A former developer from Rockstar has explained a technical limitation that influenced a design decision in Grand Theft Auto 3. Obbe Vermeij, who was part of the game’s development, talked about the challenge of adapting the expansive Liberty City open-world to the PlayStation 2’s memory constraints.
The developers faced a significant challenge due to the PS2’s DVD drive and memory limitations. They implemented a streaming process to load buildings, roads, and other map assets into memory as players move worldwide. Commonly used models were placed close to the DVD to optimize loading speed and reduce seek time.
Even with smart improvements, players could move faster than the game could keep up with. To address this, the team made some creative changes. For example, in GTA 3, the island of Portland featured a long, straight road that encouraged high speeds, causing issues with loading. The team modified the road layout with curves to naturally slow down players. They also made subtle adjustments to the vehicles, increasing their air resistance by 5% to further slow down players in a hardly noticeable way.
The game made small changes to help it load quickly and keep the world looking smooth. That’s also why you can’t fly far in GTA 3 if you ever wondered. As a kid, I remember being so confused about why the Dodo plane was so terrible at flying. It was for this very reason. It would be too much for the game to handle if you could. The Dodo lets you fly a bit, but going any faster would show the limits of Liberty City.
When Vice City and San Andreas came out, the developers had advanced their techniques. They used better streaming code and clever tricks, like loading simpler models when players were flying, to make the open-world experience smoother.
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