Rockstar Awards $10k to Modder that Cut Load Times by 70%

Grand Theft Auto 5 is about to load a lot quicker for everyone. A modder broke down the loading process, describing how to improve it. And they did such a good job at it, that Rockstar is implementing the changes and giving the modder a solid $10k.

A little while back, a modder by the handle t0st posted online how their recent mod can improve the loading times of GTA5 by as much as 70%. They explained that the loading process was absolutely filled with redundant data checks. By omitting certain checks, they can drastically reduce the load times. Since the game has a reputation for the long load times, news of this spread quickly.

Not long after, Rockstar themselves responded to the information (with PC Gamer). They confirmed the effectiveness of the mod and stated that theyd be implementing similar changes into the base game.

After a thorough investigation, we can confirm that player t0st did, in fact, reveal an aspect of the game code related to load times for the PC version of GTA Online that could be improved.

As a result of these investigations, we have made some changes that will be implemented in a forthcoming title update.

t0st has also followed up on the original post, revealing that Rockstar awarded them $10,000 for the fix as part of their bug bounty program. They also noted that this is not the norm, since the program is primarily for finding security issues.

While were amazed that a solution to the load times was found, were kind of surprised it took this long to be discovered. GTA 5 is eight years old at this point. If there was a way to improve the load times, youd think itd have been found by now. Oh well, better late than never.