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  1. Games
  2. Action
  3. Grand Theft Auto
  4. Grand Theft Auto 5

GTA 5 6K gallery: Still life in Los Santos

Features
By James Snook published 1 May 2015

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an commission. Here’s how it works.

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 1 of 34
Page 1 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 2 of 34
Page 2 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 3 of 34
Page 3 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 4 of 34
Page 4 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 5 of 34
Page 5 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 6 of 34
Page 6 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 7 of 34
Page 7 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 8 of 34
Page 8 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 9 of 34
Page 9 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 10 of 34
Page 10 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 11 of 34
Page 11 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 12 of 34
Page 12 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 13 of 34
Page 13 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 14 of 34
Page 14 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 15 of 34
Page 15 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 16 of 34
Page 16 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 17 of 34
Page 17 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 18 of 34
Page 18 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 19 of 34
Page 19 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 20 of 34
Page 20 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 21 of 34
Page 21 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 22 of 34
Page 22 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 23 of 34
Page 23 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 24 of 34
Page 24 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 25 of 34
Page 25 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 26 of 34
Page 26 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 27 of 34
Page 27 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 28 of 34
Page 28 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 29 of 34
Page 29 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 30 of 34
Page 30 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 31 of 34
Page 31 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 32 of 34
Page 32 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 33 of 34
Page 33 of 34

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by James Snook.

to click the image expand icon for a full-size .

All screenshots were captured with the GTA5 editor. The process for this is as follows:

1. While playing, begin recording a clip by pressing F1.

2. Press F1 again to stop recording. The clip will be saved.

3. Press escape and find the Rockstar Editor in the menu along the top.

4. Create a new project and add a clip to the timeline.

5. Edit the clip to launch the editor.

6. Once in the editor, you can go to any moment in the recorded clip. You have access to various camera angles (including a free camera limited to a 50 meter radius around your character), filters, depth of field, and other useful tools for recording movies and capturing screenshots. You can also press H to toggle the HUD.

I did use editor filters for some of the screenshots, but many of them are using the default colors and depth of field. I used ReShade to inject SMAA (as I personally prefer that over the in-game FXAA) and to capture the screenshots. I played the game in windowed mode and used SRWE to resize the window for higher resolution screenshots (this does work in the editor). As far as I know, this will not work on Windows 8.

Screenshot comparisons: In GTA5, there are negative side effects (aside from performance) when rendering at high resolutions. Certain post processing effects, as well as SSAO, do not scale correctly with resolution. Here are some comparisons which should hopefully show this:

Weaker sunrays at higher resolutions

Exaggerrated \ inaccurate SSAO

Reduced depth of field \ funky SSAO on rocks

The benefits to playing at a higher resolution are reduced aliasing, sharper textures, and increased details (foliage, fine details, etc).

More grass drawn at higher resolutions

Sharper textures \ more definition in the finer details

The trade-off between image quality and post processing effects will be a matter of preference. I found that my game runs faster and looks better at 4K w/ no AA than it does at 2560x1440 with 4xMSAA. I did not do comparisons to see if MSAA increased the amount of grass rendered because you can not change graphics options in the editor, so a 1:1 screenshot comparison would have been more difficult.

Page 34 of 34
Page 34 of 34
James Snook
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