Warnings
- For Games for Windows - LIVE on Windows 8 or later, install the latest Games for Windows - LIVE software.
Key points
- Shares many similarities with Grand Theft Auto IV in terms of its engine and performance.
- Extensive modding community, along with Grand Theft Auto IV.
- Ability to import your music for your own custom radio station.
- Rockstar has removed music from the game due to expired licences. See Restore Removed Music.
General information
- Rockstar Games's Official Grand Theft Auto site
- Grand Theft Wiki
- GTA Modding - A wiki hosting mod information for the GTA series.
- GTAForums - Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City Discussion
- GTA Network - A huge network of fansites all dedicated to the Grand Theft Auto series
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
- All versions require Games for Windows - LIVE and SecuROM DRM.[Note 1] Additionally, all non-retail versions require Steam DRM.
- Online features require Rockstar Games Social Club.
Essential improvements
Patches
- Patch 3 updates the game to the latest version (see Patch notes for changes). The Steam version is already patched. The previous version, Title Update 1.1.2.0 ("Patch 2"), is also available (may be required for some mods).
ColAccel
- Greatly reduces loading times
- If editing .IMG archives you need to delete
colCache.dat
and let it get re-created
Restore Removed Music
- Some music was removed after Rockstar's music licence for this game expired after 10 years.[2]
Run the radio downgrader[3]
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- Download the downgrader.
- Unpack to the installation folder.
- Run
install.bat .
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Game data
In-game general settings.
Configuration file(s) location
Save game data location
-
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\XLive
must also be backed up as the save data is bound to the Games for Windows - LIVE profile.
Video settings
Template:Video settings
Input settings
In-game key map settings.
In-game keyboard/mouse settings.
In-game gamepad settings.
Template:Input settings
Audio settings
Template:Audio settings
- Commands responsible for audio in the game:
-fullspecaudio
: forces higher quality audio
-minspecaudio
: forces lower quality audio - good for low-end CPU's (e.g. radio cannot be heard outside car).
- Game uses DirectSound which can be handled by Creative Alchemy (set duration to 10), and possibly by IndirectSound (not especially DSOAL).
Just run LaunchGTAIV.exe as admin in case of game crash.
Localizations
Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
English |
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Brazilian Portuguese |
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Fan translation, download. |
Czech |
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Fan translation, download. |
French |
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German |
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Italian |
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Japanese |
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Polish |
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Fan translation, download. |
Russian |
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Official localization by «1C-Softclub» retail only. Patch for digital release here. |
Russian |
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Fan translation by «ENPY Studio» |
Spanish |
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Ukrainian |
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Fan translation, download. |
Network
- Social Club website stat tracking and leaderboards have been shut down. All other online features are unaffected.[4]
- Online features require a Microsoft account (optional for offline play).
Multiplayer types
Connection types
Ports
Protocol |
Port(s) and/or port range(s) |
TCP |
53, 80, 3074 |
UDP |
53, 88, 3074 |
- Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.
VR support
Issues fixed
Crashing
- When starting the game, you may be notified that the file WMVCore.dll is missing. If you're running the game via Steam, this notification may not appear and the game will simply crash after prompting for Social Club login information. Install Windows Media Player to fix.
Game does not launch
"SecuLauncher: Failed to start application [2000]" error
Game doesn't get past Social Club window
ATI Radeon Water Fix
- There is a problem where the water loses its features and details after a while. To fix this issue do this:
Replace the water shaders[citation needed]
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- Download the fixed shader: http://www.mediafire.com/?e0d69i8af8gz5l9
- Go to
<path-to-game>\EFLC
- Go to
common\shaders\win32_30_atidx10\ and rename waterTex.fxc to waterTex.fxc.org
- Place your downloaded waterTex.fxc in the same folder.
- Go to
common\shaders\win32_30_low_ati\ and rename waterTex.fxc to waterTex.fxc.org
- Place your downloaded waterTex.fxc in the same folder.
- Play your game!
Notes
- A lot of the fixes for Grand Theft Auto IV also work for Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, But not all of them. So check first.
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No recoil/bullet spread
- By default, recoil/bullet spread is only enabled when playing with a controller. This results in 100% shooting accuracy when using a keyboard and mouse.
Cannot Change the Graphics Settings
- There are reports that certain video cards with more than 2 GB of video memory may be causing GTA IV to believe the system is under specification even though the computer is powerful enough to run the game with higher settings. A possible fix:
Increase available memory[8]
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- Create a text file named
commandline.txt in <path-to-game>\EFLC and put the following statement inside it:
-availablevidmem 2.0
2. If that doesn't work, try increasing the number to one of the following.
-availablevidmem 3.0
-availablevidmem 4.0
-availablevidmem 5.0
-availablevidmem 6.0
Notes
- For the Steam version, use the
-nomemrestrict -norestrictions parameters.
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Other information
API
Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
Direct3D |
9 |
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Executable |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
Windows |
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Middleware
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Middleware |
Notes |
Physics |
Bullet Physics Library, Euphoria |
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Interface |
Adobe Flash |
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Cutscenes |
Bink Video |
1.9r |
Multiplayer |
Games for Windows - LIVE, Rockstar Games Social Club |
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Modifications
- It is strongly recommended to make a backup of any files modifications may replace or amend in the event of corruption.
- Built-in ASI loader
- Removes Games for Windows - LIVE service.
- Save game data location changes to
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\savegames\
- Save games made using XLiveLess are not compatible with native save games.
- Disables access to the multiplayer to prevent cheating.
- Compatible with VR.
- Graphical modification that drastically improves performance and visuals.
- Includes multiple presets suitable for low-end and high-end hardware.
- Compatible with all patches.
- Contains optional ASI loader.
- Contains optional trainer.
- Contains optional textures for roads and trees.
- Minor graphical bug on street lights when night shadows are enabled.
- Graphical improvement that includes HD textures for roads.
- Combine with an ENB modification for best results.
Custom music
Grand Theft Auto IV allows users to play their own music on a custom radio station, Independence FM.[9]
- Simply place any audio files/folders or create shortcuts in the
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\User Music\
folder, and tune into the station in-game.
- Supported formats are MP3, WMA, M4A. Other formats and extensions are not recognized.
- QuickTime or iTunes needs to be installed for M4A support.
- Use shortcuts to audio files/folders to save disk space and improve performance.
- Supports High-resolution audio files. Up to 96 kHz / 24 bit.
- Supports Surround audio files. Up to 6 channels.
- FLAC is not supported. Convert to WMA Lossless to use in-game.
- Monaural audio files not supported.
Launch Options
- By creating a file called
commandline.txt
and saving it to your root installation folder you can alter the way your game runs. Below is a list of all the parameters.
Parameter |
Description |
-help |
Lists the available commands |
-adapter |
Use the specified screen adapter |
-autoconfig |
Automatically adjust quality setting to maintain desired frame rate (15-120) |
-availablevidmem |
Set amount of physical Video Memory |
-benchmark |
Launches the game in Benchmark mode and then quits it |
-detailquality |
Set the detail quality of the game (0-99) |
-disableimposters |
Turn off imposter rendering for vehicles |
-forcehighqualitymirrors |
Enable 64 bit mirrors |
-forcer2vb |
Force Render to Vertex Buffer |
-frameLimit |
Limits your FPS to your refresh rate |
-framelockinwindow |
Force framelock to work even in a window |
-fullscreen |
Force fullscreen mode |
-fullspecaudio |
Force high-end CPU audio footprint |
-gpucount |
Lets you manually set the GPU count if query fails |
-height |
Sets the vertical resolution |
-managed |
Use D3D runtime managed resources |
-memrestrict |
Set the restriction the amount of available memory for the game |
-minspecaudio |
Force low-end CPU audio footprint |
-no_3GB |
Disable 32-bit OS with /3GB |
-noBlockOnLostFocus |
Don't block the window update when it loses focus. |
-noprecache |
Disable precache of resources |
-nomemrestrict |
Disable memory restrictions |
-nominimize |
Disables the ability to restore the game from minimize and changing resolutions (Reduces System Memory Footprint) |
-norestrictions |
Do not limit graphics settings |
-noswapdelay |
Disable sleep delay before Present (Disable fix for hard Present stalls) |
-notimefix |
Disable Time Fix |
-novblank |
Disables V-Sync |
-percentvidmem |
Percentage of Video memory to make available for the game |
-refreshrate |
Set the refresh rate (Must be supported by your monitor) |
-reserve |
Amount of memory to set aside for other applications |
-reservedApp |
Amount of memory to leave available within application space |
-renderquality |
Set the render quality of the game (0-4) |
-safemode |
Sets graphics setting to lowest setting |
-shadowdensity |
Set the number of lights that cast shadows (0-16) |
-shadowquality |
Set the shadow quality (0-4) |
-stereo |
Set game to support stereo rendering mode |
-texturequality |
Set the texture quality of the game (0-2) |
-unmanaged |
Use application managed resources |
-usedirectinput |
Allow DirectInput alongside XInput support. |
-viewdistance |
Set the view distance of the game (0-99) |
-windowed |
Force windowed mode |
-width |
Sets the horizontal resolution |
System requirements
Windows |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
XP SP3, Vista SP1 |
Vista SP1 |
Processor (CPU) |
AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz |
AMD Phenom X3 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz |
System memory (RAM) |
1.5 GB |
2.5 GB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
16 GB | |
Video card (GPU) |
ATI Radeon X1900 Nvidia GeForce 7900 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible
| ATI Radeon 3870 Nvidia GeForce 8600 512 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible |
Sound (audio device) |
5.1 Channel Audio Card | |
Notes
References