The printing process took around 125 hours, but the project - from start to finish, including various small adjustments - took over 400 hours.
DETAILED MAP OF GTA 4 TRIAL
Printing alone was understandably time-consuming, but Riccobene also said that ensuring the tiles fit correctly or that the 3D printing settings were correct involved a good deal of trial and error. Tiles with fewer complications or details took only an hour to print, but more complex pieces sometimes took up to 12 hours. The GTA 5 map was 3D printed in a series of smaller segment tiles. After all of that, Riccobene could finally reach for his 3D printer and start assembling the map.
DETAILED MAP OF GTA 4 PROFESSIONAL
The creator used a custom script to initially scan the physical characteristics of the world in RDR2 before porting it over for use in GTA 5. Riccobene explained that the script functions in-game, and "collects ground elevations in a 500-1000 meter radius around the player." He scanned 500 million in-game coordinates and translated them to actual Earth map coordinates, enabling him to create an elevation grid and use professional mapping and cartography software.
In a similar vein, Riccobene told Kotaku that Red Dead Redemption 2 aided his process in bringing his 3D-printed GTA 5 map to life. Related: Lara Croft, GTA 5 Protagonists Among the Richest Video Game Characters Along the same lines, an RDR2 fan took the time to make a five-part nature documentary showcasing the game's expansively scenic world throughout each of its five fictionalized U.S. Just this past July, a fan combined the maps from Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption games in order to show how the two worlds overlapped and their differences in scale. Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games is known for its meticulously detailed open worlds, and admiration specifically for its intricate game maps has led to fan-made homages in the past - especially for Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption series. The GTA 5 map is the largest of the entire Grand Theft Auto series, reaching more than double the area of its runner-up, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Product designer Dom Riccobene spent over 400 hours creating a physical version of the Grand Theft Auto Vmap using 3D printing tools, custom design software, and more.