In GTA cities were bustling with cars more than 20 years ago. For the time, a technical challenge that could only be solved with a trick.
Why are cars a problem? Even in the early GTA installments, the game thrived on a vibrant world with many cars that players could acquire.
However, a whole city full of cars was technically difficult to implement. The technical limitations of the PCs and consoles of that time did not allow for hundreds or even thousands of moving cars to be permanently driven through the city.
To make the city feel alive and full of cars nonetheless, former GTA developer Obbe Vermeij employed a trick.
This is what the first trailer for GTA V looked like:
Speedrunners love this trick too
What kind of trick is that? As former GTA developer Obbe Vermeij reports on X.com, Rockstar Games used its code to make cars appear in front of and around the player in GTA. In GTA 3, GTA Vice City, and GTA San Andreas, cars were simply spawned 70 meters in front of the player when they looked in that direction.
In the direction the player was not looking, cars were only spawned 15 meters away. As soon as the player moved 90 meters away from the cars in sight or 25 meters from the cars out of sight, they were despawned.
According to the developer, speedrunners use this trick in GTA 3 and GTA Vice City to clear the streets. They just look backwards, which makes the cars in front of them disappear. However, this became more difficult in GTA San Andreas. Here, the player must look away for at least 2 seconds, the developer states.
In his post, there is also a diagram that illustrates the trick well:
What other tricks were used? To prevent cars from simply appearing anywhere, there were so-called “road nodes” where cars were spawned. Because sometimes no points were available, extreme events occurred, such as heavily trafficked streets or completely empty streets.
Another trick revolves around the physics of the cars. According to the developer, physics only really took effect when the player came within 20 meters. If the player was further away, cars could not crash and could even drive through walls. However, as soon as the player was close enough, the full laws of physics applied, even if the car moved far enough away from the player again.
What about pedestrians? The same trick was also applied to pedestrians. In the case of pedestrians, however, the distances were much closer to the player than with cars, as the developer mentions in a lengthy post on X.com.
According to him, the same algorithm was used in GTA 4, but the distances were increased there. However, he does not reveal whether this mechanic will be used in GTA 5 or even GTA 6.
Obbe Vermeij worked at Rockstar from 1995 to 2009 and contributed to GTA Vice City, GTA San Andreas, and GTA 4. He has a good insight behind the scenes at Rockstar Games and has spoken on various topics related to GTA. For example, he explained where the leaks about GTA 6 really came from: Developer comments on the leaks regarding GTA 6 and clarifies where they come from
