GTAIV Patch 1.0.6.0 Review

Well the latest patch for GTAIV is out.

The only risk free way to install the patch is to boot up the game. Anything else and you risk a virus from some jerk who may have manipulated the file. My machine locked up while trying the install. I had to CTRL ALT DLT  to crash the game so I could look on Rockstar’s website. There was no physical download, just a bunch of information about the patch. Well pretty much the same stuff you see below.

One of the members of Rockstar Torronto has come to the GTAFORUMS and posted us plenty of information of what the patch gives us.
GTA IV Title Update 1.0.6.0 \ 1.0.5.1 \ 1.0.4.2 (Patch 6)
Rockstar Games Social Club
• Remove Rockstar Games Social Club application
• Separate RGSC application no longer required to launch game
• Social Club login now occurs during the launch process
Shadows
• A new, less memory-intensive, and better-looking scalable shadow solution has been implemented
• Enhanced Night Shadows added with user-selectable level of detail (replaces Shadow Density)
Performance
• Rendering optimizations have been made to improve performance, particularly when enabling shadows
• User-configurable graphics settings have been added for shadow control
• Improved memory management
Multiplayer
• Enhanced security to isolate users from cheaters and hackers
Episodic Content
• Provide in-game support to purchase “The Lost and Damned” and “The Ballad of Gay Tony” (Not available in Russian/Japanese Versions)
Bug Fixes
• Vehicle shadows re-enabled between 8pm and 6am
• Fix floating street textures
• Pedestrians in vehicles appear further out from the player to allow for long range sniping
• The Moon has been implemented with simulated lunar phases
• Fixed garbled text in Japanese Multiplayer menus
• “RESC 10” error fix for specific hardware configurations

As you see here the moon is back and looking great.

There are some great features with the new patch. Video settings .

New video settings

With the new patch they remove the mandatory Social club sign in.

Social Club is stripped out

with the removal of social club, there was a removal of shortcuts from the desktop. I seemed to have gotten an error.

but it was meaningless I think.

Error during the update GTAIV

BYE Bye Social Club

We get a new splash screen after the install. The new splash screen shows Episodes From Liberty City.

New GTAIV SPlash Screen

I try to load the Episodes and see if I can buy it, but i think I was a day early. So i got a connection error.

Live not connecting Episodes

I will try again later after the sales level out.

They added market place as an option during boot of game.. Cool. I of course will be buying the cd copy.

Market place button for gtaiv pc

I have noticed a 7 degrees F difference  when the Game link is blinking at the top of the screen, and a seven degree drop when i finally click the dang thing and get windows live opened. When I exit back out, instant temperature drop and frame rate increase.

After driving around and tweaking the heck out of my video settings, Air cleaning my heatsinks, replacing fans, cleaning up my start up processes, I started playing the game with a desire to explore. I stumbled into something kind of not good.

Yep Tree shadows are flickering.
So I moved to the Video settings to check what I had the settings at. you tell me what you think.

I seem to be bogging down really bad. I just recently did a motherboard upgrade so I can actually run dual channel Memory. That upgrade I did to my machine did magic for me. I jumped from 22fps up to 45 frames per second. That is a huge jump. I could then change my settings to near max for my video memory, but this patch killed that. I am back down, way down. with the video settings as smooth as i can get it, 17 fps .
I am not one to bash Rockstar and I appreciate all of the work they are doing. So I will not bash. I will instead ask you for your tech support.

Dual 9500 gt 512mb (sli on or off it does this)
AMD 5600+ dual core
2 gigs pc6400
XFX 750 A mobo black edition

****Update****

There is a patch for EFLC Episodes From Liberty City for pc.

****update2****

Well I could not get the game to work anymore. The game crawled to  about 10-15 FPS after that patch. So I completely uninstalled teh game and reinstalled. Dropped back to 1.0.4.0 Patch (aka patch 5). Turned off Anisotropic filtering in video card settings. Also turned off Anti-aliasing. Both were set to run by application control. So for gta in the 3d settings, I turned it off. Getting an average of 45 Frames per second.

May not be fore you. but works wonders for me.

The link for patch 1.0.4.0

Now if you want to try and roll youyr current install back to that, you have to reinstall rgsc.

I can’t walk you through how to save your settings, I didn’t  take that step. I went with a full fresh install.

It seems like it would be easy. Good luck. Report back on how you did it.

****update 2****

There currently is no updated no cd crack yet for 1.0.6.0

I would like to put my game disk back in the case and keep it from getting scratched.

***update 3***

Ok, I found my answer.
I posted about about an error I got while installing.
but as I closed the error window I saw the install was still going fine.
I got my patch through live.
So this patch I just installed
is the exact same one.

Difference is, this time I did not have gtaiv running during the install.
And this time
The frame rates are a buttload better..

but I do have to say 1.0.4.0 plays much much smoother.

I still want to see if marketplace can be killed with xliveless and see if that speeds things up.

download.xbox.com/content/5454083b/tu10000083_10000b83.cab?n=F1F2863FCD63C802

direct link to the new patch ,copy link to browser, extract  with winzip, works for me.