Why the GTA 6 early build doesn't look as bad as some think

After the recent GTA 6 leak went viral on the internet, many fans began criticizing Rockstar Games for the visuals of the leaked footage, despite the videos clearly being from an early build of the game

This sparked several debates in the gaming community, resulting in prominent game developers sharing behind-the-scenes videos of their games to inform fans about the process of game development.

It can be observed that all of these BTS videos are from various stages of game development and the visuals are often completed in later stages. Considering this, Grand Theft Auto 6 does not appear to be bad at all, especially at this early level.

This post will delve deeper into this subject.

Note: This article reflects the writer's subjective opinion.

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GTA 6 actually looks good, considering that the leaked footage showcased an early build of the game

The above tweet was posted by Anthony Vaccaro, an environmental artist for Naughty Dog. In the tweet, he gave a hilarious reply to all GTA fans who believe that visuals are done before anything else in the game development process.

In the video, fans can clearly see that the level design is executed before adding any type of visual or texture. Moreover, game design is an evolving process that takes time to complete. Putting finalized visuals over something that is constantly changing will be a waste.

Thus, prioritizing visuals over the game's design will be counter-productive. The claim that visuals come first in the game development process might work for small indie games, but for AAA games like GTA 6, this approach will only cause disaster.

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How good does GTA 6 look from the leaked footage?

Now that the majority of fans realize that visuals are generally done during the later stages of development, they may wonder, why visuals from the leaks look almost finished.

This might be because most of the visuals present in the leaked gameplay footage are of highly detailed placeholders. For fans who don't know what placeholders are, Barnaby Smith, the technical director for Soul Assembly, explained very succinctly in one of their blogs:

"Placeholders are an excellent way to support code development without waiting on asset completion. Using placeholder graphics decouples programming and art schedules, allowing them to progress independently of each other."

This means that the final visuals for GTA 6 are probably still being worked on for the majority of the game. Even if we judge the visual quality of GTA 6 only through the placeholders, it is still very refined and intricate, especially when compared to early builds of other AAA games.

Take a look at the early build for Uncharted 4:

Just by looking at the early build for this Uncharted 4 sequence, it's clear that the placeholders they used are not as detailed as the ones in GTA 6's leaked footage. Moreover, many fans could recognize that some textures were reused from Grand Theft Auto 5 but were of higher quality.

Given how advanced Rockstar Games have made these placeholders, fans can imagine how much better the final game will look when it is officially launched.

Furthermore, the graphics of the game's early build were on par with many other finished games, which is why many fans still think what they saw was a complete game. Hence, it would be incorrect to argue that Grand Theft Auto 6 looks poor even when it is unfinished.

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