Rockstar
GTA San Andreas turned 20 in October, and this is a great reason to celebrate all year long. By now, fans know most of the in-game stuff, but there are some technical details that you might have missed. Thankfully, X/Twitter user TJGM collected them in a thread, so you don’t have to search too much.
For example, SA features road signs that can only have one set of textures per model, so to make sure they show different information, Rockstar developed a font rendering system as part of the 2DFX section.
“This would render text and symbols from this basic font texture in-game,” TJGM helpfully provided. “2DFX data is stored in models, so underneath every road sign there’s obviously a road, and that road model is unique to that specific location. They would then add the 2DFX data to the road model and offset its location so it would be placed in front of the road sign.”
Another interesting instance is the lighting. GTA SA on PC has a time cycle file that controls how each weather type looks. Its “illumination” value enables a light source on characters and vehicles. While on PS2, you always have a light source on characters and vehicles, on PC, there is no such value, so the models are darker.
As TJGM mentioned, Rockstar likely noticed it and just added a hardcoded light source on all vehicles instead of adding the value.
One of my favorite facts, which we learned about from the former GTA developer, Obbe Vermeij, is that Rockstar had to purposefully slow players down because of streaming issues, which couldn’t load textures quickly enough. So the company added “extra air resistance” to some parts of the map, so the vehicles couldn’t go too fast.
Speaking of Vermeij, if you are a true GTA fan, you must follow him on X/Twitter, where he often shares some crazy development stories, like how San Andreas was supposed to have 3 cities and that the cinematic camera appeared because he found riding trains in the game boring.
What’s more, he explained why litter disappeared in San Andreas and why planes would suddenly crash.
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