Game development is a modern form of digital wizardry, and game devs are nothing short of real-life wizards. The pristine playthroughs that we see are – in many cases – illusions created by the absolute chaos going on under the surface. Recently, a GTA V player has dug into the game’s code to uncover an example of the trickery involved with game development, and it’s quite a scream reminiscent of the train hat incident from Fallout.
If you enjoy GTA V, you’ve likely played a good deal of the game’s protagonist-specific missions. GTA V player LucasIsPersonal noticed a peculiarity during one of Michael’s early missions, Father/Son. The mission centers around Michael and fellow protagonist Franklin attempting to recover Michael’s stolen yacht, and his delinquent son who trapped himself in the yacht’s bathroom after trying to sell the yacht without his dad’s permission.
To no one’s surprise, the sale did not go to plan and the prospective buyers elected to simply load the yacht onto a truck and call it a day – after quite an exciting chase across the Del Perro Freeway.
While controlling Michael’s Wife’s Sentinel during the chase, LucasIsPersonal noticed the most peculiar air traffic – an inverted 18-wheeler truck cabin floating above the thieves’ truck. As the chase intensifies, LucasIsPersonal notices an additional truck cabin skimming over the pavement, pointed at the thieves’ truck. This is something you definitely shouldn’t see on the road, unless there truly is a glitch in the matrix.
The explanation for these peculiarities is simple, however. In the stock GTA V experience, these trucks are meant to be hidden. LucasIsPersonal dove into the game’s code to ‘unhide’ these assets. But why are they there in the first place? The answer is simple; perspective. During the mission, you have the option to switch to a cinematic camera mode.
In this mode, the camera angle is exactly where these trucks are positioned. As it turns out, the developers behind GTA V used these truck assets as cameras. This is because the truck asset was already loaded into the game as that’s what the thieves drive. Therefore, it saves memory to use a repeat asset for more than one purpose – in this case, additional camera rigs. No pun intended.
Floating trucks aren’t the weirdest thing to strike Los Santos though. The latest update to the game will introduce a record-high heatwave and surging gas prices.
