GTA 3 dev reveals how the traffic lights worked in the game

While GTA 3 has been out for nearly 24 years, one of the members of the developing team recently shared some interesting insights about the traffic lights system. Obbe Vermeij (X/@ObbeVermeij) — the Technical Director of 2001’s Grand Theft Auto 3 — talked about how the in-game traffic lights functioned and what other plans he had for the system.

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GTA 3 developer talks about his plans for the in-game traffic lights system

On February 14, 2025, Obbe Vermeij shared the above post stating that the traffic lights in Grand Theft Auto 3’s Liberty City cycled through the following three states:

• North/South
• East/West
• Pedestrians

Adding more details, he stated:

“The traffic light’s model orientation determines its cycle, and at startup, my code stored the cycle in the road nodes.”

Its (then) lifelike NPCs were one of the features that aided GTA 3's popularity. The developer revealed that due to his code, the drivers in 3D Universe Liberty City continued to obey the traffic rules and lights even if the player broke the pole. Interestingly, a similar feature was also added to 2008’s Grand Theft Auto 4.

Obbe Vermeij further shared his plan to add a wanted-level system with the traffic lights in GTA 3. If a player broke the traffic rule and did not stop at a red light, the game was programmed to give them a 1-star wanted level. However, the developer team at Rockstar Games did not like the feature, and Obbe had to remove it altogether.

Regarding the implementation of traffic rules for GTA 3 players, one X user named dr_mori (X/@dr_mori17) commented:

“I personally would have liked to see you get 1 star for running a red light IF you were in proximity to a cop.”

Obbe Vermei replied that he tried that approach as well but it did not work as expected.

Many features were removed from Grand Theft Auto 3 before its release. This is a common practice inside Rockstar, where the developing team tests several features and approves only the ones that are favored unanimously.

Nonetheless, the 2001 title turned out to be a success, giving the Grand Theft Auto series a new direction.

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