Summary
- An ex-Rockstar developer has revealed the origins of the cinematic camera.
- Vermeij explains the cinematic camera was unchanged in Vice City, and then reworked for San Andreas.
- Vermeij is a constant source of interesting trivia from the 3D-era Grand Theft Auto games.
Ex-Rockstar developer Obbe Vermeij, who worked on Grand Theft Auto 3, San Andreas, Vice City and Grand Theft Auto 4, routinely reveals trivia about the development of the series’ 3D era games. Last month, he talked about why Grand Theft Auto 3 protagonist Claude is silent, and he’s now revealed another interesting piece of trivia about the series’ first third-person entry (nice spot, GameRant).
Anyone who’s played Grand Theft Auto will be familiar with the cinematic driving camera. It’s one of the camera options that can be toggled while driving. Rather than following the car directly, the camera angle will constantly pivot between cinematic views reminiscent of a chase scene from a news channel.
The Origin of the Cinematic Camera
Vermeij revealed that the reason for this camera’s existence isn’t because of cars at all. The cinematic camera was originally designed solely for Grand Theft Auto 3’s trains: “When working on the train in GTA 3, I found riding it boring,” he explained. “I considered letting the player jump ahead to the next station but this would cause streaming issues. Instead, I made the camera switch between random viewpoints near the track. This made the ride more interesting. Somebody suggested trying the same in a car. I added the wheel cam, as well as the view from chasing cars. The team found it surprisingly entertaining so the cinematic camera stayed in.”
In the replies to his original post, Vermeij further explained that the cinematic camera remained unchanged in Vice City but was reworked by somebody else at Rockstar for San Andreas. He said the original train camera angle in GTA 3 was similar to driving a car, with the camera placed slightly elevated behind the train carriage.
As for the future of Grand Theft Auto, we’ve heard essentially nothing from Rockstar since the release of Grand Theft Auto 6’s first trailer in December 2023. The community is becoming increasingly desperate for an update, spinning wild theories about when the next trailer will release and hyper-analysing every frame of the original trailer.
