The first trailer for GTA VI has already broken YouTube records. A fan has recreated the first trailer for GTA VI using Grand Theft Auto V, highlighting the immense progress Rockstar Games has made in terms of graphics. Experts at Digital Foundry analyze the technical upgrades that can be seen in the trailer.
The first trailer for GTA VI has already broken several records, with Rockstar Games achieving over 100 million views in just 34 hours, and the 90-second video has now been viewed 140 million times.
YouTuber GTA Belgium has now recreated the trailer as closely as possible in GTA V to allow a direct comparison of the graphics between the two games. Even though a number of scenes had to be heavily improvised because some of the content in the trailer (e.g. alligators) simply does not exist in GTA V, the comparison shows significant progress in terms of lighting, texture quality, and animations.
The graphics experts at Digital Foundry have analyzed the trailer and come to the conclusion that at least most of the material shown could have been rendered relatively easily on the Xbox Series X and the Sony PlayStation 5. This is because the material was not rendered in native 4K resolution, but in 1440p, as edge smoothing artifacts show.
Judging by the trailer, Rockstar Games is aiming for 30 frames per second and is thus not particularly ambitious in terms of resolution or frame rate: compromises that may well be necessary to make such graphics possible on consoles. That said, Rockstar Games utilizes the latest technologies, including ray tracing for global illumination and reflections, which provide the most realistic look possible. When rendering shadows, the game does without ray tracing, at least in the trailer.
