The modernized PC version of Rockstar Games’ game could be a preview of what to expect in Grand Theft Auto VI.
Digital Foundry has published its analysis of the new PC port of Grand Theft Auto V, the Enhanced Edition, which brings the 2013 game up to par with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series ports. The implementation of Ray Traced Global Illumination (RTGI) is pretty decent, suggesting that Rockstar developed it for Grand Theft Auto VI, but also ported it back to the previous installment. It’s a bit of an introduction, and the technology is used in a limited way elsewhere (in Dying Light 2 it was only given to the sun, and in The Witcher 3 it doesn’t work on a per-pixel basis, but only applies to the world, causing graphical artifacts).
In Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced Edition, RTGI not only works on a pixel-by-pixel basis, but also “bounces” light off any random light in a stable, coherent way, which is not easy to implement and requires a lot of work. This technology was also seen in the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer. According to Digital Foundry, the way GTAV EE runs is a preview of how Grand Theft Auto VI could run on consoles this fall. The technology is well optimized and puts the load on the CPU, not the GPU. On an AMD Ryzen 5 3600, similar to those used in current-gen consoles, it runs at 1440p with Nvidia DLSS quality upscaling at a stable 60 fps, but the GTA VI trailer ran at 30 fps, which is probably why the game’s frame rate will be the same on the base consoles.
We tested Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced Edition on a mid-range PC, similar in price to the PlayStation 5 Pro, with an 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 OC+ card (but we also used the Steam Deck). With the ray tracing effects turned on, the frame rate on PC was around 50-60 fps with almost all graphics settings maxed out, and on Steam the frame rate was 30-40, although it dropped to 30 or even below 25 in the latter case. Surprisingly, this version of Grand Theft Auto V is doing surprisingly well with ray tracing, with around 120,000 players on Steam at the moment, which is better than Sony’s games (many don’t even have 3,000 players): Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has 2,700 concurrent players). Other popular games like Elden Ring also reach 49,000 concurrent players, Baldur’s Gate 3 45,000, Cyberpunk 2077 only 38,000 players, and these are very good numbers, but far below the results of Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced…
So technically Rockstar has made a big technical leap…
Source: WCCFTech
