Were GTA 5 on (PS4/Xbox One) The Original Version of the Game?

[MFIM-_-7196]

I see a lot of people complaining about the (PS5/Xbox Series X/S) version of GTA V that it doesn't look much different than the (PS4/Xbox One) version.

And compare it to the Upgrade from (PS3/Xbox 360) to (PS4/Xbox One) that there was an actual noticeable improvements and a lot more features that were added for ex: (First Person View).

 

What if it were actually the (PS4/Xbox One) The Original Version?

And they decided to Downgrade it and Cut a lot of the features ,So they can release it on (PS3/Xbox 360) and then they release these cut improvements and features as an "Upgrade" to the (PS4/Xbox One)

 

So at the end of the day R* didn't actually work on an upgrade to the game from (PS3/Xbox 360) to (PS4/Xbox One).

 

What do you all think of this plot twist..?? or is it..!?

[daltontigerboy]

I think about this often when playing GTAV actually, and yes, I do believe this to be the case.

 

GTAV looks and feels like an early PS4/XB1 game - but one that they had to make fit on PS3/360 in order to tap into that massive install base for initial sales - and of course to get GTAO off the ground.

 

When you play GTAV/GTAO on PS4, it’s obvious that it was their original vision of what the game would look like. It’s a full generation ahead of the PS3 version in many ways.

 

There’s a reason Rockstar dropped support for Online on PS3/360 in 2015, the limitations of those systems did not allow them to implement the features and nuances they wanted for GTAO to begin with, and that’s when GTAO really began to take off in terms of content and features within the game.

 

There are still remnants of the PS3/360 roots in GTAV, even today with the newest versions when you look at character models or AI behavior. Those things would have been much more work to overhaul than say...environmental assets like trees and grass.

 

But on the whole, GTAV/GTAO certainly lived and occupied the majority of its life as a PS4/XB1-era title, and as we all know it still holds up fairly well against many other open world games from last generation.

 

If you were to play an open world game from the PS2 generation like the old 3D GTA games at 1080p on PS4, it would still look and feel like you’re playing a PS2 game. There’s no mistaking it.

 

When you play GTAV on PS5, it’s not nearly as obvious that you’re playing a PS3 game. It could pass for an early PS4 title.

Edited March 21 by daltontigerboy

[cp1dell]

I've always wondered the same thing, and @daltontigerboy brought up some good points.

 

My memory is a bit fuzzy, but weren't there quite a few mentions of the PS4/Xbone's architecture in the files? As well as commented out effects that existed, but weren't enabled until the PS4/Xbone/PC release? Specifically something with the DOF is what I remember. There might be other stuff.

 

But I agree. There's a lot about the PS4/Xbone/PC edition that very much feels like that was the original version, and scaled back for the PS3/360.

[Spider-Vice]

21 minutes ago, cp1dell said:

My memory is a bit fuzzy, but weren't there quite a few mentions of the PS4/Xbone's architecture in the files?

Correct (e.g. Orbis aka PS4), same with PC which was pretty much in development at the same time as the PS3/X360 versions after a certain point in development, as per the "builds.xml" file they left in the PS3 build of the game.

[sutalu]

In fact:

 

PS3/Xbox 360: 17 september 2013

PS4/Xbox One: 18 november 2014

 

Just 1 year for all of this???   I think no  (I have it all written down. It is not from memory )

 

- Make first person view with animations for ALL the gameplay: gunplay, driving... and be able to switch between them in anytime. You can play the ENTIRE game in first person view.

- Redisign of ALL vehicle interiors, even functional: speedometer, radio stations...

- Increased drawing distance, and increased detail of objects in the distance
- Increased texture resolution
- Increased pedestrian and vehicle traffic on the streets, in addition to providing them with greater detail
- Increased density of vegetation
- New fauna. Up to 20 new animals, both land and sea
- Animal skin and fur is now more detailed
- New particle effects, and more of them
- New dynamic wind system that affects clothing, flags, foliage, trees...
- More realistic fluid dynamics like water and blood
- Triple light sources, and volumetric light
- Improved weather effects, puddles that reflect the environment (well... not the entire environment XD)
- TV shows and movies are now in high resolution
- More than 150 new musical themes, with new stations, DJs and conversations

 

It's like Cyberpunk, that they downgraded it from PC to PS4/Xbox One... but in that case the result was atrocious. At least the result with GTA V on PS3/Xbox 360 was decent.

 

This is the problem to release an AAA game in the final cycle of a generation. And if we get GTA VI on PS5/Xbox Series.... propably occur the same. Cutted edition, and then GTA VI for PS6/Xbox "new" with all the content.... and, who knows.... GTA VI still for PS7/Xbox "New New"?  I will be about 60 years old for PS7.

 

Moreover. I think it's not the final form of the GTA V for consoles.

 

I'm playing GTA V on PS5.... and it still have a really bad drawing distance and LOD I hate it a lot  To me, despite the better resolution, frames, effects... I still feel I'm playing the PS4 version 

 

Edited March 22 by sutalu

[MFIM-_-7196]

So what i get from this:

1-R* doesn't really like to Re-touch any of their game after its initial release.

2-People who bought the (PS3/Xbox 360) versions "technically" got scammed !!

Edited March 22 by MFIM-_-7196

[D T]

Even though they were developed in tandem, I doubt the weird f*cking artistic changes they made were intended to be part of the original experience. The unnecessary chromatic aberration, ridiculously oversized lens flares at night, nerfed vehicle deformation, dogsh*t vegetation.

 

 

You can see the superior PS3/360 assets still being used in the Liberty City screenshot from that artist's portfolio. If they had "hidden" PS4/One assets at the time they would've used them here. All the fluff they added to the NG versions was hastily thrown together post-2013 to entice double dippers.

Edited March 22 by D T

[Unspoken OH]

On 3/22/2022 at 10:27 PM, D T said:

Even though they were developed in tandem, I doubt the weird f*cking artistic changes they made were intended to be part of the original experience. The unnecessary chromatic aberration, ridiculously oversized lens flares at night, nerfed vehicle deformation, dogsh*t vegetation.

 

 

You can see the superior PS3/360 assets still being used in the Liberty City screenshot from that artist's portfolio. If they had "hidden" PS4/One assets at the time they would've used them here. All the fluff they added to the NG versions was hastily thrown together post-2013 to entice double dippers.

 

I really hate the look of the PS4/X1/PC versions. Call me a fool but I still play the XB360 version. My biggest dream is that one day I'll be able to play the XB360 or PS3 version on a new gen console, maybe in the future on PS6 or Xbox Series Z or some sh*t. The only thing I don't like about the PS3/XB360 version is the frame rates. That's it. I wish there was a way to play it on the newer consoles (I know there's PS emulators for PC but it doesn't work flawlessly).

[Cheatz/Trickz]

9 hours ago, Unspoken OH said:

I really hate the look of the PS4/X1/PC versions. Call me a fool but I still play the XB360 version. My biggest dream is that one day I'll be able to play the XB360 or PS3 version on a new gen console, maybe in the future on PS6 or Xbox Series Z or some sh*t. The only thing I don't like about the PS3/XB360 version is the frame rates. That's it. I wish there was a way to play it on the newer consoles (I know there's PS emulators for PC but it doesn't work flawlessly).

You’re not a fool man, the PS4/X1/PC versions really do have a different look to them. They look fake. Everything just looks like it just had the wrapping paper took off it that’s how artificial it looks. 
 

I only like the PS3 version of GTA 5 because the look of the game is more lived-in and closer to GTA IV. It has roughness but that adds to the charm of it. It is more atmospheric too with sharper lighting and an image that pops out more. 
 

I seriously hate the look of the PS4 version, the PS5 version looks way better especially with the motion blur but it’s always gonna be the PS3 version that I prefer. 

[cp1dell]

That’s why I use @Alex106’s mods. Restore the lighting and fog color, as well as the PS360 assets like trees, sea foam etc that have been up scaled to match the other high res textures. Still retain the PS360 look and feel, but enjoy the higher FPS and higher quality effects—just like the jump to GTA IV’s PC version. 

[Unspoken OH]

24 minutes ago, cp1dell said:

That’s why I use @Alex106’s mods. Restore the lighting and fog color, as well as the PS360 assets like trees, sea foam etc that have been up scaled to match the other high res textures. Still retain the PS360 look and feel, but enjoy the higher FPS and higher quality effects—just like the jump to GTA IV’s PC version. 

 

I love Alex106's mods too. My only issue is, the shaders cannot be changed / ported over from XB360 or PS3. The entire lighting was revamped in the  PS4/XB1/PC version. Without these shaders the game just looks different, even with every single Alex106 mod installed. 

 

One perfect example to this is the distant lights. During night time, buildings light up, just like they would in real life, and when you look in the distance you see some sort of splash around them. Hard to explain. I'm gonna show you some comparison pictures when I get home. I think these "light splashes" fit the game's atmosphere really well. In the PS4/X1 version they look a lot softer. 

 

Another example is "occlusion" on characters's faces. Not sure if the word occlusion is the correct here. I'll post a screenshot because my English isn't good enough to explain this. 

 

Another example is the snapmatics. Idk why but I think old gen snapmatics used to have better contrast or something. They look more realistic than the photos taken in the PS4/X1 version.

 

5 hours ago, Cheatz/Trickz said:

You’re not a fool man, the PS4/X1/PC versions really do have a different look to them. They look fake. Everything just looks like it just had the wrapping paper took off it that’s how artificial it looks. 
 

I only like the PS3 version of GTA 5 because the look of the game is more lived-in and closer to GTA IV. It has roughness but that adds to the charm of it. It is more atmospheric too with sharper lighting and an image that pops out more. 
 

I seriously hate the look of the PS4 version, the PS5 version looks way better especially with the motion blur but it’s always gonna be the PS3 version that I prefer. 

 

^ Exactly my thoughts. Well-said!

 

I hope that one day we'll be able to fully jailbreak the PS4 Pro or XB One X consoles, and somehow, have an opportunity to play the PS3/X360 versions of GTA V at stable 30 FPS. 

 

[Cheatz/Trickz]

GTA V on PS3 just looks more like a game but in a good way. I remember going back to it after playing on PS4 and it felt like a new game that I wanted to get lost in. 

 

I’m gonna take some pics of it and then try and get the same place on PS4 to see if I can showcase how much better the atmosphere is on PS3, because it really is. 

[killso]

I would say it's hard to say, cause we know for sure the game was also being developed before release for ps4/xone. First we can probably take a look at gta 4, as it was a ps3/x360 gen game only. The resolution for example on gta 4 was quite low too on ps3, so it wasn't just gta 5 that had its resolution lowered to leave room for the gpu as if the game was optimized for ps4 in mind it seems. In overall both games are not far from each other on the same platform, density, textures, polygon wise, if anything it's either the same or improvements it seems, it doesn't look like gta 5 show signs of being a game made for another platform really than the ps3 when it was released... for ps3 ( can seem obvious but really it's not, if you target better hardware and then need to downgrade graphically, you need to make cut in some areas, which doesn't look like it was the case for gta 5 ). So we can already start with that in mind.

 

The reveal trailer is also interesting, I'm not sure they had dev kits back then in 2011 of the ps4, so they probably had no idea what they would have had been able to do for these platforms at all, and graphically, it's more or less the same as what we had on ps3, so it doesn't seem like the goal changed during the dev of the game.

 

Then you look at the ps4 version, and the game is far from being that different from the ps3 version, the main thing that strikes is resolution bump, then foliage density, really that's the key points for the player that he'll instantly notice.

Many points you mention are just a bump in settings, the textures don't have to be remade from their side ( unless they want to change some of them of course ), they have them already made in high quality, it's just for optimization reasons that the shipped product does not have them in high resolution obviously. Same thing for density, draw distance, and so on. First person view and specifically its animations though shows that it has had quite some work put into it, as it's quite some work to pull this off, but that doesn't mean much except that they had put some work in it obviously, which is not unexpected. That doesn't mean the game was originally made for ps4 then downgraded to ps3 ( which is a question I've asked to myself too ). I mean if you have an optimized game made for ps3 that you port to ps4, you obviously get some room for improvement to make, if they would not have had done anything, that would have had been pathetic really and extremely lazy 

 

Lastly my opinion, the game is far from "looking" like a ps4 game, which might just be because it's a huge game in itself really, but man, the game falls short on many aspects. The lighting is pretty damn nice, but textures and polygons density is way too bad for it being on par with ps4 gen games, it has gotten better with updates, with better quality cars for example, but still, the point remains. 

Just look at red dead redemption 2 man, that's a completely different world in comparison ( even though, yes scopes are different between the 2 games, you get my point, visually speaking, rdr2 is more in line with ps4 gen game than gta 5 is ).

 

I think this comparison is pretty nice to compare the ps3 vs ps4 versions ( it's just missing the country side that's gotten like x10 more foliage  but you can get a clear feel of both versions and how they're pretty close in reality

I think they probably had this idea of bringing in new features when they got the first ps4 dev kits, and decided to re-release the game on it, while also of course improving on the graphics side of things, so that's why you get a 1 year gap with still some impressive improvements pushed, they just worked on this on their end early on probably. To me it's clearly a ps3 game that was improved for ps4, but it was a game designed for ps3 gen in mind originally imo.

 

Quote

 

And compare it to the Upgrade from (PS3/Xbox 360) to (PS4/Xbox One) that there was an actual noticeable improvements and a lot more features that were added for ex: (First Person View).

 

What if it were actually the (PS4/Xbox One) The Original Version?

 

Truth is the people that worked for the ps4 version was R* during active main dev of this same said game. The ps5 upgrade was made by whichever rockstar studio, with probably not many people working on it. It's a lazy ass cash grab port bro