GTA V Update for PS4 and Xbox One Found to Downgrade Graphics Quality

It appears that Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) developer, Rockstar, has either on purpose or by mistake removed several graphical effects with the latest update for the game on current-gen consoles.

Players of GTA V have complained about quality of vehicle collisions, parallax mapping, and anisotropic filtering on the PlayStation 4 (PS4) and Xbox One versions of the game. These are just some of the aspects of its visual fidelity that have seem to have taken a hit with its last two updates. We checked out the PS4 version of the game post the update, and noticed that there indeed was a drop in graphics quality in some aspects.

A post on Reddit claims that the developers had not expected this to happen and that the support teams at Rockstar are giving complaining players a solution to this. However players are reporting that the fix does not work, though several of the cited support interactions do mention the fix works for 'some players'.

This marks yet another game to suffer from graphical downgrades thanks to an update. The last one was Far Cry 4 on the PS4. An update to Ubisoft's open-world first-person shooter saw the removal of lighting effects such as bright sun spots, which are commonly known as "God rays".

With the PC version of GTA V releasing on April 14, there's no doubt that it would be the most graphically competent version of this critically acclaimed game. This is thanks to the modding community on the platform which has seen games like Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, and Rockstar's own GTA IV get graphical upgrades that have made them look better than what they were when they were released.

You can check out the graphical downgrade to GTA V in a video posted by Reddit user Farlo1.