[iixwh3l4nxii]

Okay I'm getting GTA IV soon and I just want to know what to be cautious of,

for example, I've been playing GTA SA for like 6 years now and I know that I need V1 to get mods as v2 doesn't allow you to, it's pretty simple really.

but for GTA IV I'm aware there are many patches for the game, is there a certain patch I need to have to download mods(mainly Weapons and Vehicles)?

if I download a too high patch can I never install mods again(I'm only cautious of this as v2 GTA SA can be downgraded to v1 for SAMP but mods will NOT work)?

Also after seeing a few videos on youtube it looks like most mods don't support GTA IV's vehicle damage system. Are there any mods that do support this, and if so, what should I look out for?

Also, for GTA SA there where many tools used for easily installing mods, like GGMM and GTA img tool, and the files where as simple as a dff(model) and a txd(texture) for most mods, is there more... or less, to this?

Just fill me in on the basics if you could, I'd hugely appreciate it.

Thanks guys

(also a bit off topic, anyone know why it says i'm from Uruguay? XD )

[ZBNYNC]

My recommendation for a patch would either be patch 1.0.4.0. or 1.0.7.0. Those are the two most common patches that people use.
Both patches will work with vehicle mods but 1.0.4.0. is more for if you want to mess with ENB whereas 1.0.7.0. works a lot better with certain major script mods.
With patches you can upgrade them but you normally can't downgrade them. So you couldn't go from 1.0.7.0. to 1.0.4.0. too easily.
No car mods use IV's original damage system, it all depends on the model itself and how the author made it.
When installing mods, either use OpenIV or SparkIV. In my personal opinion though, OpenIV is much better but it is a little more in-depth with what it does than SparkIV.

You can change your flag and where you're from by going into your control panel and editing your flag.

[jpm1]

i use 1.0.7.0 with steam version i don't have much the choice

here are GTA IV main files

carcols.dat : colors . edit with x-car color editor

handling.dat : handlings . edit with handling editor (tutorials below )

vehicles.ide : vehicles flags . if it allows civilian livery , if it has black smoke exaust effect etc . if you know the basics you can edit this with handling editor too

vehOff.csv : external views but very tricky to tweak . in fact seems nobody knows how to tweak the external views properly so far . but you know what is it

models and textures : 3d models in 4 are wdr files , and textures are wtd files . they are in img files . ext_veg.img for vegetation , vehicles.img for cars etc .. . you can tweak and open them with Spark IV

if you want to add textures to a wtd , i said add no replace , you need G-texture . first you'll have to convert your textures to dds format before importing them . xnview does it very well

location files are wpl files . they can be modified with WPL manager

i recently discovered OpenIV which is a must have but you'd better know the basics before using this cause it's an advanced users tool . but it allows to locate objects on map , to locate files and to extract them easily . seems to be a powerful tool


here are nice tutorials :

handling tutorial

another one

GTA IV colors


be sure to backup , but i guess you already know that . Cheers

[iixwh3l4nxii]

Wow thanks for the help guys, I'll definitely pass this topic onto my friends who are also getting this soon.

Also with backing up, on GTA SA it was as easy as moving all the original files into a .rar, will the same work here with GTA IV?


edit:

another important question, if I buy this off steam instead, can I still mod it with vehicle and weapon mods? (again, not hacks just re-model and re-textures)

This post has been edited by iixwh3l4nxii on Friday, May 11 2012, 12:02

[ZBNYNC]

Yeah, it should be that easy. You don't even have to have a .rar, you could just put the files in a folder.
The files you want to back up are:

carcols.dat - common/data

handling.dat - common/data

vehicles.ide - common/data

vehicles.img - pc/models/cdimages

I don't know too much about Steam but you should still be able to mod the Steam version of IV but it normally isn't as easy as a disk version. I don't know why but I have heard that people have had problems with it in the past.

This post has been edited by ZBNYNC on Saturday, May 12 2012, 00:34

[jpm1]

i have no problem with Steam except that steam update option is bugguey so you need to back up regularly to be sure . but except that no problem .

if you change your cars name which you can do with vehicles mods installer , be sure to backup your local text file american.gxt for americans , french.gxt for french users etc . that file contain all the texts of the game (cars names , streets names ..) , it can be edited with X GXT editor

if you want to edit the weather , the way the peds appear etc you need IV needle . if you edit the weather don't edit the whole thing in a row do it small pieces by small pieces (and be sure you have the cellphone in the hand to check the crash hour lol)

you'll also need to unlock R* multi lock to be able to mod properly . Vehicles mod installer removes it automatically . or you can also use x-liveless which has also a built-in asi scripts loader too

if you want to install scripts check the script you want to install readme . in general there's all you need to know inside

for backup i use a bat file . it's a text file with bat extention . and inside i put the following xcopy/y "way to file" "way to backup folder" (with comas) . you can put as much lines you want (no need to mention that all real modder should have at least a second HD/partition for backup , i mean if you plan to do huge modifications )


Cheers

[iixwh3l4nxii]

so basically if i want to just put a few simple car mods like a lambo over the infernus and a like a m16 over the m4(weapon) In-Game, I should get vehicle mod installer, and the disk version?

I'm not planning on doing anything that could f*ck up the game so is backing up really necessary?

thanks for the help guys so far

[ZBNYNC]

Backing up your files is very important because in case you mess up while installing the car or if the car has a bug with it you can always go back to the stock cars.

[jpm1]

for car modding yes vehicles mod installer should be enought . for weapons you need spark . and yes i suggest you to backup , one never knows

[iixwh3l4nxii]

alright thanks guys

glad you all replied and helped or i'd be clueless

[Costar]

I have the original disc version, which my disc is damaged but I often play off EFLC....

So for the steam version I cannot say for sure but I'd guess its similar.
One thing you need for adding models like cars/weapon models is
SparkIV by aru
http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=384933

You need to run it w/ admin rights also.
The version you download from his archive will be dependent on the version of the game you have, so you'll want to update to whatever game version you choose if your game isnt already the latest, then select the version of SparkIV for it.
==============
If you want a trainer, I've found sjaaks trainer a reliable one w/ lots of options.
http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=392973&st=0

It will either come w/ or you can see on his topic what else you need, again alot of this stuff depends on your game version.
==============
A couple of places atleast to hunt for cars/weapons/mods etc is these two sites GTAinside and GTAGaming

There is also the graphix mod ENB series by Boris V for IV which can be tricky, frustrating but also rewarding, a topic on it here
http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=417918

Other info here
http://gtabay.cba.pl/index_dokumentacja_gta4_en.htm

If you're interested in police cars w/ LED strobes etc then this place GTAPolicemods has the ELC emergency lighting system and alot of vehicles equipped to use that script, one thing is they do have like a timer for downloads approx 1 minute between.. Alot of police vehs at GTAinside/GTAgaming also have "ELS enabled" vehs also.