Rockstar Reveals Free Upgrade for Grand Theft Auto V PC Version, Coming March 4

[T0@st]

On March 4, Grand Theft Auto V on PC is getting a free upgrade with sought-after features previously only available in the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of GTA Online—including all the latest vehicles and performance upgrades available at Hao's Special Works, animal encounters, and access to purchase a GTA+ Membership—along with improved graphics options, faster loading times, and more. All players who currently own GTAV on PC will be able to upgrade to this new version for free, with the ability to migrate your Story Mode and Online progress.

New Features on PC
Once upgraded, current PC players—along with anyone playing the game for the first time—will have access to a full suite of much-requested GTA Online upgrades previously only available on the latest consoles. This upgraded version of GTA V on PC also features all of our recent player experience improvements for GTA Online, including kernel-based anti-cheat protections and proactive voice chat moderation to help keep GTA Online fun for everyone.

• Enjoy a range of new vehicles and upgrades at Hao's Special Works (HSW) that push automotive performance to new heights, and test your driving skills with Premium Test Rides, HSW Races, and HSW Time Trials.
• Encounter Ambient Animals all across Southern San Andreas and take pictures of them to participate in the daily Wildlife Photography Challenge for new rewards.
• PC players can sign up for GTA+ Membership to get special benefits in the upgraded version of GTA Online and beyond.
• Track your criminal movements across all of GTA Online's updates with the Career Progress feature as you build your empire.
• Navigate a refreshed Landing Page as your starting destination to get straight into the action. Plus, take advantage of an improved introductory flow for newer players with a GTA$4,000,000 windfall to buy property, vehicles, and other items when you start off as an Executive, Gunrunner, Nightclub Owner, or Biker in the Career Builder.

Technical Enhancements

• Depending on hardware support, GTA V players on PC who upgrade will be able to enjoy:
• Ray tracing features only available on PC such as ambient occlusion and global illumination—plus ray traced shadows and reflections first debuted on consoles
• Support for AMD FSR 1 and FSR 3, and NVIDIA DLSS 3
• Faster loading times using SSD and DirectStorage on supported devices and configurations
• Enhanced support for higher resolutions, higher aspect ratios, and higher framerates
• DualSense controller support, with adaptive triggers
• Enhanced audio with support for Dolby Atmos and improved fidelity of speech, cinematics, and music

Recommended Specifications:


GTA+ Member Benefits
For the first time on PC, players of the upgraded version of Grand Theft Auto V will be able to purchase GTA+—GTA Online's premium Membership service. GTA+ offers a wealth of special benefits that include GTA$ to bolster your GTA Online bank account in the form of GTA$500,000 every month (delivered upon billing) and Member-only Shark Cards with 15% bonus GTA$.

There are also special amenities at The Vinewood Club including free-to-claim vehicles, access to The Vinewood Club Garage that features 100-vehicle storage capacity and its own Vehicle Workshop, a Vinewood Club App on your in-game phone to easily request vehicles, claim all outstanding business safe earnings, replenish ammo, and more. GTA+ also includes a constantly changing suite of GTA Online benefits with powerful gameplay incentives, special vehicle customizations, and stylish in-game apparel options. There's also a selection of classic Rockstar Games titles to download and play in the GTA+ Games Library.

PC Support
Support for the previous version of GTA V will continue, allowing anyone whose hardware does not currently meet the minimum requirements of the new upgrade to keep playing. This also ensures that support for FiveM will continue uninterrupted while we work to extend support for it on the upgraded version.

Please note that to maintain this support, the original version of GTA Online on PC will be a separate instance, and players who remain on that version will not be able to play in sessions together with those on the upgraded version. PC Players who want to play with each other will need to ensure they're playing the same version of the game. Both versions will be available to everyone who upgrades—and first-time purchasers will get access to both versions as well.

And More…
Stay tuned for more information on the Rockstar Newswire, including details on the latest new update for GTA Online coming next month featuring some sky-high illicit revenue opportunities from an old contact; Oscar Guzman.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Chomiq]

Ah yes, just what we needed upgraded microtransactions.

 

[londiste]

As for the PC technical additions - I wonder if they are testing some tech for GTA6

 

[GhostRyder]

...Ok come on just get us GTA VI quicker...

I mean come on, 12 years... Game is ancient at this point and people know the new one is around the corner (Finally)

 

[Dyatlov A]

That is great news, because i just started to play with this game and my Geforce 5080 is on the way

 

[BlaezaLite]

Was hoping it would enable crossplay, damn.

 

[TheDeeGee]

Cool, wake me up when the CockStar Launcher isn't required anymore.

 

[AsRock]

proactive voice chat moderation

Heard enough already.

 

[chrcoluk]

Sounds like its a engine change, if they are keeping the older build as an option, I wonder how much of a performance hit this new build is.

Kernel based anti cheat is a rootkit in my opinion, so this version is staying off my system, Luckily the original version is already very visually pleasing, especially with mods.

 

[Dr. Dro]

I'm against this new "chat moderation" garbage, imo if you don't want to listen to anyone's drivel turn the feature off and use Discord to talk to your friends. Which is pretty much what I've done back in the day when I was playing this game. Moderation implies punishment for any transgressions, people are going to get chat banned for "harassment" since they can't handle some trash talk on a game that is literally themed around criminal activity, and that's just... absolute madness.

 

[Steevo]

How about they add some storyline? Online is fine but it gets monotonous

 

[chrcoluk]

Seems there is no option to not use the new engine in Steam, So I guess its a case of blocking updates?

 

[Legacy-ZA]

Just realized, this is still on my Wishlist, never bought it, last one that was good to me was Vice City.

 

[rutra80]

HDR?

 

[Tomgang]

My RTX 4090 suddenly looks nervous at me.....

 

[phints]

RTGI is huge, that'll be very cool to test out and of course we'll see some DF and maybe TPU stuff on it. It would be nice if R* also did DLSS 4 with ray reconstruction to make it perform and look even better, weird they are keeping with DLSS 3.

 

[ZoneDymo]

Just realized, this is still on my Wishlist, never bought it, last one that was good to me was Vice City.

you...you missed out on San Andreas?

 

[THU31]

This is cool. I've only played the story at launch on Xbox 360. PC version was just for online heists.

Definitely excited about DLSS (no good anti-aliasing in the original version). I wonder how it's going to look and perform with RTGI.

 

[AsRock]

I'm against this new "chat moderation" garbage, imo if you don't want to listen to anyone's drivel turn the feature off and use Discord to talk to your friends. Which is pretty much what I've done back in the day when I was playing this game. Moderation implies punishment for any transgressions, people are going to get chat banned for "harassment" since they can't handle some trash talk on a game that is literally themed around criminal activity, and that's just... absolute madness.

And to think some of those people who do get banned will buy it again HAHAHAHA. I'm all over it sounds like GTA6 be trash anyways and had enough of T2 and whats happened or lack of whats happened with RDR2.

But yeah we would just use Discord or some thing as were always trash talking each other.

 

[Apocalypsee]

GTA Online never been fun, it full of cheater and hackers. No thanks Rockstar, I only play GTAV once through single player and with story that horrid I won't be playing it again.