Widescreen Gaming Forum

Yes, my GFWL account often disconnects itself after a couple hours. Reconencting is easy enough but it's still a pain and is a good reminder of just how stupid it is to require these extra programs to run the game.

After taking my first peak at my achievments I saw that many weren't recorded - even ones that are neigh impossible to miss, like finishing the first mission and meeting key characters.

Still, i love the game. 26 hours in and I'm at 46% complete. BUt damn, are those pigeons hard to find.. starting to thiunk i may have to resort to a cheat map.

It's very disappointing that modding it is more difficult than previous games. Apperently the mod nerds are getting closer to getting new models and such in - lik the mod that lets players fire RPG rounds from the 9mm. (cops, too)

I hear there's a "patch" available, it should download and install automatically. No performance boost but some smaller issues solved... and some new problems introduced :lol: Any comments ? Does it make the game noticeably more stable and/or easy to launch for you guys ?

No differences as far as I can see... other than it being a bit of a pain to get. I ahd to try four times before it installed. Muh-fukin' GFWL - I was a bit horrified to see it was only available as a GFWL. My horror jsut justified...

Mirrors have a sheen on them now, a nice little touch. I didn;t notice any difference in paticle detail or behaviour.

But i DID just get a crash.. during the end of a long-ish mission and before the auto-save kicked in. Though I've played for 40+ hours and that's my first crash. Hopefully it's not the result of the patch.

R* claims they're already working on the next patch, so hoepfully another wil actually come.

I just hope any patches are released through Steam quickly, as there has yet to be one as far as I can see.
After the initial problems I had, everything's generally going pretty smoothly now.

Auto login to R*SC and GFWL works fine, and are quick. The game has only crashed on my once since everything's been sorted.
The frame rate is more manageable, but night time is still 20fps or less, and slow loading textures are still evident throughout (although no different than how all previous GTA's were on the PS2 tbh - the road being a grey blob for a few seconds etc).

I love the game though, and the engine they've created is spectacular. The name fails me at the moment, but the physics engine they have is superb. Having a guy open his door and step out the car, only for me to hit the edge of the door, see it close on him and him flop through the window of the door was a real treat. In a sick way I guess.
To see Niko stand with a bent knee as one foot is on the curb is one of the many little touches that brings the game to life. Especially knowing it's not just a scripted animation.

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Formerly eZ`

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SLI users, did you try out nvidia driver 180.84 ?

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_gtaiv_downloads.html

It has a SLI profile and forceable AA. (Some say it also screws up SLI in all other games or adds microstuttering to GTA4... Be ready for everything...) :P

SLI hasn't worked properly with AA since before the 175.x, doesn't seem about to change any time soon either. On top of that the 178.x got worse for stability and the 180.x are continuing that trend.

Did you at least check the link ? :?
180.84 (not .48!) are an official release for GTA4 and are rumored to add SLI support to the game, as well as the possibility to force AA. Since GTA4 doesn't support SLI out of the box, I figured Paddy and other SLI users would be interested.

I've tried all 180.x releases, including .84, none differ.

And regardless what they say it doesn't work right, hence my comment.

Forcing AA + SLI hasn't worked in many driver revisions and stability has taken a dive at the same time.

Generally forcing AA + sli ends up removing any sli scaling, while app. decide doesn't, even if the setting is identical.

And that's all with any game, not just with bug city IV.

Ok, thanks for your feedback.

And that's all with any game, not just with bug city IV.

Ouch. So putting all install/launch problems aside, you'd still call the game itself a buggy mess ?

Apart from the hoops to jump through to get the game installed and start playing all is fine for me ...
I know many are finding it a "buggy mess" but I have no real issues with it and I'm really enjoying it.

Yeah the fps could be better but I generally play without fraps running and on the whole it is fairly smooth gameplay.

Both Sli and the dynamic shadows are working for me ...
I understand/believe the game uses deferred lighting and so no AA unless they make it DX10 which it isn't at the moment ... note ... I could be wrong on this.

I tried the 180.84 beta drivers from nzone ... they caused the game to crash and other issues with other games ...
I then tried the 180.84 international beta's from nvidia.co.uk and they worked out good for me a few FPS better than the 180.48 drivers I had been using.
It could have been I just had a bad install of those from nzone ... dunno.

Some screens ...
The first four I took using fraps and the SLi indicator didn't show up ...
I went back in and took the last few using the Print Screen key to get them to show ...
Click to see full size ...