Tech Tips and Reviews
The votes had been tallied up and we see that 77.78% of the users want to see an MMorpg for the next Grand Theft Auto Game
5.56% said no way
16.67% Said They want a donut (lol)
Now the new vote is what city we want to see for The Next Grand Theft Auto
I am not aiming super high, I am hoping for Vice City again. But if this will be an mmorpg then we want a whole country, so we can sit in whatever city we want to.
Ok for starts,
I did do a big full test of windows seven at work on a machine and threw everything at it that makes vista and xp crash. the version we used for that test is windows 7 32 bit, here is Windows & in Workplace Environment.
I have to say that anyone who preaches on about 7 being better than windows Vista, You really did not even try both with an open mind. I like vista, Seven is not impressing me at all. All the stuff about vista I heard everyone complain about but never noticed myself, I am seeing it in Windows 7. I think by now it’s just common enough to blame everything on George Bush and Windows vista, it’s the first two things out someone’s mouth. But ok here is what I get in the trial at home on windows 7 64bit.
Well I am on day two of windows 7. The default drivers it installed, amazed me, almost as much as windows vista did. Video card drivers, not so much. I am forced to use almost one year old nvidia drivers. Fine.
For the record, my machine is a mid way between work horse and light gaming machine, nothing to brag about in either direction.
Specs are
AMD 5600+ 2.9g dc
3 gigs pc6400 800mhz
Nvidia / evga 9500 gt 512 mb
some ecs motherboard
air cooled.
Well the video drivers have been iffy on me and would not let me use the manufacturers drivers. This has always been my special sweet spot, using EVGA drivers instead of nvidia drivers has always givin me a cooled advantage. but no, win 7 rc is forcing me to use the ones they have from the update service at Microsoft, if I install anything else I look at 8 bit graphics at best.
Well I tend to do my benchmarking at pc pitstop.com (full test) . to say the least, my scores drop dramatically over my vista scores. I usually use the old test , it’s hard to find but it’s there it’s a link in the description kinda hidden there. my scores have been i the 3000’s for about a year now. With windows seven they dropped to 1500. strangely it shows my 2d fps increased by nearly 100 fps. Well that’s cool…..
So I turn to my faithful typical benchmarking methods of real testing. :-)
I crack open every version of Grand Theft Auto and install them all.
On gtaiii I get the same hesitation I used to get about 6 years ago. While passing under bridges and through tree covered areas there is a lag that comes in spurts. with vice city, the yellow almost takes over the screen and the cut scenes are jittery just like it was the day the game came out and I was on out dated hardware. San Andreas, well not much better.
GTAIV For me to achieve the 23 FPS at best in game I had to turn everything off or all the way down. When I was on Vista I was seeing 35+ FPS with some things turned to medium. Yes I know my video card is not the best in the world, but it was the same one I was using on windows Vista and it makes a great “before and after” comparison.
Now for the lock out issues everyone complains about with windows Vista.
I head to MVPS Hosts site to update my hosts file to block bad sites and advertisements. Nothing fricken happened. Wouldn’t block anything, So I head to the ETC folder to modify the file by hand. HA! No administrator rights to modify that file. Meanwhile in the background I am playing myspace mobsters. I refresh a page and bam new advertisement, all my browsers drop and fricken notice comes up telling me my computer might be compromised, and it offers this virus scan. then it scans my computer anyway and says I have a virus then tells me to update. I freak out and try and close the page and notice, it’s not windows explorer, it’s Mozilla. it’s a fricken spam scam. See if I could have changed my hosts file, that never would have happened. so I head to bit defender to scan my disk onlline. would not allow me!!!!!! WTF!!!!!
So I head to emsi and get a-squared and do a scan, sure enough… I am infected with 4 types of Trojans. I am upset now.
The hardest thing for me to find, I still have not found it yet, is how in the blue hell do you turn it so that you can see your file extensions? Have they disabled so much user ability that they have turned that off? I feel as if I am being dumbed down and pacified with big shiny buttons.
You can like windows seven all you want, but I really have this whole thing figured out.
Either it’s going to turn out to be Mojave, or windows ME 2.0
still the same issue with Windows Seven that bothered me most with Windows Vista , No Ftp. You have to download Fire FTP for firefox and use that . You no longer have direct access with windows Explorer. I find this unacceptable. It really feels like we are being dumbed down.
After some help, someone linked me to how to use notepad as administrator to modify files such as the hosts file
Here
Today April 21st, Microsoft released a new update to WINDOWS LIVE . The forums at GTAFORUMS.Com goes crazy.
Looks like Microsoft bundled some lines of code that totally trashed what few users and players of Grand Theft Auto IV, that Rockstar Games had left. The game seems to work fine in Multi- Player , but has traumatic effect on Single player mode. You can no longer tweak and adjust your game. The game stutters so bad and hangs up, that no one can get even four minutes of play time to test out said tweaks. It kind of looks intentional.
Picture this:
Rockstar games might have actually put the screws to Microsoft, for allowing cheats in thier online community, and well, looks like they might have barked up the wrong tree. Sad part is, they are contracted to them, so they can’t just drop the windows live program.
This of course is where the modders and tweakers need to come together. MTA-IV and Iv-mp need to band together and make something quick to save Rockstar in this.
Now this is pretty much speculation, but man it would be scary if it was true.
Xliveless is the way to go, but patches are hard to get and use once you do that.
If you feel that Microsoft needs to Address this, Sign below with a response.
Let our Text be read, we need to prove there are more than just a hand full of out there.
Call it a petition. Call it a group effort. I just consider it a gathering of upset customers.
We are customers of Microsoft, we are displeased.
Even if you do not agree with my opinion, let your’s be read and lets let Microsoft hear from us.
Just reply to this with your opinion on the matter.
Digg it for me
Clearly it will be Vice City. San Andreas is the final city each time and Liberty City is where you start.
On GTAIII Vice city is what happened after the Game coders smoothed out the code and repacked it to take less space, allowing them to pack more crap in one game.
GTAIII Took a hearty machine back in the day, as GTAIV take a Hearty Machine these days. Vice city took a slightly stronger computer on III, yet played twice as smooth. Vice city will play smoother again. If computer gamers are allowed a chance to ride the GTAIV tail to the end, then GTA PC Fans will be in for a re-occurring blast.
Will we see a yellow washed city again? I was not bothered by that in III , It gave the feel of a sunny city. Especially after Rainy Liberty City. More Boats, less garbage, more old people and malls. The only things I anticipate. I am ready for the announcement .
What I hope for, is a glimpse at an old burned out Tommy Vercetti, in a retirement home, along with the un named Guy from GTAIII, And Carl Johnson from San Andreas living up on the beach, with no role in the game other than showing he is still alive.
There was an interview with the creators of Grand Theft Auto, and they said that we will not see any persons returning in GTAIV Because they are all dead. Vice city in GTIII was a step back in time, and so was San Andreas, what will happen in that case? will they close the books for good and show us how they all die?
Buy the next game, Buy the pc version to get the real deal, and we will know what’s up.
Have Fun Good Luck
HFGL
TruXter
After all of the tweaking I have done, I can now get cocky about playing the game. And do what most people can not do with gtaiv. Liberty City never looked so dang pretty
GTA Clans Site/
yeah, I did it with a cell phone
so. … .. Sorry about the quality. and it was hard to do with one hand!
Decided to drive to the swingset in Gtaiv on a motorcycle.
I pulled up to the leg of the swingset and bam.. my wheels disappeared. I kept trying to ride away, but that wouldn’t happen. It was as if I was stuck to the swingset. So I got off the bike and was about to just run away, but decided to see if the game sees the bike as being a dead bike. What I mean by that is , sometimes when you trash a vehicle, exit the vehicle and try again to mount/enter, the game will act as if it isn’t there. So I wanted to see what the game saw it as, it let me on. The bike rolled backward about a foot or so then it froze. I exited again to see if it would happen again. Cool it did, but I was still stuck to the swingset. I kept doing it till the bike disconnected from the swingset, I then rode away with no wheels. On a hover craft like Harley bike thingy lol.
Of course I tried to save it to see what it is like next time I boot the game up. we’ll see when I reboot.
Images are found here at original post
If you have a computer and plan to play Grand Theft Auto iv on pc.
People are reading forums on how to resolve issues with their game. They are gathering information from people who do not know what they are talking about. I will help you with just a couple steps. First you have to understand that the person who claimed GTAIV pc has a memory leak, has no clue what he/she is talking about and should clearly be labeled the planets biggest idiot. All planets need an idiot.
The fix, is the same fix for all games using a new architecture/engine. Here is the fix.
Go to the website for the manufacturer of your motherboard. Download all drivers for your motherboard.
Go to the website for the manufacturer of your video card.
Now before installing the new drivers, you must uninstall all the drivers you currently have installed. I usually disabled the plug and play option in Control PanelAdministrative Toolsservices. Of course I do this on Vista because it keeps trying to install some crummy drivers when I reboot after an uninstall. You really shouldn’t need that, but if you do, you know how.
Ok after the uninstall reboot your computer, and now install your drivers one by one, rebooting after each driver installed. On the final driver install, instead of rebooting, shut down your pc. When the pc is off, unplug the power to it. Clean up all the dust in all of your heatsinks (cpu,gpu,northbridge,south etc) clean your memory sticks. Remove all dust out of your pc. Make sure your air flow is heavy through your case.
The way I do that is, at the back of the pc where you see the 80 mm fans. There is like a grill around those. Since I don’t have a 2 year old kid in my house, I snip those grills out. This drops my temperature by about 2-5 degrees C . Here’s more on the subject.
And the last thing for you. DON’T OVERCLOCK YOUR MACHINE, unless you know what you are doing.
I am a regular user at the gtaforums located at gtaforums.com. 100% of the memory leak complaints there, have been resolved with driver issues,heat issues, or the moron tried to overclock and did not want to face the fact that his computer was the issue, not the game.
In the end, this help post will get you playing Grand Theft Auto IV, that simple. The game works fine. Maintain your rig or go back to the console gaming. The cause is not overclocking it’s self, but poor overclocking could be a factor. If your machine is overclocked, set your o/c items back to default and give the game a go. If you can get the game running with your parts clocked to normal, gradually work your way back up in o/c until you reach a stable setting.
How? As if you are overclocking your video card, move each slider (depending on the tool you are using) up by 5mhz, test the game, move up 5 more, test the game and so on till you get a crash. After crash, move sliders back three. When it stables out, move forward one, if it crashes move it back one. and so on. Helpful posts
Same with bios / cmos settings with memory and cpu. Except not with sliders of course. Yes it is tedious but it resolves your issue.
Here is a lesson in how to adjust your settings for smooth video play
And here is the whole help page from Rockstar.
Note: You must have Vista Service Pack 1 or Windows XP Service Pack 3 installed PRIOR to installing and running
Grand Theft Auto IV PC.
Right-click ‘My Computer –> Properties’ to see if you have the latest Service Packs installed, and if not check Windows Update and download before trying to install the game.
To help you understand that. It means that if you installed the latest service pack for your operating system AFTER you installed GTAIV. It would be wise if you uninstall the game and delete all folders now. and reinstall the game.
Somewhere there was talk of resetting your registry but I haven’t had to study that. I will look into it if needed. Yes it sounds like a hassle, but it does tell you on the box what the required service pack would be. Fyi windows xp 64 , you have to have service pack 2, or it will tell you it’s an incompatible operating system. 64 is not listed in the req area :-(
It does work though.
I was surfing the forums at GTAFORUMS.com and stumbled upon a thread about a review of Grand Theft Auto iv for pc. Here is the review.
The “writer” cries about applications that hog resources. As if they are a whole other operating system running in the background. Sorry dude, I have gamed every GTA game through Linux using wine ( with the exception of GTAIV, will do soon though.) and I know resource hogging programs when I see them.
The “writer” complains about Rockstar Social Club as if it leaves a huge foot print. Come on !!!!!!, it’s 28 mb at the most. Then the “writer” goes on crying that he had to create a login for MS Live. Oh come on dude. The game just won Game of the Year for the console versions. Really it’s ok to log in and see when your friends are on. No really, it will not hurt to see when people are ready to game with you.
The “writer” goes on to say that He will buy the xbox30 version instead, and rattles off something about pc gamers being treated like pirates. Sorry clowns, but people pirate games for XBOX360 at 10 times the rate PC does. Who are you fooling with this? Google it see for yourself.
My review of that review, concludes : Utter crap written by a moron who does not know how to tweak his own computer and no intentions of ever upgrading his hardware. On that note, bit-tech.net = fail useless website. Nice work asshats.
For the record, I play the game . On a budget PC. $311 budget to be precise. NO overclocking involved.
AMD 5600 am2
Nvidia EVGA 9500 gt 512 mb ddr2
Ballistix 4gig memory pc 6400 ddr2 800mhz fsb
Resolution 1440×900 Med/high 30,30,
Vista Ult
61FPS indoors
34fps outdoors
Some of this is using data from Charming Charlie from GTA Forums.Com
Here is a real review of the Grand Theft Auto IV PC from a real gamer.
I found a glitch, not sure if anyone else has found it or if it is in the console version.
but it seems the roller coaster likes to eat your car. sorry for grainy images
I screwed up and saved it for web upload as apposed to 720p.
I will of course do better with the next experiment there at that location.
The gang at GTAFORUMS.Com Have been working hard to keep the forums under control and prevent the angry few from destroying the place and Grand Theft Auto’s good name. For the most of us, we got the game working just fine. A few people here and there had bad issues with Grand Theft Auto iv. The fourth installment of GTA. A large amount of people complain about bad frame rates aka FPS (means Frames per seconds). But the worst issue is missing textures and or cars not showing damage. The cars not showing damage typically happens to people using ATI brand Video cards. The missing textures happens to people using Nvidia video cards. The slow frame rate, well it leaves no one out.
From a Member of Rockstar’s Torronto group, we received a warm comfort of support
Here is the original post His name is Rockstar Toronto lol
Hey guys,
We’ve been reading the forums and understand that several of you are experiencing difficulties with Grand Theft Auto IV PC, and we are committed to doing everything we can to help resolve these troubles. We are working on a number of solutions, outlined below, and over the next few days we will be responding to questions posed on this forum in an effort to get your game up and running as quickly as possible. Please continue to check the list below for updates.
Driver News
We�re pleased to announce that in co-operation with Nvidia a new driver has been released that improves performance and fixes a major issue with 7900 series cards. If you haven�t gotten the driver yet download it here: http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_gtaiv_downloads.htmlATI has also agreed to officially release Catalyst 8.12 which will release on Dec 10th from http://game.amd.com. Expect significant performance improvements when using this new driver.
Patch Is On The Way
We are working on making a patch available in the next few days. Since Grand Theft Auto IV is a Games For Windows � Live game the patch must be certified by Microsoft before release. The patch is already at Microsoft and we expect a speedy approval.
The patch contains a variety of fixes including:-A fix to the crash after legal screen that some German customers were reporting.
-Numerous improvements to the video editor: Smarter naming of videos, improved rendering quality, better fx during replays
-Fix to bowling while using certain sensitive mice
-Fix for ATI 1900 shadows
-Overall savings to memory
-Graphic improvements to particle systems and mirrors
-Multiplayer character settings are preserved
-Support for DirectInput controllers. Note: The current hack way of supporting these controllers may not work with the improved functionality. So we recommend you remove the hack before upgrading to the patch.Issues with power management software have also been fixed (slow speed, double speed issues). Even after the patch comes out setting power management software to maximum performance is recommended. We’ve seen cases where power management software does not detect the game is running and puts the CPU in green mode.
Besides the patch we’ve also improved the way the Social Club handles data this should have greatly reduced or eliminated the Mma10 error. If you are still receiving this error after logging in and out of Social Club we would like to know as much info as you can about it.
Information Needed For Troubleshooting
We want everyone to experience Grand Theft Auto IV on the PC the way it was intended. To that end, we will continue to monitor the forums for any and all issues users are having, and respond whenever possible. We would greatly appreciate it if people with unresolved problems could post some information about their PC configuration in this thread for us. Please include the following information:-Where exactly in the game you experienced the issue (start screen, while playing the game, etc.)
-What version of the game you have (retail, steam, other online store)
-What is your OS
-Benchmark info or DxDiag is also helpfulRockstar Games Social Club Application Info
Due to the high volume of new Social Club users, some users may have experienced periods of time where they are unable to log into their Social Club account using the Rockstar Games Social Club application. If you are unable to log in using the Rockstar Games Social Club application, please skip the login process by clicking “Skip Login” or run in offline mode by clicking “Start in Offline Mode”. This is meant as a temporary solution to allow users to play GTA IV PC, so please continue to periodically retry your login as we are working hard to promptly address any lapses in service.A small number of users have reported the Rockstar Games Social Club application encountering a fatal error, preventing them from playing GTA IV PC. One possible solution is to uninstall the .NET Framework (from Add/Remove Programs) and reinstall it by downloading it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details…&displaylang=en. If you continue to run into fatal errors in the Rockstar Games Social Club application, please contact Rockstar Games support.
Thank you for your patience as we continue to work around the clock to resolve these issues. Support updates will continue to be posted at www.rockstargames.com/support as soon as they are available, and we will update this thread with any new information as well. Please send any inquiries about non-support issues to mouthoff@rockstargames.com.
Thanks,
Rockstar GamesUPDATE – Since this thread is already getting so long we are asking everyone to post in this newly setup forum:
http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showforum=233This way we can better keep track of issues and have things be better organized.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not blaming people for their gaming discomforts. Really though, the majority of people having issues had mismatched components. Wrong voltage on of processor, cards that where better for a later version of PCI Express slot. Memory sticks that performed at a higher rate than the processors max. Some where just people who are brand new to overclocking to play a game that will stress all video cards. Really you do not want that much stress on an overclocked card/processor.
A few people found redemption in blackviper’s site, and others found the new 180.84 drivers to work fine. the trick was, uninstall current drivers, install new one, and delete settings file. Bif boom Bam , brand new again.
There is much hope in the patch. They are waiting on Microsoft to verify the patch. Microsoft works at it’s own pace. I see it no sooner than the 20th. I do however hope the patch adds features.