This guide is beginners who do not know how to mod single player GTA5, it includeds everything you need to know to mod GTA5 in a stable fashion, from setting your game up to be modded, important information you will need to know before you begin modding, it also includes my personal mod list with step by step instructions on installing each mod in this guide, which I hope will give you more understanding on how modding GTA5 works
Gameplay Video
Getting Started
Start with a clean install of the game if you have modded GTA5 before and I recommend to not install your game in the Programs Files Directory.
Next make a brand new folder and name it GTA5 Mods and place it where ever you want it, somewhere you will remember, we are going to use this folder to extract downloads to, once you make it, make a new folder inside and name it Backups, then go into the main game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto V and copy the GTA5.exe and paste it into the new Backups folder.
If you have the hard drive space I recommend making a copy of the game folder as a backup file, it is not a requirement to mod your game but I highly recommend you do so
In the game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto V make a new folder and name it mods, now copy/paste the update folder and the x64 folder from your game folder into this new mods folder, it is also recommended that you copy these follow extra files into that mods folder as well, common.rpf, x64a.rpf, x64b.rpf, x64c.rpf, x64e.rpf, x64f.rpf, x64g.rpf, x64h.rpf, x64i.rpf, x64j.rpf, x64t.rpf, x64u.rpf, it can take up some space with these extra files, but doing so will prevent you from making any edits to the vanilla game files, when you are in OpenIV, in most cases it will warn you that you are about to make an edit to the vanilla game files and would you like to copy this file to the mods folder, and once you says yes, it will copy that folder for you and then take you to it, but in other cases it may not, and you will unknowingly mod the vanilla game files, I must confess I did not do this, but I am well aware of the risks and I do not play online, by doing this it will take up way more hard drive space, but in return it protects the integrity of the vanilla game folder, and other then things you add in the base game folder, all edits will only take place in the mods folder
In your steam game library, on the left right click Grand Theft Auto V, a new box will pop up, then go down to Updates and underneath Automatic Updates, put it on Only update this game when I launch it, this will give you some options while you wait on the Script Hook V update.
I do know if you have booted and ran GTA5 and not shut your PC down then you can put Steam in Offline mode and disconnect from the internet and play GTA5 offline, however if you wake up, boot your PC and the GTA5 update is waiting then this will not work for you
You can try these to following ideas that I have not tested yet, but might work
Take your modded GTA5 game folder and move it outside of Steam, then move in your backup copy and allow it to update, after, move the backup copy back where you had it and then move the modded copied back to steamapps/common and it may very well boot up and allow you to play single player, if this does not work then you can update the modded version and then just drag the old GTA5.exe that we backed up in there and let it overwrite the new updated one and this may trick steam into think you updated and allowing you to play in single player again with your mods while you wait on the new Script Hook V update.
If none of the following works, then all you can do is wait on that Script hook V update.
Read Before Installing Any Mods
Never installed a bunch of mods on one time, something can go wrong and you will get errors and your game want boot, or you will get CTD, thats why it is very important to always boot your game after you install each mod, and make sure it works, that way if a problem is to occur, then you will know that it is that mod that is responsible and you will be able to troubleshoot the issue fairly easily, versus installing 10 mods at one time and not knowing what to do to resolve the issue
Removing Mods
.oiv package installers
Removing mods in GTA5 is not as easy as removing mods in most other games, most, i have seen very few .ovi package installer mods that come with an uninstaller, what you have to do to remove these is go into the extracted download folder of the mod you install and use 7zip. to extract the .oiv file in there to another new folder, once extracted they will always be an assemby.xml file that will tell you exactly what files it added and where the .oiv installed them, it will either add sources or replace sources in the game files, so from here what you do is pull up what ever file the .oiv installed to from your back up copy of the game and extract it to a new folder, then open up OpenIV and go to where the .oiv installed files and cross check them, in some cases if its an added source then you can just right click it in OpenIV and just delete it, in other cases you will need to drag in the vanilla copies from the backup files to replace the modded files
dlcpacks mods
you just undo what you did to install them, like a dlcpacks mods, you would go to steamapps/common/Grand Theft auto V/mods/update/x64/dlcpacks, and you would delete the mod folder you put in there and then you would pull up OpenIV and go to mods/update/update.rpf rage package file/common/data then scroll down underneath the header titled XML text look for dlclist.xml, toggle Edit Mode at the top, then right click dlclist.xml and select edit and go in and delete the lines for the mod that you are removing, same as when you installed it, except this time you are removing the line instead of adding it.
other mod types
Mods like scripts or ones you put into your game folder, you just go and delete them, other mods like textures and anything else that you would drag into OpenIV to overwrite the vanilla file, you would just pull up your backup file, go get whatever file you changed and drag it into openIV, to overwrite the modded file back to vanilla
Tools
You are going to need a program to help you extract compressed files https://www.7-zip.org/ 64bit
OpenIV – https://openiv.com/
Click the Green Download Now Button at the top, after its done run the executable, follow the prompts, once it is installed, launch it from the new desktop icon, then select GTA5, and direct it to your game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto V, after you should get a Successfully: GTA5.exe message below the directory box, after click continue, then continue again. Once you have OpenIV open, click Tools at the top, then click ASI Manager, and click Install on all 3
Click the green button that says Download, then another tab is going to open, there scroll down and you will see a hightlighted blue Download that is underlined, click it, make sure you click the one that says download , and not the one that says download SDK, once its downloaded, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder, name it Script Hook V and extract the download to this Script Hook V folder, after open it up, then open the folder inside titled bin, and inside copy/paste the 2 following files into your game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto V, make sure and do not put it inside any of the folders, just put them in the base game folder
-dinput8.dll
-ScriptHookV.dll
Community Script Hook V .NET 3.0.4– https://www.gta5-mods.com/tools/scripthookv-net
Click the green button that says Download, then another tab is going to open, there at the top highlighted in blue will be the latest version of ScriptHookVDotNet, at this time it is version3.1.0, scroll down until you see highlighted in blue ScriptHookVDotNet.zip and click it, to download, I have seen multiple versions listed here, so always make sure you are downloading the latest version, which is always closest to the top.
Inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder, name it Script Hook V Dot Net, and extract the download to this folder, after open this folder and copy/paste the following 3 files into your game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto V, make sure and do not put it inside any of the folders, just put them in the base game folder
-ScriptHookVDotNet.asi
-ScriptHookVDotNet2.dll
-ScriptHookVDotNet3.dll
Packfile Limit Adjuster– https://www.gta5-mods.com/tools/packfile-limit-adjuster
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Packfile Limit Adjuster and extract the download to this folder, after open this folder and copy/paste both files into your game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto V, make sure and do not put it inside any of the folders, just put them in the base game folder
-PackfileLimitAdjuster.asi
-PackfileLimitAdjuster.ini
HeapAdjuster– https://www.gta5-mods.com/tools/heapadjuster
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Heap Adjuster and extract the download to this folder, after open this folder and copy/paste both files into your game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto V, make sure and do not put it inside any of the folders, just put them in the base game folder
-HeapAdjuster.asi
-HeapAdjuster.ini
CWeaponInfoBlob Limit Adjuster– https://www.gta5-mods.com/tools/cweaponinfoblob-limit-adjuster
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Weapon Limit Adjuster, and extract the download to this folder, after open this folder and copy/paste both files into your game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto V, make sure and do not put it inside any of the folders, just put them in the base game folder
-CWeaponInfoBlob Adjuster.asi
-CWeaponInfoBlob Adjuster.ini
NativeUI– https://gtaforums.com/topic/809284-net-nativeui/
Scroll down a little and you will see Download 1.9.1 highlighted in yellow and underlined, click it to download, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Native UI, then extract the download to this folder, open the folder and highlight both files inside NativeUI.dll and NativeUI.xml and right click, select copy, now go into your game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft AutoV and create a new folder and name it scripts and paste these in there.
Main Graphic Mods
Click the green Download button, then a little window will pop up, on that window click the arrow pointing down, that symbolizes download, then click the next green Download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Visual V, and extract the download to this folder.
Now open up the OpenIV, make sure and click GTA5 when it opens its first window, now underneath where it says File/Edit/View and all that stuff they are a row of icons, hover your mouse over them and find the one that says Open Package Installer, then direct it to your GTA5 Mods Folder, then into Visual V, then installation via modPackage, then click VisualIV.ovi and select open at the bottom. A new Package installer window will pop up, select install, then select mods folder, very important you select mods folder, and install, once it says Installation succeeded, select close.
NaturalVision Outdated– https://www.gta5-mods.com/misc/naturalvision-photorealistic-gtav
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Natural Vision, extract the download to this folder.
Now open up the OpenIV, make sure and click GTA5 when it opens its first window, now underneath where it says File/Edit/View and all that stuff they are a row of icons, hover your mouse over them and find the one that says Open Package Installer, then direct it to your GTA5 Mods Folder, then into Natural Vision, then click NaturalVision Installer.oiv and select open at the bottom. A new Package installer window will pop up, select install, then select mods folder, very important you select mods folder, and install, once it says Installation succeeded, select close.
Optional Addons
In the NaturalVision folder you will notice a folder that says optional addons, pick what you want, pick none if you don;t want none, they all will install the same as the main mod, you Open Package Installer in OpenIV and direct it to the addons .oiv that you want, I went with Precise Thunder Bolts, if you use that one make sure and choose the resolution that matches your screen resolution, and I went with 10. Brighter Vehicle Tail Lights, Brighter Emergency Lights (LSPDFR)
ENB
Click the latest version, it is always the highest number, at this time it is v0.447, so click that, and the page will change, then click the arrow pointing down that says download beside it at the bottom, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Enb Binaries and extract the download to it, then open it up and copy/paste the following 2 files into your game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto V, make sure and do not put it inside any of the folders, just put them in the base game folder
-d3d11.dll
-d3dcompiler_46e.dll
PRSA – PhotoRealistic San Andreas ENB– https://www.gta5-mods.com/misc/prsa-photorealistic-san-andreas-enb
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it PRSA Enb, extract the download to it, then open it up, then open up the folder inside titled 00-MAINFILES and copy paste all the contents into your game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto V, make sure and do not put it inside any of the folders, just put them in the base game folder
After make sure and read the READ ME FIRST.txt in the enb folder.
Once in game with the Enb, hit the End key to bring up the enb menu, on the menu, on the right side of it, click ENBEFFECTPOSTPASS.FX to bring up its drop down menu, on that menu change these 2 things, at the bottom you will see SHOW PR:SA TUTORIAL, click the minus sign out from it to change it from a 1 to a 0 to make the tutorial menu go away, now to fix the borders, look for Border Ratio and change it to 1.80, then over to the top of the Left Side click Save Configuration and your done, any time you change anything on a Enb Menu, you have to click save configuration, or next time you boot your game all those changes you made will be gone.
Some other changes I made, that make the game look better, once in game pull up the Enb Menu with the End key and On the left side look for ANTIALIASING, then check mark HighQualityMSAA and HighQualityVehicleMSAA, a little down under Effects, check mark EnableSubSurfaceScattering, then on the right side under ENBEFFECTPOSTPASS.FX check mark Flimic Range, then make sure and click SAVE CONFIGURATION at the top left or the changes will not be there after you close your game
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Realistic Guns Sounds, then extract the download to it.
Now open up the OpenIV, make sure and click GTA5 when it opens its first window, now underneath where it says File/Edit/View and all that stuff they are a row of icons, hover your mouse over them and find the one that says Open Package Installer, then direct it to your GTA5 Mods Folder, then into Realistic Guns Sounds folder, click the RGS4.ovi and select open at the bottom. A new Package installer window will pop up, select install, then select mods folder, very important you select mods folder, and install, once it says Installation succeeded, select close
Improvements in Gore– https://www.gta5-mods.com/misc/improvements-in-gore
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Improvements in Gore, extract the download to it.
Now open up the OpenIV, make sure and click GTA5 when it opens its first window, now underneath where it says File/Edit/View and all that stuff they are a row of icons, hover your mouse over them and find the one that says Open Package Installer, then direct it to your GTA5 Mods Folder, then into Improvements in Gore folder, click ImprovementsInGore.oiv and select open at the bottom. A new Package installer window will pop up, select install, then select mods folder, very important you select mods folder, and install, once it says Installation succeeded, select close
RAGEuphoria– https://es.gta5-mods.com/misc/rageuphoria
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Rage Physics, extract the download to it.
Now open up the OpenIV, make sure and click GTA5 when it opens its first window, now underneath where it says File/Edit/View and all that stuff they are a row of icons, hover your mouse over them and find the one that says Open Package Installer, then direct it to your GTA5 Mods Folder, then into Rage Physics Folder, click RageEuphoria.oiv and select open at the bottom. A new Package installer window will pop up, select install, then select mods folder, very important you select mods folder, and install, once it says Installation succeeded, select close
Now open up the OpenIV, make sure and click GTA5 when it opens its first window, now underneath where it says File/Edit/View and all that stuff they are a row of icons, hover your mouse over them and find the one that says Open Package Installer, then direct it to your GTA5 Mods Folder, then into Rage Physics Folder, click Weapon Physics (REQUIRED).oiv and select open at the bottom. A new Package installer window will pop up, select install, then select mods folder, very important you select mods folder, and install, once it says Installation succeeded, select close
Epic Explosions XX– https://www.gta5-mods.com/misc/realistic-effects-of-explosions
Click the green Download button, a new tab will pop up, click the blue download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Epic Explosions, extract the download to it
Now open up the OpenIV, make sure and click GTA5 when it opens its first window, now underneath where it says File/Edit/View and all that stuff they are a row of icons, hover your mouse over them and find the one that says Open Package Installer, then direct it to your GTA5 Mods Folder, then into Epic Explosions, then into 1.-EXPLOSIONS, then into 2 FOR 1 folder, click 2 for 1.oiv select open at the bottom. A new Package installer window will pop up, select install, then select mods folder, very important you select mods folder, and install, once it says Installation succeeded, select close
dlcpak mods
Click the green Download Button, a new tab will open up, click the Download Button there, and leave this window open until the download is complete inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it LA Roads, and extract the download to it, now open that folder and inside should be one folder tilted LA_Roads, right click it and select copy, now go into the game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto V, inside open up these folders mods/update/x64/dlcpacks and paste the LA roads folder we copied into here
Real California Architecture– https://www.gta5-mods.com/maps/real-freeway-signs
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Real California Architecture and extract the download to it, now open that folder and inside should be one folder tilted rca, ight click it and select copy, now go into the game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto V, inside open up these folders mods/update/x64/dlcpacks and paste the LA roads folder we copied into here
LA Billboards – Real LA – MegaPack Add-On– https://www.gta5-mods.com/misc/real-posters-graffiti-and-tags-for-la
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, all that you download here is a compressed .txt file that has a list of links to download from, I choose this one
{LINK REMOVED}
Leave the window open until the download is complete, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it LA Billboards, and extract the download to it, open that folder and inside open all the single folders until you get to dlcpacks, open it and there should be 3 folders inside, highlight all 3 and right click and select copy, now go into the game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto V, inside open up these folders mods/update/x64/dlcpacks and paste the 3 folders we copied into here
GTA V Remastered [Add-On]– https://www.gta5-mods.com/maps/grand-theft-auto-v-remastered-add-on
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it GTA5 Remastered, then extract the download to it, now open up that folder and open all the folders until you get to a folder titled vremastered, right click that folder and select copy, now go into the game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto V, inside open up these folders mods/update/x64/dlcpacks and paste the 3 folders we copied into here
Edit the DLCLists and your Done
Now open up the OpenIV , and make sure you select GTA5, in OpenIV click the mods folder, then click the update folder, then click update.rpf Rage Package File, then click common, then click data, scroll down underneath the header titled XML text look for dlclist.xml, before you click it, look at the top for Edit mode, then click it and agree, now right click dlclist.xml and select edit and add these lines for the mods we copied into the game folder, if you skipped one do not add the line, if you are using them and you do not add the lines then the mods will not work.
After clicking dlclist.xml with Edit Mode toggled and new box will pop up, the easiest way to do this is whatever the last item listed is, hightlight it and and right click and select copy, place the cursor directly after the last > select enter, then paste what we copied, and do this each time you add a line, after we will rename the middle line to what we added, the middle part will always be the name of the game folder that you copy/pasted into
steamapps/common/Grand Theft AutoV/mods/update/x64/dlcpacks folder, for the mods in this guide you can copy the lines directly from the guide and paste them in there, after you are done make sure to select save at the bottom and then un-toggle edit mode and close out OpenIV
L.A. Roads + L.A. Roads Patch [Add-On]
<Item>dlcpacks:/LA_ROADS/</Item>
Real California Architecture
<Item>dlcpacks:/rca/</Item>
LA Billboards – Real LA – MegaPack Add-On
<Item>dlcpacks:/Extra_Mod/</Item>
<Item>dlcpacks:/LA_Billboard_P1/</Item>
<Item>dlcpacks:/LA_Billboard_P2/</Item>
GTA V Remastered [Add-On]
<Item>dlcpacks:/vremastered/</Item>
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Water, extract the download to this folder, open the folder and leave it open for now.
Now open up the OpenIV , and make sure you select GTA5, in OpenIV click the mods folder, then click 64a.rpf, then click textures, then click Edit mode at the top right and pull up the Water folder we left open and drag the graphics.ytd into the white space on the right out from the file names in OpenIV, now decide if you want 2k water or 4k water, I went with 4k, the 2k water file is the water.ytd in the base folder and the 4k one is inside of the folder that says 4k, then take your water.ytd and drag it into the white space on the right outside of the file names in OpenIV
Insane Rain Mod– https://www.gta5-mods.com/misc/insane-rain-mod
Click the green Download button, a new tab will pop up, click the blue download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Insane Rain, extract the download to it, now open this folder, then open the top folder titled INSANE RAIN and leave it open for now
Now open up the OpenIV we installed at the beginning, make sure and click GTA5 when it opens its first window, now click Edit Mode at the top right to toggle this on and click yes to agree, then click the mods folder, then click common.rpf, then click data, then click levels, then click gta5, then click weather, now open the window that we left open earlier and highlight both .xml files, once they are highlighted, simply drag them over into your OpenIV window into the white space to the right of all the .xml files, you will see that your mouse cursor changes to a box with an add symbol on the inside, other then that you will not notice you have changed anything, because the files we are changing have the same name as the files we are putting in, but you are changing them, back into the extracted mod folder go into the insane thunder storm folder and do the same, highlight both .xml files and drag them over into your Open IV window into the white space to the right of all the .xml files just like before and we are done.
Real Life Thunder– https://www.gta5-mods.com/misc/realistic-thunder-wind-sound-fx
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Real Life Thunder, extract the download to it.
Now open up the OpenIV we installed at the beginning, make sure and click GTA5 when it opens its first window, on the far left side panel click x64, then click audio, then click, sfx, then click ONESHOT_AMBIENCE.rpf then toggle Edit Mode at the top right, then a red box will pop up asking if you want to copy the mods folder, select yes, then it will copy the file we are editing into the mods folder and then it will take you to the same file, in the mods folder, leaving OpenIV open, go to your GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier and then into the Real Life Thunder folder we just made and underneath all the folders there highlight all 6 of the .oac files and simply drag them over into OpenIV into the open white space out from all the files, you should see a little progress box pop up with a progress bar, it happens fast, but this is all you do to install this
If you end up not liking it for some reason the extracted mod folder has backups for you, so you can just go back in and replace the main file ONESHOT_AMBIENCE.rpf with the back up, In OpenIV you would just go to mods/x64/audio/sfx, then toggle Edit Mode at the top right and drag the backup ONESHOT_AMBIENCE.rpf in there and it will replace the modded oner with the vanilla storm sounds.
Scripted Mods
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Ambient FX, extract the download to it, open the folder and right click Ambient FX.dll and select copy, now go into your game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft AutoV and open the scripts folder and paste these in there
Better Chases– https://www.gta5-mods.com/scripts/better-chases
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Better Chases, extract the download to this folder, open the folder and highlight the following 3 files, Better Chases+.dll, Better Chases+.pdb, Better ChasesConfig.xml, right click them and select copy, now go into your game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft AutoV and open the scripts folder and paste these in there
Stolen– https://www.gta5-mods.com/scripts/stolen
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Stolen, extract the download to this folder, open the folder and and right click the Stolen.dll and select copy, now go into your game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft AutoV and open the scripts folder and paste it in there
This one may annoy you, read up on it first
Pull Me Over– https://www.gta5-mods.com/scripts/pull-me-over-daimian
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Pull Me Over, extract the download to this folder, open the folder and copy the following 4 files into steamapps/common/Grand Theft AutoV/scripts the same place we have put the previous 3 things
-PullMEOver Folder
-PullMeOver.dll
-PullMeOver.ini
-PullMeOver.pdb
Now open up the OpenIV, make sure and click GTA5 when it opens its first window, now underneath where it says File/Edit/View and all that stuff they are a row of icons, hover your mouse over them and find the one that says Open Package Installer, then direct it to your GTA5 Mods Folder, then into your Pull Me Over folder, click the Cops on Patrol.oiv and select open at the bottom. A new Package installer window will pop up, select install, then select mods folder, very important you select mods folder, and install, once it says Installation succeeded, select close
Dialogue System– https://www.gta5-mods.com/scripts/dialogue-system
Click the green Download button, then click the next download button, inside the GTA5 Mods folder we made earlier, make a new folder and name it Dialogue System, then extract the download to this folder, open the folder and copy the DialogueSystem.dll, now go into your game folder steamapps/common/Grand Theft AutoV and open the scripts folder and paste it in there
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