[SpitRhyma]

I call this "The Vanishing Whip Theory" (by SpitRhyma)

-I don't spend too much time on GTA forums so most of my ideas are original and I discovered most of the things I know.

-ALSO, this is a THEORY meaning it hasn't been proven beyond reasonable doubt. Don't get confused, statements are presented as facts for clarity/simplicity.

-1st, to understand the problems with garages, you must understand vehicles and spawning.

-The 2 most recent vehicles you use are stored and spawn longer/further than other randomly spawned vehicles. (jet-pack doesn't count btw)

-When you move a certain distance away from a car that is not one of the 2 most recent, it will unspawn. This distance can be in any direction/axies (including altitude).


The SpitRhyma "Vanishing Whip" Theory

Here is a theory on the cars disappearing from the garages...

-When you walk within a certain distance from the garage, (before the doors open) the system begins to load the cars in the background (low priority).

-When you walk within a certain distance from the garage, (closer than above) the garage door will open if all cars are loaded.

-When loading a garage or opening the door, the game only checks distance by X/Z coordinates (left/right + front/back) but NOT Y coordinates (up/down)

-When the system loads a car, it will appear in the garage.

-When you walk away a certain distance from the garage, the garage will save any cars inside it.

-Most interiors are high in the sky!

-Vehicles are loaded individually in garage. Some garages have "windows" or allow someway for you to see the interior before the main door opens, try placing modified vehicles in these garages and watch them load yourself!

SO

What's happening is the garage is trying to load the cars because you're close (X/Z coordinates only), but you are moving away before it finishes, triggering the system to save what's in the garage which could be as little as nothing.

A
You can be flying high-up in the sky and not notice flying over a garage that has lots of loading to do, and cause the vehicles to start loading and then start saving shortly after.
IE: Veardant Meadows

B
You may be walking inside a safe house to save your game, but if the garage door is close to the house door you may cause it to start loading, then when you go inside the house and get far away from the load-zone it's saving everything.

C-Verdant Meadows
The door-opening/closing animation for the garage in Verdant Meadows can be a problem because of how long it takes. I know once I lost everything in the garage because I blew the vehicle up, and got so far from the garage that the vehicle un-spawned before the garage door closed. This makes me wonder if the garage door closing is important or not but I don't believe so because I hardly have problems with garage doors that stay open while you are walking through the safe-house door; I mean you never see them close but that doesn't mean the system doesn't process it.

This post has been edited by SpitRhyma on Saturday, Apr 22 2006, 23:08

[hanzel2m]

ok one theory of mine, sometimes cars are lost, spray paint changes, garages doors are hard to open, takes a long time. that's because you use cheats. ok that's my theory

[CurrentlyCarrotfoot]

QUOTE (hanzel2m @ Apr 23 2006, 01:57)

ok one theory of mine, sometimes cars are lost, spray paint changes, garages doors are hard to open, takes a long time. that's because you use cheats. ok that's my theory

Well, that's the stupidest thing I ever heard.

I like SpitRhyma's.
But, why does this theory not fit in with previous GTA games?
Different gaming engine? But does that necassarily mean garage programming is changed?

Some ideas for you.

[Tony Vitali]

You got very interesting points there.

Play the game on PS2:
Cheats don't explain disapearance! Never have cheated and disapearance happens a lot. Specially in Doherty (4 vehicles there and one time even 3 were gone) and Fort Carson (2 cars, only one stays). It's very annoying! Why there are saving garages if they don't even save! Maybe someone steals them?! And also in Vice City, at least Hyman Condo has the same problem.

This post has been edited by Tony Vitali on Monday, Apr 24 2006, 11:56

[hanzel2m]

well anyway if it still without cheats ok. but garages are hard to open if you use cheats. eg: my garage in doherty, takes 5 damn minutes to open and spray paints are all gone.

[Eljan81]

Your theory is pretty interesting. The theory B, makes a large amount of since to some of the vehicles disappearing. I've always gone back out of the Safe Houses and making sure they didn't just disappear. When I'm done with the garage I try to always let the door close before leaving the garage full or occupied with vehicles.

My view is of the PS2 version. So I don't know what's going on on the pc version.

This is something I hope that is worked on excessively for the next GTA. Because otherwise, what is the point of having them if it won't keep the vehicles? When playing the GTAs I got to the point where I just said to hell with it and just steal all the vehicles never saving any(with the exception of the freshly modded cars.) I just only use the savepoints when I get to this stage of my GTA gaming experience.

[SpitRhyma]

I've had glitches that may be cheat-inflicted but this is not cheat-related because I have beat the game once with 0 cheats but never w/o at least 1 disappearance glitch.

I don't play other GTA games enough to know why the theory doesn't apply. I didn't remember disappearing vehicles in Vice City.

SUGGESTION: Every time you save an important vehicle, after the garage door closes, go stand by the door (as close as you can) and when it opens, try to run away and into the safe house in 1 motion. Try not to ever let your distance from the garage decrease.

NOTE: Sometimes cars don't LOAD right so try re-loading your save game and see if it really disappeared.

Also, I've noticed textures don't get preloaded... they load AFTER the car loads. You can do this by watching the car through a window/gap in the door and watch it load (all white) then texture appears RIGHT before garage door opens.

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QUOTE

Your theory is pretty interesting. The theory B, makes a large amount of since to some of the vehicles disappearing.

Well the A B and C all are based on mainly 1 theory. If B is true I'm pretty sure A is also but C is just a thought -- I really don't think C is relavant.


This post has been edited by SpitRhyma on Wednesday, Apr 26 2006, 05:00

[KnockOut]

*This isn't a 'theory' so-to-speak, but I've had problems when I've saved with cops or pedestians in my garage... Whether you're running from cops, or a pedestrian actually manages to stumble into your garage with YOU in it, (example: Ganton Safe House where peds are usually walking directly in front of your garage door.)

[red911]

I have version 2 of GTA:SA and it doesn`t happens to me.

It just happened once, when I converted a 100% full game from version 1 to version 2.

This is not a theory, these are facts