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Saints Row IV

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Saints Row IV
Saints Row IV cover
Developers
Volition
Enter the Dominatrix High Voltage Software[1]
Linux Virtual Programming
Publishers
Deep Silver
Russia Buka Entertainment
Engines
CTG[2]
Release dates
Windows August 20, 2013
Linux December 21, 2015[3]
Reception
Metacritic 86
IGDB 84
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, DLC
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, Shooter, Open world
Vehicles Automobile, Flight, Helicopter, Naval/watercraft, Space flight
Art styles Stylized
Themes Comedy, Sci-fi
Series Saints Row
Saints Row IV on HowLongToBeat
Saints Row IV on IGDB
Saints Row IV guide on StrategyWiki
Saints Row IV on MobyGames
Saints Row IV on Wikipedia
Saints Row
Saints Row 2 2009
Saints Row: The Third 2011
Saints Row IV 2013
Saints Row: Gat out of Hell 2015
Saints Row: The Third Remastered 2020
Saints Row 2022

Saints Row IV is a singleplayer and multiplayer third-person action, shooter and open world game in the Saints Row series.

All copies of Saints Row IV were upgraded to the Re-Elected Edition on December 8, 2022 for Windows and on a later date for Linux version, featuring cross play across Steam, Epic Games, and GOG.[4]

General information

Port Report: Saints Row IV
Saints Row Wiki
Saints Row Mods forums
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Linux
Amazon.com
Icon overlay.png
Game of the Century Edition.
Windows
Linux
Epic Games Store
DRM-free after installation through Epic Games Launcher (notes may include more details)
Re-Elected Edition
Windows
GamersGate
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Linux
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Game of the Century Edition.
Windows
Linux
GOG.com
DRM-free
Re-Elected Edition. Legacy version available for rollback via GOG Galaxy only. Unavailable in Australia.
Windows
Green Man Gaming
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Linux
Microsoft Store
Microsoft Store
Re-Elected Edition.
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Re-Elected Edition. Legacy version available in a separate branch.
Windows
Linux
Humble Store (unavailable)
DRM-free
Game of the Century Edition also available.
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Linux
All Linux versions require Steam DRM.

Version differences

All versions of the game are censored in Australia and cannot use the Rectifier DLC or play multiplayer with international copies.
The legacy version does not include any DLC available in the updated Re-Elected edition, unless acquired separately.
The Commander In Chief Edition includes the base game and Commander-In-Chief Pack which was earlier exclusive to this edition.
The Game of the Century Edition (otherwise known as National Treasure Edition) is a complete edition with all DLC, including the Child's Play Pack which is no longer available separately.[5] The Re-Elected edition was originally a moniker for the console variants of the Game of the Century Edition, but as of December 8, 2022, it has been used for the PC version following the crossplay update.
The GOG.com version removes most UI elements and all internal functions related to My Steelport service. It is not possible to connect this version to the fanmade My Steelport emulator.[6] The "Character Gallery" option in Plastic Surgeon menu remains, but selecting it will hang the game if GOG Galaxy client is running in background.[7]
As of November 22, 2016, the Steam version features Steam Workshop support[8]
The Microsoft Store version has a unique feature that allows saving and restoring customized characters locally, but is incompatible with any mods.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Season Pass Includes: How the Saints Save Christmas, Enter The Dominatrix and The Rectifier.
Windows
Linux
Anime Pack
Windows
Linux
Bling Bling Pack
Windows
Linux
Brady Games Pack
Windows
Linux
Child's Play Pack No longer sold separately, part of Game of the Century edition.
Windows
Linux
College Daze Pack
Windows
Linux
Commander-In-Chief Pack Included with Commander In Chief Edition.
Windows
Linux
Dubstep Gun (Remix) Pack
Windows
Linux
Element of Destruction Pack
Windows
Linux
Enter The Dominatrix Part of Season Pass.
Windows
Linux
The Executive Privilege Pack
Windows
Linux
Game On Pack
Windows
Linux
Gamestop Warped Weapon Challenge
Windows
Linux
GAT V Pack
Windows
Linux
Grass Roots Pack
Windows
Linux
Hey Ash Whatcha Playin? Pack
Windows
Linux
How the Saints Save Christmas Part of Season Pass.
Windows
Linux
Pirate's Booty Pack
Windows
Linux
Presidential Pack
Windows
Linux
The Rectifier Part of Season Pass. Not available for Australian versions of the game
Windows
Linux
Reverse Cosplay Pack Free.
Windows
Linux
Stone Age Pack
Windows
Linux
The Super Saints Pack
Windows
Linux
Thank You Pack Free.
Windows
Linux
Wild West Pack
Windows
Linux
Volition Comics Pack
Windows
Linux
Zinyak Attack Pack
Windows
Linux

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Instructions[9]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open display.ini.
  3. Add SkipIntroVideo = true in the file.
Rename intro movies (alternate method)[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\videos
  2. Rename logo_amd.bik, logo_deep_silver.bik, and logo_volition.bik.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>/display.ini[Note 1]
Microsoft Store <path-to-game>/display.ini
Linux $XDG_DATA_HOME/vpltd/SaintsRow4/
Steam <path-to-game>/display.ini
This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\_saves\[Note 1]
Microsoft Store
Steam <Steam-folder>/userdata/<user-id>/206420/
Steam save game data location is shared with Saints Row: Gat out of Hell.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Epic Games Launcher
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud
Approx. 100 MB available.[10] This space is shared with Saints Row: Gat out of Hell.
Xbox Cloud

Video

Display settings.
Display settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Increasing field of view is recommended.
Ultra-widescreen
Cutscenes may be broken. See Ultra-wide Cutscene Fix Or use the solution from RoseTheFlower..
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Use SR4 FOV Editor
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Up to 16x.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Up to 8x MSAA.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Triple buffered.
60 FPS
Cutscenes are capped at 30 FPS; see Frame rate (FPS) to fix.
120+ FPS
Due to a poorly implemented 120 FPS cap, the frame rate can behave erratically in some cases. See Frame rate (FPS).
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Frame rate (FPS)

Cutscenes are capped at 30 FPS, and some physics elements are capped at 60 FPS; use Cheat Engine below to fix.
In fullscreen mode, the game may switch to a 60 Hz refresh rate on startup; see Game uses incorrect refresh rate to fix.
Remove multiple FPS caps using Cheat Engine[citation needed]
This process must be performed each time the game is launched to take effect.
  1. Download and run Cheat Engine. Go to the main menu.
  2. Set Executable, Writable and CopyOnWrite to Don't Care and memory scan option to SaintsRowIV.exe.
  3. Disable the Fast Scan option and search for the value 0.00833333 as a float in rounded (extreme) mode. Select all values.
  4. Disable the Fast Scan option and search for the value 0.03333333 as a float in rounded (extreme) mode. Select all values.
  5. Disable the Fast Scan option and search for the value 0.01666666 as a float in rounded (extreme) mode. Select all values.
  6. Disable the Fast Scan option and search for the value 0.00833333 as a double in rounded (extreme) mode. Select all values.
  7. Disable the Fast Scan option and search for the value 0.03333333 as a double in rounded (extreme) mode. Select all values.
  8. Disable the Fast Scan option and search for the value 0.01666666 as a double in rounded (extreme) mode. Select all values.
  9. Set the all the values to (1/FPS), see below for example:
    • 0.00694444 for 144 FPS (floats).
    • 0.00277777 for 360 FPS (floats).
    • 0.00256410 for 390 FPS (floats).
    • 0.0069444444444444 for 144 FPS (doubles).
    • 0.0027777777777777 for 360 FPS (doubles).
    • 0.0025641025641026 for 390 FPS (doubles).

Notes

A few contextual 30 FPS animation caps in cutscene to gameplay transition and character rotations in regards to mouse movements, cannot be removed with this method without crashing and they will appear as if they're heavily stuttering at higher rates; especially if output frame rate is not divisible by 30.
Heavily recommend using the in-game triple buffered v-sync for improved frame pacing due to the implementation of FPS caps, at the cost of slightly increased input latency for lower frame rate values.
Unlock framerate (Nvidia Users)
  1. Open the Nvidia Control Panel.
  2. Navigate to Manage 3D Settings.
  3. Select the Program Settings tab and find Saints Row IV in the dropdown.
  4. Set 'Vertical sync' to 'Fast'.
  5. Click Apply in the NVIDIA Control Panel.
Requires a game restart.
It is recommended that to disable the in-game vsync.

Input

Control settings.
Control settings.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Weapon Store menus cannot be entirely navigated with a keyboard.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration
PlayStation controllers
Requires Steam Input to work correctly.
PlayStation button prompts
Use the DualShock Button Prompts mod
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes Wired,

Generic/other controllers
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M
Button prompts may rapidly change. See Lock button prompts.
Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Support for Steam Input API broke with the arrival of the Steam Workshop update, and in 2020 Valve forcefully disabled Steam Input API entirely for the game.[11]
Hook input (legacy mode)
Official controller preset(s)
Official preset provided by Deep Silver have been tagged as not official any longer due to its reliance on the broken Steam Input API support.[11]
Steam Controller button prompts
Cursor detection

Lock button prompts

Modify .ini file[12]
  1. Open <path-to-game>\display.ini with a text editor.
  2. Change the UIControllerStyle to one of the following settings: 0 for default behavior, 1 for exclusive keyboard and mouse prompts, 2 for exclusive gamepad prompts.
  3. Save the file.

Audio

Audio settings.
Audio settings.
Gameplay settings.
Gameplay settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Auto configures up to 5.1 output[13]
Subtitles
Option in gameplay settings.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Option in gameplay settings.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Fan translation, download and info.
Polish
Steam version lacks Polish translation for DLCs. A fix is available here. Re-Elected has this problem fixed.
Brazilian Portuguese
Fan translation; download.
Russian
Official localization added with the patch. Fan translation by «ZoG Forum Team» is also available.
Spanish

Network

Steam, GOG.com and Epic Games Store players can play multiplayer together in the Re-Elected edition; the legacy edition supports Steam and GOG.com cross-play via LAN.

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
2 Co-op, Versus
Use Nucleus Co-op.
LAN play
2 Co-op, Versus
Online play
2 Co-op, Versus

Connection types

Issues unresolved

Frame rate locked at 30 FPS after beating the game

After the credits the game will be locked to a frame rate of 30 frames per second.
Exit the game and relaunch[14]

Issues fixed

Cannot get past "The Real World" mission

Low frame rate causes the closing gates that appear near the end of "The Real World" mission may close too fast, rendering the mission unbeatable.[citation needed]
Workaround: lower the Resolution and Graphics Settings to increase performance[citation needed]
Skip the mission via a mod[citation needed]
  1. Download "No Gates in The Real World" ("TheRealWorldNoGatesForLatestSRIV.zip") mod from this page.
  2. Go to <path-to-game>\packfiles\pc\cache
  3. Back up the original patch_compressed.vpp_pc.
  4. Copy SkipEverything\patch_compressed.vpp_pc of the mod to <path-to-game>\packfiles\pc\cache.

The Kinzie Gambit: All Hands on Deck

Johnny Gat can't exit the ship during All Hands on Deck. He needs to open a chest to continue the mission.
If the Genki Car in the previous mission teleports as it leaves the gameshow, you will encounter this issue.
Disable DLC[15]
  1. Exit the game (game progress will revert to the start of Kinzie Gambit).
  2. Disable "Saints Row IV - Reverse Cosplay Pack", and "Saints Row IV - Thank You Pack" from the Steam launcher.
  3. Relaunch the game.

Stuttering caused by My Steelport service shutdown

The game repeatedly attempts to connect the now-defunct My Steelport service, which may cause the game to stutter.
Edit hosts file[16]
This fix will also enable the game to use My Steelport emulator.
  1. Go to %WINDIR%\System32\drivers\etc.
  2. Open hosts with a text editor running as administrator.
  3. Add the line 127.0.0.1 sr3.hydra.agoragames.com as well as 127.0.0.1 sr4.hydra.agoragames.com and save the file.

Ultra-wide Cutscene Fix

Cut scenes on 21:9 will be surrounded by black bars and be missing most of the content.
Edit display.ini[17]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open display.ini.
  3. Add LetterboxEyefinity = false in the file.
Changing graphics settings will overwrite the file and remove this setting.
Cutscenes will be letterboxed 16:9.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 11
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
Original game is 32-bit, Re-Elected is 64-bit
Linux

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok
Audio Wwise
Cutscenes Bink Video
Multiplayer Steamworks, Epic Online Services Legacy version used Steamworks; Re-Elected uses Epic Online Services.

Mods

Saints Row Mod Manager
Saints Row: The Third Clothing adds all of the clothing that was in Saints Row: The Third but is missing from Saints Row IV. Can also fix broken custom character models, that were imported from Saints Row: The Third through My Steelport.
Things To Do In Dominatrix combines multiple community mods, including bug fixes, gameplay improvements and new content.
Sandbox+ allows the player to teleport and use debug commands to test animations and effects, use cheats, and replay cutscenes.
First person view mod - still in alpha stage. Clipping issues expected
Launcher with advanced graphics options has a user-friendly frontend for display settings editing.[18]

My Steelport

The My Steelport service was shut down on January 31, 2018,[19] taking with it all community-created characters. Players wanting to share custom characters need to make use of a community-made local server emulator for Windows.

Command line parameters

Parameter Description
-localize_language us Set language to English
-localize_language fr Set language to French
-localize_language de Set language to German
-localize_language it Set language to Italian
-localize_language jp Set language to Japanese
-localize_language pl Set language to Polish
-localize_language ru Set language to Russian
-localize_language es Set language to Spanish

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Vista
Processor (CPU) AMD Athlon II X3
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 10 GB
Video card (GPU) AMD Radeon HD 5800 series
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260
DirectX 10 compatible
Linux
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS, SteamOS
Processor (CPU) Intel Core i3-2100 3.1 GHz
AMD Athlon II X4 645 3.1 GHz
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 10 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce GT 440
AMD Radeon HD 6670
1 GB of VRAM
Recommended Graphics Drivers: Nvidia: 352, 355 or 358 series driver / AMD: AMD Catalyst (fglrx) 15.9 or better. MESA drivers and Intel Graphics are not currently supported.


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References

  1. High Voltage Software Games
  2. Game Engine :: Saints Row IV General Discussions - last accessed on 2023-10-16
    "[V] IdolNinja: Correction. It's the CTG engine which stands for Core Technology Group. It's our own proprietary engine developed here in-house."
  3. Saints Row IV: Re-Elected - Steam News Hub - last accessed on 2016-04-14
  4. Saints Row IV: Re-Elected - Crossplay and upgrade coming for Saints Row IV! - Steam News - last accessed on 2022-12-02
  5. Saints Row IV & Saints Row: The Third | Saints Row IV now available with all DLC included!
  6. My Steelport emulator - Saints Row Mods - last accessed on May 2023
  7. Saints Row 4 - Character Gallery bug - last accessed on May 2023
  8. Steam Workshop for Saints Row IV is live! - Steam Community - last accessed on 2016-11-23
  9. Unskippable intros - Saints Row Mods - last accessed on 2016-7-2
  10. SteamDB - last accessed on 2021-01-18
  11. 11.0 11.1 YouTube - Saints Row IV w/ Steam Controller in 2019 [Ouddated as of 2020, See Description] - last accessed on 2020-12-05
    "Edit 2020: This configuration is no longer working, due to Valve disabling SCAPI in Saints Row IV, which is actually a good thing.

    [...]

    The Steam Controller API support for Saints Row IV that was added in the update that brought Steam Workshop support is notable for being one of the absolute worst implementations of SCAPI in any game, but here I am to prove that even the worst implementation is still something that can be worked around and made to work well.
    "
  12. Saints Row IV PC Patch Notes :: Saints Row IV General Discussions - last accessed on May 2023
  13. PC Gaming Surround Sound Round-up - last accessed on May 2023
  14. Verified by User:Blackbird on 2016-5-14
  15. Stuck at “Kill aliens” in “All Hands On Deck” - Gaming StackExchange
  16. Micro freezing/lagging - Saints Row Mods - last accessed on May 2023
  17. https://steamcommunity.com/app/206420/discussions/0/522728814687874041/#c133259956021128500 [Updated] Problem with 21:9 aspect ratio/Ultrawidescreen resolutions]
  18. Saints Row IV Game Launcher (retrieved)
  19. TrueAchievements - Saints Row: The Third - My Steelport Server Closure - last accessed on 2019-07-11