Credit: Rockstar Games
The new 90-second trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 has allowed the experts at Digital Foundry to assess the game’s technical state. The main takeaway is that Rockstar appears to have finally fixed a long-standing issue with the RAGE engine related to animation.
Previous showcases of GTA VI impressed the experts at Digital Foundry, yet they also revealed an issue that has plagued every Rockstar project built on the proprietary RAGE engine—at least since the release of GTA IV in 2008.
The problem concerns animation pacing: even with a stable frame rate, the movement of the camera and characters appears jerky. This creates a misleading impression that the performance is lower than it actually is.
The GTA VI reveal trailer is free from this flaw, which has long been characteristic of Rockstar’s games—even in shots (such as slow, sweeping pans) where it would typically be noticeable.
It is worth noting that this is only a pre-release trailer, and it is theoretically possible that Rockstar has simply hidden the unsightly elements. At the same time, there is reason to believe that this long-standing technical shortcoming has finally been fixed.
The GTA VI reveal trailer also impressed the experts at Digital Foundry with the level of detail shown on an iguana in the opening seconds. According to the outlet, the game surpasses both Cyberpunk 2077 and Crysis 3 in its rendering of reptiles.
Judging by the trailer, Grand Theft Auto 6 features a high level of optimization. However, its final performance and image quality remain a mystery—as do the differences between the PS5, PS5 Pro, and Xbox Series versions.