It's nice to be able to start off the game with a few cars, as it's a bit of a grind to start with absolutely nothing.

From Main Menu -> Options -> Bonus Codes

Unlock All Drift Cars:

• TUN58396

Unlock All Muscle Cars

• MUS59279

Pagoni Zonda R (Micromania Livery):

• M38572343

Aston martin DBR9 (Play com Livery):

• P47203845

BMW 320si (Gamestation Livery):

• G29782655

BMW 320si (Buchbinder Emotional Engineering Livery):

• F93857372

This Website has a list of current mods for this game:
https://www.moddb.com/games/grid/mods

1. In your Grid folder (that has your game) navigate to the "system" folder

• X:\<Steam Install Location>\steamapps\common\grid\system\

There will be some files that we need to put here:
1. Open up the file named (hardware_settings_restrictions) with Notepad++ or something similar. You can copy and paste this data to use instead:

• https://pastebin.com/XFtnC8Z8

The biggest thing this changes is that the following lines are deleted:

• data
  
• res mem="270" maxWidth="1280"
  
• /data

For some reason when the developers ported this game, the made it so that you couldn't choose a modern day resolution such as having a 1920x1080 screen. I also changed all the default values to be the maximum values for graphic settings.
It's honestly hard to tell what does what, but I know that overall by game looks like it came out around like 2014/2015 instead of 2008 now. But you will also need a few graphic packs (listed below) to make this possible.

2. Open up the file named (hardware_settings_options) in the "system" folder. You can copy and paste this data instead, but I'm pretty sure all I changed here was this line:
<ref category="multisampling" option="16xmsaa" />

• https://pastebin.com/JruqjYiZ

I recommend Creating a "Grid Mods Folder" with the subfolders of Graphic Mods, AI Mods, DLC mods, and World Tour Mods.

1. Community Graphics Overhaul
https://www.moddb.com/mods/grid-2008-community-graphics-overhaul/downloads/grid-2008-community-graphics-overhaul

• Install 'Dargo's Mod' by copying the 'Tracks' folder into GRID's main directory, overwrite existing files when prompted.
  
• Install 'Enhanced Ultra V3' by copying the 'anims' and 'cars' folders to the games main directory, overwriting existing files.
  
• Download ReShade from the link provided.
  
• Run ReShade and point it at grid.exe in the main directory.
  
• Select DX9 rendering API in ReShade setup GUI.
  
• Agree to download shaders, check the box next to the following shader repositories: SweetFX, Legacy Standard Effects. (The specific shaders used in the preset are AmbientLight, AdaptiveFog, DPX, LiftGammaGain, Tonemap)
  
• Go to the main directory for the game and copy in the file 'HFX_GRID'
  
• Load the game up and press the Home key to bring up the ReShade overlay.
  
• Select HFX_GRID from the presets drop down menu.
  
• Switch off in-game Motion Blur.

ReShade is a program which alters the lighting in your game. Without going into technical details, to me it makes the lighting in almost every game look natural. It's easy to use as presets can be found on Nexus.

How to use ReShade (installation)?

1. Download ReShade: https://reshade.me/
2. Run ReShade, point it to your games installation. (most everygame uses the direct 10/11/12 option) only older games use the direct 9 option (GRID 2008 uses the direct 9 option), and I've never had to use the other ones.
3. Then click all the checkboxes and just download and install everything. ("Legacy" effects are rarely if ever needed and its kind of a larger file set, so you can skip that one most of the time) (Grid 2008 requires the Legacy effects)

How to use ReShade (in game)?
1. Now just open your game and hit the "home" button
2. At the file selector at the top navigate to your downloaded preset on your PC. Put the preset in your games directory to find it easily or else you have to hit backspace from where it defaults to and then go click through the files until you find your preset. There is no normal file selector, so if you don't put the preset in the game's directory it's somewhat tedious to go find.


2. Shiv's Xtreme Particles Mod
https://www.moddb.com/mods/shivs-xtreme-particles-mod

• Place all the .xml files in the folder Xtreme Particles Mod into your game's directory GRID/effects/particle_systems
  
• Replace the original files. Back them up if you want, but a copy of the original files have been included with this mod should you ever want to uninstall the mod.

3. Yet another AI mod
https://www.moddb.com/mods/yet-another-ai-mod/downloads/yaaim-101

• To install, copy "ai" folder into the game's folder, replacing the files. To double the lap amount, also copy the "database" folder, replacing the files. I DO NOT RECOMMEND COPYING THE DATABASE FILE as for me, it only made races repeat themselves after they were done (made races happen twice in a row instead of doubling the required laps. I'm not sure why this happens. The ai this guy made is fantastic and a HUGE improvement from the rubber-banding base game. The game feels like an actual, really fun racing game now.
  
  
  
• The main feature of this mod is a complete removal of catch-up at higher difficulty settings. I left it at lower difficulty to help players who want a more relaxed experience. The AI has been stiffened up, they drive faster and more aggressively while still trying to avoid major deadlocks.
  
• Choreographed events should not immediately remove opponents from the race. Instead, they are turned into actual driving mistakes and will worsen their lap time a bit.

4. DLC cars for life Career (I have an issue in the lower tier "open wheel" races crashing the game and I think this is what is causing it, but I've never been able to solve the exact issue, its the only issue I have in my game.)
https://www.moddb.com/mods/dlc-cars-career/downloads/dlc-career-v91

• This guy's version number v9 seemes to work pretty well overall.

5. World Touring Car Championship 2006
https://www.moddb.com/mods/world-touring-car-championship-2006/downloads/wtcc-2006-1020130210

• Now, this one is the only one here I would consider "optional". All of the rest of these tips, if you followed this guide should have fixed your resolution, graphics, and ai. This one kind of overhauls the touring aspect of the game so it's completely up to you if you want this over the games original system.
  
• I haven't fully tested the differences, but if you want to use this I would recommend copying all the information over, and then RE-copying the ai folder from Yet another AI mod, as I really enjoy that ai personally.

• Converts the whole touring car aspect of the original game to that of the 2006 World Touring Car Championship. Now you can race against all 50 drivers, using any of the 10 cars from the season. The drivers and cars, each with unique skills and performance, have been cleverly divided up amongst all 5 touring car events in the game to ensure maximum variety, and fun!

My favorite teammates in the game (unlocked after getting 80k rep in a class):
1. Tom Johnson (American) to start off with, and then
2. Alex Fletcher - he often wins lots of $$

Honorable mentions to: David Dempsey (Irish) and David Cooper (Scottish)

For some reason this game has a black background, maybe because its been removed from the steam store. I'm not sure. Anyway, here's how to fix it. I recommend using the bottom photo for the artwork, but you can use whatever you want.

So, no matter how I took these screenshots, they always have the weird yellow show up. My in game is much cleaner than this and looks clear without the yellow. I was unable to get proper screenshots to show you, but I thought I would at least show how the game can look good with proper resolutions, lighting, reflections, and textures.

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