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

[CynicalMexican]

I suspected as such. Nayarit is a real life Mexican state (I've been there in the past) in case anyone is wondering; "Yaiyarir" is literally just gibberish.

 

There is also a "Larellas Bakery" as well.

 

I suspect this is another business which had its name changed while photoshopping; the shop sign looks less "photographed" compared to some others.

 

The closest I could find was the Sonora Bakery in East Los Angeles:

[Mehaniq]

On 7/26/2021 at 3:31 AM, CynicalMexican said:

The closest I could find was the Sonora Bakery in East Los Angeles:

You need to check the phone number. The texture shows that most likely the numbers 9118 were not edited. And chances are the same bakery should have the last four digits the same as on the texture. Even if the banner has been changed or the store name has changed.

[Lioshenka]

I suppose I should add this link here :)

 

 

[Mehaniq]

On 7/26/2021 at 12:51 PM, Lioshenka said:

I suppose I should add this link here

Hi. You did a great job, especially for 2010. I love your document on Las Venturas and I confess that there are many places that I didn't know about until I saw this topic in 2021.

I would be very happy if you participated with us in the search for textures. I see that you have good skills and have been doing this for a very long time.

I don't know why there are so few participants in your topic. Probably in 2010-2014 it was not popular on the forum to look for real buildings or references. But now I will do this even if no one besides me will write posts here.

I have many finds, but they are still in a raw format and in order not to give false information - I am checking them.

[Mehaniq]

I want to inform everyone that I made a mistake when I found a Pawn Shop with a text "casa de empeño" on a banner that was similar to the one that was often seen in Los Santos.

Now I have found the actual source material from which the textures were created. And also found new elements that relate to this building.

The address of this "Alvarado" pawnshop is 2015 W 6th St, Los Angeles and also includes an image of a hand with dollars and a long strip in the form of the Hungarian flag. Or it could have been an Italian flag, but horizontally.

 

.txd files:

lae2newtempbx.txd
lashops93_las2.txd

lashops1b_las2.txd

lasground_las2.txd

from gta3.img

images:

sanpedpawn2c
sanpedpawn2
sanpedpawn1d
sanpedpawn1a

sanpedpawn1

 

Dollars in hand:

 

Red, white and green long stripes:

 

Yellow wall with 4 rivets where the third fastener is the longest (look on shadow)

 

 

Relief wall next to store front

 

 

 

 

 

[CynicalMexican]

Quick note - it is not the Hungarian or Italian flag but it's supposed to be the Mexican flag in tricolor form. California has a large Mexican community so Mexican paraphernalia is common. The flags are all similar though. 

[Mehaniq]

G & A Automotive Rebuilders and edited "NIK'S Automotive Pawn" banners originally from G&A Automotive in 6529 Whittier Blvd, East Los Angeles. Stained telephone number is 724-9679. And no information about this business on this address or telephone number in internet.

chicano10_lae.txd (unused)
cunte_gas01.txd (Dillimore gas station interior)
lngblok_lae2.txd (Los Flores)

image: comptsign8_LAe
from gta3.img

 

Real life view since 2007:

 

 

Closed in 2012:

 

 

New business in 2017:

 

 

 

 

 

[Mehaniq]

Sam's postal service from Ganton and Willowfield located on 2001 W 6th St, Los Angeles, and we can found all 3 textures from this .txd file in same place.

 

.txd files:
lae2newtempbx.txd

lashops1b_las2.txd

images:

snpedpost1
snpedpost1a
snpedpost1b (unused)

from gta3.img

 

 

Google Street View since 2009:

Shutter gates with another text but also with buffed graffiti tags like on in-game texture. Another postal service logo in unused SAM'S texture.

 

 

New business in 2018:

 

 

 

 

[Lioshenka]

On 7/26/2021 at 11:36 AM, Mehaniq said:

Hi. You did a great job, especially for 2010. I love your document on Las Venturas and I confess that there are many places that I didn't know about until I saw this topic in 2021.

I would be very happy if you participated with us in the search for textures. I see that you have good skills and have been doing this for a very long time.

I don't know why there are so few participants in your topic. Probably in 2010-2014 it was not popular on the forum to look for real buildings or references. But now I will do this even if no one besides me will write posts here.

I have many finds, but they are still in a raw format and in order not to give false information - I am checking them.

Thank-you!

 

I must say that what you do is much more thorough; I was mainly looking for landmark buildings and areas in general. There was no way I could have found the real shop signs in 2010 anyway, Google maps were rubbish then! What you are doing is so impressive, it's beyond me how much research you do. I don't comment on this topic, but I read it regularly, so please post if you find anything else

 

In real life I actually love exploring how the streets and shopfronts have changed; but seeing the old signs being painted over and shops closed makes me really sad; so it's nice to see you bringing back the old Los Santos by finding the historical street images.

 

Sadly I never finished my project - the book contains about half of what I found; there were a few more Las Venturas buildings that I was going to add later, but 2011 onwards was a real rollercoaster, so I barely had time to focus on any project; and I deleted my source files last year.

 

I'm sorry I can't help you in finding the real-life textures; as much as I'd love to (and I'd enjoy it) my personal circumstances don't leave me much room for fun, and my main priority is to finish my mod as the moment... If I take on another project I'll probably never finish either!

 

PS The Cock Rock is real though:

Edited July 30, 2021 by Lioshenka

[Mehaniq]

Very very old Coin Laundry from Downtown Los Santos, Rodeo and Montgomery in San Andreas and many places in Vice City located at 910 Alton Rd, Miami Beach, FL 

San Andreas:
dtbuil1_lan2.txd - coinlaundry1_256
sunset03_law2.txd - coinlaundry2_256
sw_roadgas.txd -  coinlaundry2_256 
from gta3.img

Vice City:
washbuild1.txd and others - coinlaundry1_256, coinlaundry2_256
from gta3.img

 

 

In rodeo this texture used without coin laundry banner:

 

 

In Montgomery this texture used partly as gas station window:

 

 

And Vice City screenshots:
As we see - Vice City has more detailed texture in 2 different variants. Second texture is inverted one with another door, maybe from business, close to this coin laundry.

 

Google Street View screenshots since 2007:

 

2014: new banner color

 

 

2018: Absolutely new design

 

 

Edited July 30, 2021 by Mehaniq

[Mehaniq]

Rustler club banner from Market, Los Santos i found on 1031 Kearny St, San Francisco. Its one of Larry Flynts Hustler Clubs.

sunrise09_lawn.txd - hollysign04_LAw

from gta3.img

 

Street view since 2007:

 

[Mehaniq]

Le Sex Shoppe in Market, Los Santos is real shop on 6317 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles but banner from game texture we can see only during few years. I can found many photos with this banner.
And banner from Cave Adult movie theatre with inscriptions "Famous dancers" and "VIP Lounge" on 6315 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles. In-game banner has fake central part with vertical "FAMOUS" text and in real banner there are glowing woman in that place.

sunrise09_lawn.txd - Hollysign03_LAw
from gta3.img

 

 

2007: Le Sex Shoppe

 

 

2009: Tabu Smoke & Gift Shop

 

 

2015: Hollywood Munchies advertisement

 

 

2019: The Invaders announce

 

 

And Google Street View "Cave" screenshots since 2007:

 

2014: Deja Vu "Showgirls" new business design

 

 

2019 photo at night:

 

 

2000: Le Sex Shoppe from GTA San Andreas texture

 

 

1988: Another design before red banner

 

 

1981: Very old design

 

[Mehaniq]

Vice Theatre in Market, Los Santos is real Vine theatre on 6325 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles. Many parts of this facade used as textures in this analogue in San Andreas.

sunrise09_lawn.txd

from gta3.img

 

images:
vinesign1_LAw

vinesign2_LAw
vinedet1_LAwN

vinewall01_LAw

hollywall01_law

 

 

Beige corner in vinedet1_LAwN in perfect condition. Triangle with many light bulbs been edited to delete ellipse with stars:

 

 

Announcement text board in vinesign2_LAw is one of two real boards:

 

 

This wall from vinewall01_LAw is right side with announcement banner "now playing". You can compare tiles under the poster. And same tiles in upper part (see screenshots and photos)

 

 

Stained beige wall from hollywall01_law:

 

 

Photos from the past:

 

2018:

 

2000:

1981:

1980:

1973:

1972:

1969:

1966:

1965:

1957:

1942:

1940:

 

 

Sources:
https://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com/2017/02/vine-theatre.html

https://theatresinmovies.blogspot.com/2018/06/once-upon-time-in-hollywood-pantages.html

[Mehaniq]

Ticket room of Regal/Legal theatre in Market, Los Santos is a real ticket room to Vine theatre at 6325 Hollywood Blvd. Why did the game designers not use this ticket-taker room in the Vice (Vine) cinema, where neighboring textures have already been used - this information is unknown to me. Looking closely at the tiles, we can see that the topmost row of tiles above the windows and all the lower rows of tiles below the windows have been merged. But the person who used the texture probably did not know this, so he used all the tiles for the lower zone under the windows and then repeated the same texture on top. If you look at the contrasting patterns on the surface of the tiles, you can understand exactly how the walls were photographed for texture.

 

sunrise08_lawn.txd - tikboxwin_law, tikboxwall_law
from gta3.img

 

[Mehaniq]

Gifts and Souvenirs banner from 3 different places in San Andreas originally located on Hollywood Pacific Theatre on 6433 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles 

 

image: giftsign01_law

 

sunrise08_lawn.txd
beafron2_law2.txd
vgsswarehse02c.txd
from gta3.img

 

Google Street View:

 

 

Between 2011 and 2014 banner disappears:

 

 

 

[Rhoda]

I don't usually say this, but if you're conscious of being the only one posting, don't be. What you're doing here is remarkable, or at least it is to my lizard brain. It's so interesting to see.

[CynicalMexican]

Yeah seriously this whole thread is great work. A lot of these businesses were mysteries for a long time especially in the modding community. This will be a very useful database to have.

[Mehaniq]

On 8/6/2021 at 1:21 PM, Rhoda said:

I don't usually say this, but if you're conscious of being the only one posting, don't be. What you're doing here is remarkable, or at least it is to my lizard brain. It's so interesting to see.

I understand that no many people want to participate in this topic as it is difficult and time-spending, but it is not a encouraged activity among the players on the forum. But I still do not give up and want to supplement the topic as new information becomes available.

Edited August 7, 2021 by Mehaniq
Bad english

[Mehaniq]

Mexican Food & Salvadorean Food banner with light bulbs from El Corona I found on 1422 W 6th St, Los Angeles and its Metro Deli #2. Designers cut this banner in height and delete Metro Deli #2 text.

 

oldshops_las.txd - sanpedmark4
from gta3.img

 

Google Street View screenshots:

 

 

 

 

[Mehaniq]

C.C.Cabinets and Marble Tops from East Los Santos its really existing shop on 8132 S Central Ave #3322, Los Angeles. Unfortunately, but in Google Street View we have another shop view. We have identical shop name, address (8132) and telephone number is 323-587-6387 with last digits like in game texture.

 

furniture_lae2.txd, eastls1_lae2.txd - comptsign1_LAe

from gta3.img

 

 

Edited August 7, 2021 by Mehaniq

[Rhoda]

This is nuts, what's your secret? Are you literally just cruising the streets where the game is based and flicking through photos by the year? How long does this take you usually?

[Mehaniq]

Flores Mini Meat Market from East Los Santos I found on 7922 S Central Ave, Los Angeles close to Estacionamiento inscription from Ganton. In 2007 painting been in very bad condition and repaints between 2008-2012

 

templae2land.txd - comptsign2_LAe (flores)

furniture_lae2.txd - comptsign2_LAe (flores)

eastls1_lae2.txd - comptsign2_LAe (flores)

ganton01_lae2.txd - comptsign7_LAe (estacionamiento)

 

 

 

[Mehaniq]

5 minutes ago, Rhoda said:

This is nuts, what's your secret? Are you literally just cruising the streets where the game is based and flicking through photos by the year? How long does this take you usually?

I think you understand that finding a casino from Las Vegas or Bank Tower in Los Angeles is too easy. I get a lot of excitement when I manage to find something completely unknown. For example, the casual grocery store that only Americans who live nearby can know. It's really cool, like finding a diamond among tons of sh*t. And you can't imagine my joy when I stumble upon something familiar from the game.

 

The secret is that some store banners contain the building number and on the most popular streets of the respective cities you can see what is in place under this building number. Sometimes a business has a phone number and texture designers leave the last four digits valid and change the previous three to 555. I can compare the last digits and get a match with the original business.

 

Some stores or businesses have the same or nearly identical name, which can be found in Google search. For example, as is the case with Conchita Meat Market, which is very easy to find by name.

 

There are times when the name of the image file inside the TXD repository helps me, which contains some hints, thanks to which I found Watts towers that I did not know about before

 

But besides all this, I spend a lot of time on Google Street View and this prevents me from running the YouTube channel as before, and I degrade a lot of my free time from work while in front of the monitor in the hope that I will catch something, as if while fishing. In the future, I set myself the goal of making a YouTube video about such finds, and this will be completely original content that I have not seen before from other authors.

[Mehaniq]

Liquor and Deli lime green banner from Idlewood and Market locations I recognize on Terner's Liquor and Deli market on 8850 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood. It's funny that this store has 2 banners and each has an arrow pointing towards the entrance to the store. And the texture designer decided to insert both arrows into the banner content and now the pointer simply points to the middle of the banner. Also, the dot between the two words has been removed.

idlewood6_lae.txd, lawnstripm.txd - liqdel1
from gta3.img

 

Some changes in 2014:

 

 

[Mehaniq]

Famous Whisky a Go Go reproduction in Richman we can found on 8901 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood. Some parts of textures been edited.

lahills_whisky.txd from gta3.img

images:
whisk2
whisk2
whisk3
whisk4
lasviper6 (maybe)

 

 

Real-life screenshots since 2007:

 

2011: New color scheme

 

Some historical photos with this building:

 

1963:

 

1964:

 

1966:

 

1967:

 

1970-1990:

 

1991:

 

2000s:

 

2007:

 

 

Sources:
https://whiskyagogo.com/calendar/history/
https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/vintage-los-angeles-how-go-go-dancing-took-off-at-the-whisky/

https://www.chickenonaunicycle.com/Whisky-A-Go-Go History.htm

https://rockandrollroadmap.com/places/where-they-played/los-angeles-area-venues/the-whisky/

https://archives.waiting-forthe-sun.net/Pages/Venues/whisky.html

http://martinostimemachine.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-birth-of-go-go-dancing-at-whisky-go.html

http://subrealities.waiting-forthe-sun.net/Pages/PhantasticLA/whisky_history.html

https://altosaxo.net/blogs/music-news-info/the-legendary-whisky-a-go-go-in-the-1970s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisky_a_Go_Go

 

[Ash_735]

15 hours ago, Mehaniq said:

Some changes in 2014:

That wall pattern on the real life building is also a GTA texture but for some reason I think it's in vice city.

[Mehaniq]

9 minutes ago, Ash_735 said:

That wall pattern on the real life building is also a GTA texture but for some reason I think it's in vice city.

I saw many stony walls like this. And one of it is Wall in east Los Santos with spanish text. But its not from this original bar.
If you have this Vice City texture and think that's it - send it to this topic.

[Mehaniq]

2 hours ago, Ash_735 said:

That wall pattern on the real life building is also a GTA texture but for some reason I think it's in vice city.

 

Similar, but not 100% match

 

[CynicalMexican]

The generic textures are a tougher find; many of them were free domain that may no longer be available because the websites are gone.

[Mehaniq]

2 hours ago, CynicalMexican said:

The generic textures are a tougher find; many of them were free domain that may no longer be available because the websites are gone.

Yes. And too many time passed after game was released. I found some of this textures in casual Google Search but dont know anything about authorship of it or any information about shoot places

Edited August 11, 2021 by Mehaniq