BETTER GTA V Build Guide
Based on original Pastebin guide and assistance from various individuals.
Original build guide: https://rentry.co/gtavbuildguide
Fixed all links!
Requirements
- Windows 10/11 (LTSC 2021 Recommended)
- Visual Studio 2012
- Update 4 for Visual Studio 2012
- DirectX SDK June 2010
- Incredibuild 4.0 (Only needed for compiling shaders)
- 7-Zip
- OpenIV
- Minimum 50GB free space, recommended at least 100GB in addition to space needed for game files
- Copy of GTA V, can be latest
- update.rpf and update2.rpf from GTA V build 2699 (can be obtained from torrent)
- Some technical competence
Files needed
- GTAVSP.7z
Link can be found in many places, it will not be provided here.
You can verify the authenticity of the file by its SHA1 hash:ca39323730ed644fa534a2946506d4287f92a799
To verify with 7-Zip, right click the file and select7-Zip > CRC SHA > SHA1
Archive password:Mi76#b>9mRed
- rush_patches
[Direct Link] (DOWN)
Mirrored here
SHA1 hash:fbd07b4fba5388ec151d7c1c32bf1c63c2f5de1e
- DLL patches
Mirrored here (DOWN)
Mirrored here
SHA1 hash:07ba09f572a3b951db04c219b10ed7db94bb15ae
Prebuilt files
- Shaders (Down as of right now, please build yourself)
- Scripts (Down as of right now, please build yourself)
SHA1 hash:930ee0b3453b78836c35d00c77caabfae1a46116
Note
It is recommended to create a virtual machine for this build process, although the build process can be done on your PC. VMWare/Hyper-V are recommended to run the VM due to their performance.
Prerequisite Setup
- Install Visual Studio 2012
- Uncheck all optional components in the installer except "Microsoft Foundation Classes for C++" to save space, none of them are needed for the build.
- Install Update 4 for Visual Studio 2012
- Install Incredibuild 4.0 (Only needed for compiling shaders)
- If you encounter the error that the installer is "Blocked by your administrator", follow these steps:
- Hold Shift and right click the
incredibuild4_0.exe
file, select "Copy as path" - Open Command Prompt as Administrator
- Paste the path and press Enter
- Hold Shift and right click the
- Select to install "Incredibuild Agent", "Incredibuild Coordinator", and the extension for Visual Studio
- If you encounter the error that the installer is "Blocked by your administrator", follow these steps:
- Install DirectX SDK June 2010
- Install OpenIV
- Create X:\ drive
- Open Command Prompt
- Run
net use X: \\localhost\c$\<Path to working folder for build> /persistent:yes
- ex.
net use X: \\localhost\c$\Users\abc\Desktop\GTA /persistent:yes
for working folderC:\Users\abc\Desktop\GTA
- ex.
- Create the folder
X:\gta5
and copy all folders fromGTAVSP.7z\GTA V Source
into it- By the end, you should have the folders
X:\gta5\src
,X:\gta5\script
, andX:\gta5\tools_ng
. If the paths are different or some folders are missing, try re-extracting or moving as needed.
- By the end, you should have the folders
- Right click the folder
X:\gta5
, select "Properties", uncheck "Read-only", click Apply then OK - Copy all folders in
dll_patches.zip
toX:\gta5\tools_ng\bin
, make sure to overwrite when copying - Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run the following commands, then close:
- To ensure changes are finalized, restart build machine
Patching the source code
- Open
rush_patches-master.zip
- Copy
game
andrage
folders toX:\gta5\src\dev_ng
, make sure to overwrite when copying - (OPTIONAL) To skip launcher requirement for running the game, copy
game
andrage
folders fromOPTIONAL_FIXES
to the same folder
Building the game binary
- Run
X:\gta5\src\dev_ng\game\VS_Project\load_sln_unity_2012.bat
and press enter when you seeWARNING:
- If prompted with "How do you want to open this file?", check "Always use this app to open .sln files" and click OK
- Once the solution loads, open the dropdown menu that says "Debug" at the top, select "Configuration Manager"
- Change "Active Solution Platform" to "x64" and close the configuration window
- Hold Ctrl key and click all projects under "GameLibs" and "Rage", right-click and select "Properties"
- In the "Configuration" dropdown, select "All Configurations"
- Select
C/C++ > All options
, under "Look for options or switches", search "err" and set "Treat Warnings as Errors" to "No (/WX-)", then click "Apply" and "OK"- For faster compiles, search "mul" and set "Multiprocessor Compilation" to "Yes (/MP)"
- If you get the error
C1060: Compiler is out of heap space
during build, come back to the above setting and turn it off
- Right-click the "game" project and select "Properties" and do step 5 again
- Change build the type at the top of the window from "Debug" to "BankRelease"
- At the top of the window, select
Build > Build Solution
and wait for build to finish - Copy output binary to game folder
Note
Building shaders and scripts can be skipped using the prebuilt files above. These steps are here to allow modding or for those who prefer to build from source as much as possible.
Building shaders
- Under "Shaders", right click the "shaders_rc" project and click "Build"
- (OPTIONAL) Build low quality shaders
- Right click the "shaders_rc" project and click "Properties"
- Select
Configuration Properties > NMake
- Under "General", change all command lines from ending with
win32_40.bat
to ending withwin32_40_lq.bat
, then click "Apply" and "OK" - Rebuild shaders
- Copy
X:\gta5\titleupdate\dev_ng\common
to game directory
Building game scripts
- Open Command Prompt
- Run the following commands:
- In the editor, select
File > Open Project
and openX:\gta5\script\dev_ng\singleplayer\GTA5_SP.scproj
- Select
Compiling > Intellibuild > Build Project
Patching game assets
- Run OpenIV, select "Windows"
- Select the game folder and click "Continue"
- Open
GTA V\update\update2.rpf\x64\levels\gta5\script
- Click the "Edit mode" button, and copy
X:\gta5\titleupdate\dev_ng\x64\levels\gta5\script\script.rpf
to the OpenIV window - (OPTIONAL) Fix Story Mode
- Open
GTA V\update\update.rpf\common\data
and make sure "Edit Mode" is enabled - Under "XML Text Files", right-click
gameconfig.xml
and click "Edit" - Under "Search", type "51000"
- Change the value of
51000
to53000
- Click "Save"
- Open
- Close OpenIV
- From
rush_patches-master.zip
, copy all files in theARCHIVEFIX
folder to a separate location - Open
<GAME FOLDER>\update
, and dragupdate.rpf
andupdate2.rpf
ontoArchiveFix.exe
- Close both windows
Running the game
- In the game directory, create a file named
launch.bat
and add these contents:
- (OPTIONAL) Add additional arguments:
-kbgame
- Start game with game keyboard enabled-output
- Show console log of game-rag
- Enable support for RAG, the internal game debugging tool-ragUseOwnWindow
- Combined with-rag
to make game run outside of RAG window-DoReleaseStartup
- Start real Story Mode on launch- Additional standard game arguments can be added as well
- (OPTIONAL) Launch RAG with the following commands in Command Prompt
- (OPTIONAL) Copy Goldberg patch into game directory, make sure to overwrite
- Run
launch.bat