freshVeggie
Member
Finally after several days of scouring the webs, I finished my list of mods for GTAIV/Episodes of Liberty City.
Before I start, mods are not always cross-compatible between GTAIV and EFLC. In some cases mods may only work with GTAIV but not ELFC. Afaik mods that work with ELFC do work with GTAIV. Don't hold me on that though.
To make matters even more complicated some mods only work with a specific Patch version of GTAIV. The ones in question are 1.0.4.0 & 1.0.7.0. You might want to check before searching for other mods as the Steam version is the newest Patch. There is a way to downgrade to the previous Patch but I advise against it as I don't see much advantage in doing so.
The following list contains mods for EFLC. They were all tested by me with the newest Steam version.
Preface: Making sure the vanilla game is actually playable
As you might have read the PC versions of GTAIV & EFLC are anything but optimal. Performance leaves a lot to be desired as does the many defunct DRM systems.
SecuRom, GFWL and SocialClub do sadly not work always as they should.
SocialClub will regularly deny authentication so it would be wise to circumvent it alltogether by renaming the paul.dll in the game folder into paulold.dll. This way your game will start without having you to log into SocialClub.
Besides these I found that there are many users encountering troubles getting the game to start.
These threads helped me out get the vanilla game in a playable state.
Modding GTAIV is sadly often not straightforward, needs various tools and thus has a high chance of messing up your game.
You are best advised to back up the original files before overwriting them with mod-files. Please do this as you will want to roll back to your vanilla game to test different otherwise conflicting mods. Usually the size of the files to back up is very small but keep their folder hierarchies in mind.
XliveLess
Probably the most suggested mod is XLiveLess. It is a .dll file which basically circumvents GFWL. The newest version XLiveLess v0.999-beta7 can be found here.
While I am using this, it is no way required for many mods. The game is perfectly playable in way of creating a local profile in GFWL once the game starts. Save games with the usage of xliveless are incompatible, so you might want to commit. Personally I suggest using it as there are mods requiring it.
OpenIV & ASI Loader & ScriptHook
While many mods are indeed a work of copy-pasting there are many useful ones requiring these three tools.
Installing them is easy and usage as well for the later two. OpenIV on the other hand is needed to mod some textures and models which are part of a single big file. It is a bit of a hassle but a fairly straightforward process. Reading the ReadMe files will solve 99% of your questions and problems. Installing and using ASI Loader & ScriptHook is only a matter of copy-pasting.
Get the tools on their pages: OpenIV, GTAIV ASI Loader and ScriptHook.
2. ENB
This mod will most likely give the biggest visual upgrade to the game.
There are many different variations and versions. After research I found two to be the most popular, stable and compatible among them, CryENB & iCEnhancer.
Deciding which to use is a matter of personal taste, so you might want to check out Youtube videos. I used both and find CryENB to be better. It also helps that setting up CryENB is foolproof. The zip-file has very good documentation and you have a plethora of easy ways to set it up to your personal preference. Whether it is Bloom, GodRays, AA technique and so on.
Take heed in using(copying) the ESL mod inside of CryENB. Its purpose is to simulate much more realistic lighting of Police, Ambulance etc. vehicles. The version inside the CryENB file (V8) leads to game crashes after ~5mins of playtime. Supposedly earlier revisions work without crashes but you need to research this on yourself.
Other than that I feel CryENB offers very good visual upgrade while maintaining great performance. Best of all I liked the ease of setting it up and customizing almost every aspect if wanted.
You can even press Shift+Enter while ingame to open up a menu to en-/disable various options, AA, AO, Bloom etc. Really great ENB.
3. Textures
Maker of iCEnhance offers various very good texture packs on his site. Note that you don't need to use ice-ENB for this textures to work. They will work with every ENB and even without it.
Head on here, scroll down and download following:
Read the ReadMe in the zip files to see where to copy the files. Easy installation.
Only thing which is a bit more work is the "Metallic Paint" texture named vehshare.wtd in the "Extra Textures" file. You have to use OpenIV and extract that file into a bigger vehicles.img file. Read the ReadMe and you'll be just fine.
4. Scripts
These mods will change not the visuals but certain aspects of the gameplay. Choose according to your own desire.
I'm using them all and they are a blast. Especially the Bullet Time Mod.
5. Extra Stuff
The following mods are useful and you might want to check them out.
I personally don't use custom vehicles or weapons. There are many more models. Just be sure that they are specifically supported by your game and version.
Before I start, mods are not always cross-compatible between GTAIV and EFLC. In some cases mods may only work with GTAIV but not ELFC. Afaik mods that work with ELFC do work with GTAIV. Don't hold me on that though.
To make matters even more complicated some mods only work with a specific Patch version of GTAIV. The ones in question are 1.0.4.0 & 1.0.7.0. You might want to check before searching for other mods as the Steam version is the newest Patch. There is a way to downgrade to the previous Patch but I advise against it as I don't see much advantage in doing so.
The following list contains mods for EFLC. They were all tested by me with the newest Steam version.
Preface: Making sure the vanilla game is actually playable
As you might have read the PC versions of GTAIV & EFLC are anything but optimal. Performance leaves a lot to be desired as does the many defunct DRM systems.
SecuRom, GFWL and SocialClub do sadly not work always as they should.
SocialClub will regularly deny authentication so it would be wise to circumvent it alltogether by renaming the paul.dll in the game folder into paulold.dll. This way your game will start without having you to log into SocialClub.
Besides these I found that there are many users encountering troubles getting the game to start.
These threads helped me out get the vanilla game in a playable state.
- Prerequisite Visual C and .NET Frameworks weirdly are not automatically installed together with the game. Here a list of files you need to have installed.
- In some cases it is needed to delete GFWL and reinstall the newest version.
- With newer hardware the game might inhibit you of changing visual settings. Thankfully there is an easy solution.
Modding GTAIV is sadly often not straightforward, needs various tools and thus has a high chance of messing up your game.
You are best advised to back up the original files before overwriting them with mod-files. Please do this as you will want to roll back to your vanilla game to test different otherwise conflicting mods. Usually the size of the files to back up is very small but keep their folder hierarchies in mind.
XliveLess
Probably the most suggested mod is XLiveLess. It is a .dll file which basically circumvents GFWL. The newest version XLiveLess v0.999-beta7 can be found here.
While I am using this, it is no way required for many mods. The game is perfectly playable in way of creating a local profile in GFWL once the game starts. Save games with the usage of xliveless are incompatible, so you might want to commit. Personally I suggest using it as there are mods requiring it.
OpenIV & ASI Loader & ScriptHook
While many mods are indeed a work of copy-pasting there are many useful ones requiring these three tools.
Installing them is easy and usage as well for the later two. OpenIV on the other hand is needed to mod some textures and models which are part of a single big file. It is a bit of a hassle but a fairly straightforward process. Reading the ReadMe files will solve 99% of your questions and problems. Installing and using ASI Loader & ScriptHook is only a matter of copy-pasting.
Get the tools on their pages: OpenIV, GTAIV ASI Loader and ScriptHook.
2. ENB
This mod will most likely give the biggest visual upgrade to the game.
There are many different variations and versions. After research I found two to be the most popular, stable and compatible among them, CryENB & iCEnhancer.
Deciding which to use is a matter of personal taste, so you might want to check out Youtube videos. I used both and find CryENB to be better. It also helps that setting up CryENB is foolproof. The zip-file has very good documentation and you have a plethora of easy ways to set it up to your personal preference. Whether it is Bloom, GodRays, AA technique and so on.
Take heed in using(copying) the ESL mod inside of CryENB. Its purpose is to simulate much more realistic lighting of Police, Ambulance etc. vehicles. The version inside the CryENB file (V8) leads to game crashes after ~5mins of playtime. Supposedly earlier revisions work without crashes but you need to research this on yourself.
Other than that I feel CryENB offers very good visual upgrade while maintaining great performance. Best of all I liked the ease of setting it up and customizing almost every aspect if wanted.
You can even press Shift+Enter while ingame to open up a menu to en-/disable various options, AA, AO, Bloom etc. Really great ENB.
3. Textures
Maker of iCEnhance offers various very good texture packs on his site. Note that you don't need to use ice-ENB for this textures to work. They will work with every ENB and even without it.
Head on here, scroll down and download following:
Read the ReadMe in the zip files to see where to copy the files. Easy installation.
Only thing which is a bit more work is the "Metallic Paint" texture named vehshare.wtd in the "Extra Textures" file. You have to use OpenIV and extract that file into a bigger vehicles.img file. Read the ReadMe and you'll be just fine.
4. Scripts
These mods will change not the visuals but certain aspects of the gameplay. Choose according to your own desire.
I'm using them all and they are a blast. Especially the Bullet Time Mod.
- Traffic Load <-- Regulates car spawn
- First Person <-- Play from a first-person perspective
- Bullet Time <-- Slow down time for awesome stunts, firefights and pinpoint precision
- Health Regeneration <-- Vanilla Health System sucks
- Weapon Realism <-- More realistic and fun weapon stats
- Realistic Driving & Flying <-- Much, much better car handling properties
- Cam-Control <-- Free-Cam at any point
5. Extra Stuff
The following mods are useful and you might want to check them out.
- Simple Trainer <-- Cheats, Spawns etc.
- GRIM's Weapon Packs <-- Fairly extensive weapons library containing models, animations and behavior.
- Ultimate Vehicle Pack V9 <-- 90+ cars, new handling, high-quality models
I personally don't use custom vehicles or weapons. There are many more models. Just be sure that they are specifically supported by your game and version.