The always talkative Obbe Vermeij, who was the technical lead of the innovative studio for years, recently took to social media to explain that the first draft plan for the world of San Andreas was quite different.
“The original plan was for the three cities to be on separate maps,” Vermeij tweeted today, before noting that the first two GTAs had also been structured the same way, albeit from a top-down angle. “The player would travel between cities using trains and planes.”
Vermeij explains that “memory was very tight on the PS2”, so dividing the map into three different sections meant that the skyline models of each city would not have overloaded the console's already overloaded memory. “It would also be easier to have different police/ambulance/fire trucks for each city. Different vans, types of weather, etc. It would also be easier to restrain the player until it was time to go to the next city. It would also make it easier easy. Organize the models on the DVD city by city, which would help the transmission.
20 years ago we launched Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas. The original plan was for the 3 cities to be on separate maps. The player would travel between cities using trains and planes. (Gta 1 and 2 also had three cities on separate maps) Memory was very tight on the ps2 and… pic.twitter.com/kUMxR9Kt96 October 25, 2024
However, just before the artists began work on the three maps, a last-minute meeting between Vermeij, producer Leslie Benzies, art director Aaron Garbut, technology director Adam Fowler, and programmer Alexander Roger ruled that out. original plan. GTA San Andreas was later released with all three cities seamlessly connected in a single space, although layers of fog make the game look larger than it actually is and probably served as a crutch for the poor old PS2.
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