GTA 6 officially next-gen: key takeaways from DF's trailer breakdown

Digital Foundry specialists released a detailed video in which they meticulously dissected the official GTA 6 trailer from a technical perspective. We've selected the most interesting points: 

Most of the trailer consists of real-time engine-rendered footage recorded from a console. This is evident, for example, in the hair, which shows typical anti-aliasing artifacts.

Image credit: youtube.com/@RockstarGames 

Gameplay footage from the trailer was not recorded in native 4K resolution. A scaling technology like FSR was used in creating the video. Apparently, upscaling was performed from around 1440p resolution depending on the frame. This last feature also indirectly suggests the use of dynamic resolution.

Image credit: youtube.com/@RockstarGames 

GTA 6 uses global illumination with ray tracing or a similar technology. Among other things, the use of RTGI (Ray Traced Global Illumination) is indicated by a scene at the beginning of the trailer where Lucia is in prison. In this scene, you can see how the sun's rays reflect off other objects as she turns around.

It’s highly likely that some reflections in the trailer are also rendered using ray tracing.

In the scene with flamingos, artifacts typical of SSR (Screen Space Reflections) are visible. It's possible that Rockstar Games uses a combination of techniques for rendering reflections.

Image credit: youtube.com/@RockstarGames 

According to the video, shadows are rendered using shadow maps, without the use of ray tracing.

DF experts were particularly impressed with the quality of hair rendering. Hair visualization is done correctly and naturally, without any jerking, defects, or sticking. Hair is rendered with high quality for all characters in the trailer, not just those in the foreground.

Characters in GTA VI look great, but not overly realistic.

Image credit: youtube.com/@RockstarGames 

There is also some less positive news. DF experts believe that GTA VI's target frame rate on consoles will be 30 fps. Such a large and detailed world with high-quality visualization suggests the game will run at 30 fps.

According to experts, the release of GTA VI will be a major test for the Xbox Series S. Clearly, developers will have to significantly cut back on graphics for the "junior" console, quite substantially compared to the Series X and PS5.

Full video breakdown of the trailer:

Main image by Easy Diffusion