GTA 3 Developer Finally Explains Why The Moon Changes Size When Shot
An ex-Rockstar Games developer has explained why the moon changed sizes when you shot at it in Grand Theft Auto 3 and the rest of the classic trilogy.
GTA 5 has its fair share of secrets and easter eggs (such as the UFO that can appear on top of Mount Chiliad and the ghost that can be spotted if you go to a specific murder site), but it has nothing on the classic GTA trilogy. Whether you were playing GTA 3, Vice City, or San Andreas, you were sure to be surrounded by interesting (and sometimes creepy) secrets to uncover.
One of the strangest easter eggs in the original GTA trilogy is also one that's very easy to uncover. If you aim at the moon with a sniper rifle and shoot at it, it'll change in size, swapping between a smaller moon and a larger moon. There was never any reference to this within GTA like there usually is for its easter eggs, so many considered it to be an oversight from the developers more than anything else.
As it turns out, that's exactly what it is. Over on Twitter, ex-Rockstar Games developer Obbe Vermeij (who previously explained why Claude was silent in GTA 3) was asked about the moon and why it changes sizes. Vermeij explained that it's actually something that was accidentally left in the game after it was implemented as a way for the developers to choose how big they wanted the moon to be.
Vermeij said he was given a texture for the moon in GTA 3 and made sure it was visible at night with a reasonable size. However, he was then asked to change the size of the moon by some Rockstar artists, who didn't know what size they actually wanted it to be as some wanted it smaller to be realistic and others wanted a big moon for dramatic effect.
Since I was working on the sniper rifle, I made it so that the moon toggled through 3 sizes (small, medium, large) as the player sniped it. The artists never got back to me so I just left it in. It was still there in SA
In response, Vermeij made it so that shooting at the moon with a sniper rifle would change
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