start, u need to make a shortcut out of the LaunchGTAIV.exe file and place it on the desktop so 'Target' can be shown. To find the LaunchGTAIV.exe, it is in this directory:

HDD > Program Files > Rockstar Games > Grand Theft Auto IV > LaunchGTAIV.exe

LaunchGTAIVdirectory.jpg


right-click it > Create Shortcut. Drag it to desktop. I found the IV icon in the same folder and changed the name:

Untitled-3.jpg


the ones i recommend: -norestrictions (UPDATE: doesnt work?), -nomemrestrict (UPDATE: doesnt work?), -fullspecaudio or -minspecaudio (switches between high end CPU audio footprint and low end CPU audio footprint UPDATE: does work, i believe), -width *1680, -height *1050 (*example UPDATE: does work), last but not least is -safemode (resets all ur settings so u can customize it the way u want UPDATE: does work).

–noprecache, u can try this. It disables pre-caching of textures and models (UPDATE: havent tried yet but i presume it does work).

Safe Mode, it is a requirement so u can change the Texture Quality from Medium to High. Once u do this, u are required to restart for it to take effect. Quit out of the game, right click on the LaunchGTAIV that u created a shortcut for, go to Properties, and delete the -safemode so it doesnt reset the settings u made.

it is recommended for users that do not have the directory to the 'Games' folder in various Windows Vista editions and Windows XP editions.

For Safe Mode in XP, you can go to Start > All Programs > Rockstar Games > Grand Theft Auto IV > Grand Theft Auto IV Safe Mode

for the ones that do, here is the directory so u dont have to type in -safemode:

Start > Games > click GTA4 logo > Play - More Options (small play arrow) > Play (Safe Mode)

GTA4-WherePlaySafeModeis.jpg


UPDATE!:

NEWS FLASH! More tips for tweaking this game on the same blog that i just found!:

FILEnetworks Blog: Few more tips to increase GTA 4 performance and other tweaks

WARNING! This one tweak requires time, risk, and patience if u want to mess around with the configuration files to be able to unlock the configuration files to manually edit the GTA 4 settings ur own freedom of use:

How to unlock configuration files to manually edit GTA 4 settings

Unlike most other games, you can't edit GTA 4 configuration settings by simply opening them up and editing them using a text editor. The game's xlive (Windows Live) protection uses some kind of a hash check to detect modified files. If it detects edited files, the game will shut down at startup. Luckily the xlive protection, like all other protections out there, can be hoodwinked. Follow the steps below to unlock your GTA 4 configuration files for manual editing.

- If you have already tried modifying any GTA 4 configuration files (located in \Grand Theft Auto IV\common\data\ folder), you need to restore the original files. Reinstall if you have to.
- Download gtaiv.-magic.zip file from this link.(Link obtained from this thread – credit to original creator).

this link is what he is refering to. A more detailed ""STEP-BY-STEP instructions"" is provided in this thread (aka "credit to original creator", as stated above) *warning, long read and complex*.

- Extract this zip file – there will be two files inside – magic.bat file and filelist.pak file.
- Copy the magic.bat file to your GTA 4 installation directory. i.e- X:\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV\
- Run magic.bat. This will create backups of your GTA 4 config files and prepare them for modding. You may need to right click magic.bat and ‘Run as Administrator' on Windows Vista.
- Navigate to folder X:\….\Grand Theft Auto IV\pc\data\. Locate the filelist.pak file.
- Create a backup of filelist.pak. Then replace it with the filelist.pak file you extracted in step 3 above.

You will now be able to edit the configuration files. GTA 4 configuration files are located in the ]I]X:\…\Grand Theft Auto IV\common\data\[/I] folder. Just open the .DAT files in this directory with a text editor and you are good to go. If you are looking to tweak graphics settings, edit visualsettings.dat file.

How to turn off/reduce Bloom effect in GTA 4?

If you were not aware, GTA 4 has the bloom effect enabled by default. Worst part is that there is no option to turn it off. If you have low end video hardware, having bloom enabled can cost you some FPS. Although Bloom can never really be turned off in GTA 4, it can be turned down by editing the config files. To turn Bloom down, follow the steps below:

- You need to prepare your configuration files for modding by following steps 1-7 in ‘How to unlock configuration files to manually edit GTA 4 settings' topic above. If you have not done this already, do it now.
- Navigate to X:\…\Grand Theft Auto IV\common\data\ folder. Locate the visualsettings.dat file. Check if the file is marked read only. If it is, remove the read only attribute.
- Open visualsettings.dat with a text editor. Search for the following lines:
--- misc.BloomIntensityClamp.HD 10
--- misc.BloomIntensityClamp.SD 10.00
Now carefully change these two lines to the ones given below:
--- misc.BloomIntensityClamp.HD 0
--- misc.BloomIntensityClamp.SD 0.00
- Save the file.

I cannot guarantee that you will always gain performance using the above method. On some video cards you will see a 5-10 FPS increase while on other cards there will be no noticeable performance increase at all.

P.S.- If GTA 4 crashes before intro screen when you launch the game after modding a file, something went wrong during the modding process. You may need to resintall.

^^^ these two new tweaks i just found are very risky. The first one sounds like, if done right, can really, really full unlock the restrictions so u urself can manually edit the settings.

i will not post the second link instructions. It is too long but i have provided it for it is a step-by-step process that must be read if any of u attempt to editing the configuration files.
 
For Safe Mode in XP, you can go to Start > All Programs > Rockstar Games > Grand Theft Auto IV > Grand Theft Auto IV Safe Mode
 
i request to have editing access to this thread to myself personally for any finds from me or anyone else, i can edit this first post myself in a way that everyone can understand it better instead of asking mods to edit for me, please.
 
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