Almost like an apology for revealing that a hefty 12 months have been added to the wait for Grand Theft Auto VI, a second trailer has arrived to blast our expectations and try and tide us over. Even more impressive than the first one, we get a closer look at the sizzling story of both Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos making their presence known across Vice City – with a rapid montage showing off the detailed world, conflict and redneck gun store owners.
It’s incredible to take it all in, explaining why the title has been apparently in development since 2018 – but there is a shocking secret behind it all that blows my meagre mind:
The entire trailer was captured on a base PS5.
Not some ultra high-end mega PC or NASA-level quantum computer – a humble console, much like the one that might be sitting under a film of dust in your entertainment unit. Not even a PS5 Pro, given that the wording at the end of the trailer simply states ‘Captured on PS5’ – you’d imagine that Sony would want to showcase their pricier option if it was the one being used, but the crazy folk at Rockstar seemingly wanted to show what they can do with power of a five year old system.
So why is this shocking? Because of the main ingredient in Rockstar Games secret sauce – it is all being done in-engine. Every explosive detail is being wrung out of that hardware in real time, no pre-rendered cutscene trickery or nothing. That means every realistic twerking arse, glass reflection or sweat drop has been squeezed through the rendering pipeline right to your eyeballs. And that is nuts.
So, Adam and myself decided to break down a couple of these bonkers-ass details that might be easy to miss if you are open-mouthed gawking for the entire trailer duration. Take a look at this mad shit.
Ash
1. Complex Hair Physics
With video game fidelity reaching the peak of performance, one small niche within these experiences has not quite reached its critical peak – and that is those bastard follicles.
That’s not to say it looks BAD – hair in games absolutely looks the best it has ever looked (especially more unique hairstyles and facial hair types) but it never quite moves the way it should. It doesn’t quite flip and flit and fall in a hair-y way. So consider the outright ballsy flex of seeing this long hair flip and flutter with realistic clumping. Hot damn.
2. Real-time Muscle Deformation
Realistic motion in characters has long since been nailed thanks in no part to massive improvement in motion capture. Seeing muscles bulge and swell is nothing super new – Kratos in the recent God of War games has a set of guns that make most men weep – but seeing Jason futz about on a roof and climb down a ladder with his latissimus dorsi straining made me wish I worked out more. It is an advanced animation set that takes into account all the little fibrous dealies that make our odd human bodies do their locomotive thing, and Rockstar have no problem showing it off here.
3. Glass Refraction
Again, not a new rendering trick – but seeing glass forms in the GTA VI trailer reminded me that there are some things we just take for granted nowadays. Complex shaders do a lot of the heavy lifting here, but seeing background stuff deform around not just the shape of the bottle but the CONTENTS OF IT are spectacular. There are a few scenes were you can see this happening, particularly when the AMMU-NATION ad is playing on the TV. God damn, the beer even fizzes.
Adam
4. Reflections, Reflections, Reflections
Now, I’m not talking about Jason flexing in a mirror, though I’m sure players will do a fair amount of that; I’m talking about the ludicrous number of random reflective surfaces that accurately show the space around it. There are examples galore in this trailer, but the tiny, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment that caught me off guard was seeing the reflection on the inside of the windshield while we took a look through Jason’s eyes as he made his way down the freeway. Wild.
5. P is for Puh-puh-perspiration
Florida Leonida is a tropical state, and with the tropics comes humidity. Guaranteed, Jason and Lucia will work up a sweat as they rob banks and get into fistfights on planes, but it’s a brief moment shared between the two on a jetty, sinking some beers, that shows a misting of sweat on their faces, and it’s scarily accurate to how I look when my Tasmanian arse is walking around Brisbane. Oh, and you can see sweaty Jason right at the start of the trailer, the sun reflecting off his chest. If you’re at all interested.
Ash note: There is also a very sweaty dancer in the trailer if you pay attention.
6. Not All Tattoos Are Inked Equal
A good tattoo is good, a bad tattoo is awful. Regardless of quality, our skin ages and our tattoos fade. We see plenty of ink on plenty of different complexions throughout the trailer, and they’re all insanely lifelike, but it’s that aging that got my attention. The guns and skulls of young gang members look fresh and dark, whereas Jason’s army tat from his former life is faded and turning an off-grey. Age comes for us all, Jason.
Now, I will make mention of one point for the sake of playing Devil’s Advocate. In-engine may not necessarily reflect a standard gameplay experience, because once you step away from a cutscene the developers may turn some of these obscene knobs down to keep the world running semi-smoothly. For a long time games have had unique graphical improvements that only turn up when you are in a cutscene, like bespoke character models, lighting, you name it.
However, Rockstar has clarified to many outlets that this is not the case here, as their game uses high quality assets between both gameplay and cutscene portions. What.
It’s par for the course of Rockstar. Remember when the late trailers for Red Dead Redemption 2 looked mighty fine, but the final shipped version of the game actually surpassed what was seen in those trailers? Rockstar may be the only development studio that doesn’t subscribe to the siren call of Bullshot.
We have 12 entire months for Rockstar to keep tightening these screws and optimising further. I fear what might await us in May of next year – the fidelity may be too much for us regular folk to handle.
Maybe we will see Jason and Lucia’s skin burn in real-time under the harsh Vice City sun.
What was your favourite details from the GTA VI trailer? Tell us in the comments or on our social media. Seriously, we want to know.
