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GTA IV Technical Guide - Printable Version

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GTA IV Technical Guide - Hitman - 06-29-2009

Index

I.  System Requirements
II. Before starting IV make sure..
III. StartUp Errors
IV. Performance
V. Low Performance/FPS – What now??
VI. GTA IV  Parameters
VII. Savegames
VIII. Cheats
IX. Needed Programs
X. Also Helpful



I. System Requirements

Minimum System Requirements
Windows Vista – Service Pack 1 / XP – Service Pack 3 (or higher)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz, AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4 GHz*
RAM: 1.5 GB RAM**
16 GB free HDD-Space
Videocard: 256 MB NVIDIA Geforce 7900 / ATI Radeon X1900

Recommended System Requirements
Windows Vista – Service Pack 1 / XP – Service Pack 3
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz, AMD Phenom X3 2.1 GHz
RAM: 2 GB RAM (Windows XP) 2.5 GB RAM (Windows Vista)
18 GB free HDD-Space
Videocard: 512 MB NVIDIA Geforce 8600 / ATI Radeon 3870

* People are able to play IV with a singlecore CPU too, but it doesn’t run smooth
** XP can handle IV with just 1GB too, but Vista needs at least 1.5GB, better 2GB to run smooth

II. Before starting GTA IV make sure you have the following installed

Windows XP:  *Service Pack 3
                      *newest .NET Framework
                          *latest GTA IV Patch

Windows Vista: *Service Pack 1 (better SP2)
                            *.NET Framework 3.0 or higher
                            *latest GTA IV Patch
                            *Games for Windows Live (GFWL)
                              Rockstar Games Social Club

III. StartUp Errors

A lot of people are getting errors when starting IV. Most of them are caused by old drivers, missing system software or simply errors caused by your system.
Here’s a list of all known error codes, and the explanation when they occur:

[Image: Unbenannt.jpg]

IV. Performance

GTA IV is hardware hungry. Everybody knows that. To play properly with very high settings, you need atleast a quadcore CPU, 4GB of Ram and a strong videocard with more than 512MB video ram.
Also IV will restrict your possible graphic settings by the amount of your available video ram (of your videocard). How to remove this restriction will be explained below.
To run IV on high settings you need a very hardcore PC – for example:
I am running GTA IV on the highest possible settings and the native resolution of my 19 inch monitor, which is 1280x1024. I am able to play the game pretty smooth at 30-70 FPS.

My System:
Core 2 Quad 4x 3.2GHz,  8GB Ram, Vista SP2, GTX 260 videocard

V. Low Performance/FPS – What now??

IV doesn’t run as smooth as you wish? Try disabling “Shadows”,  “Shadow-Density” and reducing “View-Distance” and “Detail-Distance” for more FPS.
Also lowering your Vehicle-Density helps a lot.
Also disabling “Clip-Recording” in your options helps a bit.

Note: Disabling/Decreasing View-Distance, Detail-Distance, Shadows/Shadow-Density reduces GPU-load (videocard)
Note: Disabling/Reducing Vehicle-Density, Clip-Capturing reduces CPU-load (processor)

VI. GTA IV  Parameters

GTA IV is restricting your video settings? You want higher View-Distance, but you cant due to your video ram limit? Trust me, GTA IV doesn’t really need that much VRAM. When it tells you it needs 1200MB, it actually uses ~700-800MB.
You want to modify the game in any ways?

Method #1:
Take a  look at the Shortcut Parameters. Parameters are small things you add after your Shortcut Target (LaunchGTAIV.exe).
For example, the parameter –norestrictions  removes the restriction of GTA IV settings, so you can set the settings as high or as low as you wish.
Here’s a list of all available parameters:
Quote: 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

The parameters sound nice, and you want to use some, but don’t know how to do it? No problem, just go to your GTA IV folder, and right click on the “LaunchGTAIV.exe” file. Send an Shortcut of it to your Desktop or wherever you want it to be. Now right click on that shortcut, go to the options, and add your parameters after the Target.
For example, I am using –norestrictions and –nomemrestrict.

My shortcut  looks like this:
[Image: auv98w.png]

You can do this with all parameters stated above

Method #2:
Create a txt-file called "commandline.txt" in your GTA IV main folder.
Write all the parameters you want to use in there, but make sure that there is only one parameter per text line.

Don't use both methods! This can cause crashes or makes your game unstable. Only use either the Shortcut version, or the Commandline.txt version, not both at the same time!

VII. Savegames

You somehow killed your savegames? Deleted them, made them unreadable due to a mod? Or you just want to know where they are located? No problem!

Vista:
C:\Users\"Username"\AppData\Local\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\Savegames

XP:
C:\Documents and Preferences\"Username"\Local Preferences\ApplicationData\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\Savegames

VIII. Cheats

Cheating isn’t cool. Everybody knows that. But sometimes cheating in singleplayer is a lot of fun, and of course you are free to cheat in singleplayer if you want, but please notice that enabling a cheat will block some achievements irrecoverably. Means, after you cheated, it is not longer possible for you to reach 100%.

IX. Needed programs:

* Games For Windows Live (GFWL):  http://www.gamesforwindows.com
* Rockstar Games Social Club (RGSC): http://socialclub.rockstargames.com
*Latest Patch: http://www.rockstargames.com/support/IV/PC/patch/index.html

X. Also Helpful

*Make sure you have the latest Service Pack (Vista: SP2, XP: SP3) and the newest .NET Framework installed (Vista: 3.5)
*Cleaning your registry! Free software example: Wise Registry Cleaner  http://www.wisecleaner.com/
*Defragging your HDD! Free software example: Defraggler  http://www.defraggler.com/
*Use latest WHQL-certified NVIDIA driver for your NVIDIA videocard! -> http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
*Use latest WHQL-certified ATI driver for your ATI videocard! -> http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
(this guide will be edited, improved, and new stuff will be added soon)

Any questions? Feel free to PM  me!


Also notice: This is just a GUIDE, no guarantee! If you break your game or do whatever, i'm not responsible.

Re: GTA IV Technical Guide - Fireburn - 06-29-2009

Nice topic with useful help, stickied it.

Re: GTA IV Technical Guide - Solal21 - 08-27-2009

Yeah nice topic, thanks !

...But I'm wondering, does my GTA can be ran on high settings with an iMac : 2.93 Ghz, 4 Go RAM, Ati Raedon HD 4850 with 512 Mb ?

I can't keep working and gaming with my f**king Vista (2.10 Ghz, EDIT : Core 2 Duo, 3 Go RAM, GeForce 8600M GS with 512 Mb) and I decided to buy an iMac...

But I'm not totally sure that I will be able to run my IV on very nice settings, it's not important if I can't but I wanna know  :) !

Re: GTA IV Technical Guide - Hitman - 08-27-2009

Looks good so far, but is your CPU  (the 2.93GHz one) a dualcore or a quadcore?

Re: GTA IV Technical Guide - Solal21 - 08-27-2009

Yeah a Dual, sorry, I was thinking that I've don't wrote it ^^ !

EDIT : hmmmm, didn't write it sounds better XD !

Re: GTA IV Technical Guide - Mike - 08-27-2009

Could you address the issue with adding a savegame from someone else's account/computer?

Re: GTA IV Technical Guide - Hitman - 08-27-2009

Yep  I'll do that, but prolly just in a week, because im goin on vacation (1 week italy *O* ) tomorrow evening :)

Re: GTA IV Technical Guide - Sander - 08-27-2009

Nice topique! :9~
Very useful information.