What is up with the cars?

[Crabby 12]

Anyone else notice when watching some of the sample play over the last year, there are like next to no cars on the road while you are driving as V? I thought it was just one video but I have seen several now. What is up with that?

[Cripto 15]

I believe this was mentioned not too long ago on a live stream of the game. When you are driving around, less cars will appear on the road just to prevent the roads from being too packed and congested. 

[Hantaro 16]

8 minutes ago, Cripto said:

I believe this was mentioned not too long ago on a live stream of the game. When you are driving around, less cars will appear on the road just to prevent the roads from being too packed and congested. 

To me, it didn't seem like it was during game play at all. When you see them going through a cut-scene the streets look busy but outside of that, I just don't see a reason why they would reduce the amount of cars just for the sake of you driving your car.  

[Neon 16]

Yeah it was indeed mentioned that the cars aren't as apparent when you are in a car. I am guessing this serves as not only a game mechanic (to make it easier to drive and get places) but also to reduce frame rate issues on current gen consoles. 

[KyleZ 16]

Maybe it is a function with purpose, maybe not. I feel like they did take a bit too much away to have it feel like the real city streets. If you ever lived in a city, you know the streets are almost entirely active 24/7.

[RiotRaven 11]

They remove some of the cars on the roads as well as children NPC characters. If you look at some of the more recent footage, it isn't a bad thing. I think it was smart to do both.

[Twizted 14]

20 hours ago, RiotRaven said:

They remove some of the cars on the roads as well as children NPC characters. If you look at some of the more recent footage, it isn't a bad thing. I think it was smart to do both.

For sure with the children. There was no way of avoiding accidents or players purposelessly targeting them for laughs. I didn't think the streets were too crowded though in terms of cars when you aren't in one.

[Beanbag 12]

I thought at first they did this for the sake of showing and testing the game but I looked into it more and the people who said they purposely remove a lot of the cars on the road is true. When you access your vehicle (get in or on it) you will notice a lot of cars seem to vanish but you will still see enough on the roads for it to feel lively. 

[StarrShooter 14]

Not a big deal for me if this is the case. I want to be able to enjoy driving around and not worry about other cars bashing into me or making it hard to do missions where I need to be on the road.