best compilation of grand theift auto iv graphic mods. - Page 2

I hear you. I play xplane 10 sometimes, and even in other games see VRAM usage up around 2gb.. That means to me in 6-12 months games will regularly be up and above. Plus I want to run a couple monitors. I use three 24s at work so hard to come home to only one!

Kind of a dumb question. But, does the GTA4 mods works on Liberty City Episodes (or whatever it's called)?

On my case, I downloaded "Episodes" first, then the game, so they are on diff directories.

Yeah when it come to memory...more the better, especially if it doesn't cost too much more.
Most mods will specify which game they work for, or at least which game the mod has been tested on. But many (most?) will say either liberty city or episodes...meaning it only works on one or the other. Within the two, mods will specify witch GTA patch has been tested as well, or which patch is required. You will find that most mods either require or suggest patch 1.0.4.0, so if you bought the steam version like i did, you need to roll back the patch (steam always downloads latest patch, unless you tell it not to). You can google "steam GTA IV patch roll back" for the guide. Make sure to always back up everything before each mod install or when changing patches. I personally like to keep clean copies of the game with patch 1.0.4.0 and 1.0.7.0 (most recent), as there are good enbs for both. However I strongly recommend 1.0.4.0 as there are many more mods for this patch (its the one modders build for most). Modding in GTA is more art than science, so prepare for some frustration ahead, but it's worth it when you get the 'perfect' set up--which is based on individual preference of course. But really do backup your stuff... What site do you guys download your mods from? I use mostly GTA4mods.com (I think that's it).

It's actually gta4-mods.com. My bad.

Yep I do. It's a bit of a hassle to get there, because you have to jump through some hoops (let me know if you can't find the guide via google), but modders say that 1.0.7.0. prevents some of the visual effects from ENB, and I've personally found the ENBs for 1040 to be more visually pleasing too, so I think there's something to it. If you look at some of the other threads and on different sites, most will tell you not to even mess with 1070, but I think that's a little overkill. I liked a couple ebbs for 1070.

Now performance is a different issue. I don't have a SLI set up, but have heard SLI doesn't work for GTA 4 (lame). The issue (I read) is the game's code, which was poorly designed and inefficient. So the game is CPU intensive, and may even run better from one of your 680s.

I could be wrong but I don't think there's much performance difference between the two patches, but as you start downloaded different mods (guns, cars, sounds and many ENBs), your'll notice the authors notes will say 1040 only or it will work in 1070, but not as well (I.e. graphics aren't as good). I made the move early on, but kept a clean version of 1070 installed on my data drive (and a 1040 copy as well), as there are some pretty good mods for 1070, just way more for 1040, and ere are visually better, IMO. Like you I overclocked both CPU and GPU, and still max out around 35 fps, and it drops sometimes into mid 20s. I've found that water reflections crush performance and don't add a ton visually, so I turn that down a bit, and cars to roughly 40 percent. I've also found, and could be my imagination, that running from SSD boosted performance a little. What you can do is find a ENB you like, and tweak the settings a little...like car reflections, for example, which hit performance hard. If you nudge the settings down, sometimes you can gain a few fps. The biggest hit by far is the the global shadow detail... Forgetting the name but its shift f11 I think, or can turn off in enbseries.ini. That kills performance and doesn't add a ton IMO...especially when your driving around at 100 mph. I can be more helpful when I have it up in front of me.

Keep in mind if you do flip over to 1040, you'll need the versions of script hook, xliveless, etc for 1070. I can put those up for you to download somewhere when I get back...problem is that sometimes on the boards people mislabel them, to add to frustration. Like I said, modding GTA 4 can be challenging, and sometimes things work right off the bat and other times you spend hours f'ing around and sometimes mods work with just xliveless and sometimes dsound...can be frustrating. But once you dial in a few set ups (I have one set up for higher fps, when I get sick of playing at 30), its worth it.

And you won't need steam up for the 1040 patch either to launch the game. I just make shortcuts of the launchgta.exe files, and its good to go. Makes it easy to back up the set up you like and revert if anything goes south.

Hopefully gta5 is coded better to take better advantage of high performance hardware. Seriously, if your set up gets crushed, it says something. Two 680 4gbs in SLI and 20-30fps is ridiculous.

You prob caught the typo but meant to say that if you flip over to 1040, you'll need the version of xliveless, dsound, script hook, etc that works for this patch.