the open world includes vast tracts of countryside around the city proper. research took the team to california's rural regions; garbut recalled a visit he took with houser to bombay beach that inspired them to set trevor's initial story against the salton sea. the team wanted a large world without open, empty spaces, and condensed southern california's countryside into a diverse and detailed playing space. the game world covers about an eightieth of los angeles county. its scale is greater than rockstar's previous open world games; garbut estimated it is large enough to fit "san andreas", "grand theft auto iv" and "red dead redemption"s worlds combined inside. to accommodate the world's size, the team overhauled the rage to improve its draw distance rendering capabilities. the large, open space permitted the re-introduction of fixed-wing aircraft, omitted from "grand theft auto iv" because of its relatively smaller scale. "we wanted somewhere big [to let players] fly properly", houser explained. the team populated the world with wildlife; lead producer leslie benzies felt that "because of the scale of the map and the different kinds of areas involved, a countryside without animals would feel quite hollow".