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‘GTA 5 Redux’ Mod: You Will Not Believe What A Modder Did To ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ [Video]

By Cal Jeffrey
Published on: 10:25 PST, Jul 14, 2016

GTA 5 Redux has a release date, and what has been done to the game is unbelievable without watching the gameplay video released by Josh Romito Productions.

Without a doubt, Grand Theft Auto V looked gorgeous when Rockstar Games released it almost three years ago. It was by far the best looking GTA in the series on consoles and looked even better on the PC, but that was not good enough for some fans of the game.

Mods are not unusual to PC games in general or GTA 5 in particular. There are dozens of modifications to the game that have popped up since its release. Rock Paper Shotgun compiled a list of some of the best mods that rebalance crime and police response, remove police and make civilians riot, put the player in the shoes of the police fighting crime, and allow the editing of maps, just to name a few.

GTA 5 Redux takes modding of the title to a whole new level. Josh Romito took on the ambitious task of revamping nearly the entire game. Graphics, weather, police and weapons, melee combat, the population (fewer pedestrians at night versus day), and vehicle handling systems have all received a makeover. According to ExtremeTech, he has also added “ragdoll physics” to the game.

The mod encompasses quite a big part of the core game’s code, but the graphics are what truly make the game stand apart from other modifications. Romito has retouched the graphics to a near photorealistic state. Cars have realistic reflections and damage. When it rains, the player’s clothes look wet and snow appears to be a new addition.

“GTA 5 Redux” adds a whole new list of graphic improvements. The mod uses 4K textures with improved injury and damage overlays. Shadows, light pollution, improved terrain detail have all received tweaks.

On his website, Romito states that he has “lowered lens artifacts, removed chromatic aberration, noise, and environmental blur for a clean view.”

Better motion blur, depth of field and bokeh effects have been added along with “volumetric lighting for all times of day.”

Josh did not stop at simply crisping up the graphics either. He added a slew of all new effects to GTA 5 Redux. Particle counts have been increased. Debris blows from the ground naturally. Leaves fall from trees and trash blows off of garbage trucks. Water splashes are more natural looking. Blood and wound effects have also been improved.

For those interested in a full list of graphical improvements and game enhancements, visit the Features page of Josh’s website.

As amazing as GTA 5 Redux looks and feels, the mod is not without its drawbacks and those issues can be pretty severe for some gamers.

The first drawback is a loss of frame rate. ExtremeTech reports that users of the mod should expect a 5-10 fps drop in frame rate. The amount of frame rate loss experienced will vary widely depending on which settings are turned to active and the power of the installed graphics card. Those running a top-of-the-line GPU, like the GeForce GTX 10 series, should see the least frame rate degradation when applying the settings.

Graphics-processing performance raises another potential problem, that being of overall system requirements. Romito does not list the minimum system requirements for his mod, but on his YouTube page, he does list the specs of the computer that he uses to create the mod. Users can view these specs as a general rule of thumb when trying to determine whether their current gaming rig can handle GTA 5 Redux.

Josh Romito’s computer specs:

  • i7 4790k CPU
  • SLI GTX 980’s GPU
  • 16gb 2400mhz RAM
  • 840 Evo SSD(4-way raid 0)
  • XB280HK 4K G-sync monitor

Computers that meet or exceed the above requirements should have no problem running the mod.

GTA 5 Redux is in the final stages of production. It is fully complete and receiving some final testing and debugging. Players can get their hands on GTA 5 Redux on August 26, 2016. Visit Josh’s website for more details.

[Image via Josh Romito]

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