Essential & recommended mods for newcomers

ArmaniAdnr

WHY THIS ARTICLE WAS DONE & WHAT YOU CAN FIND HERE

At the fact nearly every week there is anyone new who have on his mind question “What mods do you recommend for better experience?” or “What mods you recommend as first for better graphic?” or “What mods do you recommend for new newcomers?” etc. No hate. I of course understand this question and they are on the right place (:

But lot of people wrote answers on these few days/weeks or months ago in more than one topic and it start be boring then to repeat it all time. I also understandit’s not easy no find anything not so much specific in old topics with so many topics = so many interesting people in modding . Again, I understand it all and for that reason I decided to write this article.

LET'S START

I would start with my recommendations and then anyone else who have anything to add to this theme please add your recommends to this topic and newcomers feel free to ask anyone here for specific recommendations related with this topic. The main point is, it would be at one place and if anyone new would have this questions again, you can simply link him to this topic and don’t need write it all again If you need also know what tools you HAVE TO use jump on the end of the article

Graphic enchancement

As the first installed mod which is for better visual graphic, there is 2 options:

Natural Vision	or	Visual V

You can decide what you like more depend on public videos as for example

which most affect my personal choice.

Note* - some people use Redux, but when you read the history of this mix mod you would understand first of all why you can’t find it on this site. Author mixed more visual mods and uploaded it as own with no permissions. For that reason I personally and most of people don’t use this because we don’t want support acting like that without respect for mods creators and I hope, you as newcomer don’t want and don’t do it too You can achieve same or better result yourself easy.

To custom this improved graphic depend on your demand you can use any other reshade from this website or as the external program. But both mods include reshade & ENB configurations.

Realism

Second most recommended mod is LA Billboards which is pack of many, many realistic billboards, signs, posters and rebranding another small things.
- For completing ads a little bit I recommend textures for Pounder and Mule for example Real Life Mule Textures & Varietz of Pounder.

Weapon behavior

Third from TOP3 is Ripplers Realism which most focus on weapons and all behaviors connected with weapons, including link for Baka’s sound mod in the description, which is inseparable part of this mod I think.

Peds behavior

For the better experience from the physics is there Euphoria which most focus on physics of peds and better looking reactions in many ways.

MAP

Thing as the map and radar is too pretty much using in game what mean next recommendation is 4K Satellite Map which change original boring map for high definition realistic map.
Original map have some boudnary limits as on the side of map same as on the top of the map. For deleting these limits I recommend No Boundary Limits which provide you more fun at least with planes driving.

First person play

If you like playing in first person you would also appreciate FoV which allow you customizate field of view in first person depend on your taste and screen.

Textures

Next thing which many people ask for is realistic blood. I personally use and recommend CSYON 4K edition because I think the blood pools don’t look so much as the ‚ketchup‘ like on some blood mods. But you can find more 4K blood mods here and test it yourself of course.
Big difference all around the map and also from the views make 4K water. Again there is some more 4K water mods but I personally most like this one because it’s not too much ‚forcibly‘ high definition and look most realistic I think.
Next pretty big part of environment is night sky. Same as the blood and water you can find more 4K mods for the stars and moon, but my recommendation is 4K Moon Realistic Stars.
To make mainly nights more interesting I recommend add CityLights too. It add over 3500 lights all around the map, which look awesome especially when you use for example Darker Nights.
Last but not least environment mod which I can recommend for all is Real Rain which make sad raining days little bit better at least in graphic.
Many people focus and most use mods of vehicles. For that reason I can recommend Improved LED which help in many vehicles for better looking of lights which are not so much glaring then.

Driving experience

I think most downlaoded models are vehicles and especially cars. For this reason I'm mentioning first of all Speedometer. Same as textures there is more good speedometers but
Reason why I think LeFix's speedometer is best to use is fact it's compatible (means fully working) with his Simple Fuel Mod. With this mod you have no more infinite fuel and you have to go on the gas pump and refuel you vehicle gas.

Effects

Last mod which is not so much used but I really like is VisualFX. At the time of writing this topic this mod popup error in ScriptHookDotNet (for me all time near the train) but it don’t affect the game in no way so you can use it without problems.

Limit adjusting

I can’t of course forgot on custom Gameconfig which allow you massive modding without crashing the game. Of course if you make any mistake in rewriting data or use wrong created model you can meet crash anyway, but you would don’t meet crashes from reason of too many added vehicles for example. Don’t think about using it or not, I think there is no reason to don’t use it so here is last version Gameconfig from the time of writing this article.
Best adjuster for work with weapons, which I recommend if you do anything with weapons models and data is CWeaponInfoBlob.
Another mod to prevent errors which can only help you is Heap Limit Adjuster.
One more adjuster which have to be mentioned is Packfile which allows game handle doubled amount of RPF archives. If you don't know yet what 'rpf' is, just trust me you would like this

Of course there is much much more great mods improving graphic and experience from the game which you can find and combine depend on your demands as the puddles, thunder, gang mod, reflections, vegetations, deserts, north yankton, fuel, speedometer, space etc. etc.. But it would be writing for the whole book (maybe one day I would write it ) so just take your time and search a little bit on the site if you want to make your game more detailed.

TOOLS YOU MUST HAVE

First of all you need Script Hook with Native Trainer. Withtout this your mods will not show in the game. It’s most important tools and you can also find and check newest version all time on this site.
Second one is OpenIV which is manager of all files for not only GTA V. Thanks to this you can search in game files easy and edit them.
- Don’t forgot install both ASI inside OpenIV. It’s common mistake which I make at the start too just open ‚ASI Manager‘ inside the OpenIV and instal ‚ASI Loader‘ & ‘OpenIV.ASI. It’s important for the showing of your mods in the game in the same way as ScriptHook is.

When I’m mentioning ASI plugins, also add to your ScriptHook ScriptHookDotNet.
As the last I’m adding LUA which is not ‘must have’ for mods but when you would use scripts, many of them would ask you for this tool, so it’s pretty good to have it too.

That’s all from me. I may forgot on some great mods because it’s some time when I started and most of them are now as the truism and an inseparable part of the game, so all additional recommends in the comments are welcome for newcomers I hope this article help some people and it wasn’t just waste of time lmao.

ReNNie

Well done ^_^

You could format your post so it's less text (ppl don't read these days)
and make it more rubricated with max 10 examples per category?

That way it could serve as an index with a 'Community most rated list'
where other forum users could add their favorites as a reply to this post, expanding as we go?

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Here's some of my personal favorite essentials
I couldn't go back to play V without them tbh

Visual enhancements like NVR and VisualV;

Driving aids like VAutoDrive and killatomate's handling, Fix Wheel TurnBack On Exit, Auto Air Vents -Lateral Wings by stillhere;

Weapons behavior like Rippler's Realism, Accuracy Fix by EnforcerZhukov, SelectiveFire v2.0 by EnforcerZhukov and Better Weapon Ragdoll by Cloud_Power and Gun Recoil by Eddlm;

World modifications such as GTAExtended Family, Lively World, Hollywood Rollover and Coroner Service by Eddlm,

Sound replacements like Baka's and ZiPPORAiD 's police scanner;

Textures like the blood mods etc;

Addon Maps like Beta vegetation props and Jrod's trees;

Ped behavior like Euphoria ragdoll and Ped Riot mod;

Policing mods like Eddlm's Better Chases + Arrest Warrant, sorbas Pull me over, Olanov's Cops back on the beat and CopHolster by PieRGud and Yard1;

Limit adjusters and tools like GTAVLauncherBypass, CWeaponInfoBlob Limit Adjuster, No Boundary Limits, Heap Limit Adjuster and PackfileLimitAdjuster, Livery Changer by pb450, !Ingame Screenshot by jedijosh920;

Miscellaneous like Character Swap, Last Location

ArmaniAdnr

@ReNNie thanks for announcement of website using codes, would be very helpful in future too article is reformated and I hope it's much more easy to read now also you notice me few mods which I forgot to mention, so I added to the article that ones which I have experience with and use too right now

whiskeydan

Could somebody respond to the hardware essentials? From what I've been learning most of all the mods require modded hardware on the motherboard, correct? USB mods are limited to mostly game saves or similar. I'm speaking to and from a newbie POV. I'm sure there are many options to mod, but what is the most used, easiest to start, and most reliable ways to mod?

Jitnaught

@whiskeydan We don't condone console modding here.