Modder Rebuilds GTA 4 Intro Inside GTA 5 With Full Ray Tracing

Modder MrVicho13 has rebuilt the GTA 4 intro cutscene inside GTA 5 Enhanced, the upgraded PC version of Rockstar's open-world game. The project marks the first time a custom cutscene of this scale has been ported into GTA 5, according to community member Ben (@videotech), who shared the work on X in September 2026.

The recreation goes beyond playing a video file inside the game. MrVicho13 imported the scene's 3D assets and rebuilt it in real time using the GTA 5 engine. The mod includes Niko Bellic and his cousin Roman, the Platypus cargo ship that brings Niko to Liberty City, and the boats and planes visible around the harbor. The animations, voice acting and subtitles were adapted to work in GTA 5, so the scene plays with its original dialogue.

GTA 5 Enhanced launched on March 4, 2025 as a free PC upgrade. It brought ray traced shadows and reflections from the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions to PC, plus two PC-exclusive effects: ray traced ambient occlusion and global illumination. Rockstar later added more ray tracing options through updates, including higher resolution reflections.

Running GTA 4's opening through these modern lighting systems creates a direct comparison between the two eras of Rockstar's RAGE engine. The original 2008 cutscene was known for its grey, hazy aesthetic. With ray tracing enabled, sunlight bounces off surfaces, water and metal show live reflections, and shadows appear softer and more accurate.

As of now, no public download link or release date has been announced. The project appears to be a showcase of the modder's technical work. Players can follow MrVicho13's projects on their GTA 5 mods profile.

This is not MrVicho13's first cross-game project. The modder also created a mod bringing the entire GTA San Andreas map into Red Dead Redemption 2. Players who want GTA 4 itself with ray tracing have another option: modder xoxor4d released a GTA 4 RTX Remix path tracing mod built with NVIDIA's RTX Remix platform, with a public version arriving in December 2025 and later support for DLSS 5.

Rockstar and Take-Two have not commented on the GTA 4 into mod. Mods moving content between Rockstar games have faced legal action before. In 2017, a fan project to bring the Red Dead Redemption map into GTA 5 was cancelled after Take-Two contact.