PlayStation and Rockstar Games recently announced GTA 6 ‘Plays best on PS5’, in a conjoined effort to optimize the game so it runs well. Rockstar also released nearly 70 new screenshots showing a stunning level of detail not seen before this console generation. However, the fidelity experts over at Digital Foundry have started to cast doubts over the screenshots, stating they may be not be captured on the consoles its meant to release on later this year.

The first thing Digital Foundry noticed in their article, is the overabundance of ray-traced reflections present in almost every shot. Car windshields realistically reflect the towering skyline of Vice City, as well as rougher surfaces such as Jason’s gun. It doesn’t stop there, particles such as smoke interact realistically with the environment and lighting. Character models also show extreme detail with individual hair strands visible on Jason and Lucia’s various outfits and hairstyles. ‘There’s an unprecedented level of polish going into the game’ Digital Foundry states.

However, the screenshots look SO good, that Digital Foundry has started doubting if they were captured on any of the current generation of consoles at all. ‘we find it unlikely that these are real-time results on PS5, Xbox Series X – or in the best case on console, PS5 Pro.’ A reason given is that most screenshots show a resolution of native 4K (and sometimes above). PS5 rarely hits 4K in current-gen games, and PS5 Pro only achieves this with PSSR upscaling technology.

Possibly captured in RAGE engine

It’s rather theorised that the shots are captured in Rockstar’s development environment in the RAGE engine, where they can create the perfect shot ‘these would be easy for Rockstar to generate within the game’s development environment, where the framing, character positions, and lighting could orchestrate a perfect shot – irrespective of frame-rate – with all settings dialled up to 11.’

In other recent news, Rockstar Games have announced all of the pre-order info such as price and what’s included within the various editions. Plus, a hint at a GTA 6 Online mode has been found in the XBOX download files.

You can pre-order your PS5 or XBOX copy with this link. Pre-ordering will get you the Vintage Vice City Pack pre-order bonus. Using the link to pre-order the game will help support this website as we’ll earn a small commission. Thank you!

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