How small is IV compared to San Andreas?

[xnicx]

no area in SA was wasted space, it all had a purpose, it was to give people room to screw around it.

same with VC

 

and from that link it is 14 square miles for SA and 9 for LC

[mkey82]

 

Judging from this pic: http://img409.imageshack.us/my.php?image=compareoi9.jpg

LC is ok, it's certainly more than 5 square miles.

It certainly isn't. The map is scaled wrong.

 

 

The countryside and the desert were not wasted space in the least.

I second this. These areas were fun (for me) and they provided for the feeling of a nice and large map. Nice transitions when traveling form one city to the other.

 

 

and from that link it is 14 square miles for SA and 9 for LC

LC covers around 5 square miles. It's something less then 2 miles high and some 2.5 miles wide.

Edited August 14, 2008 by mkey82

[ThunderKnight]

Mafia 2 Empire City would be 10 sq miles. Wow it is larger than Liberty City

 

http://www.gamesradar.com/pc/f/mafia-ii-th...11555365089/p-2

[mkey82]

Mafia 2 Empire City would be 10 sq miles. Wow it is larger than Liberty City

 

http://www.gamesradar.com/pc/f/mafia-ii-th...11555365089/p-2

And more detailed. The question is - will it be more interactive?

[NecroViolator]

To settle this Im going to say the game should of been the size of Daggerfall...

100% insane land mass and over 1 billion places to visit and drive around...

100% COOP with 16 players...

 

I dont CARE about super eye candy games... I mean yes GTA IV is really detailed BUT so dang SMALL...

This makes a game really BORING in a few weeks of gameplay...

 

So, Daggerfall size is the next GTA V... ... he he...

 

DANG Mafia 2 looks awesome ... When is it for release ???

Edited August 14, 2008 by NecroViolator

[mkey82]

DANG Mafia 2 looks awesome ... When is it for release ???

Should be sometime during the first three months of 2009. I hope.

[FelipeVinhao]

This is the thread you are looking for (thanks to Kitteh)

 

http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?act=ST&f=120&t=356209&st=

 

Size of SA is some 14 square miles, while the size of LC is something less the 5. You do the math. this is nowhere near the claimed 75%.

 

@EL BENSON: what 20 square miles? What are you talking about?

Remember that this kind of comparation doesn't actually apply to this game. For a simple reason: time and space work together, not only on real life but also on game.

 

Liberty City is exactly the same size of New York if you don't consider you take 5 minutes from one side to another, but 2 hours 30 minutes!

 

If some crazy mind make GTA20's city on 1:1 scale, it's very likely to have the game clock running on 1:1 too.

[MrKlorox]

All this will be moot once the game comes out and we have a proper sense of measurement.

[Dhatz]

it's not wasted space,it's added space. now i made IV feel biger

@negroviolator: first beta map was f*ckin enormous,then they decided they need to start the new generation with something tiny and boring. I'd use every cubic meter of such city if I meant to make it better than ever before(that means i'd made 100% of public interiors 3D)

@FelipeVinhao: the "life is compliceted" one is the best of your sigs .

Edited August 15, 2008 by Dhatz

[GTA_Godfather]

There was nothing wrong with the SA map. It had a great "feel" to it, like mkey82 said with the transitions. Probably the best so far, though I liked VC and III as well. R* does a great job with making each one feel unique. From what I hear, LC in IV has transitions as well, but more on a street-by-street basis, which would suit me just fine.

 

When the size of the map was revealed, I heard talk about the interior being much greater than in SA (to assuage fears of the small size of LC). Is this true? I've really tuned everything out and don't go in the main IV room, so I have no idea.

 

 

 

[Cdnalsi]

Well, it's certainly bigger than I thought.

Found this video, shows the size quite good:

 

http://vimeo.com/967727

[free_to_view]

Well, it's certainly bigger than I thought.

Found this video, shows the size quite good:

 

http://vimeo.com/967727

Nice video

[mkey82]

Liberty City is exactly the same size of New York if you don't consider you take 5 minutes from one side to another, but 2 hours 30 minutes!

Time compression would make sense for me if Niko would move in real time in game. That is, 24 times faster the he really is moving.

 

The towns should be compared by the number of the blocks.

[Fnorg]

Liberty City is denser, and thusly feels bigger.

[MrKlorox]

I have an idea how to compare map sizes.

 

First, find a common landmark between the two maps (in this case a ship at the pier), and measure it (spawn a car on it then get a good areal view with a chopper, take a screenshot), find the scale ratio. Next copy/paste the ship end to end across the entire maps and count how many you have.

 

I don't have means of capturing screens from my 360 to compare with San Andreas, but I'm sure somebody here does.

[mkey82]

May we assume that some vehicle speeds are the same or at least nearly the same? Like a chopper. Take one in LC and measure the time it takes to fly diagonally. Then do the same for a few more times to get some better (average) results. If some result varies too much discard it.

 

Later do the same in SA. Then the only remaining problem would be determining the precise ratio between the speeds of choppers in SA and LC.

 

But I don't think we need to do that. Official SA map site is 13.5 square miles. It has been measured that the LC map is something less then 2 miles tall, let's say it's 2 by 2.5 miles, which makes it around 5 square miles.

 

I understand that there is a difference in time compression between the two games and that LC and SA maps are differently structured but I think we can safely say that SA maps is somewhere between two and three times larger. Density and compression have nothing to do with that, IMO.

[Fnorg]

Well, it's certainly bigger than I thought.

Found this video, shows the size quite good:

 

http://vimeo.com/967727

Nice video

San Andreas felt small too with the 10x draw distance mod. Take away a bit of DD, and you'll feel that LC is bigger. When it really isn't.

[MrKlorox]

Yeah, what's with the draw distance in GTA4? In foggy weather you can still make-out the outline of the same buildings that you can see when it's clear outside (day OR night). Even in SA, there was different draw distances dependent on weather/time of day. Perhaps this will be easily moddable and was left as-is due to laziness.

 

I guess I should say something on topic: the landmark measurement idea seems more reliable than timing by speed.

[Juice By Kayla Marie]

I really liked the open space in san andreas, I wish they could have included a LITTLE bit of it in GTA IV, but with multi player hills and what not wouldn't be that fun on maps. XD

[Fnorg]

Dildo battles on top of a small, yet high, cliff in SAMP was awesome. It think it was on LVP.

[mkey82]

I guess I should say something on topic: the landmark measurement idea seems more reliable than timing by speed.

I would be so if you knew the exact dimensions of some building (in-game).

 

Besides, there are in-game statistics which can give a good estimate of the maps sizes. That way you just need to reach one and of the map and continue to go in a straight line to the other end. I don't think there is a reason to question this method.

[Fnorg]

Why not use the flying car cheat? It displays how long you flew. Fly diagonally.

 

Is that cheat still in the game?

[Neon25]

Why not use the flying car cheat? It displays how long you flew. Fly diagonally.

 

Is that cheat still in the game?

No.

[mkey82]

Why not use the flying car cheat? It displays how long you flew. Fly diagonally.

 

Is that cheat still in the game?

Yeah, but what is the flying car speed? You need two vehicles of equivalent speeds in both games so you could compare the timings.

 

On a more subjective note; try to take a walk across GTA IV map (I think someone timed it to some 210 seconds). I tried to do the same and went for a jog in SA - suffice to say that I didn't manage to get outside of LS (I started from the lower right corner of the map, near the depot for the burglar mission and ran (not sprinted) in North direction) in two minutes so I just gave up.

[Fnorg]

Why not use the flying car cheat? It displays how long you flew. Fly diagonally.

 

Is that cheat still in the game? 

Yeah, but what is the flying car speed? You need two vehicles of equivalent speeds in both games so you could compare the timings.

 

On a more subjective note; try to take a walk across GTA IV map (I think someone timed it to some 210 seconds). I tried to do the same and went for a jog in SA - suffice to say that I didn't manage to get outside of LS (I started from the lower right corner of the map, near the depot for the burglar mission and ran (not sprinted) in North direction) in two minutes so I just gave up.

I dunno, but it says:

 

CRAZY MEGA STUNT JUMP

$20

Time: 40596 seconds

Length: Five miles

 

Speed isn't a factor. I think. Math isn't my favorite subject...

[Cdnalsi]

I think we can say running speed (not sprinting) would be the same between the two games, right?

 

So now we just have to take the time and run with CJ across the map, diagonally, and somebody with IV do the same with Niko

[Ash_735]

Why not use the flying car cheat? It displays how long you flew. Fly diagonally.

 

Is that cheat still in the game? 

Yeah, but what is the flying car speed? You need two vehicles of equivalent speeds in both games so you could compare the timings.

 

On a more subjective note; try to take a walk across GTA IV map (I think someone timed it to some 210 seconds). I tried to do the same and went for a jog in SA - suffice to say that I didn't manage to get outside of LS (I started from the lower right corner of the map, near the depot for the burglar mission and ran (not sprinted) in North direction) in two minutes so I just gave up.

That's bull, it's how they are structured too. Like you said before it's fast to travel across the city in less than a minute, well yeah because there is a road that goes right through the top half of the city and into the airport. Same logic as I said before, if we count that, then it takes less than 20 seconds to cross Las Venturas and get to Los Santos. Incase you didn't notice, there are more paths in Liberty City to quickly walk down, in Los Santos, you had the dockland area which you could only exit via going north and crossing a bridge to get back onto the path an the country was just a long road bending which made it impossible to cross quickly unless you were in a Hydra.

[MrKlorox]

I guess I should say something on topic: the landmark measurement idea seems more reliable than timing by speed.

I would be so if you knew the exact dimensions of some building (in-game).

 

Besides, there are in-game statistics which can give a good estimate of the maps sizes. That way you just need to reach one and of the map and continue to go in a straight line to the other end. I don't think there is a reason to question this method.

I completely forgot about those distance statistics. If meters in SA are the same scale as meters in IV then we should be able to take a chopper and position it over a beach, angle toward the opposite corner, check current flight distance, fly straight, check fly distance. I doubt they drastically modified the scale of measurement to imply larger areas, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was tweaked.

[mkey82]

 

Why not use the flying car cheat? It displays how long you flew. Fly diagonally.

 

Is that cheat still in the game? 

Yeah, but what is the flying car speed? You need two vehicles of equivalent speeds in both games so you could compare the timings.

 

On a more subjective note; try to take a walk across GTA IV map (I think someone timed it to some 210 seconds). I tried to do the same and went for a jog in SA - suffice to say that I didn't manage to get outside of LS (I started from the lower right corner of the map, near the depot for the burglar mission and ran (not sprinted) in North direction) in two minutes so I just gave up.

That's bull, it's how they are structured too. Like you said before it's fast to travel across the city in less than a minute, well yeah because there is a road that goes right through the top half of the city and into the airport. Same logic as I said before, if we count that, then it takes less than 20 seconds to cross Las Venturas and get to Los Santos. Incase you didn't notice, there are more paths in Liberty City to quickly walk down, in Los Santos, you had the dockland area which you could only exit via going north and crossing a bridge to get back onto the path an the country was just a long road bending which made it impossible to cross quickly unless you were in a Hydra.

Wow, it' been a while since I managed to prove somebody wrong this easily.

 

All I said is that I ran north in straight line, like this.

 

This route on foot takes some two minutes. I'm not 100% sure as I use the SRt mod which has some slight map misalignment.

 

In what way do you cross the whole LV and reach LS in less then 20 seconds? Can you provide some video proof? Are you aware that when you open your mouth only bull comes out or it's an involuntary action?

 

 

I doubt they drastically modified the scale of measurement to imply larger areas, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was tweaked.

Actually, those measurements gave the ratio SA:LC maps of around 14:5, so I believe things haven't changed much. I also believe that width and height should be measured, instead of diagonal only as to give a more exact result.

Edited August 21, 2008 by mkey82

[Ash_735]

Ahh, you only said across, so I thought you meant Going from right to left. As for crossing LV and LS in less than 20 seconds, get a fast car, and use the Motorway, if you're not retarded and constantly crash, then you can make it across the two cities in like 20 seconds. So there, not bull.

 

As for Walking, Niko walks much slower than CJ, but I really don't think it's possible to cross the entire city from South to North in 120 seconds, just seems, well, crap, Takes like 20 seconds to leg it through Hove Beach and that's only a small area of Broker.

 

Besides, how come you're soo desperate to prove the city is small? It IS the biggest City they've created, certainly bigger than Los Santos and Vice City (Previous record holder). Yes, not as big as the whole SA Map but not as small as you're trying to make out, would you really call it small? Have you played the game? Can you really say it's patheticly small to you?

 

edit: OK, just timed it myself, To Cross Las Venturas and Los Santos (inc Countryside) via Motorway takes 1min and 30secs using a Standard Taxi, No Nos, Nigh Time and with a load of Traffic and 3 crashes (which reminds me San Andreas had bad traffic, they loved to crash). So I'd imagine with a fast car and Nos then it would shave around 20 seconds off that, so 1min and 10seconds to cross San Andreas vertically in a car. Not exactly the 20 seconds I said (it seemed fast), Now I'll try and do the same in Liberty City later on, using a Standard Taxi.

Edited August 21, 2008 by Ash_735