Mapping Los Santos! Building/landmark analysis

[lxr]

I think this particular lane-width estimate was thrown off by the outdated assumption that GTA maps have a 5m lane-width standard, which is true in SA and earlier. GTAIV has a 6m standard lane width, which enabled there to be parked vehicles on most streets. If you park on the side of a street in an earlier GTA, unless there is specifically a parking lane you'll block traffic.

 

The tennis court-based scale is consistent with the 6m lane assumption and results in a larger Los Santos for obvious reasons.

Interesting! Is there an official confirmation for this? To me, the lanes didn't seem 20% wider than in IV (but then... it can be hard to tell).

 

So... what's the length of the car, below? It's visible on the satellite images, and thus all other images in this post (which should be scaled more or less correctly, relative to each other). In the highest resolution image, it's about 36 px long. If the lanes are 5 meters wide, the car is ~4.5 meters long, if the lanes are 6 meters wide, it's ~5.4 meters long. Any idea what's more plausible? Any other distances in that shot that are easy to estimate?

 

[Mrthingus]

EDITED SKYJUMP PHOTO

Westin Bonaventure has 3 cylinders. Not that we didn't know that already. Also, really nice view of the hills to the east of the city.

[ECDT1089]

 

"Sh*t, f*ck, goddammit! Look how small that city looks!!! I'm not buying this game at all because that city is sooooo damn small!!"

Edited September 4, 2013 by ECDT1089

[KidAmnesiac42]

I love how much detail they've put into the desert, they didn't just settle with a barren area around the airstrip, the whole place is littered with little locations to have shootouts in and places to race through. There's just as much care put into the depth of Blaine County as there is in Los Santos, which is why I always think it's pointless to only use LS in comparisons with GTA 4, as if the countryside may as well be scrapped just for more city.

Same, the countryside/desert looks absolutely amazing. I can not wait. I am equally excited for city and countryside/desert/ocean/sea/mountain ranges. Ha.

[lxr]

Found another building.

It's some kind of warehouse located on Pier A in the LA Harbor.

You can see it on the artwork below (from the GTA Online poster)

I know it's an artwork but I'm pretty convinced that this building will be ingame.

Sorry for quoting myself but I found another real life building

 

It's a small pier along Seaside Avenue on Terminal Island, Long Beach.

Great finds!

 

This one is close by:

 

[williamcampbell]

 

"Sh*t, f*ck, goddammit! Look how small that city looks!!! I'm not buying this game at all because that city is sooooo damn small!!"

The funny thing is that most of those commenting such things don't have any idea about sense of scale. They talk about it as if the characters in this pic were giant or something, without taking into consideration the ground view!

 

I just can't understand it. Especially when one of those members praises SA, which had a terrible sense of scale, especially compared to the HD GTA games (LC wasn't that big when you look at the map, but it feels huge - way bigger than any city featured in previous games).

[KVRTSEZ]

HD

[Mrthingus]

HD

This one sort of confuses me. They're heading east down Vinewood Boulevard, right?

[Powner811]

This is one third of the entire map. It is basicly the first part of the blue print we saw.

Los Santos look big

If this is the entire city, than is VERY small..!! I hope not! But i unfortunately think it is!

 

This is western part of city, pointing at beach where Perro Pier is.

 

Also remember that Rockstar has increased draw distance and scale so please stop complaining. Entire GTA 4's LC combined without water between islands can fit into LS. So yeah. Grow up

[ECDT1089]

Unfortunately, people will never stop complaining. The eastern half of the city in the Vinewood screenshot, and the western half in screenshot above, makes the city looks huge. And we're just looking at it from above!

[omenz321]

I really do hope LS feels huge. Each new screenshot changes my views on the matter.

Edited September 4, 2013 by omenz321

[malcolmfunktion]

Sorry if this has been asked\answered but can anyone tell me if the sky diving screen at sunset\rise..(the one that looks like its out of Point Break) ...is the camera pointing east in that shot?

[BenniMBXD]

Sorry if this has been asked\answered but can anyone tell me if the sky diving screen at sunset\rise..(the one that looks like its out of Point Break) ...is the camera pointing east in that shot?

its sunrise

[twert]

This gives a nice indication of how big LS really is from groundview.

 

I think people who say it's small are just too focussed on the skyscrapers. Yes, that district is small compared to all skyscrapers in LC. But the entire city of LS is widespread.

[Fido_le_muet]

Great finds!

 

This one is close by:

 

Cool !

Another building from the harbor !

Good spot !

Only big one missing is the blue building in the background of that submarine shot.

[Mrthingus]

Los Santos is not meant to be "mini L.A." but a fantasy version of it. Remember that article a few weeks back where one of the developers of GTA V talked about how they've practically been in this fictional universe for the last 5 years. What you see in the game is not supposed to represent scale nor size but what you'd see in movies that take place in LA.

 

EDIT: Also, this looks like one of the buildings in the Port area, the one on the far right.

 

Edited September 4, 2013 by Mrthingus

[JocGTAV]

I know this has been talked about a million times over and theres basically no evidence to support it as of yet but what is everyones thoughts about a possible separate island north or way west of the map we know of? It is definitely possible and it would also make boats a lot more useful if there is somewhere else we can drive them to

[nortex010]

 

I think this particular lane-width estimate was thrown off by the outdated assumption that GTA maps have a 5m lane-width standard, which is true in SA and earlier. GTAIV has a 6m standard lane width, which enabled there to be parked vehicles on most streets. If you park on the side of a street in an earlier GTA, unless there is specifically a parking lane you'll block traffic.

 

The tennis court-based scale is consistent with the 6m lane assumption and results in a larger Los Santos for obvious reasons.

Interesting! Is there an official confirmation for this? To me, the lanes didn't seem 20% wider than in IV (but then... it can be hard to tell).

 

So... what's the length of the car, below? It's visible on the satellite images, and thus all other images in this post (which should be scaled more or less correctly, relative to each other). In the highest resolution image, it's about 36 px long. If the lanes are 5 meters wide, the car is ~4.5 meters long, if the lanes are 6 meters wide, it's ~5.4 meters long. Any idea what's more plausible? Any other distances in that shot that are easy to estimate?

 

IMAGE

The car in the picture is based on the 2004-2011 Audi A6 sedan, which is 4,9 meters long. If the in-game car is about the same size (although it looks a tad shorter), I would say the lane-width is about 5.3-5.5 meters.

[GTAfan4life12]

 

 

 

Was any lumber mill found on the map? You can see lumber trucks in this screenshot. Which looks like they may be turning from a side road. Is this near Rocket town on the northside?

Edited September 4, 2013 by GTAfan4life12

[Baineblade]

You know, looking at all these recent pics of Los Santos...All I can say is that it keeps reminding me of Tucson, Arizona. It's approximately the same size, has a population of over 500,000, has about the same number of sky scrapers (Though not as tall), has a mountain range to its north as well as an International airport to the south West in the city limits (Even has a near same layout as Los Santos' Airport, a three strip cross T formation in the same direction.). About the only thing Tucson doesn't have is a harbor.

[Rixion]

 

 

 

Was any lumber mill found on the map? You can see lumber trucks in this screenshot. Which looks like they may be turning from a side road. Is this near Rocket town on the northside?

I'm thinking it's definitely near by to the Paleto area... around here

[_Kindled_]

Any ideas on the location of this desert?

[Found_Again]

Kindled - you were told not to come back here until the countdown reached 12:00. You're about an hour early. Do what you were told just like you told me.

[_Kindled_]

 

Kindled - you were told not to come back here until the countdown reached 12:00.  You're about an hour early. Do what you were told. 

Hey, I asked a simple question.

Don't get hostile at me. I just want to know the location of the above desert.

[uboaaaa]

Any ideas on the location of this desert?

I can't tell if the mountain in the top right is Chiliad or Josiah...

[DuPz0r]

Another update on the map -I spent some time sculpting detail into the mountains, and added a couple of bridges up in Blaine county. Hopefully doing the scale of the map justice, as I've still seen many people say the map looks small, when it's clearly massive.

[_Kindled_]

I think I might even recognize the area.

The atmosphere seems similar. It's a desert, IMO.

 

 

@DuPz0r: Is that supposed to be snow on the top of Mt. Chiliad?

[uboaaaa]

Any ideas on the location of this desert?

I could be wrong, but i'm guessing it's in this vicinity:

[Mrthingus]

Another update on the map -I spent some time sculpting detail into the mountains, and added a couple of bridges up in Blaine county. Hopefully doing the scale of the map justice, as I've still seen many people say the map looks small, when it's clearly massive.

This is fantastic. Great job. One thing though, Mt. Josiah seems to lack that distinctive southern slope, it feels too steep.

[Backfire6]

Actually...thats the only area it could be. The other areas are mountains and or a town/forest. It's the smallest Desert I have ever seen.