Real-life texture sources and references used in GTA San Andreas

[Rhoda]

I have nothing else to really contribute but I have to say this topic is amazing.

[Mehaniq]

On 7/19/2021 at 6:22 PM, Rhoda said:

I have nothing else to really contribute but I have to say this topic is amazing.

It's cool, and I hope there are people on the forum who know something that I don't. Especially if they live in the United States and have information about shops and traditions, which I do not know about due to the fact that they grew up in Ukraine at a time when the Internet did not gain popularity. Perhaps there are also people who possess information about household appliances, about cars or about graffiti murals of that time, as for me it is all like objects from another world that I previously saw only on television.

My main tools right now are Google Street View and search for old photos of famous places. The panoramas begin in 2007, and the textures of GTA San Andreas were photographed in 2004 or even earlier, and I perfectly understand that some information may be lost due to the fact that during these 3-5 years many shops were closed and many walls were repainted.

[Mehaniq]

On 7/18/2021 at 8:53 PM, GhettoJesus said:

On the topic of that. The first house contains a Sony VCR (I think it's a VCR) and you can clearly read the SONY label. Might be worth checking to see if you can track down the exact model. Also his first house has a different TV, I am not sure whether it's a real brand because the label is very blurry but you might be able to work it out. Also there are some newspaper on his table in the first house iirc. That might be something real too.

I learn your proposition about SONY player under TV box and I'm sure that the technique from the photo of this texture is SONY Betamax C7. This player is available in two body versions, which differ in color: silver and black. There are also players with an inscription on the lid at the bottom, which is absent on the player in the B-Dup's room.

 

lee_bdupsflat.txd - Bdup_VCR
from gta_int.img

 

Real life photos from various websites

 

Info and photos from:
https://all-audio.pro/c36/spravochniki/sony-betamax.php

https://www.palsite.com/slc7ovi.html

https://3dnews.ru/923312

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sony-Betamax-Recorder.jpg

https://picclick.fr/Vintage-Sony-SL-C7UB-Betamax-Video-Cassette-Recorder-124449695205.html#&gid=1&pid=1

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/sony_sl_c_7slc.html

 

 

[Davve95]

Cool! I have also found some textures, but I have posted them to a team and don't have the links anymore.

But this is really damn cool as said :P.

[Mehaniq]

On 7/19/2021 at 9:21 PM, Davve95 said:

Cool! I have also found some textures, but I have posted them to a team and don't have the links anymore.

But this is really damn cool as said :P.

If you remember any information about this - join the discussion in this thread.

[Mehaniq]

Banners about latest video games and 5 min. photo we see on Santa Maria Beach under the bridge in the Pay'N'Spray block - in real life, these images are located at 722 South Broadway, Los Angeles near "Sassony Arcade" entrance. They are also placed on the second floor of the building. Among the seven images, 6 were used. The first panorama was taken in 2008, when one of the signs was tainted with graffiti.

beafron2_law2.txd - eastwin08_LAe2

from gta3.img

 

 

in 2014 last window been broken:

 

 

In 2015 another window been spoiled by graffiti and 2 windows on right side been cleared:

 

 

In November, 2015 all window banners been replaced to cardboard or wooden flat planks and Sassony Arcade closed: 

 

 

Sassony Arcade is famous place for entertainment and in google search we all can see photos with this banners in perfect condition or period when company sign freshly removed.

 

And I found very old (unknown year) short video with full "video" inscription with all characters on right part of sign but our banners on 2nd floor has previous old design

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/medium-angle-of-entrance-and-sign-for-sassony-stock-video-footage/873025400

 

Sources:
https://foursquare.com/v/sassony-arcade/4e52b90e45ddae62fc8553e2

https://www.loc.gov/item/2013632774/

http://www.classicarcadegaming.com/forums/index.php?topic=7013.0&__cf_chl_captcha_tk__=pmd_16aa7d69827b018a587f339de4e31b7396f83729-1626728810-0-gqNtZGzNAs2jcnBszQP6

https://www.flickr.com/photos/79761301@N00/2231686331

https://www.yelp.com/biz/sassony-arcade-los-angeles?hrid=Zzv5ONiwXdmTg_lPL6YHXA&rh_type=phrase&rh_ident=street_fighter

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/490962796847494748/

https://esotouric.tumblr.com/post/128455402350/a-great-dtla-sign-is-no-morerip-sassony-arcade-a

 

 

 

Edited July 19, 2021 by Mehaniq

[Mehaniq]

A jewelry store in Commerce near Unity Station called Los Santos Jewelry Mart I found at 607 S. Hill Street, Los Angeles with its real name California Jewelry Mart. The golden sign above the store entrance still exists today. Banner may be overexposed in game.

civic06_lan.txd - downtsign6_LA
from gta3.img

 

 

 

 

[CynicalMexican]

We really ought to bring this to the attention of Vadim M and BadgerGoodger. This is heavily insightful into how the game was developed.

 

EDIT: Found the Highland Swap Mall; location is 5609 N Figueroa Street in Los Angeles. It's still around and houses a few shops though it looks drastically different 

Edited July 19, 2021 by CynicalMexican

[Mehaniq]

On 7/20/2021 at 2:29 AM, CynicalMexican said:

Мы действительно должны обратить на это внимание Вадима М и BadgerGoodger. Это в значительной степени помогает понять, как разрабатывалась игра.

 

РЕДАКТИРОВАТЬ: нашел торговый центр Highland Swap; Адрес: 5609 N Figueroa Street в Лос-Анджелесе. Он по-прежнему существует, и в нем есть несколько магазинов, хотя он выглядит кардинально по-другому. 

How did he look in the game? If possible, please take a screenshot.

UPD: I found it but you right, design is old but not like in game. Since 2007 his painted main sign is different( And "Liquor" Advertisement lamp in sh*tty condition

eastls1_lae2.txd - swapmall1
from gta3.img

 

Also I found photo with different design what we can not see in any year of Google Street View:
 

 

And this is photo from internet with graffiti drawing on Swapmall and building with true GTA San Andreas texture origin:

(see on small metal squares)

 

 

Sources:

http://www.grconnect.com/murals/html/pc160077.html

https://www.yelp.com/biz/highland-swap-mall-los-angeles

Edited July 20, 2021 by Mehaniq

[Blaze]

On 7/19/2021 at 2:22 PM, Mehaniq said:

Do you know anything about these guys?

 

kinda hard to tell with how low res it is.  the smaller tag on the left pane of the shutter could be tloks which is TKO crew from LA. tag furthest right is denise which i know there was a guy in london who wrote denise in the 90s but prolly as an alternate name.

 

 

sorry i can't confirm anything for definite.

[Blaze]

 

I think it's plainly obvious the SA casino logo is a ripoff/inspired by Casino Royale in Vegas. Same colour scheme, very similar typeface, same shapes underlining the text.

[Mehaniq]

On 7/20/2021 at 1:04 PM, sombrA said:

I think it's plainly obvious the SA casino logo is a ripoff/inspired by Casino Royale in Vegas. Same colour scheme, very similar typeface, same shapes underlining the text.

Its true Casino Royale on 3411 Las Vegas Blvd S, Las Vegas but Banner been modified. In real life this banner been actual up to 2013 (as I know). And after we can see new design of this banner. In txd file name of textures is Casroyale - Casino Royale (not Royal Casino)

casroyale.txd - royalesign02_256
from gta3.img

And also there is a second banner in corner of building, and it stay all time with classic design:

 

 

Banner glows at night:

On 7/18/2021 at 6:47 AM, Duhillestpunk said:

I’m glad thread exists as there are lots of real life textures used in this game as well as many other GTAs.
 

I don’t have a screenshot of it and this isn’t a real life business but in San Fierro, the windows on the Vank Off Hotel in the financial district has a person seen in the reflection taking a picture of the window.

 

Edit: Found out buildings name.

I know a lot of textures with human reflections. This can be either a map developer or a hired photographer or a random person whose photo creators have stolen and used in the game. This does not quite correspond to the current topic, but if you need to see these photos - I can take the time, find a few and show in private messages

[Mehaniq]

"69c only stores" in Idlewood and maybe in some other places has source texture image from one of hundreds real "99c only stores" and need to be real Sherlock Holmes to check all of it))) I see few of it and dont see 100% original banner. I have a suspicion that the logo on a pink background was painted in a photo editor and has a lot of self-made interventions on the original. And the second logo with multi-colored stripes on the sides looks like a real photo of the banner of this store, and we can see that the first number 9 was turned upside down because the shadow from it falls up. And so there are small streaks in the middle of the number, which also turned over so that the number 9 turns into 6. A person who finds a true store banner from texture among a photo from the Internet will be my idol

idlewood6_lae.txd - las69str2

shopliquor_las.txd - las69str2 and las69str4

from gta3.img

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99_Cents_Only_Stores

https://99only.com/stores/near-me?map=33.03638,-96.697631,12z

 

 

[Mehaniq]

Watts towers, Towers of Simon Rodia or Nuestro Pueblo on 1765 E 107th St, Los Angeles we can see on East Los Santos next to Tiki Theater. And I found original texture of the foundation of few towers in game. It been one of walls decorated in multicolored ceramic slabs placed on 2nd square after arch. I try to show location on my Google Street View screenshots and also I found few amateur shots with this part of wall. In-game variant has vertically inverted texture usage.

lae2tempsh*t.txd - wattsstax3_LAe

from gta3.img

 

And this is amateur photos from Google Maps without view from metal fence:

 

[Mehaniq]

A very interesting situation happened when looking for one of the stores in San Andreas, because it existed in GTA games much earlier, and the texture was used in Vice City. This means that he was photographed around 2000-2002 or even earlier, so the chances of catching him in his previous form were very small.

 

We are talking about the Botanica Carlos and Miguel store, which we can meet in Angel Pine, San Andreas and also in Little Haiti, Vice City. This store is located at 3533 NW 17th Ave, Miami. In Vice City, a more original photograph is used as a texture, as it shows the real store number and part of the phone number in the window. In San Andreas, the store number was changed from 3533 to 775, and part of the phone number was removed completely. The phone number of the store is +13056347469 but in Vice City we see only the last digits 7469. The store has changed a lot by the time of the first panoramas in 2007, so we will not be able to identify it by its appearance, but it retained its name and the shape of the door and the showcase is the same. as well as on the game texture.

 

w_towncs_t.txd - sh256hi

from gta3.img

 

 

Vice City screenshots:

 

 

Google Street View panoramas:

2007 sh*tty quality but we can see different banner design and different advertisement on store front:

 

2009: Store name and telephone number recognizable placed on banners:

 

 

New banner design in 2015:

 

 

Clothes boutique on this address in 2018:

 

 

 

[Davve95]

Here's one of the textures I have found. It is in the kitchen in the Liberty City mission.

 

[CynicalMexican]

@Mehaniq Angel Pine uses VC textures/stores too, ones from real businesses in Little Haiti.

[Mehaniq]

On 7/22/2021 at 11:09 PM, CynicalMexican said:

@Mehaniq Angel Pine uses VC textures/stores too, ones from real businesses in Little Haiti.

To my regret, there is a very long period of time between the period of collecting textures for Vice City and the filming of the first street view panoramas from Google, which significantly reduces the chances of finding an image from the texture, even partially, because in 5 years many buildings have been rebuilt again and nothing from old buildings left. And this store is a lot of luck. Because in addition to the phone number, business name and store number, I also recognized similar doors and the pattern of the concrete wall on which the old banner was located.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if these stores were very close to each other. And the author of the textures shot them in one place to save his time. But the rest of the shops have been fixed in the game so that it is impossible to find them using their game name. Or was it so long ago when store owners did not have their own pages on the Internet and did not register their business on google maps.

 

It would be interesting if there was a topic on the forum in which people compared textures from GTA3, GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas. I'd love to see how much content has been moved to San Andreas from previous games

[CynicalMexican]

The RoSA team found a number of source HD textures and they're available to download.

 

I'm datamining GTA 4 and GTA 5's textures and have already found a good number of old assets in 512 or 1024 resolution.

[Mehaniq]

San Andreas shop "Perfumes Flatware Sculptures" in El Corona and Idlewood I found on 5106 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles. This shop has full true address on bottom left corner of banner in texture pic, but in game we can see 1065 and without "Santa Monica Bl" inscription. And "sculptures" text been added in banner manually with another font (see my screenshots).

oldshops_las.txd and compomark_lae2.txd - sanpshop2
from gta3.img

 

Screenshots from Google Street View since 2009:

 

2011:

 

 

2014:

 

 

In 2015-2017 new shop in this place:

 

 

[Mehaniq]

Decorative arch of Pilgrim Plaza in Chinatown style I found in 4205 Spring Mountain Rd, Las Vegas. 
Pilgrim shop signs I found in 4215 Spring Mountain Rd, Las Vegas

Green door in Plaza I found in 4155 W Spring Mountain Rd, Las Vegas.

 

chinatownmall.txd from gta3.img
ctmall01_128
ctmall05
ctmallsign01_128
ctmall16_128

The arch has not changed from the moment it was used in the game to these days:

 

Store signs gradually changed and only one remained relevant at the current time:

 

 

2007: All shop signs on building facade.

 

2009: Arts & Crafts shop sign replaced by another.

 

 

2017: Restaurant sign replaced by another.

 

 

2019: Optometrist sign replaced by another.

 

 

But the green door does not belong to these stores, although it is very similar to them. Not far from these shops there is a Ranch Market store, which has an entrance door shape identical to that used in the game.

 

 

 

[CynicalMexican]

 

Broadway Trade Center, located at 301 W 8th Street in Los Angeles. Circa April 2009.

 

 

[Mehaniq]

On 7/25/2021 at 8:21 AM, CynicalMexican said:

Broadway Trade Center, located at 301 W 8th Street in Los Angeles. Circa April 2009.

Yes) Thanks for address.
Broadway Trade Center in May Company Building has many identic banners near shops and I don't know which one is original. Building located at 801 S. Broadway, Los Angeles. In the game, this texture is a large sign on the upper floors of a building next to the highway in Commerce. I cannot say anything about the frame around the inscription, because it is not on any banner from Google Street View

 

In 2016, the building began to be restored and in this regard, all the shops on the ground floor were removed. These days these stores are also inactive and the banners have been removed too.

 

civic06_lan - tradecentre1
from gta3.img

 

Real life timeline screenshots:

 

 

2016:

 

 

And it is another side of this building:

 

2016:

 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2021 by Mehaniq

[BennyGod]

There’s a texture commonly used in game of a large window. On the texture, you can see a real life car made after 1992.

[Mehaniq]

On 7/25/2021 at 7:15 PM, BennyGod said:

There’s a texture commonly used in game of a large window. On the texture, you can see a real life car made after 1992.

I roughly understand which window we are talking about, but I will still ask for a screenshot to be sure of this. And if possible, provide information about that car from the real world

[BennyGod]

On 7/25/2021 at 12:06 PM, Mehaniq said:

I roughly understand which window we are talking about, but I will still ask for a screenshot to be sure of this. And if possible, provide information about that car from the real world

https://gta-myths.fandom.com/wiki/Newer_Cars

[CynicalMexican]

On 7/25/2021 at 11:37 AM, BennyGod said:

https://gta-myths.fandom.com/wiki/Newer_Cars

The Bullet appears in GTA SA even though its real life counterpart was not manufactured until 2004,

 

Anyway, here's a very interesting texture source.

 

G&A Automotive doesn't actually appear in the game; the texture is completely unused, for whatever reason. This is comptsign8_LAe, and Yaiyarir Auto Parts appears with 2 locations in Los Santos and 1 in Las Venturas. I have not been able to find a real equivalent business for Yaiyarir.

 

However, there appears to be a real G&A Automotive in San Diego, where Rockstar has an office. They still operate to this day:

G & A AUTOMOTIVE - 22 Photos & 11 Reviews - Auto Repair - 3708 Main St, San Diego, CA - Phone Number - Yelp

 

This is the earliest snapshot I could find of them:

 

 

[Mehaniq]

On 7/25/2021 at 11:04 PM, CynicalMexican said:

I have not been able to find a real equivalent business for Yaiyarir.

I'm pretty sure the name was fictitious and the letters were swapped to create a non-existent company YAIYARIR. If you look closely at the letters, you can see that some of them are repeated in the same way as in the case of a NELLINELLE beauty salon. Therefore, if we set out to find this auto repair shop, then we do not need to rely on the name of the company. I want to try to use the last digits of phone numbers in the search, taking them as a test argument, as it often happens that phone numbers are stored for a long time while a store or some other business exists. Therefore, when looking for a car repair shop in specific areas of Los Angeles, you can stumble upon a car repair shop with the same ending in the phone number, even if it has a completely different name or banner. Thanks for good job

[CynicalMexican]

(redacted)

 

This seems to line-up with the phone number on the Auto Parts sign. Remember that 555 is a fictitious number used in media such as TV, video games, movies, etc so in this case we know the real number was photoshopped.

Edited July 25, 2021 by CynicalMexican

[Mehaniq]

On 7/25/2021 at 11:04 PM, CynicalMexican said:

I have not been able to find a real equivalent business for Yaiyarir.

I found it. Originally its NAYARIT auto parts shop on 4149 City Terrace Dr, Los Angeles and it has actual phone number +1 (323) 269-3115 and on texture we can see (213) 555-3115 and (213) 555-3116. last 4 digits identical with original phone number. (323) and (213) is area codes from same place. Unfortunately, Google Street View don't have this banner because there are different banner on shop since 2007

 

vgsespras.txd
chicano10_lae.txd
eastls4_lae2.txd
lngblok_lae2.txd
cunte_gas01.txd

Image: comptsign8_LAe
from gta3.img

 

Real life Google Street View screenshots:

 

2012 or few years before: new shop sign

 

 

Photo from facebook page

 

Also I found second Nayarit business but not "auto parts" and with another phone number in 902 W Vernon Ave, Los Angeles

 

 

Edited July 25, 2021 by Mehaniq