Roads in Video Games

[agentsteel53]

Resisting urge.... cannot.. hold... back......... SEACREST... OUT!

?

never played the game, so I don't get the reference.

[vtk]

It's not the game which is being referenced.  But you can be proud for not being familiar with Ryan Secrest's catchphrase.

[WichitaRoads]

It's not the game which is being referenced.  But you can be proud for not being familiar with Ryan Secrest's catchphrase.

Trust me... not proud to know of it! Was forced to watch a season of Idol... UGH.... and then I remember the great insult joke on Robot Chicken that, I believe, was actually voiced by the man himself.

I just couldn't resist...

ICTRds

[doorknob60]

Here's one towards the end of The Last of Us, in Salt Lake City:



Not entirely accurate, but nice try, not bad for a video game. Also the "tunnel" they refer to is plot relevant, even though no such tunnel exists in real life.

[DSS5]

Hmmm...never realized there's so many post-apocalyptic-zombiepunk-themed anything out there.

Fallout is definitely post-apocalyptic but isn't part of the "zombie" genre. It's an RPG series that takes place in a post-nuclear war environment.

[ChoralScholar]

Need For Speed: The Run makes mention of quite a few highways... not sure about the accuracy though.

[roadfro]

Fallout: New Vegas' depiction of the interstate system isn't really accurate (at grade intersections all over the place) but there is the whole "alternate universe" deal.

Anyway, here's some screenshots

Yeah, the positioning of the first pic would indicate the jct is somewhere in California (approaching the Nipton Road exit), so the NV 164 shield would not be accurate from that vantage point--although SR 164 is the highway that connects Nipton (in CA) to Searchlight once you'd cross into Nevada. And, Primm would be above Las Vegas on these signs (and isn't really signed as a control/destination point at all in California).

Holy US 95 cutout though!

SR 157 is somewhat accurately depicted, at least in terms of terrain and surrounding shrubbery

[Zeffy]

Here's some from Need for Speed: Carbon.





Yes, that is a BBS functioning as a BGS. All the BBS in the game reference fictional US 142. And that Interstate shield is yuck. (they couldn't put "INTERSTATE" in the top portion of the shield?) Where the lights are are also pretty good looking pull through arrows.


Here's another pic of that same sign, where it is slightly more visible. What's funny is that the pull through arrows on the US 142 sign point to... the opposite side of the road? Good going EA.

[chetlin]

My roommate has a relatively recent Sonic the Hedgehog game where you play as Shadow (Shadow the Hedgehog, perhaps?) that seems to re-use a very few highway-sign textures.  Besides the fact that the same couple of signs are duplicated in a zillion places, it looks as though those textures were put together by a roadgeek anyway.

This sounds like it may be Sonic Adventure 2 (Battle).  One stage has a bunch of the same two signs repeated.

The first is "US 38 Amigo Left Lane" and this is the only screenshot I could find with it:


The second is "I-00 Freedom ? Mile".  I couldn't find any screenshots of it from the game so I used a Youtube video of Sonic Generations and this is the best sign I could get from there:

[vtk]

Yeah, I think that's it. Notice the chevron sign in your second pic: it may be a simple sign, but non-roadgeek game artists could easily mess it up nonetheless.

[DSS5]

And, Primm would be above Las Vegas on these signs (and isn't really signed as a control/destination point at all in California).

True, but from an in-game perspective Primm is one of the first towns you have to go to, so players will be looking for it.

[chetlin]

Yeah, I think that's it. Notice the chevron sign in your second pic: it may be a simple sign, but non-roadgeek game artists could easily mess it up nonetheless.

Yeah, I never really thought about it, but I guess these road signs are pretty accurate when compared to other games.  What surprises me now is that so much of the game is based off San Francisco and the surrounding area but as someone who recently moved to near that area I know how ugly (to me) some of the signs are here and these don't look like Californian ones -- they are less "messy"-looking for one and also the US route shield isn't the wide one they use here on the green signs.

So many other things though show how influenced they were by San Francisco.  In fact three stages in the game (both driving stages and one mecha-shooter stage) were named after roads over there:  Route 101 (after US 101), Route 280 (after I-280), and Mission Street. Also just the layout of City Escape and all the "Golden Gate Bridges" everywhere.

So many other things are anti-road though...those driving stages, they are built on one-way freeways that are over a body of water, but it is far from a straight bridge.. the bridges turn and have tunnels for no reason and have big holes in the middle or missing side rails.  And the only signs are billboards and overhead things that say "Born to be Fast".  Great things to put on the freeway!

Here are some Youtube videos to watch of the stages:

• Radical Highway (the stage in the pictures): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF9838_cw0U
• Route 101:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4G2HpkrB8s
• Route 280:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB3F265NF3I
• City Escape: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-qJdB7Eet0 (lots of different common signs in this one)
• Mission Street: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1MsTlADtoY (same signs as City Escape but they go by more slowly)

[colinstu]

Dirt 3 has some UP Michigan love in it.

US 41...

[Zeffy]

Midnight Club: Los Angeles, as it's name would imply, takes place in Los Angeles. It also features segments of I-5, I-405, I-10 and US 101 as freeways in the game. The freeways are also always packed, especially at night, so racing through them is a blast.



A lot of the BGS in the game appear to have button copy (this is much more apparent in the first photo).


And this sign, for no apparent reason, decided not to have a border.


Some more signs, and a better view of the road.


And I close out my post with this BGS containing a state name I-10 shield.

[AsphaltPlanet]

^ Midnight Club LA is a fantastic game.  I love that the game designers took the time to render the freeway signs with button copy.

[Zeffy]

^ Midnight Club LA is a fantastic game.  I love that the game designers took the time to render the freeway signs with button copy.

I got it off Xbox Live Games on Demand for $15. Worth every penny. If this is made in 2009, I feel like Rockstar made Midnight Club's graphics as surreal as GTA IVs.

[ET21]

^ Midnight Club LA is a fantastic game.  I love that the game designers took the time to render the freeway signs with button copy.

They need to make a Midnight Club for every city. I'd in in heaven 

[Billy F 1988]

Midnight Club: Los Angeles, as it's name would imply, takes place in Los Angeles. It also features segments of I-5, I-405, I-10 and US 101 as freeways in the game. The freeways are also always packed, especially at night, so racing through them is a blast.



A lot of the BGS in the game appear to have button copy (this is much more apparent in the first photo).


And this sign, for no apparent reason, decided not to have a border.


Some more signs, and a better view of the road.

<---
And I close out my post with this BGS containing a state name I-10 shield.

Not really fond of the cardinal not following MUTCD guidelines.

[PColumbus73]

On Friday I was watching a couple people playing GTA 5, and I noticed that some of the intersections in the game had protected left turn signals and traffic responded to them as such. If I am not mistaken, I would venture to say this is the first video game to do this! If I could get a picture, I'd show y'all, anyone else out there have noticed this?

[Zeffy]

Hope this video helps: (taken from my iPhone)

http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/Zeffyboy/media/IMG_07111_zpse8562d6d.mp4.html

One thing I note though is how the protected left turn signal turns green IMMEDIATELY as the normal signal turns red.

[PColumbus73]

true, but it's still kind of interesting to see!

[Zeffy]

true, but it's still kind of interesting to see!

Also a great addition are the freeway systems, including the interesting Psuedo E-Modified font they use. At least they were going for some accuracy, even if there are some other things wrong:

[hotdogPi]

How did I-4 get here? Is I-4 now a double number like 76, 84, 86, and 88?

Also, what happens if you don't follow traffic like the other cars?

[Zeffy]

How did I-4 get here? Is I-4 now a double number like 76, 84, 86, and 88?

Also, what happens if you don't follow traffic like the other cars?

San Andreas is part of the GTA World of the United States - this is the only time in a GTA game that any numbered routes have existed. The only missing Interstate here is I-3. (There is Interstates 1, 2, 4, and 5.) They also brought US 1 to California (where San Andreas takes place) and changed the California route shield to the MUTCD circle. 

As for your second question, few people in GTA follow the traffic - in missions you don't want to be taking ridiculously long to get from one point to the other, so driving haphazardly is generally the way to go. The police only will harass you if you rear-end a police car or fire a weapon at a civilian.

[PColumbus73]

That means Interstate 1 is the only interstate that doesn't exist in both GTA and the real world!