For gta3, Vice and SA; Memory on the ps2 was tight. We had to limit the number of used vehicle models to 8. My code would occasionally pick a car model to be phased out. Once there were none left on the map, this model would be removed and a new model could be loaded. The code would pick a model that was appropriate for the area (sports cars in business district, old cars in run-down areas etc). Most of the time this worked fine. A few things could throw a spanner in the works: If the player had gone up the wanted levels, some of the 8 slots would be taken up by police cars, FIB and swat vans and the police heli. Level designers would sometimes load specific car models for missions. Often these were not appropriate to be used for ambient traffic. Ambulance and firetrucks could be needed if there was an accident. If the player travelled to a different area of the map; some of the loaded cars would look out of place and could not be used. It would take a while for replacement models to be loaded. The game would keep the last player driven car, as it would be jarring if the player went back and it wasn’t there. At times there would only be 1 or 2 cars models available for ambient traffic. This lack of variation was particularly noticeable if the player was driving the one car that had to be used. To alleviate the problem, garages remove cars inside of them once the door has closed. This way the model could be removed. When the player opened the door, the cars were re-created in the same spot. Npc models were loaded/removed the same way. It just wasn’t as noticeable if variety was lacking. For each game we picked a generic looking character model that looked appropriate in each area of the map. This model was never removed and always ready to fill in. Screenshot from this vid: youtube.com/watch?v=KWhjv4J6…