A new GTA 6 leak may have revealed a potentially contentious change from Red Dead Redemption 2, GTA 5, and previous games from Rockstar Games. In the build-up to the release of Read Dead Redemption 2, in particular, Rockstar Games emphasized the hand crafted world of the western. This was after creating a procedural world and eventually scrapping it in favor of a completely handcrafted world. It seems it may be dipping back into this well with GTA 6 though.
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A purely handcrafted world with Red Dead Redemption 2 is an impressive feat only possible because of the incredible resources at the demand of Rockstar Games. Creating a completely handcrafted world with GTA 6 though is even harder. Not only are there far more assets and scripting per pixel going on, but the level of chaos players can cause in GTA compared to Red Dead Redemption makes development even more difficult.
To this end, it is perhaps not a surprise that GTA 6 is potentially set to make use of some procedural generation, though it will probably be minimally utilized. For those that don’t know, procedural generation has become a contentious topic, with many preferring handcrafted worlds over randomized worlds. It was a major talking point, for example, in 2023 when Starfield released. In the case of the Bethesda RPG, it was a negative talking point.
It doesn’t sound like GTA 6 will be anywhere near this level of procedurally generate, however, it does sound like it makes some use of technology. Word of procedural generation comes the way of a LinkedIn profile of a Principal Engine Programmer who has been working at Rockstar Games and GTA 6 since 2020.
“Lead performance profiling and optimization efforts, pushing the limits of real-time rendering and processing to maintain smooth performance across multiple platforms, including next-gen consoles and PC,” reads the LinkedIn profile. “Drive the integration of new technologies and research into the engine pipeline, such as ray tracing, ray-
traced global illumination, procedural generation for objects and game environments, and various other technical systems within the engine core.”
What exactly, and how extensive, “procedural generation for objects and game environments,” will be, remains to be seen. But it has caught the attention of Grand Theft Auto fans, and worried some of the fanbase looking forward to the game.
At the moment of publishing, Rockstar Games has not commented on the speculation the LinkedIn profile has created. If this changes, we will update the story accordingly. In the meantime, for more coverage on GTA 6 — including all of the latest GTA 6 news, all of the latest GTA 6 rumors and leaks, and all of the latest GTA 6 speculation — click here.