Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 6 includes a number of updates and improvements over the developer's past games, and that includes new weather systems.
Rockstar's vice president of art for lighting and rendering at Rockstar, Owen Shepherd, told Game Informer that the studio has "re-engineered" the studio's weather system to "make everything more more localized and persistent."
He said the goal was to make the weather in GTA 6's setting of Leonida--a stand-in for Florida--feel "dynamically solid and achieve a sense of scale" that the studio has never done before.
What that means in practice is that GTA 6 will have "fully dynamic cloudscapes that roll across the map" to provide a "broad spectrum of weather" in the game.
Florida is known for its heat and humidity, along with its localized and fast-moving rain systems. Look one direction and you may see bright sunshine. Look the other and you could see a downpour. GTA 6 will replicate this with localized rain showers, along with rainbows that appear. Additionally, places where it recently rained in the game will remain wet, with puddles also popping up.
GTA 6 also has a new wind system that includes "offshore breezes after sunset, convectional updrafts, and occlusion from buildings,” Shepherd said. “Hair and debris will swirl around on rooftops; gusts of wind will blow ripples over the water surface and bend the grass in swamps.”
GTA 6 will also include tropical storms and hurricanes, along with thunder and lightning. Shepherd did not, however, get into how GTA 6's new weather systems could affect gameplay. Florida is known to experience devastating hurricanes, but it remains to be seen if, for example, a hurricane could knock down structures or trees.
GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, priced at $80 for its standard edition and $100 for the Ultimate Edition. Rockstar is also selling a $400 collector's edition that includes a bunch of physical goodies, but not the game.
