Former Rockstar Games technical director Obbe Vermeij is no stranger to revealing tidbits of information about the development of some of the older GTA games, and he's now explained how GTA 3's cinematic camera first came to be – it turns out we can thank the train for being kind of "boring" at first.
In a new thread on Twitter, Vermeij – who worked on GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas, and GTA 4 – reveals that he "found riding [the train] boring," but even though he "considered letting the player jump ahead to the next station," this ultimately would have led to "streaming issues." Down in the replies, he elaborates: "If the player jumps to a new destination, the whole map has to suddenly be loaded there." Because of this, Vermeij took a different approach, and "made the camera switch between random viewpoints near the track.
This made the ride more interesting." As we know though, things didn't stop there, but it was thanks to another dev's idea that the same concept was applied to the game's cars. "Somebody suggested trying the same in a car.
I added the wheel cam, as well as the view from chasing cars," Vermeij continues. "The team found it surprisingly entertaining so the cinematic camera stayed in." When working on the train in gta3 I found riding it boring.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.… pic.twitter.com/pcl0Kd5ewoJanuary 7, 2025 From then on, the cinematic camera became a returning feature in GTA.