I mean, we’re talking about pushing almost 20 years here. And open-world games have only been getting more impressive lately. But with modding, anything is possible. We’ve covered a lot of the best overall mods for GTA: VC, but let’s cover some of the graphics-focused ones. This way you can make the game even sharper that you seem to remember!
10. Substitution Effects
Check Out This Mod GTA: Vice City can look spectacular at times, with those big explosions and huge fires you like so much. But with GTA5 as a competitor, we need to step it up. If you want Vice City to look as spectacular as Grand Theft Auto V, or as close as possible, download the Substitution Effects mod. This replaces effects like fire and explosions to make them look much better than they do in the vanilla game. This mod isn’t all about violence, though, as it also improves water surfaces and flares. So you do not need to go all-out to reap the benefits of this bad boy.
9. The Sun Effects
Check Out This Mod Like the Substitution Effects, The Sun Effects mod can make Vice City look almost as good as GTA5. If you play the game at the lowest possible setting, that is. Jokes aside, Sun Effects improves some of the lighting effects of the game. This includes street lights and the sun glare, so they look more realistic and much better than they do in the vanilla game. It’s not ray tracing, that’s for sure. But we’ll take it all the same, thank you very much.
8. GTA VC Icenhancer
Check Out This Mod The Icenhancer mod should rightly be called the GTA VC updater. Why? Because it updates everything! This mod is definitely among the best ones you can download to make the game feel more modern, as it updates the post-processing shader, lights, shadows, and reflections. The end result is even better at nighttime, so much that you may become a nocturnal creature just to boot up Tommy Vercetti.
7. Remastered HUD Interface
Check Out This Mod The Vice City interface was good enough in 2002. But as time went on, it started looking quite dated. Let’s change that. With the Remastered HUD Interface, you can say goodbye to the old vanilla interface. This mod upscales older icons and introduces newer semi-HD ones lifted from more recent titles like San Andreas. Used in conjunction with other mods, Remastered Interface will turn the original Vice City into an almost proper modern remaster. Almost…
6. Widescreen Fixes
Check Out This Mod Contrary to its name, widescreen wasn’t all that widespread back in 2002. Few could afford those shiny new TVs coming with the new aspect ratio, and so developers continued to stick with 4:3. It was the PS2 default for most games. This means that Tommy Vercetti and his goons can look like they had a little bit too much to eat lately if the game is played on a widescreen ratio (without an update, of course). With the Widescreen fix, however, they’ll get back their proper look, and start committing crimes again as if the 1980s would never end.
5. Vice City Trails
Check Out This Mod Cut content is never a good thing. Especially if they ruin the 80s atmosphere. Never touch anything from the 80s! Vice City Trails restores the brighter and slightly blurrier graphics seen in the PlayStation 2 versions of the game that made it look almost like one of those shows from the 80s. Well worth installing just for that classic aesthetic. Get ready to blast some tunes as well.
4. Vice City Retexture Project
Check Out This Mod Years pass, resolutions increase, but some games remain unchanged. This can include low-quality textures which were great back in the day, but are extremely lacking nowadays. Trying to give Vice City a well-needed uplift is the Retexture Projects, which aims to replace all of the game’s textures with high-quality ones. The project is still supported to this day, so there is truly no end to the improvements for this beloved game.
3. Project 2DFX
Check Out This Mod Vice City is about to get bigger and better. And without destroying your graphics card! Project 2DFX is a compilation of plugins that increase object draw distances, and add LOD effects to make Vice City look like a real city. The regular level of detail wouldn’t look too great with the expanded draw distances. But with this mod, anything is possible. Better yet, this mod also works with GTA III and GTA San Andreas, which shouldn’t be a surprise if you’re a diehard fan of the series. They share the same game engine, after all.
2. SkyGfx
Check Out This Mod SkyGfx has got nothing to do with improving the game’s sky. But it has got everything to do with improving the game’s graphics as a whole. SkyGfx is a massive modding project that started out as a way to restore the PlayStation 2 graphics to the PC version, but later expanded in scope to recreate the Xbox version graphics. And it even reproduces some of the enhanced effects included in Vice City Stories. The end results? Amazing, as expected.
1. Vice Cry Reborn
Check Out This Mod The death and rebirth of Vice City has happened. And we should all rejoice for it. Never before has the game looked this great. The Vice Cry Reborn mod is an amazing graphical overhaul that improves all, and I really mean all, textures in the title. How? By introducing new HD versions of all of them, blended with VRTP and enhanced with artificial intelligence(or some kinda algorithm). What does this all yadda yadda mean, you say? It means the game will look amazing at a very high resolution without requiring a particularly powerful computer to run. Ah, the joys of modding!
