Re-engineered Weather Systems
Rockstar vice president of art for lighting and rendering Owen Shepherd explained that the team rebuilt the weather system to make conditions more localized and persistent while delivering a stronger sense of scale.
“We have re-engineered our weather system to make everything much more localized and persistent, and really wanted the world to feel dynamically solid and achieve a sense of scale we haven't felt before.”
Dynamic cloudscapes now roll across the map, producing weather ranging from clear Miami winter skies to towering cumulonimbus clouds with sporadic lightning during summer and autumn.
Storm Effects and Persistence
Players can observe distant rain showers while remaining dry, with lingering effects such as rainbows, wet pavements and puddles visible after the storm passes.
“Heavy clouds, strong winds, dense atmospherics, and a lot of rain combine so that everything is dripping wet, water is gushing off roof edges and lampposts, thunder rumbles and flashes of lightning light up the clouds dramatically.”
Additional World Features
The game includes more than 170 animal species, among them 60 birds and over 30 land mammals, with scuba diving returning to allow encounters with manatees, jellyfish and whales.
Discoverable animals that can be studied and Legendary animals from Red Dead Redemption 2 also return, though Rockstar has not detailed their implementation.