The developer of GTA 3 spoke about the weather mechanics in the game
Former Rockstar North technical director Obbe Vermeij again shared interesting details about the creation of the game. This time it was about the strange rainfall in Liberty City.
GTA 3 had four types of weather - sunny, cloudy, rainy, and fog. They all changed every hour, and everything was done so that the change was made randomly. This approach turned out to be a problem for the game, since there was no clear shift algorithm, which introduced chaos and unpredictability. During tests, players complained that the weather could not change for days.
To solve the problem, Vermeil filled a table with 64 columns with the available types of weather conditions. With its help, it was possible to ensure that the weather changes adhered to a certain order: different types switched every 64 hours inside the game, which is equivalent to one minute in reality. It looked like this: for example, if a rainstorm fell on a city, then the next rain should have occurred no earlier than sixty-four real minutes later.
In addition, Vermeil said that the level designers restarted the weather during the passage of some missions. For example, some racing events could not be held in rainy weather, as the rain affected the control of the car.
In subsequent parts, the list of weather types was expanded. So, in Vice City a clear sky appeared without a single cloud.
GTA 3 had four types of weather - sunny, cloudy, rainy, and fog. They all changed every hour, and everything was done so that the change was made randomly. This approach turned out to be a problem for the game, since there was no clear shift algorithm, which introduced chaos and unpredictability. During tests, players complained that the weather could not change for days.
To solve the problem, Vermeil filled a table with 64 columns with the available types of weather conditions. With its help, it was possible to ensure that the weather changes adhered to a certain order: different types switched every 64 hours inside the game, which is equivalent to one minute in reality. It looked like this: for example, if a rainstorm fell on a city, then the next rain should have occurred no earlier than sixty-four real minutes later.
In addition, Vermeil said that the level designers restarted the weather during the passage of some missions. For example, some racing events could not be held in rainy weather, as the rain affected the control of the car.
In subsequent parts, the list of weather types was expanded. So, in Vice City a clear sky appeared without a single cloud.
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