GTA 4 PC -- Opinions?

[Spectre-7]

I'm considering picking GTA IV up for PC since it's 35 smack-a-roos on Steam this weekend, and was just wondering if anyone here has it for PC? If so, how are the controls and is the performance reasonable with the second patch? My system's nothing stupendous (Athlon X2 4800+ / 9800GT), and I'm trying to figure out if it'll be a slideshow or not.

[H.Bogard]

Don't buy it... not even for free.

[Spectre-7]

Wow. That was really helpful. Thanks.

[H.Bogard]

Seriously... that's all you need to know. :\

The patch said it improved performance by around 20%... and I'll tell you that no less than 70%+ would be enough to make the game playable, remotely.

Its the most horrible port I have ever had the misfortune of coming across. You have to install the latest version of GFW Live, .Net framework and another application called Rockstar Social club just to be able to fucking play the damn thing.

Controls - Movement is awkward, camera is jerky (thanks to the framerate) and didn't support Generic USB gamepads before the patch came out.

Again, performance is horrible. The game won't run on a C2D 2.66ghz/8800GT/2 GB DDR 2 RAM at higher than 15-20 frames per second on fucking 1024x768 with medium-low settings. And performance gets worse the longer you play it.

Oh, and the loading times are what you'd expect when booting Windows Vista on an N64.

[TheFlyingOrc]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v641/Emainmacha/e7klet.gif

[Spectre-7]

Seriously... that's all you need to know. :\

The patch said it improved performance by around 20%... and I'll tell you that no less than 70%+ would be enough to make the game playable, remotely.

Its the most horrible port I have ever had the misfortune of coming across. You have to install the latest version of GFW Live, .Net framework and another application called Rockstar Social club just to be able to fucking play the damn thing.

Controls - Movement is awkward, camera is jerky (thanks to the framerate) and didn't support Generic USB gamepads before the patch came out.

Again, performance is horrible. The game won't run on a C2D 2.66ghz/8800GT/2 GB DDR 2 RAM at higher than 15-20 frames per second on fucking 1024x768 with medium-low settings. And performance gets worse the longer you play it.

Oh, and the loading times are what you'd expect when booting Windows Vista on an N64.

Thanks for the opinion. I appreciate the effort.

Out of curiosity, have you tried disabling the clip recording? I've seen a bunch of people in forums mentioning that it improved their performance up into the 30fps range.

Also, from what I've gathered, you can skip logging into GFWL and the Rockstar social club if you're only playing single-player. Based on my experience with previous GTAs, this sounds like my option of choice.

[Ravenlock]

Seriously... that's all you need to know. :\

The patch said it improved performance by around 20%... and I'll tell you that no less than 70%+ would be enough to make the game playable, remotely.

Its the most horrible port I have ever had the misfortune of coming across. You have to install the latest version of GFW Live, .Net framework and another application called Rockstar Social club just to be able to fucking play the damn thing.

Controls - Movement is awkward, camera is jerky (thanks to the framerate) and didn't support Generic USB gamepads before the patch came out.

Again, performance is horrible. The game won't run on a C2D 2.66ghz/8800GT/2 GB DDR 2 RAM at higher than 15-20 frames per second on fucking 1024x768 with medium-low settings. And performance gets worse the longer you play it.

Oh, and the loading times are what you'd expect when booting Windows Vista on an N64.

To add a counter-point, the game is running absolutely fine for me on a system almost identical to the one you describe. I've got a 2.6Ghz Intel Core Duo processor, 2GB of RAM on Vista, and a 640MB nVidia 8800GTS, which is arguably less powerful than the 8800GT. With the latest patch, I can run at 1280x1024 with slightly-better-than-console graphical settings, and the framerate is smooth, easily 30+, with only very occasional hiccups (no worse than were reported on the 360). Things get even better if I replace the shader config files by taking the nVidia shaders and overwriting them with the ATI ones, a trick I got from gtaforums.com - which obviously, nobody should be expected to do, but like I said, the game is running fine without this hack, it's just running better with it. (If you want to try this, lemme know and I'll point you to the instructions.)

You're absolutely right about the cruft surrounding it - having to install Rockstar Social Club AND GFWLive just to play is a bunch of crap. That said, I can run it from within Steam (even though I didn't buy it from Steam) and access my Steam friends list in-game without any performance hit. The multiplayer works well, the one time I got to try it with the Co-optimus guys.

And personally, I love the controls, as I always have with the PC versions of GTA games. Aiming is 100 times easier, and driving works just fine. You should have a gamepad on hand for flying (and yes, it was retarded that generic USB gamepads didn't work, but at least now they do), but for everything other than flying WASD+mouse >> gamepad.

So yeah, sorry your experience with it was awful - you gave me similar "don't buy it" advice in another thread, which I obviously ignored thanks to having some Best Buy certificates that brought the price down to $25 - but my experience with it has been fine, and while I wouldn't pay $50 for it, I wouldn't discourage anyone from picking it up in Steam's weekend sale. $35 is a pretty good price for a game of this scope. Spectre, your mileage may vary - clearly, people with very similar systems are getting disparate results.

[Chill]

http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=3150

I haven't played much since I finished the main storyline, but overall it was a good experience. I feel only slightly ripped off, and that's mostly from the dirty feeling I get when dealing with the DRM and other stupid software (Rockstar Social Club). I found it to be a fun game with minor technical problems, mostly dealing with performance and idiotic required software.

[Spectre-7]

Ravenlock: Thank you very, very much for adding your perspective. I've always had a lot of fun with GTAs, and I was really disappointed to hear about IV's PC release, since I'm almost exclusively a PC gamer these days. I'm still on the fence about the purchase, but I'm glad to hear it's working for you, especially with your hardware being so close to my own.

As regards replacing the shader files, I'm no stranger to going above and beyond to get a game running at a decent rate (spent days documenting and tweaking Doom 3 console variables just to squeeze a few frames out of it back at release), so I'll probably look into that if I take the leap. You're referring to this technique (http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=383973&st=0) I take it?

Chill: Thanks for the link and the info. I knew there was an old GTA IV thread, and durrr... I should've thought to look there first. :D

[H.Bogard]

I'm gonna try out this magic patch and see if it runs any better on my Magic PC next week, then. :)

[Spectre-7]

I'm gonna try out this magic patch and see if it runs any better on my Magic PC next week, then. :)

I've been poking around in a lot of forums, and in order to see performance improvements, you may--I stress that, may--need the blood of a virgin. And not just a little bit. We're talking buckets full.

I might be jumping to conclusions here, but I don't think they're using the good kind of magic anymore.

[Ravenlock]

As regards replacing the shader files, I'm no stranger to going above and beyond to get a game running at a decent rate (spent days documenting and tweaking Doom 3 console variables just to squeeze a few frames out of it back at release), so I'll probably look into that if I take the leap. You're referring to this technique (http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=383973&st=0) I take it?

Yup, that's the one. It's very easy, as you can see, but on the other hand obviously more than you would want to be required to get a game running well. (But on the other hand again, so easy!) I just backed up the whole shaders directory to switch back in case of a patch (which I am glad I did, since a new patch did come out) and then deleted the win32_30_nv8 folder and renamed the win32_30_atidx10 folder to win32_30_nv8. Worked a treat, no idea why.

If you take the plunge, let me know. The multiplayer is somewhat shortlived, but fun nevertheless. :D

[Spectre-7]

If you take the plunge, let me know. The multiplayer is somewhat shortlived, but fun nevertheless. :D

I decided to take the plunge as a present to myself for completing a personal project, so I should be playing in.... well, a very, very long time. Stupid 2Mb download speed.

I'll drop you a line once I've got it downloaded and running. We'll shoot some folks up. :)

[axion]

Drop me a line as well :).

[Ravenlock]

Sounds good. Axion, since you apparently have it too, toss me on your GFWL friends list. Ravenlock80. :)

[TheKeck]

Definitely let us know what your experience is, Spectre. I was talking to a buddy of mine who has it, and he had nothing but good to say. He described the graphics as almost photoreaslistic. I think he's running a 9600 GT.

[squirrelTactics]

The game was completely unplayable on my rig, even when taken down to hideously low settings. I have a 3.0ghz core 2 duo, 8800GTS, and 4 gigs of ram. The engine is really buggy on the PC, so performance seems to be extremely hit-or-miss. I hope you're one of the lucky ones.

[Spectre-7]

Got it downloaded after 14 hours of waiting, and with a bit of tweaking, it's now playable and looks pretty alright. I had to turn a lot of the settings down, but I'm still more pleased than not with the looks. Keep in mind that I'm not hugely picky with graphics as long as things are playable, though.

If anyone wants to play, my id is SpectreHiro. I should be on a bunch for the next few days. I'll also probably have some more in-depth opinions once I get a bit further into it.

[Ravenlock]

Will add you to my friends list, Spectre. Glad to hear it's up and running for ya! :)

SquirrelTactics, your rig sounds like practically a clone of mine except with more RAM, so it's really odd that I have it running well and it doesn't run at all for you. Do you want me to try to dig up some good tweaking forum threads with stuff for you to try?

[axion]

My GFWL tag is axion87, feel free to add me. This thread got me back into the game again, and it is a tonne of fun. With everything on Medium at 1440x900 it is very playable, never dipping below ~25. For some reason though with this game more so than FPS, I find that ~20 is very playable.

[Ravenlock]

Added, axion. :)