GTA 5 is a popular game still enjoyed by millions of players around the world, and one of the reasons for its popularity is mods. With driving being one of the core aspects of GTA 5's gameplay, having some mods to make the experience more realistic is a must. In this article, Gurugamer is going to showcase the top 3 realistic driving mods for GTA 5 in 2022.
Table of Contents
1. Realistic Driving V
Realistic Driving V is the successor of the popular GTA IV driving mod. It changes the driving physics in GTA V to be as realistic as possible, with every single vehicle created from scratch. Below are the most striking features of this mod:
- Realistic driving physics (proper tire grip on different surfaces, traction curve, slip angle)
- Realistic offroad driving (giving the HUGE offroad areas in GTA V a purpose, hillclimb, dirt track)
- The performance of every single vehicle matches its real-life counterpart perfectly (acceleration curve, top speed, braking, grip, handling characteristics, wheelspin)
- Police cars don't drive like on rails anymore, more realistic physics are applied to their vehicles
- Option for increased vehicle deformation
- All driveable surfaces have reworked properties
- Alternative "Scaled Topspeed" version of this mod, offering speed governor and brake assist
- Huge improvements to motorcycles
- Improvements to other physics (eg making it possible to ram police vehicles, slightly more realistic PIT maneuver)
- Automated brakes have been disabled for every single vehicle
Take note that this mod was developed specifically for vanilla 3D models and does not work on custom cars, as they have completely different centers of mass and wheelbase. Using custom cars will have a very noticeable negative impact on car handling.
2. Drive V (Realistic Driving/Handling & Damage + DLC Support)
Drive V is the result of 5 years and over 2,000 hours of learning the physics system and testing in order to create a realistic and fun experience. Every vehicle is unique (even some variants that originally shared the same handling line) and has had careful attention to every single dynamic attribute.
The most critical change of this mod is the Z-axis rotation, which is what made the vanilla cars feel overly sensitive and very hard to control. With this mod, heavy and old vehicles have a realistic delay between steering inputs and the car reacting. This makes driving older vehicles much more realistic now, with older cars actually feeling sluggish. Heavy cars actually feel heavy now instead of darting around like a race car.
Attention to details
The attention to detail in this mod is insane. The same car can perform differently based on the owner of the car, effectively splitting it into 2 variants. For example:
- The taxi has less precise steering and poorer brakes than the police variant to reflect wear and tear because taxis are often driven hard with high mileage.
- The police variant gets a power boost and improved handling to reflect the police package upgrades, but still feels like an old car that's prone to oversteer
- The normal variant of the Interceptor drives like a more modern car.
Power levels and acceleration have been adjusted to match vehicles' real-world counterparts. The author even used the speed value of real cars to determine the real power output of a GTA car.
Off-road traction has been overhauled for realism. Damage/deformation has been increased to a realistic level, similar to GTA IV. Downforce has been removed from everything except supercars that would actually produce downforce. Finally, the original game had many cars sitting at unusually low ride heights, so they have been raised to reflect the ride heights of their real-world counterparts.
Main Features
- Vehicle cabin deformation enabled
- No more snapping onto curbs
- Re-worked off-road surfaces
- Scaled top speeds
- Lots of new colors based on real life counterparts
- Downforce disabled from all but supercars
- More body roll
- Lots of customized vehicles added to spawn points
- Level of deformation similar to IV
3. Realistic Top Speed and Acceleration (All Vehicles)
If you have played GTA V for a while, you would realize the top speed of vehicles in GTA are pretty limited. Some supercars can't even pass 120 mph. This mod completely solves this issue by unlocking a realistic top speed for all vehicles.
With Realistic Top Speed and Acceleration installed, supercars now reach 200 mph and normal cars can reach 120... The specific speed of the cars are based on their brand and age. The older the car, the slower. This mod also affects bikes.
Overall, the Realistic Top Speed and Acceleration mod is completely lore-friendly, as the author has maintained the original speed equilibrium of the vehicles. Slow vehicles are still slow, but with a realistic top speed, fast vehicles are still fast, but much more realistic now. Players should be able to go full throttle and feel the speed - the GTA V map would feel a bit smaller this way.
4. IVPack - GTA IV vehicles in GTA V
GTA 4 is well liked amongst fans of the series, with its iconic portrayal of Liberty City, a fictional version of New York. As GTA 4 and its sequel are in different cities, the vehicle roster is also different. This means some GTA 4 vehicles are not present in GTA 5. IVPack is a modification for GTA V which brings you a new fleet of vehicles from the dark Liberty City to the always sunny San Andreas. The main goal was to convert all missing cars, bikes, boats, etc. including the vehicles from the Episodes from Liberty City expansion.
The interiors have been reworked, and the exteriors have current-gen graphics. This mod is a must have for fans of the series. All vehicles are using current-gen interiors with working gauges, radio station displays, high quality mirrors and more.
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