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The Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) is the proprietary game engine developed by Rockstar Games that powers Grand Theft Auto VI. The version used for GTA VI is informally referred to as "RAGE 9" by the community, representing the latest major revision of the engine. This iteration introduces significant advances in lighting, character rendering, environmental detail, and world simulation, designed to take full advantage of PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and high-end PC hardware.
RAGE has been Rockstar's engine of choice since Grand Theft Auto IV (2008), powering every major Rockstar release including Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3, Grand Theft Auto V, and Red Dead Redemption 2. Each new project has brought significant upgrades to the engine, and GTA VI represents the most ambitious leap yet.
Game | Year | Notable RAGE Features |
|---|---|---|
Grand Theft Auto IV | 2008 | Euphoria physics, ragdoll, open-world streaming |
Red Dead Redemption | 2010 | Large-scale terrainwildlife AI, weather systems |
Max Payne 3 | 2012 | Advanced animation blending, bullet time physics |
Grand Theft Auto V | 2013 | Three-protagonist switching, expanded vehicle physics |
Red Dead Redemption 2 | 2018 | Dynamic weather, horse bonding, hair growth, snow deformation |
Grand Theft Auto VI | 2026 | Ray-traced GI, strand hair, procedural generation, individual grass rendering |
GTA VI uses a ray-traced global illumination (RTGI) system for its lighting. of the trailers confirmed that the game employs ray tracing for both direct and indirect lighting, producing natural light bounce, soft shadows, and accurate ambient occlusion throughout the game world. This system simulates how light rays bounce off surfaces, creating realistic shadows, reflections, and atmospheric lighting effects.
The RTGI system is most visible in scenes featuring varied lighting conditions: sunlight filtering through trees, neon signs reflecting off wet pavement at night, and interior spaces lit by a combination of natural and artificial light sources. Ray-traced reflections are especially prominent on transparent objects such as sunglasses, mirrors, and car windscreens, producing accurate reflections of the surrounding environment.
One of the most technically impressive features in GTA VI is its strand-based hair rendering system. Rather than using textured polygons to approximate hair (as in previous GTA titles), the engine renders individual hair strands that respond to physics simulation. Hair reacts to wind, character movement, and gravity, producing natural-looking motion.
scenes in the trailers where character hair flies up naturally during movement, confirming the presence of a strand-based hair system. Individual hair strands also cast high-quality shadows on character faces and bodies, with no visible shimmering artifacts. This technology is applied to both protagonists, Jason and Lucia, as well as to significant NPCs. The hair system works in conjunction with the game's dynamic hair growth mechanic, where hair and facial hair lengthen over time.
A Rockstar Games engineer confirmed through a professional profile that GTA VI uses procedural generation for objects and game environments. This technology dynamically creates and places environmental objects, reducing the repetitive patterns that can occur in hand-placed open worlds. The system covers the placement of smaller elements such as vegetation, debris, vehicles, and architectural details.
The procedural generation system works alongside hand-crafted world design rather than replacing it. Major landmarks, buildings, and geographic features are manually designed by Rockstar's world-building team, while the procedural system fills in environmental detail to ensure that no two areas look artificially identical. This hybrid approach allows the massive scale of Leonida's open world to maintain visual variety across every neighborhood and region.
Vegetation in GTA VI is noticeably denser and more detailed than in any previous Rockstar title. Trailer analysis reveals individually rendered grass blades that respond to wind and character interaction, trees with detailed leaf systems, and dense undergrowth in natural areas like Mount Kalaga and the Grassrivers. The subtropical climate of Leonida provides a variety of biomes, from manicured urban parks to wild mangrove swamps, each with distinct vegetation profiles.
Water simulation in GTA VI represents a major upgrade. The engine produces high-quality mesh deformation for waves and ripples, translucent water surfaces with visible underwater terrain, and caustic light effects where sunlight refracts through moving water. Ocean waves, river currents, and lake surfaces each behave differently. This reflects the variety of water bodies across Leonida.
The water rendering system is particularly important given Leonida's geography. The state is surrounded by ocean on three sides, contains a major freshwater lake (Lake Leonida), extensive swamplands, and a chain of tropical islands. Water is encountered constantly during gameplay, making its visual quality and physical behavior critical to the overall experience.
GTA VI's shadow rendering system casts shadows from both near and distant objects, with multiple light sources adding to shadow calculation simultaneously. Global light (the sun) and local light sources (street lamps, neon signs, vehicle headlights) both generate shadows, creating layered, realistic shadow interactions throughout the game world.
Fine-grained objects including hair strands and netted window screens cast their own shadows, demonstrating the precision of the shadow system. This level of shadow detail is visible across both interior and exterior environments, with shadow quality maintaining consistency even at extended distances from the camera.
Character models in GTA VI show a generational improvement over Red Dead Redemption 2, itself a benchmark for character rendering at the time of its release. Facial detail, skin rendering, and clothing physics are all significantly improved. Characters display realistic skin textures (likely produced using photogrammetry techniques), dynamic sweat, and detailed accessories including functional wristwatches that display in-game time.
Description | |
|---|---|
Ray-Traced Global Illumination | Physically accurate light bounce, soft shadows, and ambient occlusion using ray tracing |
Ray-Traced Reflections | Accurate real-time reflections on glass, water, mirrors, and vehicle surfaces |
Strand-Based Hair | Individual hair strands with physics simulation, wind response, and shadow casting |
Procedural Object Generation | Dynamic placement of environmental objects to reduce repetition across the world |
Advanced Water Simulation | Mesh deformation, translucency, caustic effects, and per-body-type wave behavior |
Dense Vegetation | Individually rendered grass blades and detailed plant systems with wind interaction |
Multi-Source Shadows | Shadow casting from global and local light sources with fine-object precision |
Photogrammetry Textures | Suspected use of real-world scanned textures for surfaces and environments |
GTA VI is confirmed for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S at launch on November 19, 2026. The engine has been optimized for current-generation console hardware, with noting that achieving 60 frames per second may be challenging given the visual density on display. A PC version is expected but has not been given a release date, consistent with Rockstar's historical pattern of staggered platform releases.
RAGE has been in continuous development at Rockstar since the mid-2000s, making it one of the longest-running proprietary game engines in the industry.
The informal "RAGE 9" designation comes from the community; Rockstar has not publicly versioned the engine.
the hair rendering in GTA VI trailers as showing one of the most impressive leaps in character rendering they had observed in an open-world game.
The procedural generation system was confirmed through a Rockstar engineer's professional profile, which listed "procedural generation for objects and game environments" as a key technology being developed for the project.
