Rockstar says GTA VI's fidelity exposed shortcuts GTA V could hide
Rockstar North boss Rob Nelson told Edge that the jump in performance meant some things developers could no longer "get away with", including NPC reactions and animation timing.
Rockstar North boss Rob Nelson has told Edge that the performance leap between GTA V and Grand Theft Auto VI meant developers could no longer "get away with" some things as they did before, according to GamesRadar+.
Pedestrians are the main example. In GTA V, he said, NPCs only reacted to a weapon when it was aimed at them, and that was already "showing its age" at that resolution. As the world gets sharper, pedestrians that ignore someone pulling out an automatic shotgun no longer work.
Timing was the other problem. Running Grand Theft Auto VI on GTA V's timings made everything feel "too fast" for a world rendered at this level of detail.
I find the shotgun example the telling one. After years of GTA crowds that shrug at a gun until it points at them, it is good to hear Rockstar treat that as a flaw to fix rather than a quirk to keep.
The game also builds on the Red Dead Redemption 2 NPC interaction system, which lets players greet or antagonize NPCs. We looked at where that system came from in our piece on Jason Schreier's report.
