Players Discover that GTA 5 has Realistic Light Pollution

GTA 5 may be over six years old, but it seems that keen-eyed players are still discovering new facets of Rockstar’s magnum opus. Most recently, it was noticed by players that the game’s world actually features realistic light pollution; an aspect of realism in Los Santos which the developers certainly didn’t have to include. However, the fact that the devs did think to include realistic GTA 5 light pollution speaks to the very high attention to detail they had when building the world of Los Santos.

Realistic GTA 5 Light Pollution Discovered

The fact that there is realistic GTA 5 light pollution was spotted and documented by Reddit user “ChanDanGreen99“. They posted side-by-side screenshots of the night sky; one as seen from within the city and the other as seen from the hillside outside the city. The sky is clearly harder to see in the former shot, showing that Rockstar went to the trouble of implementing realistic light pollution into the game’s lighting design.

GTA 5 Light Pollution Discovered

The discovery, six years after the game’s release, also speaks to the enduring interest which the game has enjoyed from fans. Of course, as the most successful entertainment property of all time, that endurance isn’t really surprising. However, it’s worth noting that the game still receives regular new updates and content releases; Rockstar released the new Diamond Casino Heist earlier this month, followed by their annual holiday update.

Fans are unlikely to abandon GTA 5 (and GTA Online, by extension) anytime soon. Indeed, even the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 seems to have been unable to shift away die-hard fans. The only thing likely to do so, unless Rockstar simply stops producing new content, would presumably be the release of GTA 6. However, while rumours continue to circulate about that title, Rockstar haven’t even confirmed whether it is in development or not. For now, at least, fans will have to wait patiently.

Of course, it’s possible that Rockstar is waiting for the upcoming release of the Xbox Series X and PS5; ideal platforms for a GTA 6 with much greater graphical quality than its predecessor. However, given that both consoles will feature backwards compatibility, it’s likely that they will continue to develop GTA 5 content for the foreseeable future. It could still be years before their next game is ready to release.