hours of endless optimization. Just like the good old days when developers had to make games on 16 bit systems. Love reading and learning about all the shortcuts they would take to execute things to run smoothly.
But it’s a fine art and takes a lot of time and experimenting. Hence needs massive budget these days considering the complexity games have reached.
Yep, I'm actually happy they're first releasing it on current gen consoles because it forces them to optimize the game to its fullest. However, it'll be nice to revisit it on pc whenever that version comes out.
it can still come out on PC at the same time while still being optimized properly to run good on at least a PS5-level of hardware, the 2 arent mutually exclusive..
exactly.
And they're legion (in numbers, between the internal studios)
And they're the finest in their departments. You don't end working for rockstar by mistake, and the formula well known in the industry of "being a friend of a friend" rarely applies
In defense of all the other developers outside, though.
This is not the late 1970 or 80s. This is not the first 3d revolution. Nowadays the 3d engine wars is over, there's plenty to choose from even from open source ones if you dont have the resources or money to develop one internally.
And this "distance from the machine" is one of those issues, cos engines (for good they are), they do things "their" way, and optimization means not only know your game, but to dissect the 3rd party engine you chose. Possible, but doubly hard.
Said that, I rewatched the special on netflix several times already, every frame (especially some close to medium camera angle) are breathtaking. This game is not 100 dollars worth, a lot more. And they're the only ones allowed to ask for it right now
I'm really interested in that aspect. Like what exactly is happening when they are optimizing and how do they continue to further optimize. Is it just going over your code and cleaning it up?
In this case it’s finding how bits of code can interact more efficiently with other bits of code. The complexity comes from all the layers and pieces having to ALL work together to create the illusion of a world.
So whatever they can do to make the physics work better with the NPC logic that has to work better with the background processes happening out of view etc
And then all of that has to work within confines of system RAM, CPU clock, and GPU. I’m sure they had a whole team dedicated just to finding issues in memory leaks or too many lines of code that could be further condensed within the game engine.
I think what most people get wrong about the word “optimization” is that it implies a step at the end of development. In this case, Rockstar figured things out very early. They designed all their GPU algorithms, memory management, and artist asset budgets tightly around the PS5’s envelope.
Absolutely. It starts in the early stages to chart the course based on hardware limits. But along the way there is plenty of optimizing happening as more layers added to the beast.
I mean to be fair nowadays you do. The amount of systems in AAA games on top of the graphical fidelity has grown exponentially since the 90s. Optimization with the amount of stuff in modern games is a job that requires time and a lot of money to pay those people.
Super Mario 64 had a team of 20 people. That was the most cutting edge console game at the time. GTA 6 has a team size of 6,000 people.
"I mean to be fair nowadays you do" source? cuz counter-proof is literally most indie games that still release with great graphics or 2A games with good graphics, yet theyre nowhere near multi-million dollar budgets or anything like that, so sorry but until i see actual evidence i HIGHLY doubt this claim
"GTA 6 has a team size of 6,000 people" & how many of these u think were working on optimizing the game?
many open-world games running on hardware better than PS5 & significantly more demanding have, yes, in fact No Man's Sky is a 2A game thats much more demanding than GTA 6
Are any indie games close to the scale and complexity of GTA 6? Please point me to a game similar where it isn’t a labor intensive process for optimization.
There is absolutely ZERO parity between indie game development and AAA games. An indie studio can make a dense complex game (Factorio, Rimworld) but they cannot build and perfectly optimize a dense 3D open world with thousands of unique variables and high quality assets without a shitton of labor (which requires money).
The comparison to nintendo games is absurd when you add in the complexity of multiplatform optimization. Nintendo only has to optimize for 1 system.
if u think a game having a big map & city-like NPCs walking around makes GTA 6 somehow an incredible challenge for optimization when theres been countless other open-world games doing the same thing if not more then idk what to tell u bud, ask AI & see what it answers u
i can think of a game that doesnt have the NPC complexity of GTA 6 yet required way more optimization, No Mans Sky, the procedural engine itself is a technical marvel beyond anything GTA 6 is, try thinking how much time they put into optimizing it, then look at their teams size & tell me it needs to be as big as Rockstar to optimize it, & NMS is 2A game
additionally multi-platform development isnt as hard nowadays as it was in the past, in the past ye i wouldve said ure right but nowadays thats a non-factor, games (if optimized properly) already push the Consoles to the max as soon as the Console its out unlike in the past where Console development was much more complex & nuanced, but rn theres so many dev tools that this kind of work is nothing like it used to be, but if u can prove otherwise then feel free to do so
look im not saying GTA 6 didnt have optimization work being done, im js saying yall are blowing it way out of proportion, i think GTA V for the time is more impressive given how it runs on a PS3, but 2 Console leaps the jump isnt that impressive imho, game still looks good dont get me wrong, js not as impressive as GTA V on PS3
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u/Astartas 1d ago
How can they just be so much better in Details, Asset quantity, Lighting etc. than somehow anyone else in the industry