this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2026
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I loved the physics system in GTA IV as it felt so revolutionary back then. If I remember correctly, GTA V didn’t have as elaborate a physics system, likely because the developers wanted the game to run better on the Xbox 360 and PS3 (those machines struggled quite a bit with GTA IV). I guess the easiest way to improve the FPS on those machines was probably to tone down the physics...
Oh GTA V used the same physics system (Euphoria) - I think it was just a developer choice to dial it back a bit. Was that related to performance in some way? Potentially. GTA IV had a feeling of the NPC physics being 'always on' - you could shove into other characters and they'd stumble and fall. Whereas GTA V (and the Red Dead games I believe), the character physics only seemed to trigger when you punched, shot or ran over an NPC. It's a shame, as I loved messing with that engine in a 'non-violent' way xD
Yeah, GTA V did use Euphoria as well, and you can still see traces of it here and there like you said (interacting certain way with an NPC). I remember Star Wars The Force Unleashed also using Euphoria and it felt as if it was just straight up bolted into the game's engine, as it could cause absolute mayhem on screen. The mayhem came at a cost: my Xbox 360 couldn’t keep up with dozens of objects colliding, and the FPS would drop to single digits in some instances. The sequel (The Force Unleashed II) was technically more stable, but its physics were dialed down to a degree where multiple objects interacting with each other were disabled for the sake of stability. I think that generation of consoles just couldn’t handle Euphoria all that well when there were no restrictions applied. By the time GTA V came out, Rockstar likely knew how to optimize their games better overall so it wasn’t just a matter of disabling Euphoria’s extreme settings or anything like that.
I hope they decide to bring it back for GTA VI. Surely the current generation of consoles could handle it... though I suppose it may depend on what the devs want to prioritise - graphics or physics. I miss the fluidity of GTA IV!