Digital Foundry Analyzes GTA VI Trailer as Rockstar Appears to Fix 18-Year-Old Engine Graphics Bug

The Grand Theft Auto VI launch trailer appears to be free of an animation problem that has followed Rockstar Games’ engine since Grand Theft Auto IV.

Rockstar Games recently released the launch trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI. Players watched it, and so did Digital Foundry, whose specialists went through the footage and shared their assessment.

It looks like the developer has finally fixed a long-standing issue with the RAGE engine. The problem dates back to Grand Theft Auto IV and caused characteristic judder during animations, even when the game ran at a stable frame rate. It showed up in GTA V and Red Dead Redemption, and it also appeared in earlier GTA VI promotional materials.

According to Digital Foundry, the new GTA VI trailer does not show this instability, including “during slow camera pans and in other shots where it would normally be noticeable”:

Of course, this is only a short video, and Rockstar could simply have shot it in a way that keeps the problem from standing out. But it may also mean that a long-standing technical quirk has finally been fixed, provided that the footage shown reflects the actual state of the game.

The Digital Foundry specialists also noted realistic lighting and a high level of environmental detail. They believe the trailer was rendered at 1440p and then upscaled to 4K. They also suggest that the video did not use the new QSSR upscaling technology for the base PS5.

Rockstar appears to have fixed an engine graphics bug after 18 years, and Digital Foundry weighs in on the GTA VI trailer — Image source: Rockstar Games

Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled for release on November 19, 2026, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

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