Recently, Rockstar Studios co-head Rob Nelson spoke with IGN about the new NPC technology in GTA VI. The game will feature the most diverse range of pedestrian NPC body types in Rockstar's history, with more pronounced differences in height and body silhouette compared to all previous titles.
Due to limitations in older technology, NPCs of different heights and body types in Rockstar's past games had to share the same animation assets. When characters with significant height differences performed actions like fighting, getting into cars, or interacting with the environment, issues such as misaligned animations and clipping occurred, which directly restricted the diversity of NPC body designs.
To address this issue, the GTA VI team developed a real-time animation retargeting system. This technology instantly adapts animations based on each NPC's body proportions during runtime, eliminating the need to create full animation sets for every height and body type. Whether tall and burly or short and slender, NPCs will perform combat, enter vehicles, and interact with the environment with aligned, natural, and realistic movements.
Nelson stated that GTA VI is built from the ground up exclusively for current-generation hardware. The larger memory capacity of new consoles, combined with the team's years of development experience, made this new system possible. Leveraging this technology, Vice City and the entire state of Leonida can be populated with a vast array of pedestrians with different body types, significantly enhancing the immersion of the open world.
Nelson described GTA VI as Rockstar's largest, deepest, most densely populated, and structurally complex game world to date, with NPC diversity being a key component in building a realistic world. The developer also suggested players revisit previous gameplay demos to notice the various body types of pedestrians. This new system primarily targets pedestrian NPCs; it has not been confirmed whether protagonists or major story characters will use the same technology.
GTA VI will launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19, 2026. The PC version has not yet been officially announced.