Cannot get GTA 4 (1.0.7.0) to launch after installing any ENB

[sjain]

Hello everyone,

 

So, as shown in the title, I am unable to get GTA 4 to launch after installing any ENB modification. Full details are below, including what I have tried and my system info.

 

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GAME CONFIGURATION:

 

1. I downloaded the game from Steam legitimately, i.e. I did not pirate the game. It was installed with version 1.0.8.0
2. Then, I downloaded the 1.0.7.0 patch from the official rockstar download page. 
3. The installer ran successfully and the game was downgraded to 1.0.7.0 (I checked by viewing the Details tab in the Properties of GTAIV.exe)
4. I launched the game successfully and everything worked fine up to this point.
5. I then quit the game and installed XLiveLess so I could load my saves, and I even installed ScriptHook and TrainerIV, and everything was working fine.

 

My commandline can be found here (note - the official memrestrict values never fixed texture loss for me, even on a vanilla game)

 

My stream.ini can be found here (its located in Grand Theft Auto IV\GTAIV\bin)

 

P.S. I downgraded the game properly with the paul.dll method which can be found here

 

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THE ISSUE IN DETAIL:

 

1. I downloaded and installed EyeCandy ENB V6 and extracted everything except commandline.txt into my game folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Grand Theft Auto IV)
2. Then, after checking that none of the files were blocked by Windows, I launched the game by running LaunchGTAIV.exe as administrator, not launching the game via steam.
3. I click "Play" in the window that appears.
4. Then, my mouse cursor shows the "Working" icon for a few seconds, then it stops.
5. The game never launches, nothing happens.

 

A quick check in Task Manager shows that when I click "Play" the GTAIV.exe process spawns but then crashes / kills itself instantly.

 

All ENBs used to work properly and smoothly on previous versions of Windows 10 (1607). This issue started since Windows 10 version 1703.

 

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MY SYSTEM INFORMATION:

 

PCPartPicker full component list

 

Relavant PC Specs:
 

• i7 5820K @ 3.3Ghz
• 16GB DDR4 2133Mhz RAM
• 480GB SSD with 100GB free, where GTA IV is installed
• GTX 980Ti 2-way SLI (each has 4GB VRAM)

 

My dxdiag.txt

 

Desktop and GTA IV resolution: 3840x2160 @ 60Hz

 

My windows version dialog

 

My windows version: 1803, build 17134.137

 

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WHAT I HAVE TRIED TO FIX THE ISSUE (all of which have had no effect):

 

Buckle up, because this list will be very long...

 

• Restarting my computer (with Fast Boot disabled in control panel and using the ALT + F4 dialog on the desktop to restart, so all processes are properly killed)
• Running all of the installers that come with the game download (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Grand Theft Auto IV\Installers)
• Using Display Driver Uninstaller in safe mode to wipe graphics drivers, then reinstalling the latest graphics drivers
• Disabling SLI via Nvidia Control Panel
• With SLI enabled, settings SLI bits to 0x43500405 as per this post in Nvidia Inspector. Didn't make a difference in this case but gives a great performance boost to vanilla unmodded GTA IV.
• Adding d3dx9_26.dll and d3dx9_40.dll to my game folder as per this post
• Installing DirectX after running Display Driver Uninstaller and reinstalling graphics drivers. It did actually load some files and say that they were "now ready for use" as if it repaired something, instead of reporting that "The latest version is already installed" (or words to that effect)
• Setting the correct resolution in ENBSeries.ini as per this post
• Using a resolution of 1920x1080 for both my desktop and GTA IV
• Using a different ENB (on a clean install of GTA IV downgraded to 1.0.7.0) - I've tried CryENB, ICEnhancer, Game4Video ENB, ProfeetENB, and the default ENBSeries for GTA 4.
• Using every OS option listed under "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" in the Compatibility tab of the Properties for GTAIV.exe, gta4Browser.exe, LaunchGTAIV.exe and gtaBrowser.exe.
• Setting GTAIV.exe, gta4Browser.exe, LaunchGTAIV.exe and gtaBrowser.exe to run as administrator in the Compatibility tab of the Properties for each .exe file
• Only setting GTAIV.exe to run as administrator
• Using the default values for stream.ini
• Using no commandline.txt file
• Using -memrestrict 681574400 in my commandline.txt and in my LaunchGTAIV.exe shortcut
• Adding my commandline options to a shortcut for LaunchGTAIV.exe set to run as administrator
• Using a pirated version of GTA 4 (I was desperate :P)
• Putting the game into a folder called Grand Theft Auto IV instead of a folder called GTAIV inside a folder called Grand Theft Auto IV (default setup)
• Disabling Full Screen Optimisations in the compatibility tab of GTAIV.exe's properties
• Removing all script mods and hooks
• Clean installing the game, downgrading to patch 1.0.7.0 then retrying an ENB
• Disabling all gaming settings in the Settings app
• Uninstalling the Xbox app via Windows Powershell
• Disabling shader cache in Nvidia Control Panel
• Disabling VSync in Nvidia Control Panel
• Clamping negative LOD bias in Nvidia Control Panel
• Applying the 4GB patch to GTAIV.exe
• Applying Large Address Aware to GTAIV.exe (after applying the 4GB patch, as that patch creates a new .exe file)
• Completely quitting Steam before launching the game
• Disabling the Steam overlay for GTA 4
• Disabling all overlays for GTA 4 (thats the Steam Overlay and Nvidia Shadowplay)
• Messing with all of the .ini files in the game folder.
• Using a different monitor
• Using my inbuilt graphics card

 

WHAT I HAVE TRIED TO FIX THE ISSUE (all of which have had an effect on the issue):

 

• Not running LaunchGTAIV.exe as administrator (returned a SecuROM error, but did not solve the issue)
• Removing d3d9.dll from my game install folder. The game successfully launches, however everything is fully black, as the ENB relies on this file.

 

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I've tried pretty much everything I know.

 

I hope I've listed everything, but I may have forgotten some obvious points (both in the "What I've tried" and the "My System Information" sections). 

 

I've been modding and playing the game for 5 years, and I know it inside out, but no response is "stupid".

 

All help is widely appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

Here is what I think is causing the issue.

Edited July 3, 2018 by sjain
added speculation

[HolaImBob]

29 minutes ago, sjain said:

 

• Using a different ENB (on a clean install of GTA IV downgraded to 1.0.7.0) - I've tried CryENB, ICEnhancer, Game4Video ENB, ProfeetENB, and the default ENBSeries for GTA 4.
•  

 

did these ones work at all, and did you try a different version of eyecandy?

[sjain]

50 minutes ago, HolaImBob said:

did these ones work at all, and did you try a different version of eyecandy?

None of them worked, as it is listed under the title "What I have done to fix the issue (all of which have had no effect)" showing that none of them worked

 

Thanks for your reply though. I'm really bewildered as to why it isn't working, but other ENBs not working gives a hint. I think there is an issue with Windows 10 on DirectX or something.

 

The ENB works by injecting the custom d3d9.dll in the game folder into GTAIV.exe. Now when I remove it the game launches, but is black as expected (enb only partially working).

 

This issue only started after the Windows 10 1703 update. It worked perfectly fine on 1607. My guess is its one of those gaming features they added or a change to graphics drivers or something. Maybe its the nvidia graphics drivers, who knows, they've received many updates since then.

 

Also notable is the inability to disable game mode...

[HolaImBob]

in registry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\GameBar

add "AllowAutoGameMode" and "AutoGameModeEnabled" as dwords with the value 0. it disables the game mode on the pc

[sjain]

On 03/07/2018 at 11:01 PM, HolaImBob said:

in registry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\GameBar

add "AllowAutoGameMode" and "AutoGameModeEnabled" as dwords with the value 0. it disables the game mode on the pc

Unfortunately this did not fix the issue for me, thanks for the help though I will keep trying.

 

I tried ENBs for GTA SA and it worked but with very low FPS.

 

There was this funny .bat file which was named "Fix issues windows 10" in it. Tried this all and it had no effect, except for deleting compatibility settings for all programs, but thats my fault.

 

I wonder if this will have an effect on GTA IV, I will try it asap.

 

@echo off
color 17
set scriptversion=v1.1
Title Windows 8/8.1/10 ENBSeries 0.313 compatibility script %scriptversion% by Marty McFly, Craank_AG, SacsDeveloper

echo.
echo  .:[ Windows 8/8.1/10 ENBSeries 0.313 startup utility %scriptversion% ]:.
echo           .:[ Authors: Marty McFly, Craank_AG, edit sacs ]:.
echo                 .:[ Exclusive for all enb's ]:.
echo.

REM Gets the SID of the current logged in user, needed for wiping the registry values which cause issues with ENB 0.248

for /f "delims=" %%i in ('wmic useraccount where "name='%UserName%'" get sid /value') do (
  for /f "delims=" %%j in ("%%i") do set "%%j"
)

REM Sets batch file dir as working directory, since batch files ran as admin use system32 by default

pushd %~dp0 >nul 2>&1

REM Checks existance of problematic registry keys and deletes them thereafter, plus giving out proper message.

REG Query "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers" >nul 2>&1
if %errorlevel%==0 ( 
	REG Delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers" /f
	echo. [startup util] Registry entry successfully deleted!
) else (
	echo. [startup util] Registry entry not found, skipping. 
) 

REG Query "HKEY_USERS\%SID%\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\LowRegistry\Audio\PolicyConfig\PropertyStore" >nul 2>&1
if %errorlevel%==0 ( 
	REG Delete "HKEY_USERS\%SID%\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\LowRegistry\Audio\PolicyConfig\PropertyStore" /f
	echo. [startup util] Registry entry successfully deleted!
) else (
	echo. [startup util] Registry entry not found, skipping. 
) 

REG Query "HKEY_USERS\%SID%\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers" >nul 2>&1
if %errorlevel%==0 ( 
	REG Delete "HKEY_USERS\%SID%\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers" /f
	echo. [startup util] Registry entry successfully deleted!
) else (
	echo. [startup util] Registry entry not found, skipping. 
) 

REG Query "HKEY_USERS\%SID%_Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Direct3D\MostRecentApplication" >nul 2>&1
if %errorlevel%==0 ( 
	REG Delete "HKEY_USERS\%SID%_Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Direct3D\MostRecentApplication" /f
	echo. [startup util] Registry entry successfully deleted!
) else (
	echo. [startup util] Registry entry not found, skipping. 
) 

REG Query "HKEY_USERS\%SID%_Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DirectDraw\MostRecentApplication" >nul 2>&1
if %errorlevel%==0 ( 
	REG Delete "HKEY_USERS\%SID%_Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DirectDraw\MostRecentApplication" /f
	echo. [startup util] Registry entry successfully deleted!
) else (
	echo. [startup util] Registry entry not found, skipping. 
) 

REM Finally starts the GTA SA exe file after everything is done.

echo. [startup util] Done. Starting Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
start enb.exe
pause

 

[riotinprogress]

Have you gotten anything to work for you? I'm currently in the same predicament. No ENB works for me.

[riotinprogress]

So I tried downloading a different d3d9.dll and it loaded up the game. I got through the starting cinematic. The next cutscene was all black and now the game is black yet I can see the radar. The menu is visible as well.

[riotinprogress]

Tried an ENB named BLVCK and it worked. It's bright as shit, however. Other ENB's like icenhancer, cryenb, eyecandy all show up black. So it's just a matter of finding the right ENB now I guess, or figuring out why the most popular ones are showing up as black.