Rockstar Games had been a little quiet regarding the Grand Theft Auto V ports coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on March 15. The company released some details last month, but has come out again today and explained a few more of those features.
In a new blog post, Rockstar broke down some of the game’s visual enhancements and graphical modes. It will have three modes on PS5 and Xbox Series X. Fidelity Mode will have the “highest visual quality” and will be at 30 frames per second at native 4K with ray tracing. The Xbox Series S will be at an upscaled 4K, but it isn’t 100% clear if it will also have ray tracing. Performance Mode will be at 60 frames per second at an upscaled 4K resolution on PS5 and Xbox Series X while the Xbox Series S will run at 1080p at 60 frames per second. The stronger two consoles will also have a Performance RT mode that will split the difference and run at 60 frames per second with ray tracing and at an upscaled 4K, which is something similar to what Insomniac Games did with its Spider-Man and Ratchet titles on PS5.
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But there will be other technical and visual enhancements across the board, too. Rockstar had already confirmed that it would have better textures, faster loading, and HDR support, but went into more detail. There will be increased population and vegetation density and better traffic variety. These improvements sit alongside the stronger lighting, shadows, water reflections, anti-aliasing, motion blur, explosions, and fire effects. However, Rockstar still hasn’t shown much of these upgrades in action through detailed comparison shots, which isn’t the best sign for a company that just rereleased a trilogy of technically deficient Grand Theft Auto games.
Rockstar also gave more details on what PS5 players can expect in terms of the DualSense’s haptic feedback, calling out the new sensations given to weather, rough roads, explosions, and “directional damage,” the latter of which likely rumbles more on the side the character was damaged from. Rockstar, however, did not speak much about its adaptive trigger support that will likely be used for driving and shooting. The PS5 will also have Tempest 3D positional audio while the Xbox versions will have Spatial Sound, both of which are Sony’s and Microsoft’s solution for more immersive audio.
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The previously revealed one-time save data transfer is a little less conventional, which Rockstar also spoke about in the post. Players have to download the current version of GTAV and upload their save through the Rockstar Games Social Club from the “Upload Save Game” option in the pause menu. Once that step has been completed, the player’s story and Grand Theft Auto Online character progress will be stored for 90 days and can be accessed in the new versions. It can also only store one save per platform at a time. This is quite different from other games that usually just read the older save file on the system or cloud.
This process also lets players change console families, meaning Xbox One users can use this system to transfer to the PS5. But all GTA$ purchased with real money will only transfer between console families and all GTA$ earned through gameplay will transfer regardless. Platform holders likely don’t want the GTA$ purchased on their platform to be spent on another system.
Most of this update, including the Grand Theft Auto Online updates, was broadly revealed in or before the aforementioned February post, but these details shed more light on what players can expect from this new version of GTAV. However, this post did also reveal that digital preloads and pre-orders start on March 8 and that a physical version of the game is coming sometime in April.
