Vehicle Damage

Vehicle damage is a fundamental aspect in the GTA series where nearly any vehicle is susceptible to damage from the environment, typically in the form of crashes, gunfire, or other external forces, as it does in real life, providing a certain degree of realism and illustrating the vulnerability of vehicles in the series. If a vehicle is sufficiently damaged, it explodes in a fireball, destroying it and rendering it useless for use.

As the series progressed, the variety of damage has been increased, offering additional opportunities on how the player can destroy vehicles. In addition, the manner in which damage is illustrated in game has changed as the game engine is changed.

GTA 1 — GTA 2
As the series began, vehicles in GTA 1 and GTA 2 can be destroyed via high speed crashes, gunfire from firearms and drops into water, features which are still present in all games after. The games are also capable of accurately visualizing portions of vehicles which are damaged using collision detection, and each vehicle has six sections that represent each part as either damaged or undamaged (GTA 2 additionally features two levels of damages on each section).

Unlike much of the series after, a vehicle's performance degrades as its damage is increasingly severe. For GTA 1, the only hint to this is a growingly louder clunking engine noise; GTA 2 includes both the noise and an additional fire in the middle of the vehicle, which grows with increased damage or grows on its own.

GTA III — GTA Vice City Stories
By GTA III, vehicles are far more sensitive with damage, as parts can show signs of damage with the slightest collision. However, the performance of vehicles remains unaffected from damage, and imminent destruction of vehicles are represented by a burning engine. If a vehicle is flipped over, its engine may also engulf in flames and result in the vehicle exploding.

Developing from GTA 1 and GTA 2, GTA III's visual representation of vehicle damage improved in complexity. The engine may now emit smoke, providing a gauge on how much damage a vehicle has before it is on fire, indicating the vehicle's imminent destruction. Most road vehicles in the game are also constructed from individual polygons with a central "core" (the wheels, engine, chassis and body of vehicles). The damage system of vehicles represents the minor vehicle parts (doors, frontal quarter panels and bumpers) as undamaged, damaged or missing, based on collisions detected on the vehicle; the core of each vehicle remains visually unchanged despite heavy damage. Boats and planes, however, will not show signs of damage until they are on the verge of exploding.

Between GTA Vice City and GTA Vice City Stories, various improvements and refinements were made on GTA III's damage engine:


 * For road vehicles in GTA Vice City, front windscreens may now be shattered and tires can be punctured using a firearm (the latter also allows for the inclusion of spike strips) and melee weapons may be effectively used to damage vehicles, while trunk lids may detach from a vehicle at a certain speed if ajar; motorbikes, which were introduced in the game, have only smoke from the engine to show. Smoke effects and color from the engine have also been improved to better depict the condition of a damaged vehicle (from white, to a mix of white and black, to black). Destroyed boats may also sink in the water, as are aircraft and road vehicles.


 * GTA San Andreas forgoes removable front quarter panels altogether, but allows bumpers to dangle before detaching. Doors, trunk lids and boot lids may also be closed shut by physical force (i.e. swaying a vehicle side by side), making detachment of these parts far more difficult. Fixed-wing aircraft in the game also possess the ability to emit smoke from damage parts (such as the wings and fuselage), while flaps on the tail and wings may dangle for similar reasons. Airplanes may also explode on impact with any surface.


 * As GTA Liberty City Stories and GTA Vice City Stories reuse GTA Vice City's game engine, their damage engines are exactly the same as in GTA Vice City.

GTA Advance, which uses an independent top-down game engine, possesses a vehicle damage engine largely similar to that of GTA 1 and GTA 2.

GTA IV
For GTA IV, vehicle damage has improved in leaps and bounds. Imminent destruction is now represented by either a burning engine, a burning gas tank or both, and clunking engine noises are reintroduced for vehicles with damaged engines. Additionally, flipped vehicles no longer explode.

Instead of using readily modeled parts, GTA IV uses a more flexible (but not necessarily realistic) damage engine that allows any part of a vehicle's body to flex and distort based on the force and direction of an impact; the body of boats and helicopters may now be damaged in this manner, while motorcycles still do not. Essentially limitless on the extent on damage that can be done, players can literally flatten or crush any vehicle using extreme force; explosions are also known to damage a vehicle's bodywork severely. In addition, should a road vehicle sustain severe frontal or rear damage, its axle may also bend to a point when it can no longer function, lock and drag itself on the road as the vehicle moves, affecting performance.

Other minor damages were added in the game. Individual lights (including those of motorbikes) and windows can be broken. Opened doors can be broken off by forcing them against another solid object (as doors are now registered as solid objects). Scrapes and scratches are added for minute damages. Flatten tires can break apart at a certain speed, resulting in the wheel running on a bare rim; tires may also be destroyed by fire.