2025 was meant to be the year that Grand Theft Auto 6 finally hit the shelves, but the project has been struck with a delay that will see it release in May 2026. In general, 2025 has already been a strong year for gaming, with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Split Fiction, Monster Hunter Wilds, and many other titles already being Game of the Year worthy with more exciting projects on the way. 2025's gaming scene will more than survive without GTA 6, and it seems that GTA 5 will too with this impressive graphical upgrade.

Grand Theft Auto has a reasonably impressive modding scene, with Rockstar even owning a modding team to aid in converting mods. Thanks to its online features, GTA 5 has been given the tools to be a long-lived title and survive the more than decade-long wait for a sequel. A recently made mod has shown that community-created content is as important in this regard as online functionality, as shown off by the impressive NaturalVision Enhanced mod that gives GTA 5 the graphical upgrade it needs to match most modern games and compete with its own sequel.

NaturalVision Enhanced Makes GTA 5 Look Almost As Good As GTA 6

Lighting Enhancements Make All The Difference

Maybe by the talented Razed Mods, NaturalVision Enhanced brings current gen visuals to the enhanced version of GTA 5, making Los Santos look more realistic than ever. There is also a version in the works for the legacy edition (original) of the game too, called NaturalVision Evolved, although this is currently in its beta stage. What makes NaturalVision Enhanced such a game-changer for GTA 5 is massive upgrades to lighting, although many other visual features have been greatly enhanced as well, aiming to make this twelve-year-old game look as realistic as possible with an all-in-one package.

Razed Mods also made visual enhancement mods for GTA: The Trilogy, Red Dead 2, and Dying Light 2.

NaturalVision Enhanced aims to take full advantage of the ray-tracing features added in GTA 5 Enhanced, hence why the lighting looks so impressive in the trailer shown on YouTube. This makes the reflections of metallic surfaces, like cars, look almost photoreal, and while the character models lack the polygon counts of their GTA 6 counterparts to sell the photorealism, when driving around, players could almost be fooled into thinking that this is GTA 6. Although lighting improvements are the biggest talking point, especially with how ray tracing has been taken advantage of, it isn't the only upgrade.

The weather has been reworked to be more realistic, ambient colors have been enhanced to make the game seem more vibrant, and the colors really pop in the trailer. Textures and models have been enhanced, and this can be seen best with the vegetation around San Andreas' map, which all contribute to how realistic the game can look, especially at night when it's raining. The reflections from puddles help to sell this realistic aesthetic, and it's all because of ray tracing that has been built upon by this mod. GTA 5 has never looked better.

Modding Will Keep GTA 5 Alive Until GTA 6 Drops

And Online Will Pull Its Weight Until May

The wait for GTA 6 has been an arduous one, especially since it has recently been extended, but if the recent trailer is anything to go by, it seems like Rockstar will maintain its standard of excellence with it. Rockstar needs to, given how popular GTA 5 was and how big the IP is, making GTA 6's launch possibly the biggest gaming has ever seen, and it better be with that $100 price tag. Still, that doesn't mean GTA 5 doesn't have legs, especially because GTA 6 will take a little longer to get to PC and have online functionality.

GTA 5 had its online mode about two weeks after the game launched (GTA 5 released on September 17, 2013, and got its online mode on October 1 the same year).

To get the closest thing to GTA 6 while waiting until May, or even longer for PC players, mods like NaturalVision Enhanced are important for this. While this specific mod requires an RTX or otherwise ray-tracing enabled GPU to look good, GTA 6 won't run on a PC without the high-end specs anyway. One issue with NaturalVision Enhanced, and to a lesser extent GTA 5 modding as a whole, is that it is currently only available for the single-player campaign, although this might be a blessing in disguise for those prepping for GTA 6.

GTA 6 won't launch an online mode, at least as far as is known right now, and playing the single-player campaign of GTA 5 one more time, with NaturalVision Enhanced, could be the perfect way for players to build anticipation for the sequel. Rockstar has always been famed for its writing, with Red Dead Redemption 2 being most recent. Players immersing themselves back in the satirical world of GTA through 5's campaign is the perfect way of getting prepared for GTA 6, at least in theory.

GTA 5 Modding Could Paint GTA 6's Future

GTA 6 Could Last As Long As GTA 5

It's no secret that games are taking longer to develop and developers are looking at ways to extend a game's shelf life while fans wait for the next project. Although GTA 5's online has been the go-to method for this, especially because Rockstar has been steadily providing and content for it, modding could play its part in GTA 6. NaturalVision Enhanced's current version is one of the most impressive visual overhauls in all of modding, not just for GTA 5, and it came out on the eve of GTA 6's release, over a decade after 5 launched.

GTA 6 could be around for over a decade without a sequel, especially if there's a third Red Dead, and if GTA 6 online is as popular as its predecessor, which it probably will be. With many big games getting official mod , and Rockstar kind of doing the same with the official modding team helping convert mods from the original GTA 5 to the Enchanced edition, it makes sense that GTA 6 will get a slice of that in its future. ing a community that loves a game enough to make content for it is never a bad thing.

In the meantime, NaturalVision Enhanced is here to give players a taste of Grand Theft Auto 6 by making GTA 5 and San Andreas look more realistic than ever. PC players will have to buckle up and wait even longer for GTA 6 to reach their platform, so NaturalVision Enhanced could be used to scratch the itch and stem the envy while console players are running around Vice City in May 2026. Still, there's a year to go for everyone, and NaturalVision Enhanced might be the answer to those tired of the seemingly eternal wait.

Source: Razed Mods, YouTube