III.VC.SA.IV.Project2DFX VS dxwrapper

2DFX https://github.com/ThirteenAG/III.VC.SA.IV.Project2DFX/releases/tag/gtaiv

Project2DFX: LOD lights make the city appear more alive at night https://thirteenag.github.io/p2dfx

Project2DFX (Images speak for themselves. Comes with a configuration file. Highly recommend changing some stuff. Here is a tutorial for it.)

Combine 2DFX then now the graphics age well for a 2005 game

For graphics mods, use 2DFXand SkyGFX

For higher res and better visuals and audio than console, the quickest way to get the PC version working with minimal modding is the current Steam version, FusionFix, GTA IV music downgrader — this downgrader only restores cut music and doesn't downgrade the .exe version — and Project2DFX to give the city distant LOD lights like in GTAV.

Then, download this and place the files inside the game directory (C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity Classic).

There's also dxwrapper that implements old DirectDraw/3D interfaces with newer D3D9 api for better compatibility with newer Windows versions:

https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper

FYI: The Space Bar re-release features Elisha Riedlinger's DxWrapper (https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper), whose config file is otherwise stock with just FullScreen enabled. I strongly believe they didn't properly test it.

RTX Remix uses a custom d3d9.dll though so you additionally need another wrapper such as https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper to customize which dll should be loaded since by default d3d8to9 uses the default system file which will result in translated calls not being redirected to the path tracer used by Remix.

If you have a GPU that supports DXVK (Basically it forces DXVK to run the game in Vulkan intsead of it's usual DirectX 9, which the DX9 version hates GTA IV and while GTA IV hates DX9 back) and has more than 2GB of VRAM (DirectX Vulkan), then I HIGHLY recommend it: https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases (Use this guide to install it: http://ant-sh.blogspot.com/2020/07/gta-4-stutter-choppiness-fix.html. If you want aliasing AND DXVK, use this guide: http://ant-sh.blogspot.com/2021/01/antialiasing-with-dxvk-and-gta-iv.html. If your GPU doesn't support Vulkan, use DxWrapper: https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper/releases).