The striking mode demanded considerable effort to bring to life.
A former animator at Rockstar Games recently shared some insights into the development of Grand Theft Auto V. Mike York spoke about the game’s first-person mode.
He noted that even additions that seem trivial can ultimately create a cascade of problems:
When we were developing GTA V, we added a first-person mode. I remember we introduced it very late in the project, when the game was almost finished. It felt like a small change to the camera, but once implemented it produced thousands—literally thousands—of bugs.
The challenge stemmed from the fact that Grand Theft Auto titles were originally built for a third-person viewpoint, so the team had to figure out how to place the camera in the character’s head. On top of that, they needed new animations for every weapon and for environmental interactions, since many assets were never intended to be seen up close:
The head moves a lot, and when that motion is shown on screen it becomes extremely distracting and looks really, really, really bad.
Ultimately, the GTA V team overcame these challenges and delivered a fresh, immersive experience for players.
Source: iXBT.games