Experts Call GTA VI One of the Most Impressive Graphics Demos of All Time

Digital Foundry conducted a technical analysis of the new Grand Theft Auto VI gameplay trailer.

Digital Foundry conducted a technical analysis of the extended Grand Theft Auto VI showcase on August 27th and was extremely impressed with what Rockstar managed to achieve on the base PlayStation 5. Experts called the game "possibly the most impressive real-time rendering demonstration" they had ever seen.

It is particularly noteworthy that the version shown ran on a regular PS5, and the image resolution was around 1440p. According to Digital Foundry's analysis, Rockstar did not use FSR or other traditional upscaling methods.

One of the main achievements, according to specialists, is the incredible density of what is happening on screen. In GTA VI, a large number of cars, pedestrians, and various objects can be present simultaneously, with each element of the world needing to be processed by the system almost in real-time. Pedestrians react to what is happening around them, cars form a dense and natural flow, and numerous random events occur simultaneously with the player's main actions.

The lighting and shadows deserve special attention. Digital Foundry suggests that ray tracing may be used for shadows during certain cutscenes, while in regular gameplay, Rockstar primarily relies on traditional shadow maps.

A similar situation is observed with reflections. Some of them use screen-space reflections (SSR) under standard conditions, while cubemaps are used for mirrors. Rockstar combines modern graphics technologies with more traditional methods to keep the huge open world within the capabilities of console hardware.

GTA VI is not absolutely stable in terms of frame rate. Digital Foundry noted rare performance drops.