NEWS: Mod makes GTA IV one step more realistic

by **Andeavor** Mon Aug 01, 2011 8:26 pm

Photo or screencap?

I remember the RealGTA3 mod, but this is quite an improvement:

Such is the rate of development in the video games industry that it doesn’t take long for a game to start looking dated. GTA IV is one of those games as it’s been out for a 3 years now. It doesn’t look any less stunning than it did at launch when viewed on its own, but compare it to the games appearing today and you can see how game engines have moved on.

Luckily, if you’re a PC gamer then there’s something you can do about this graphical ageing process. There are a number of mods that can be applied to the stock GTA IV experience on PC, but if you specifically want to enhance the graphics then look no further than the iCEnhancer mod by modder IcE La Glace.

The latest version is 1.2.5 BETA, and if you watch the preview video above you can clearly see how much better this makes the game look. Do ignore the stuttering in the video though, that’s apparently just FRAPS and not how the game runs with the mod applied.

The one drawback of wanting to use this mod is the fact it doesn’t work with the latest official GTA IV patch (1.070). According to IcE this is due to the shaders and shadow system being changed in the game which makes it incompatible with his mod. So an earlier version of the game will be required to use it.

http://www.geek.com/articles/games/make-gta-iv-look-gorgeous-with-latest-icenhancer-pc-mod-2011075/

if you don’t want to risk using a beta version there’s always the stable 1.2 version, a video of which you can see below:

For comparison, here’s GTA IV running on PC with all settings set to maximum, but without the mod applied. You can clearly see the difference:

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*expletive*, it's beautiful! Surprised

by **Arkanay** Mon Aug 01, 2011 8:59 pm

GTA IV is definitely one of the better looking and with better gameplay games of the series. (My favourite is still San Andreas, though) The graphics are already pretty cool, no need to make them better. Razz

That first picture looks too realistic to me. And I'm sure not many people have a cpu able to run something like that. :S

by **LordRemington** Mon Aug 01, 2011 10:00 pm

That video with the mod is awesome. The graphics look great. A shame I only have GTA IV on the xbox 360 Brick Wall

but like ark said, would that require a pretty good computer to run it with those graphics?

by **Red-Indigo** Mon Aug 01, 2011 10:40 pm

Lol, I am not PC gamer, I'm a laptop gamer and I think my laptop would actually melt trying to run somthing like this XD

Still, it's amazing that with the right skills you can completley update a game to this standard. It also goes to show how important graphical style is when developing games.

This reminds me a little of those morrowind vids, with the improved grpahics.

by **Andeavor** Mon Aug 01, 2011 10:56 pm

I don't know the specs of the modder's computer. I assume it's a desktop computer, which is always a tiny step ahead laptops.

I still believe, it's the RAM that counts. I've got 8GB in my laptop and it runs graphics very smoothly at high settings. Plus, I have an SSD, which helps loading much quicker.

by **Jeff** Tue Aug 02, 2011 12:00 am

What you really need for good gaming are computers is a good GPU set (i.e. nVidia, ATI, etc. graphics cards). What this does is send all the graphics work to the GPU, saving all the number-crunching for the main CPU. This will greatly enhance performance in games.

I've heard of some crazy systems with multiple GPUs and very high speeds, so I wouldn't be surprised if those systems could run that mod without breaking a sweat. At any rate, that's definitely the type of system this mod is meant for.

by **Lord_Lonestar** Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:31 am

I want to buy GTA IV for the PC now...

by **TyrannoFan** Thu Aug 04, 2011 2:58 am

HAHA! I have GTA IV on my XBox AND PC! Unfortunately my computer has only 70gb left of space, and I have to keep GTA graphics to minimal so it doesn't have a lot of lag but it still runs at 30 fps anyway soo... Sad