GTA 5: parallax occlusion mapping is gone, but framerate is better

Patch 1.09 for GTA 5 has indeed removed the parallax occlusion mapping effect, but has in turn improved the game's overall framerate - at least on PlayStation 4.

Earlier last week a YouTube video came to light and showed what appeared to be the removal of effects from GTA 5 after applying patch 1.09. The loss of effects like parallax occlusion mapping, car deformation physics and an overall increase in the rate of pop-in were reported.

Rockstar acknowledged the issue and said a patch was on the way. Patch 1.09 was released shortly after, and reportedly fixed all but the parallax occlusion mapping issue.

Digital Foundry then decided to analyse the game and compare the launch version with patch 1.02 against the current one.

They discovered that yes, parallax mapping has been removed from both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions. However, while the PlayStation 4 enjoyed better framerate as a result, the Xbox One's framerate remains the same. When GTA 5 was released on those consoles, Digital Foundry had concluded that both of them suffer framerate drops below 30fps, but that the Xbox One version maintained this target better.

Now, it appears the tables have turned, with the Xbox One losing parallax mapping - just like PS4, but without the improved framerate.

It's worth noting that the framerate improvements could've been added in any of the prior patches, but since the site only tested the game with 1.02 and 1.09, the conclusion is based on those. The site also agrees that this could still be a bug and may end up being fixed in a future patch. The support page has not been updated following the release of patch 1.09 which would certainly add to that theory.