Hidden Interiors For beginners

by gtaadmin on 16/03/09 at 5:43 pm

The following has been picked up from reading GTAForums.com and comes from a PS2 perspective.

Cut Scenes In Grand Theft Auto

Contrary to popular belief, cut scenes seen in the game are not pre-recorded. Many people think that when a mission started the game played back a short film to introduce it and this was called a cut-scene. In actual fact, these animations are freshly staged each time the scene is shown. The game places the characters in the 3-D scenery and makes them act out the scene. This is why the lighting and weather conditions vary depending on when you watch the scene.

This means that everything you see in the game must exist somewhere in the gameworld. Back in GTA3, the Liberty Bank set from the opening cut-scene was hidden in an almost unreachable area north of Shoreside Vale. It wasn't there just because the game makers just left it in. It was there because it was used every time someone started a new game. So everything you see is located somewhere in the gamefiles. It doesn't have to be solid. It doesn't even have to be reachable. But it's there - somewhere.

A Brief History Of Interiors And Cut-Scene Locations In GTA

Interiors And Cut Scenes In GTA 3

A world was created. Actually a city. Liberty City.

Everything you see in the game exists in this city and it all exists at one time. There are many walk-in interiors. By this I mean that you simply 'walk in' through the door. Examples of this would be the Ammu-Nations or the Leone house. Then there are the locations that are difficult to reach like Donald Love and Kenji's roof tops. This would also include the setting for the game's opening cut-scene. These clearly were not meant to be accessed as they are only partly solid. Finally there are the 'hidden' (in its first sense) locations like Joey's Garage. This is seen only in cutscenes and is completely locked-off from the outside world (without the use of glitches).
It is worth mentioning here that it is possible to fall through the floor in some places. This drops you through a strange blurry blue space until you reach the lower limits and respawn back on the ground. This area beneath the normal world became known as 'Blue Hell'.

Interiors And Cut Scenes In GTA: Vice City

A world was created. Actually more than one.

There is the outside world. This is the main arena for gameplay. This works in exactly the same way as Liberty City. The outside world contains many 'walk-in' interiors' like Pizza Stacks, Ammu-Nations and that office block where you start the mission 'G-Spotlight'.

You have most likely noticed the 'loading screens' during the game. These are because it is easier for the game to only load certain areas at any one time. When you pass through certain places you trigger a brief loading screen. This displays while the game unloads the area you just left and loads the new area. This usually occurs when you cross from one island to another, but also when you enter certain buildings. Whenever you walk through the seemingly open doorway of the Vercetti Mansion (or West Point Mall, Pole Position, Malibu Club, Apartment 3c, Washington Beach PD...) a loading screen appears while the game swaps which 'world' is loaded. It will now load the 'world' that contains the 'Hidden' (in its second sense) interior.

It is important to note that the physical aspects of these worlds always exist. It is only the visuals of these worlds which change when loading/unloading.

By using various glitches it is possible to escape these interiors and out into an unloaded exterior world. If you manage to leave the interior without triggering the loading screen then you can move around in what has become known as 'Ghost World'. There are in fact quite a few Ghost Worlds. As stated above - these are the same place as all the other Vice Cities - but you will only be able to see what has been chosen to appear in that 'world'. This usually only consists of the interior you escaped from, the view from that interior's windows/doors and a few others things that load at the same time. Vehicles and Pick-ups appear in all Ghost worlds. The radar and map continue to function so it is quite easy to leave a helicopter outside an interior, enter it, escape it and then go flying over this mostly invisible Ghost world. Nearly all of the interiors are actually located where they would be if this were a real world. In other words - the interiors are in their exteriors. An exception to this is the Stadium interior. This is in fact 3 separate interiors which are actually located high in the sky.

Blue Hell is still accessible in this game. It's not really blue anymore though. It is possible to take a helicopter inside meaning you can stay there and explore for as long as you want. All you really see is the outside world (or whatever's loaded) from below. This is also referred to as 'Underworld'.

Interiors And Cut Scenes In GTA: San Andreas

The outside world no longer has any loading screens. The game now automatically loads and unloads areas as you move around without any pauses in gameplay. However there are now far less 'walk-in' interiors. Most interiors are now reached by entering a yellow marker outside the exterior door. This will then transport you inside an interior. There are quite a few generic interiors which can be accessed from more than one exterior marker. For instance - All markers outside a Burgershot exterior will 'teleport' you to the same interior. There is only one Burgershot Interior. The same applies to most of the shops with the exception of Ammu-Nation and 24/7.

Some of these interiors can be found at ground level and some appear underground, but the vast majority are located high in the sky - way above the maximum height limit reached by Helicopters, Planes and Jetpacks. These interiors are grouped together in 'Heavens'. Heaven is a term coined because the interiors are mostly high above the normal world. We already have Worlds and Hells, so Heavens seems logical. To make it clear I will use the following terminology when talking about these groups:

World = The normal area of gameplay. From ground level up to maximum height for flying vehicles.
Hell = Anywhere below ground level.
Heaven = Anywhere above maximum height for flying vehicles.
Universe = An collective term for all the above. It refers to a 'group' of interiors that load together at any height.

There are nearly 150 different interiors which are separated into 18 different universes.

Again, if you can escape an interior while tricking the game in to believing that you are still inside, then you can explore that universe and all the interiors that load within it.

GTA: San Andreas Hidden Interiors

• There are nearly 150 interiors and 18 different universes. These are listed here: Hidden Interiors List
• People, Pick-ups (like weapons and health) and Save points are visible in many universes.
• Vehicles are only visible if they are specifically made to exist in that universe. Therefore the only visible vehicles I know of in the Interior Universes are:
  the Sentinel in the Bistro
  A car in a mod garage.
  A vehicle in a stadium race.
• It is possible to drive invisible cars if you can find them. An easy way to do this is to keep them in the Doherty Garage in San Fierro. This remains visible in all universes and so it is easy to find a car stored in the garage.
• As mentioned above: the Doherty Garage exterior remains visible (loaded) in all universes. This is also true of the Atrium exterior and the Burning Desire house exterior, both found in Los Santos.
• The sky varies in colour depending on the heaven. It may follow a normal daylight routine or it may be another colour like black or white all day long. You might see a large yellow blob. This is the effect of the sun. It can look strange when viewed from a non-daylight sky.
• If you fly out to the edge of the map in an interior world you can see a loaded 'infinite' ocean. I'm not sure if this is in all worlds, but it is simply an area of surface-water over an area of seabed that animates like a rolling ocean. If you try to fly towards the edge of the map while over this you won't move any further outwards.
• Reflective surfaces create an odd effect in an interior universe. Whether it is a mirror on the wall or a shiny wood floor, if you see a reflection then this has to be created in a 3-D form. For example - when you look into the mirror in the Pro-Laps changing room, you are seeing a complete, reversed model of the whole Pro-laps interior including a mirrored CJ.
  If you look at the interiors from the right angles you will see these 'mirror buildings' on the opposite side of any reflective surface.
• The reason you are able to explore interior worlds is because you have tricked the game into thinking that you are still inside an interior. By leaving by a method other than the intended yellow marker, you have tricked the game into not loading the outside world. The world you now inhabit only contains the things programmed to load at the same time as the interior the game thinks you are still in.
• You need to use some kind of glitch to escape an interior and out into an interior universe. Because most of these interiors are above the maximum height limit you will find that using the jetpack will only drag you down. Once you pass a quick loading screen you will not be able to get back up without cheats. One way around this is to use the glitch in the Ganton Gym found by OD fa Real. For this you have to kill all 4 people in the gym. For some reason the jetpack already works inside the gym, but if you kill the 4 people inside it will continue to work in a limited area outside too. There are holes in the ceiling that you can fly up through and out into 'Gym Heaven'.
• You can then visit other interiors in this heaven. To change heavens you have to enter another interior's yellow marker. This should take you to that new interior. The heaven that this interior loads in (visibly) will be the heaven where you now are.
• Unless you are using a cheats device you are limited to a particular area. We believe this is because the perimeter of this area is where the game usually has to start loading the next area. When it does this it realises that you shouldn't be able to fly at this height and suddenly cancels out the gym glitch that made the jetpack fly. On one of the first maps that showed the 'flyable' and 'non-flyable' areas, the non-flyable area was coloured red. As a direct result of this it became known as 'the Red-zone'.
• Once inside an interior - entering a yellow marker by the door (or even just the space where the marker should be) will have one of two outcomes.
  1. You will appear back in the real world (universe K) as would happen normally in the game.
  2. You will simply re-spawn back in the same interior as if you just arrived.
• The caption in the bottom-right of the screen will always display where the game thinks you are. So the caption will always be the last interior you entered via a yellow marker. Because the game never knew that you left.
• Similarly the map will show where it thinks you are, not where you really are. It doesn't record the 'jumps' between markers. It only records where we visibly see you walk, swim or fly to, not the yellow marker 'teleportations'. For instance - when you enter the yellow marker outside the gym, you are teleported to the interior which is infact located way above Red County. The game didn't record this teleport and so it continues to follow your movements as if you simply walked inside the gym. This is why most maps for the interior universes are Gym-Aligned (or A-Aligned because Gym Heaven is also known as 'A'). You can find links to A-Aligned maps in the first post of this topic: Hidden Interiors Via The Ganton Gym. If you want to see where these exteriors actually exist you'll need a K-aligned map.
  These 'jumps' only really happen on 2 occasions, so these are the only times that your map needs re-aligning. The first is when you first enter an interior from the exterior world. Unless the interior is directly above the exterior, the 'jump' will cause the map to be mis-aligned. The other time this occurs is if you enter a wardrobe inside an interior. Again - because the wardrobe is located in a different place to its entrance there is a jump to a new point in the heaven. The map doesn't follow this jump and mis-aligns the map again.
• The whole 'A-aligned', 'K-aligned' can get a little confusing. K-aligned makes sense because the letter I have chosen to label the exterior 'real' world with is 'K'. Therefore a 'K-aligned' map is an accurate map showing where interiors are with no distortion or mis-alignment. The only way to enter a K-aligned universe is to enter an interior that is either 'inside its exterior' or 'directly above its exterior. In other words - there is no 'jump' to another point in the games XY-axes. So the marker wouldn't need to move if it did follow 'teleports'.
• A-aligned' is actually a bad description. A='the heaven that the Gym loads in'. But A-aligned is used to mean that you originally entered the Interior Universes through the Ganton Gym. Strictly speaking I am still in Universe-A if I enter via Madd Dogg's Mansion, which also loads in Gym-Heaven. But I would infact be K-aligned because Madd Dogg's is situated directly above it's exterior - so there is no jump. This is much easier to understand than it sounds. If I've confused you, just nod and smile and you'll see what I mean when you get started. This may help you understand, but then again...
  [I've decided to never use the expression A-Aligned again. It's simply Gym-Aligned]
• If you are not using a cheats device such as Gameshark then the main way to escape an interior is to use a 'Weak Wall'. A weak wall is an area of the interior that has no collision data and is therefore not solid. This is another method of escaping an interior without the game knowing you have left.
  Note: Not all interiors have weak walls. You would need a 'Walk through Walls' code to properly explore these without having to kill yourself to escape.
• If you go down to the ground you can still explore there. Remember, this is just the normal game environment. It's just that most of it is invisible. You will still walk into walls and hear the different noises for the surfaces you walk on. You just won't be able to see most of them.
• It is possible to reach the San Fierro Tattoo Parlor in the interior heavens. When you enter the SF Tattoo marker in the game you are teleported inside the Los Santos Tattoo parlor by mistake. So you can't normally reach the SF Tattoo Parlor and this is the Interior Heavens are the only way of getting these particular tattoos. To find out how: read this guide: Hidden Tattoos For Beginners.
• It is possible to reach Liberty City using only the button cheats.
• If you have a cheating device like AR Max, Gameshark, Codebreaker and you have the codes that allow you to fly the Jetpack at any height, and Walk through walls then you can pretty much go anywhere.
• There are some interiors in the Interior Universes that can not be seen anywhere else in the game.
  These include: SF Tattoo Parlor, SFPD, 3 Brothels, 5 more girlfriend 'love nests' and a 2-storey Ammu-Nation.

Tips for Exploring Interior Universes In Grand Theft Auto

• Select the camera angle that shows the widest view around CJ. It is easy to miss some markers that are just outside the other views.
• * Be aware of your surroundings. Use reference points to judge how high you are. Be aware that you naturally drift downwards slightly when moving forwards.
• Strafing is an alternative to moving forwards and backwards. If you fly the jetpack sideways you seem to be able to stay at a constant level for longer. You can strafe to interiors just inside the red-zone (like Denise's bedroom) which you couldn't reach by flying forwards. Don't stop in the red-zone or you'll start falling.
• There is another method of escaping and entering interiors that doesn't require a weak wall or cheat device. If the door swings when you wallk through it, then it is possible to quickly run back through before it closes or loads the opposite side. The methods for doing this include:
  1. leave a jetpack on one side of a door and walk through from the otherside. Instantly put the jetpack on, turn, and run back through.
  2. Walk through a door, turn, shoot the door with a rapid firing gun. The bullets hold the door open as you walk back through. The world on the other side will not be loaded.
  These definitely work at the Atrium and SFPD HQ. I would say that the second one is the easiest.
• If you have certain cheats devices then you can use extra tools when exploring. I'm told that you can use a Gameshark code (care of Edisoncarter) that will replace the money display in the HUD with your current altitude. I believe you can also use another code to replace various statistics in the pause menu with your X,Y,Z coordinates. Using these along with the maps and Interior lists should make exploring much easier.
  Unfortunately I have AR Max and I am informed that it is not possible to convert the codes to work on this format. I believe that Gameshark, Xploder and Codebreaker would work fine though.