Mapping Los Santos! Building/landmark analysis

[Fail_At_GTA]

 

hehe maybe?

They look nothing alike at all.

[lxr]

 

It all makes sense if the map is like this:

 

[NEW MAP]

Ok, so this is basically GTAKiwi's map, but with most of the countryside rotated ~90 degrees (A/B -> O/N).

 

What are the advantages?

 

- Mt. Zancudo mountain top is much closer to where we actually see it from the city

- Grapeseed postcard makes more sense

 

And the problems?

 

- Mt. X/Y/Z appear twice on the map

- Zancudo Hill is missing in the Vinewood/helicopter shot

- There's no trace of the river in that shot either, or a clear, ledge-by-ledge match of the mountain

- The position of the sun is no longer mostly correct, but mostly nonsense

 

For now, I guess I still prefer the old map.

 

Edit: Maybe I should also add the realism argument. Are there winding rivers that don't flow on a plain or in a valley, but along a curved mountain base?

Edited January 27, 2013 by lxr

[Kifflom112]

Now I think it's a movie in Vinewood...

I doubt R* would do that.

 

There is obviously a lot R* is not showing so that mountain could likely exist somewhere on the map, far from the areas we've been shown.

[iiConTr0v3rSYx]

 

hehe maybe?

I honestly don't think these are the Zancudo mountains....

[Fail_At_GTA]

Im not sure if you guys can get anything from it but theres new artwork in the news section. Its not much and its unreliable because its artwork but you may aswell check it out.

[iiConTr0v3rSYx]

Im not sure if you guys can get anything from it but theres new artwork in the news section. Its not much and its unreliable because its artwork but you may aswell check it out.

I would say it's in the LS canals??? The scene is probably right after the Gameinformer cover art scene.

[YouthGamer]

Great job guys, Its great to know people as intelligent as you are fans of the game.

 

Anyways I have a question: Will I be able to go to the places where most of the movies I watched

took place? Knowing that the majority took place in hollywood, Id like to know from your perspectives

whether Ill be able to reenact the terminator truck chase scene, to live and die in La chase scene,

die hard building etc.

Also if there is the Charlie Sheen home in Malibu.

 

Keep up the good work! One more question for my fav thread on the internetz: When the game comes out what will

you be posting?

[lxr]

 

Im not sure if you guys can get anything from it but theres new artwork in the news section.  Its not much and its unreliable because its artwork but you may aswell check it out.

The new artwork shows 4th St. Bridge, which is visible here.

 

Edit: Seems to be facing south. The next bridge should be what I suppose is the South Downtown Highway (dark blue arrow here).

 

Edit: Ah, and the other image, yes, we've seen that door before.

Edited January 27, 2013 by lxr

[iiConTr0v3rSYx]

Guess it is right after the GI scene, eh? The gang must of parted ways after the van was totaled.

[Fail_At_GTA]

Im not sure if you guys can get anything from it but theres new artwork in the news section.  Its not much and its unreliable because its artwork but you may aswell check it out.

The new artwork shows 4th St. Bridge, which is visible here.

 

Edit: Seems to be facing south. The next bridge should be what I suppose is the South Downtown Highway (dark blue arrow here).

 

Edit: Ah, and the other image, yes, we've seen that door before.

Thanks for giving me an idea of where it was. I didnt recognize anything except that it looks similar to the Game Informer cover, just a slightly different location. Hopefully the next artwork gets leaked early too. Im excited again.

[YouthGamer]

 

Im not sure if you guys can get anything from it but theres new artwork in the news section.  Its not much and its unreliable because its artwork but you may aswell check it out.

The new artwork shows 4th St. Bridge, which is visible here.

 

Edit: Seems to be facing south. The next bridge should be what I suppose is the South Downtown Highway (dark blue arrow here).

 

Edit: Ah, and the other image, yes, we've seen that door before.

I go crazy over just one piece of artwork, when a new trailer comes out I explode, Maybe Ill faint

from the new box art

But imagine the game nooo this is too much for me

[jnzooger]

... Mt. Chiliad ...

So yes, there are in fact quotes from people who have seen the game that say ~ "Mt. Chiliad is by the Alamo Sea". But I'm not sure how they've come to that conclusion. R* may have told them "This is Mt. Chiliad", but it could just as well be that in the GTA universe, "Mt. Chiliad" is just what people call a very tall mountain. I don't even remember -- correct me if I'm wrong -- that the mountain with the hikers from trailer 1 is confirmed to be "Mt. Chiliad", it may as well just be a very tall mountain.

 

This is the only way I see how Mt. Zancudo (triangular) could be Mt. Chiliad (hikers). Does that work? Are there other ways?

 

 

... waterfalls ...

There are two waterfalls. The Alamo River has one, it's visible here and here, below the train bridge. The Alamo River is an outflow of the Alamo Sea, and its origin is here, just out of frame to the right, in the distance.

 

The second waterfall is in the same image, just to the left of the parachutist. That's the Zancudo River. While it's hard to make out the direction of the waterfall, our assumption is that the river flows to the ocean, i.e. away from the viewer. And while we don't have a clear shot of its origin (only this and this), it's most likely another outflow of the Alamo Sea. This is mostly a realism argument: Rivers don't flow parallel to the shore of a lake.

This also looks like a waterfall and a large one too

 

 

I also think it is close to the source of the river

No, this one is the bend in the river I was talking about. You can see it in another picture that shows the clear bend behind the tree.

 

As far as the one to the left of the skydive, I don't really see it. That could just be some rapids or something.

[artificialguy]

Now I think it's a movie in Vinewood...

 

I hope it's not. We haven't seen so much forest area so far.

[Luuno]

So so far the map from ocean to downtown, and LS to desert isnt all that big?

Looking at the screenshots. Downtown looks way closet to the ocean then LA. Ofcourse they arent making it excactly as real life, but if it is smaller, i do asume there will be more cities, maybe not as large as LS but maybe a san diego? It does have a huge harbor and militairy harbor, with submariens so...

[lxr]

 

This also looks like a waterfall and a large one too

 

 

I also think it is close to the source of the river

No, this one is the bend in the river I was talking about. You can see it in another picture that shows the clear bend behind the tree.

 

As far as the one to the left of the skydive, I don't really see it. That could just be some rapids or something.

Where do you see a waterfall here, or a bend? And what's the other picture that would show the same part of that river?

[jmb180]

This also looks like a waterfall and a large one too

 

 

I also think it is close to the source of the river

No, this one is the bend in the river I was talking about. You can see it in another picture that shows the clear bend behind the tree.

 

As far as the one to the left of the skydive, I don't really see it. That could just be some rapids or something.

Where do you see a waterfall here, or a bend? And what's the other picture that would show the same part of that river?

I don't see a bend, but there does seem to be a different texture in the river, just above the wing tip. It could be a cascade, but I doubt it's a big waterfall.

[wojas]

Dont forget, Los Santos is around the same city as Liberty City. Thats plenty big.

Game Informer said that the los santos is bigger than the liberty city. I think that there are suburbs around los santos and with them Los santos will be bigger than La noire los angeles

[LotusRIP]

Dont forget, Los Santos is around the same city as Liberty City.  Thats plenty big.

Game Informer said that the los santos is bigger than the liberty city. I think that there are suburbs around los santos and with them Los santos will be bigger than La noire los angeles

Damn, some people are naive. Still expecting a metropolis....

[wojas]

 

Dont forget, Los Santos is around the same city as Liberty City.  Thats plenty big.

Game Informer said that the los santos is bigger than the liberty city. I think that there are suburbs around los santos and with them Los santos will be bigger than La noire los angeles

Damn, some people are naive. Still expecting a metropolis....

At this screen you can see a grey place on the left of los santos it could be long beach or anaheim. clouds are hidding some places on the map where in real life are suburbs of los angeles. The biggest city in history of rockstar games is still possible. the city (with suburbs) will occupy 9-10 sq miles.

Edited January 27, 2013 by wojas

[johnny_zoo]

Now I think it's a movie in Vinewood...

 

I hope it's not. We haven't seen so much forest area so far.

I remember this. This was the funniest thing I ever did see.

[lxr]

I don't see a bend, but there does seem to be a different texture in the river, just above the wing tip. It could be a cascade, but I doubt it's a big waterfall.

Yes, I can see that one. The rocks right next to it don't look like there's a significant drop, if at all.

[RockStarNiko]

Maybe I am just seeing things, but I keep looking at the screenshot and I can't see anything other than a waterfall at top left

 

 

The large blue arrow indicates direction the river is flowing

 

The small green circle is what looks like the top of a tree that is at lower elevation to the river in foreground

 

Close to the green circle is a small area marked blue where I think the top of the waterfall is

 

The brown oval is where the land appears to start to go "downhill"

 

The grey oval is a hill/mountain that looks to me to be in the distance and at lower elevation to the river

 

 

[jmb180]

 

Maybe I am just seeing things, but I keep looking at the screenshot and I can't see anything other than a waterfall at top left

 

 

The large blue arrow indicates direction the river is flowing

 

The small green circle is what looks like the top of a tree that is at lower elevation to the river in foreground

 

Close to the green circle is a small area marked blue where I think the top of the waterfall is

 

The brown oval is where the land appears to start to go "downhill"

 

The grey oval is a hill/mountain that looks to me to be in the distance and at lower elevation to the river

I can see where you are coming from. I agree about the direction of water and the background clearly is at a lower elevation. The major question I have regards your green circle. To me, it looks like it's part of the tree in the foreground. Zoom into the full size image and tell me what you think.

 

Interestingly, the igta screenshot is clearer than the gta forums one linked in the news section ...

Edited January 27, 2013 by jmb180

[RockStarNiko]

Yes, looking at the zoomed in screenshot it does seem that "tree" is just part of the tree in foreground

 

This removes a limit as to how high the waterfall could be because before I was thinking that tree is further along, but now there could be just one large waterfall that more or less takes the river to ~ground level

 

If the hill/mountain is indeed in the distance then we must be very high up in a mountain and so the river at some point MUST drop down a considerable distance, so is there one large waterfall or several smaller waterfalls

[lxr]

I agree that most likely, the river is flowing away from the viewer.

 

The most interesting detail may be the road in the background (visible both on the left side and, a bit better, on the right side of the tree).

 

So the overall terrain may be similar to what we see here, near the left edge, in the distance.

[King Of Monra]

 

http://www.spill.no/default.aspx?section=artikkel&id=3921 looks like someone here is famous in Norway now, it doesn't gett any better than this.

[Choco Taco]

The color of the rocks marked in red make it look like it's in the distance and that there's a gap there with maybe a waterfall or sloping rapids.

 

[lxr]

One more thing regarding initium's map. The main idea is that the mountain we see in image 1, marked as Mt. Alamo, is in fact Mt. Zancudo, seen in image 2, but from the opposite side. Some of that other side is visible in image 3.

 

Even the simple shape of Mt. Zancudo is still somewhat complex. As one can see in image 2, the ledges of the wrong side would match the direction of the ledges in image 1. While the mountain is far from symmetrical, i.e. the other side is not just mirrored (and thus plain wrong), it's really not easy to see how exactly that mountain would have to be rotated for the overall orientation of the ledges to match.

 

(Plus, as mentioned before, it's hard to find a reason for that river to keep winding along that mountain base when there is a lot of flat territory, like in image 1, on the other side.)

 

Image 1

 

 

Image 2

 

 

Image 3

 

[EnviousBird]

http://www.spill.no/default.aspx?section=artikkel&id=3921 looks like someone here is famous in Norway now, it doesn't gett any better than this.

How did we not find this before?

[KTR]

I put this image together a while back. It doesn't look like a water fall (sheer drop), but a start of a rapid (tiny slope).

 

 

(click to enlarge)