Rockstar rebuilt GTA VI's weather system: localized storms, hurricanes and lasting rainbows
Owen Shepherd, Rockstar's VP of art for lighting and rendering, told Game Informer that GTA VI's weather is now localized and persistent, with rolling cloudscapes, hurricanes and puddles that stay after the rain.
Grand Theft Auto VI's weather has been re-engineered from the ground up, according to Owen Shepherd, Rockstar's vice president of art for lighting and rendering. Speaking to Game Informer, Shepherd said the new system makes weather localized and persistent, and that it covers everything from clear skies to hurricanes. Eurogamer and GamesRadar+ both carried his comments; the Game Informer piece itself is the original source.
"We have re-engineered our weather system to make everything much more localized and persistent, and really wanted the world to feel dynamically solid and achieve a sense of scale we haven't felt before."
At the centre of it are what Shepherd calls fully dynamic cloudscapes that move across the map. He described a range running from "the clear blue skies of a Miami winter" to the towering cumulonimbus clouds and scattered lightning typical of Florida afternoons in summer and autumn.
Storms get the most attention. Shepherd described heavy cloud, strong wind and dense atmosphere combining with enough rain that everything ends up dripping, with water pouring off roof edges and lampposts while thunder rolls and flashes of lightning light up the clouds dramatically.
Because the weather is local, Eurogamer notes that you could watch a shower fall over another part of the map while standing in the dry. The effects also stay behind once a storm has moved on: rainbows, wet pavements and puddles. GamesRadar+ adds that the system is an overhaul of the one in Red Dead Redemption 2 and goes further than it, with wind visible in characters' hair and in ripples on water, plus updrafts and large storms spreading across the map. Conditions run from high heat through rain to full hurricanes.
What Rockstar hasn't said is whether any of this changes how the game plays. Eurogamer points out there is no word yet on whether wet roads affect driving, or what happens if you try flying into a hurricane. Presumably not much good.
The same Game Informer coverage confirmed more than 170 animal species, including 60 different birds and over 30 land mammals. Scuba diving returns, with manatees, jellyfish and whales below the surface. GTA VI also takes two ideas from Red Dead Redemption 2: animals you can discover and study, and Legendary animals, which Rockstar is still keeping under wraps.
