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Former Rockstar Games technical director Obbe Vermeij is no stranger to revealing tidbits of information about the development of some of the older GTA games, and he's now explained how GTA 3's cinematic camera first came to be – it turns out we can thank the train for being kind of "boring" at first.
In a new thread on Twitter, Vermeij – who worked on GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas, and GTA 4 – reveals that he "found riding [the train] boring," but even though he "considered letting the player jump ahead to the next station," this ultimately would have led to "streaming issues." Down in the replies, he elaborates: "If the player jumps to a new destination, the whole map has to suddenly be loaded there."
Because of this, Vermeij took a different approach, and "made the camera switch between random viewpoints near the track. This made the ride more interesting." As we know though, things didn't stop there, but it was thanks to another dev's idea that the same concept was applied to the game's cars. "Somebody suggested trying the same in a car. I added the wheel cam, as well as the view from chasing cars," Vermeij continues. "The team found it surprisingly entertaining so the cinematic camera stayed in."
When working on the train in gta3 I found riding it boring.I considered letting the player jump ahead to the next station but this would cause streaming issues.Instead, I made the camera switch between random viewpoints near the track. This made the ride more interesting.… pic.twitter.com/pcl0Kd5ewoJanuary 7, 2025
From then on, the cinematic camera became a returning feature in GTA. While it was "unchanged for Vice City," things were altered a bit in San Andreas where it was "revamped" by Derek Ward, who Vermeij explains "joined us after finishing Manhunt." Beyond GTA, the cinematic camera also features in Red Dead Redemption 2, which Vermeij didn't personally work on, but says it "was cool" to see his creation pop up there. "In some way the cinematic camera is better suited to RDR than GTA," he adds.
Considering how the feature keeps on coming back, it seems pretty likely that the cinematic camera could make an appearance in GTA 6, too. For now, we'll just have to wait and see, but Rockstar's upcoming blockbuster is currently set to release at some point this fall.
