Saw this linked elsewhere, thought it might help for people to configure their setups. It's a breakdown of the graphics settings from Rockstar:
THE GRAPHIC SETTINGS OF GRAND THEFT AUTO IV PC
Most users using current PC hardware as of December 2008 are advised to use medium graphics settings. Higher settings are provided for future generations of PCs with higher specifications than are currently widely available.
Graphics settings are limited by system resources by default. 256MB video cards force minimum settings by default. If a user bypasses these safety measures using command line arguments and exceeds their system resources, the users gaming experience may be compromised.
Video Mode
Resolution scaling effects water, reflections, shadows, mirrors and the visible viewable distance. The resolution settings relate to the amount of available video memory. At 2560*1600 the game will require 320MB of video memory in addition to all the memory required for content. At 800*600 the game will require 32MB of video memory in addition to the content. Medium resolution settings are recommended for most users as higher settings are only usable if there is available video memory.
Texture Quality
Texture quality affects the visual quality of the content of the game. High setting for textures will require 600MB of video memory at a setting of 21 View Distance in addition to the memory taken by the Video Mode. A medium texture setting is recommended for most users.
Render Quality
Render quality is the texture filter quality used on most things in the world rendering. Most people would know this as anisotropic filtering. Medium settings are recommended for most users and will provide filtering beyond what the console versions can execute.
View Distance
View distance scales the distance in which different objects in the world such as building and cars are seen. Raising this option increases the distance in which high quality objects must be loaded and will increase the memory it requires. Restrictions are established to ensure the game runs optimally for most users. A setting of 22 or more will provide PC users an enhanced experience over the console versions.
Detail Distance
Detail distance scales aspects of the environment that the View Distance setting does not including vegetation, trash and other moveable objects. A setting of 10 would be the equivalent to the performance on a console. This setting has little effect on memory.
Vehicle Density
Vehicle density scales the traffic density of the traffic in the game. It has no effect on the mission vehicles or difficultly of the game, but can have a significant impact on CPU performance
Shadow Density
Shadow Density controls the number of shadows generated for positional lights in exterior environments. These shadows are exclusive to the PC version and can have a major impact on CPU and GPU performance.
Crossfire/SLI
With the latest ATI driver (8-11 series) the game supports crossfire modes (ie. 4870x2)
SLI is currently unsupported. Support will be added through a future game patch as well as an updated Nvidia driver.
NOTE: Background Processes
Certain background processes can have a detrimental effect on system performance when playing GTA IV, especially on systems with minimum required system memory. Users should ensure they disable their Virus scans (especially “on-access” type scans) when running the game to maximize performance.
EDIT: On top of the console settings that they listed there, IIRC traffic density was also set to 20 on the 360 version. I haven't gotten the game yet, but my advice would be to start off with the 360 levels they're giving and work your way up from there.
Do you mind telling me your system specs and how it runs?
So, after playing for a few hours, it seems to run fine. There are a few issues with shadows and textures looking wonky, though.
Computer has:
XP SP3
Intel Q6600
Gigabyte P35 mobo
3.2 gigabytes of RAM
NVIDIA 9600 Video Card
+ etc.
Litejedi on
3DS FC: 1907-9450-1017
0
Waka LakaRiding the stuffed UnicornIf ya know what I mean.Registered Userregular
edited December 2008
Running at 1680x1050 with everything cranked (bar textures only at medium) does look very nice. Shadows have a really dodgy latticing effect, that probably has something to do with the shadow dithering.
I need to sacrifice draw distance to use High textures (to something along the lines of 10-20) and the quality is not that much improved.
I know! I hadn't even considered the possibility that it might not be a good port.
What.
What.
All the other ports were pretty shitty.
Well I'm mostly basing this on SA.
But how did you not expect this?
They've all been lazy. The only reason it's not been noticed till now is that it's only this gen the power of consoles and PCs is at all really comparable.
I have not had any problems with any GTA game ever. Also, GTA IV was the first GTA I played on a console so I couldn't compare VC and SA on PC versus their console counterparts.
So shadows look a bit odd but otherwise it's been great fun once I got over my initial nerdrage. But can anyone think of a reason why the "-norestrictions" command isn't working for me? According to what I've read adding that parameter should let you set the graphics to anything you want, recommended settings be damned. But I can't get it to work. Has anyone got it to work and if so did you have to do anything special?
Also am I the only one that gets a fatal error every time I try to play whilst logged in to Rockstar Social thing? I have to skip the logon or the game will CTD on startup. Just fantastic for a program that you are forced to install and run.
So shadows look a bit odd but otherwise it's been great fun once I got over my initial nerdrage. But can anyone think of a reason why the "-norestrictions" command isn't working for me? According to what I've read adding that parameter should let you set the graphics to anything you want, recommended settings be damned. But I can't get it to work. Has anyone got it to work and if so did you have to do anything special?
Also am I the only one that gets a fatal error every time I try to play whilst logged in to Rockstar Social thing? I have to skip the logon or the game will CTD on startup. Just fantastic for a program that you are forced to install and run.
The -norestrictions tag also doesn't work for me. It's pretty fucking stupid that Rockstar thinks that I'm too stupid to manage my own settings. I'm pretty sure my machine is capable of doing medium textures with more draw distance than 8.
I played this last night to farm achievements and I remembered why I stopped.
Rolled Over. You would think getting a car to flip over 5 times at the airport would be simple. I get the damn thing to go every which way but it doesn't count it. Where else can I get this thing?
tastydonuts on
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
Merely getting Grand Theft Auto IV to run is a long and tedious process. Talk about sabotaging your customers. Yes, this crap even happens to people who buy it on Steam.
I'm sure they'll blame the sales figures on piracy and a d0med PC market while Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead sell millions.
Sol Invictus on
0
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
I played this last night to farm achievements and I remembered why I stopped.
Rolled Over. You would think getting a car to flip over 5 times at the airport would be simple. I get the damn thing to go every which way but it doesn't count it. Where else can I get this thing?
Fly on into the third island highway from the middle one at top speed. Burn your way around the freeway trying not to lose any speed. When you get near the industrial park, there's a little ramp. Hit it at the right angle near the edge.
Spin end over end over end over end over end over end over ...
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Merely getting Grand Theft Auto IV to run is a long and tedious process. Talk about sabotaging your customers. Yes, this crap even happens to people who buy it on Steam.
I'm sure they'll blame the sales figures on piracy and a d0med PC market while Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead sell millions.
Hrm. I'm on Vista 64-bit, and had no issues whatsoever with the GfW: Live update (that site says it's 32-bit only).
Other than that, it's pretty accurate, although I haven't had any crashes or SecuROM issues.
Merely getting Grand Theft Auto IV to run is a long and tedious process. Talk about sabotaging your customers. Yes, this crap even happens to people who buy it on Steam.
I'm sure they'll blame the sales figures on piracy and a d0med PC market while Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead sell millions.
And I thought the shit you had to deal with for Mass Effect was bad. Looks like Rockstar's doing it's part to kill off PC gaming. I'm glad I picked up the 360 version.
I just don't get why the game looks so much more jaggy on the PC even though the resolution is up higher.
Also it's pretty shitty of them to release so many bullshots before the game came out. Without AA there's no way those screens came from the game that I bought.
Merely getting Grand Theft Auto IV to run is a long and tedious process. Talk about sabotaging your customers. Yes, this crap even happens to people who buy it on Steam.
I'm sure they'll blame the sales figures on piracy and a d0med PC market while Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead sell millions.
And I thought the shit you had to deal with for Mass Effect was bad. Looks like Rockstar's doing it's part to kill off PC gaming. I'm glad I picked up the 360 version.
UPDATE No. 1!
A mere day after release, countless bugs and problems have plagued buyers of the PC version of GTA IV. Here's a list of some of the worst atrocities, as described by forums, users, myself and my customers at EB Games/Gamespot:
* The crash-to-desktop bug is rampant, a "fatal zlib20 error". No known solution yet.
* Securom must be running at all times while the game is running. Closing it results in the game closing too.
* SecuROM will often crash, resulting in your game not starting at all.
* The reason the menu screen was black for me for so long is because it must download a file every time you start the game, since the menu background is actually an online updating news page.
* The newest Geforce Drivers: version 180.48, are not compatible with GTA IV.
* The Windows Live update supports Vista 32bit only. If you have Windows Vista 64bit, you can not play.
* The game does not support, nor recognise, SLI card set ups of any of the Geforce 8600 or 8800 card series.
Grief. THIS is the big new start for GFW Live that Microsoft was touting so much? Not compatible with Vista 64?!
I take back what little cautious optimism I had about GFW Live. I shudder to think what may happen to Dawn of War II. I might end up having to get the 360 version if I want to play that. :x
Man, sometimes it feels as if they really are trying to kill the platform.
In my Stats, it shows his Like and Respect... and ..
In terms of story wise, I've already killed
PlayBoyX
and was given his home by D Downer.
When I call up friends to do stuff, I do it after a quest, turn on Silent mode, so that I don't get other calls to interfere with me being able to go drinking.
By the way, in order to actually access Dwayne as a friend, a short while after the obvious mission point, you have to check your e-mail wherein Dwayne suggests that he and Niko hang out. After that they become available.
Also, all friends (and girlfriends) are generally available to do more stuff after something like 12-24 hours have passed. All of them can do up to three activities in an outing, but if they start saying they want to go home, it's generally a good idea to just take them home.
Awesome! I'm the only person in the known GTA universe not having any problems whatsoever with this!
:winky:
I actually haven't had any crashing or freezing yet, and after I messed with the settings a lot {setting them higher magically made my game run smoother!}, it's playing pretty well. So far the movie maker and mouse aim are making up for a lot of the grief it first caused.
Buuut a lot of people with omega rigs are reporting problems. I still think everyone should pick this up, but wait for a patch or something.
Neva on
SC2 Beta: Neva.ling
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
* The reason the menu screen was black for me for so long is because it must download a file every time you start the game, since the menu background is actually an online updating news page.
Awesome.
Being forced to make both a live account and a rockstar social club account?
...Haaaaahaaahaaaaa.
And DoW2 is going to be linked to this windows live crap too?
Why don't they want my money? Is there something wrong with my money? Does my money offend them so, that they must do these things? Does driving me increasingly insane by creating some eldrich chain between my disk drive and a writhing abomination of a server tucked away in the steaming bowels of Texas and prompting me to retry an installation at least five times before reaching partial success strike them as a good and virtuous thing? I'm tired of Securom. Ugh. No more.
AMD Athlon 4450e Dual Core 2.31 GHz
2GB RAM
nVidia GeForce 9600GT
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3
I forget the RAM on my video card, I'll figure it out later.
But yeah, I run it without a hitch. The only time I see a noticeable FPS drop is on high render settings, and I'm pretty sure it's because it uses a relatively high FSAA setting.
Also, it's regrettable so many people get hung up on the DRM.
Interesting, I have 64 bit Vista and the Windows Live update works just fine for me. Other then that, while I have had fun with the game so far, shadows are horrendous, especially at night time, if you flash your headlights over a pedestrian it looks like some undescript floating black horror is following them. Also, there's some really bad memory leakage going on, I can play on high settings but I have to restart the game every 1 and a half hours or it becomes intollerably laggy.
Beren39 on
Go, Go, EXCALIBUR! - Trent Varsity Swim Team 2009, better watch out for me Phelps!
I can't login to rsc anymore, it just times out. I wonder why they didn't ramp up for this release? Seems like they half assed everything. The game seems to be more cpu bound than video, like they are running too many threads, or decided to keep whatever setup they had for the three core xbox. Instead of optimizing the engine for pc architecture, they gave us larger textures. I guarantee in 4 months time, some modder will use those larger textures to cleanup and provide lower bandwidth medium textures that look just as good.
stigweard on
0
Ramen Noodlewhoa, god has a picture of me!Registered Userregular
* The reason the menu screen was black for me for so long is because it must download a file every time you start the game, since the menu background is actually an online updating news page.
Awesome.
Being forced to make both a live account and a rockstar social club account?
...Haaaaahaaahaaaaa.
And DoW2 is going to be linked to this windows live crap too?
Why don't they want my money? Is there something wrong with my money? Does my money offend them so, that they must do these things? Does driving me increasingly insane by creating some eldrich chain between my disk drive and a writhing abomination of a server tucked away in the steaming bowels of Texas and prompting me to retry an installation at least five times before reaching partial success strike them as a good and virtuous thing? I'm tired of Securom. Ugh. No more.
In Fallout 3, Windows Live was easy as hell to get set up. You didn't even have to use it if you didn't want to.
For me Windows Live isn't even a thing. I already had the account and it loads up while the game itself is loading anyway.
What sucks is the stupid Rockstar Social Club app.
Why the fuck do I need another program running in my system tray to play your game? How does this make my experience better since I have signed up for this account? What does this add to my experience?
It makes it so I can do multiplayer? Swing and a miss. That's what Live is for. I can look at other people's videos too? Great, now how is that better than going to a website?
I don't know what you guys are complaining about.
It works great for me!
X__X
(yeah, I launch GTA4 from Steam, get a UAC confirmation box, something seems to install, and then I get that error message, every time. RGSC is Rockstar Games Social Club, right? X__X )
mspencer on
MEMBER OF THE PARANOIA GM GUILD
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
For me Windows Live isn't even a thing. I already had the account and it loads up while the game itself is loading anyway.
What sucks is the stupid Rockstar Social Club app.
Why the fuck do I need another program running in my system tray to play your game? How does this make my experience better since I have signed up for this account? What does this add to my experience?
It makes it so I can do multiplayer? Swing and a miss. That's what Live is for. I can look at other people's videos too? Great, now how is that better than going to a website?
Simply put, it adds integration into the game to make replay uploading and browsing a lot easier. Other than that functionality, unless you're running on a pretty low-end computer, you shouldn't notice any performance hit due to the minimal CPU usage of the SC app.
Also, on the FSAA, I could swear that it used it on the high settings, if not that it's SOME extra post-processing effect.
OK but why can't I just replay upload from in the game and browse videos from a website. Why do I need something else running that doesn't go away when I shut the game off?
It just isn't a very elegant way to go about things.
Fly on into the third island highway from the middle one at top speed. Burn your way around the freeway trying not to lose any speed. When you get near the industrial park, there's a little ramp. Hit it at the right angle near the edge.
Spin end over end over end over end over end over end over ...
Where exactly is this? Are you talking about near that really high freeway with the long onramp? That place was even more annoying, since either cars would spawn at the opening, or the jump just wouldn't put any spin into it, even going off on two wheels. >\
- There's two potential jump points there... and both sucked.
Has anybody ticked this achievement using the Swings?
tastydonuts on
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
Anyone know how to get it to launch in -norestrictions mode in Steam? I can't seem to get it to work.
Drool on
0
ArminasStudent of LifeSF, CARegistered Userregular
edited December 2008
I'm not having any issues except the mma10 error but if you sign out it's not a big deal. Though then I had to turn off autosave and the game fucking asks me every time 2 times whether or not I really want to save or try to sign in. This multiplayer sign-in they keep pushing is like some god damn sales man. It's really not that awful, but it's annoying.
I have flickering shadows, but besides that, the game runs fine.
Try to roll it once or twice at a time, but keep going full speed, and try to do as many jumps with one or two rolls as possible in a short time. As long as you do 5 rolls total in around 2 or 3 minutes, you'll get the achievement. I'm pretty sure it's important that you don't stop or slow down, though.
AnteCantelope on
0
ArminasStudent of LifeSF, CARegistered Userregular
I also have the MMA10 error and haven't found a fix yet. I think that may be why -norestrictions won't work.
I found a fix. Sign out of Social Club. It's a poorly named error on their behalf, but once you sign out, you can play single player. But to actually save your game, I think you have to signed into GFW.
3 things R* or M$ need to fix. The mouse speed in the interface is too slow and not adjustable, they should match your regular windows mouse speed. The shadow flickering is awful and can't even be turned off. Games for Windows Live has impregnated GTA IV with awful software that just gets in the way of my enjoyment because it constantly demands attention that is unwarranted.
Rockstar, shame on you. I'm actually sorry I purchased this right now. I could've gotten it illicitly or even bought it used for my PS3. But no, i wanted the PC version and this release is terrible. I can't believe how bad it is. I could forgive you for a crappy GFW interface you have to deal with too, and even maybe the shadows. There's a lot of hardware to test on and I realize not everything works out, but you could've at least let us turn OFF shadows. But oh god, is it that hard to change the mouse speed in the interface
But god, what the crap, why does my game keep harassing me to sign in, what if I don't want to? Just leave me alone, aaaaggghhh. I just wanted single player, god. I sort of wouldn't mind having multiplayer, it seems neat to me, but I would like to play singleplayer unmolested, stop getting up in my grill!
EDIT:
Actually, a fourth thing I would've wanted fixed is the setup. I already downloaded all the software, why do I have to make a social club account, a games for windows account, and then I also have to activate my product. Why two separate accounts? And didn't I already verify that I purchased this by getting it from Steam? Did R* just not test this, or maybe they made a lazy port from the CD and didn't bother to verify whether or not it was through Steam? Maybe the code was difficult to change, but surely they could have made some sort of overlying script to handle whether or not it was from Steam. If they weren't ready, I feel like they should've just delayed the release. They had delayed it from Nov -> Dec, I could wait until January. there's a lot of other games out there right now that I can hold off from playing this. I suppose I'll go play some L4D, or Little Big Planet or Fallout 3.
I apologize if everyone has already embodied my rant, but oh god I'm so frustrated. (It's really not a big deal, I'm ranting, but I'm annoyed I wasted a bunch of my time to set all this up and try and make it work better)
EDIT 2!
however, despite all the technical crap I've had to deal with... the game is still fun. The dialogue is engaging and over the top and the mechanics of the game are solid if not a little wacky. Some of the physics are unrealistically fun and the car driving has some new control behind it. It doesn't feel like San Andreas or Vice City at all and I'm going to have to get used to it. The cars have some solid weight behind them. But now, I can drift which is pretty awesome; I always had such a hard time doing it before. I've only played about 15 minutes out of an hour spent mostly setting up. BLah.
Posts
EDIT: On top of the console settings that they listed there, IIRC traffic density was also set to 20 on the 360 version. I haven't gotten the game yet, but my advice would be to start off with the 360 levels they're giving and work your way up from there.
So, after playing for a few hours, it seems to run fine. There are a few issues with shadows and textures looking wonky, though.
Computer has:
XP SP3
Intel Q6600
Gigabyte P35 mobo
3.2 gigabytes of RAM
NVIDIA 9600 Video Card
+ etc.
I need to sacrifice draw distance to use High textures (to something along the lines of 10-20) and the quality is not that much improved.
Specs - Q6600 @ 2.6
- 8800 GTX 768
- 4 Gigs Ram
- Vista 64
Tumblr
I have not had any problems with any GTA game ever. Also, GTA IV was the first GTA I played on a console so I couldn't compare VC and SA on PC versus their console counterparts.
Also am I the only one that gets a fatal error every time I try to play whilst logged in to Rockstar Social thing? I have to skip the logon or the game will CTD on startup. Just fantastic for a program that you are forced to install and run.
Q9300 @ 2.5
Radeon 4870 with 512MB
4GB RAM
Vista 64-bit
The -norestrictions tag also doesn't work for me. It's pretty fucking stupid that Rockstar thinks that I'm too stupid to manage my own settings. I'm pretty sure my machine is capable of doing medium textures with more draw distance than 8.
this is the best thing
PS - Local_H_Jay
Sub me on Youtube
And Twitch
that will be my next avatar.
I played this last night to farm achievements and I remembered why I stopped.
Rolled Over. You would think getting a car to flip over 5 times at the airport would be simple. I get the damn thing to go every which way but it doesn't count it. Where else can I get this thing?
I'm sure they'll blame the sales figures on piracy and a d0med PC market while Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead sell millions.
Fly on into the third island highway from the middle one at top speed. Burn your way around the freeway trying not to lose any speed. When you get near the industrial park, there's a little ramp. Hit it at the right angle near the edge.
Spin end over end over end over end over end over end over ...
Hrm. I'm on Vista 64-bit, and had no issues whatsoever with the GfW: Live update (that site says it's 32-bit only).
Other than that, it's pretty accurate, although I haven't had any crashes or SecuROM issues.
Wait I just jinxed it didn't I oh shi-
I feel sick.
I'm going to take the day off work tomorrow and go and smear shit on the Rockstar North office windows.
And I thought the shit you had to deal with for Mass Effect was bad. Looks like Rockstar's doing it's part to kill off PC gaming. I'm glad I picked up the 360 version.
Also it's pretty shitty of them to release so many bullshots before the game came out. Without AA there's no way those screens came from the game that I bought.
Grief. THIS is the big new start for GFW Live that Microsoft was touting so much? Not compatible with Vista 64?!
I take back what little cautious optimism I had about GFW Live. I shudder to think what may happen to Dawn of War II. I might end up having to get the 360 version if I want to play that. :x
Man, sometimes it feels as if they really are trying to kill the platform.
By the way, in order to actually access Dwayne as a friend, a short while after the obvious mission point, you have to check your e-mail wherein Dwayne suggests that he and Niko hang out. After that they become available.
Also, all friends (and girlfriends) are generally available to do more stuff after something like 12-24 hours have passed. All of them can do up to three activities in an outing, but if they start saying they want to go home, it's generally a good idea to just take them home.
:winky:
I actually haven't had any crashing or freezing yet, and after I messed with the settings a lot {setting them higher magically made my game run smoother!}, it's playing pretty well. So far the movie maker and mouse aim are making up for a lot of the grief it first caused.
Buuut a lot of people with omega rigs are reporting problems. I still think everyone should pick this up, but wait for a patch or something.
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
Awesome.
Being forced to make both a live account and a rockstar social club account?
...Haaaaahaaahaaaaa.
And DoW2 is going to be linked to this windows live crap too?
Why don't they want my money? Is there something wrong with my money? Does my money offend them so, that they must do these things? Does driving me increasingly insane by creating some eldrich chain between my disk drive and a writhing abomination of a server tucked away in the steaming bowels of Texas and prompting me to retry an installation at least five times before reaching partial success strike them as a good and virtuous thing? I'm tired of Securom. Ugh. No more.
2GB RAM
nVidia GeForce 9600GT
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3
I forget the RAM on my video card, I'll figure it out later.
But yeah, I run it without a hitch. The only time I see a noticeable FPS drop is on high render settings, and I'm pretty sure it's because it uses a relatively high FSAA setting.
Also, it's regrettable so many people get hung up on the DRM.
What sucks is the stupid Rockstar Social Club app.
Why the fuck do I need another program running in my system tray to play your game? How does this make my experience better since I have signed up for this account? What does this add to my experience?
It makes it so I can do multiplayer? Swing and a miss. That's what Live is for. I can look at other people's videos too? Great, now how is that better than going to a website?
It works great for me!
X__X
(yeah, I launch GTA4 from Steam, get a UAC confirmation box, something seems to install, and then I get that error message, every time. RGSC is Rockstar Games Social Club, right? X__X )
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK
QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
Simply put, it adds integration into the game to make replay uploading and browsing a lot easier. Other than that functionality, unless you're running on a pretty low-end computer, you shouldn't notice any performance hit due to the minimal CPU usage of the SC app.
Also, on the FSAA, I could swear that it used it on the high settings, if not that it's SOME extra post-processing effect.
It just isn't a very elegant way to go about things.
- There's two potential jump points there... and both sucked.
Has anybody ticked this achievement using the Swings?
Better than nothing, I guess.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
I have flickering shadows, but besides that, the game runs fine.
3.0ghz core 2 duo
ati 4850 (500mb ram)
4gb ram
I found a fix. Sign out of Social Club. It's a poorly named error on their behalf, but once you sign out, you can play single player. But to actually save your game, I think you have to signed into GFW.
3 things R* or M$ need to fix. The mouse speed in the interface is too slow and not adjustable, they should match your regular windows mouse speed. The shadow flickering is awful and can't even be turned off. Games for Windows Live has impregnated GTA IV with awful software that just gets in the way of my enjoyment because it constantly demands attention that is unwarranted.
Rockstar, shame on you. I'm actually sorry I purchased this right now. I could've gotten it illicitly or even bought it used for my PS3. But no, i wanted the PC version and this release is terrible. I can't believe how bad it is. I could forgive you for a crappy GFW interface you have to deal with too, and even maybe the shadows. There's a lot of hardware to test on and I realize not everything works out, but you could've at least let us turn OFF shadows. But oh god, is it that hard to change the mouse speed in the interface
But god, what the crap, why does my game keep harassing me to sign in, what if I don't want to? Just leave me alone, aaaaggghhh. I just wanted single player, god. I sort of wouldn't mind having multiplayer, it seems neat to me, but I would like to play singleplayer unmolested, stop getting up in my grill!
EDIT:
Actually, a fourth thing I would've wanted fixed is the setup. I already downloaded all the software, why do I have to make a social club account, a games for windows account, and then I also have to activate my product. Why two separate accounts? And didn't I already verify that I purchased this by getting it from Steam? Did R* just not test this, or maybe they made a lazy port from the CD and didn't bother to verify whether or not it was through Steam? Maybe the code was difficult to change, but surely they could have made some sort of overlying script to handle whether or not it was from Steam. If they weren't ready, I feel like they should've just delayed the release. They had delayed it from Nov -> Dec, I could wait until January. there's a lot of other games out there right now that I can hold off from playing this. I suppose I'll go play some L4D, or Little Big Planet or Fallout 3.
I apologize if everyone has already embodied my rant, but oh god I'm so frustrated. (It's really not a big deal, I'm ranting, but I'm annoyed I wasted a bunch of my time to set all this up and try and make it work better)
HA! I found this: 20 Easy Steps to Starting GTA IV on your PC
EDIT 2!
however, despite all the technical crap I've had to deal with... the game is still fun. The dialogue is engaging and over the top and the mechanics of the game are solid if not a little wacky. Some of the physics are unrealistically fun and the car driving has some new control behind it. It doesn't feel like San Andreas or Vice City at all and I'm going to have to get used to it. The cars have some solid weight behind them. But now, I can drift which is pretty awesome; I always had such a hard time doing it before. I've only played about 15 minutes out of an hour spent mostly setting up. BLah.