ImmersiveVC - September 2026 Update 2 (GTA VC DX11 Graphics Mod) (Patreon)

Update 9/13/2026 - Hotfix is out. It fixes a few things, including a crash when turning the mod off and on, swimming pools that stopped working, and compatibility with texture packs like VRTP. Please download it and reinstall. ImmersiveDamage is now a part of ImmersiveVC too: you'll find it in the Optionals folder.

Update 2 of ImmersiveVC is out. Almost everything in it came from what you sent me after the first release: the shadows, the frame rate, and the water.

What is new

Shadows are a lot cheaper than they were. If you raised your draw distance with project2dfx and lost frames to it, there is now a Shadow range setting that limits how far shadows are cast without shortening how far the city is drawn. I've set it at 100 on default.

Shadow culling improved. Shadows should no longer flicker or disappear as you turn.

The fake painted shadows under the palm trees are removed. They sat at a fixed angle and doubled up with the real ones underneath.

Real waves on the sea, and caustics on the seabed.

The horizon no longer cuts off when you fly high.

Swimming pools reworked. Caustics in the water, better ripples and refraction, a colour taken from the vanilla game, and reflections that no longer lag behind what is above them.

Proper shadows on the sea and in swimming pools.

Metallic grain in car paint that glints as the car turns.

Light beams from headlights, tail lights and street lamps.

SMAA and temporal anti-aliasing added alongside FXAA.

Bike wheels, helicopter rotors and propellers no longer look chromed, and a spinning rotor no longer cuts a hole in the fog or the water.

Reflections on cutscene vehicles fixed, and effects now render correctly during cutscenes.

The weapon icon no longer disappears from the HUD when flying.

Everything from the first release is still there, and it all still sits on the F11 panel and takes effect as you drag it.

Requirements

GTA Vice City v1.0 and the Vice City Essentials Pack. On any other version the mod will not load at all, so downgrade to v1.0 first.

Windows 10 or 11. Nothing else has to be installed beforehand.

Installation

Drop the files from Main Files next to gta-vc.exe. That is d3d8.dll plus the two runtime libraries that come with it.

It cannot coexist with another mod that also replaces d3d8.dll.

Your settings from the first release carry over. If you would rather start on the new defaults, delete immersivevc11.ini.

Known issues

Optimisation carries on from here. This update took a real bite out of the shadow cost, and there is more to come.

I have not seen the police light bar disappearing problem since the first release, but I have not proven it fixed either. If it happens to you, tell me.

Thanks for the reports and your support!