Ray Tracing may be a major priority for GTA VI, as studio Rockstar Games is currently seeking developers with expertise in modern RT APIs.
Based on a series of LinkedIn job listings from Rockstar Games for various Graphics Programmer positions, the studio appears to be investing in and prioritizing ray tracing as a core graphical feature in its upcoming open world action adventure game, GTA VI.
The aforementioned job listings mention that candidates are ideally expected to have experience using modern real time ray tracing APIs, including DXR and NVX.
It wouldn’t come as a surprise to see Rockstar Games focusing on ray tracing as a central graphics feature for GTA VI. The studio has previously experimented with the technology in the current-gen re-release of GTA V. Both the PS5 and Xbox Series console versions support ray traced shadows and ray traced reflections. GTA VI will undoubtedly take this several steps further, and the reveal trailer for the game already shows indications of ray traced global illumination and ray traced reflections being in effect in some capacity. Given the limited ray tracing capabilities of the current-gen consoles, we’ll likely see a mix of both ray traced and rasterized graphics in GTA VI.
Previously, during its Q3 2024 Earnings Conference Call, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc indicated that it is sticking to its massive $8 billion revenue forecast for Fiscal year 2025, which spans across April, 2024 and March, 2025. As such, it is expected that the release of GTA VI will happen between January, 2025, and March, 2025. In response to a question from an investor regarding how the publisher decides when to release a game like GTA VI, Take-Two Interactive, Inc CEO Strauss Zelnick stated that Rockstar Games is “seeking perfection”, and when it feels it has “optimized creatively”, that will be the time to release the game.
