Portal is an in game technic used to look / transit from one world space into another world space "room-to-room visibility system".

================================================
Gamebryo Technic:
NiPortal objects are grouping nodes that support aggressive visibility culling. They represent flat polygonal regions through which a part of a scene graph can be viewed. In other words, portals represent doorways and windows in a scene, as well as the objects seen through such openings.
================================================

Example:
- Door = Look / transit from outside world into a inside world space.
- Door = Look / transit from inside world into a outside world space.

- Window = Look from the outside world into a inside world space.
- Window = Look from the inside world into a outside world space.

You can open a door and then look / move inside that world.

Does anyone know ?

How would anyone know? Probably, though.

Actually, if I'm understanding this right, than no, probably not. Let me make sure I get it, you're asking whether or not in one cell, say an interior cell like a house, you'd be able to look out the window and see an exterior cell (outside) without any loading screens etc.? If that's what you're asking, then no one knows for sure, but realistically the answer is probably no. No previous Bethesda games have used this, and while it's possible, it's unlikely that they've put that kind of tech into TES V.

Isn't it simpler to just dump the cell system and have a seamless world?

Yes, but far more demanding on systems. And who knows? Just because there is a new engine does not mean that it will have the capability to make a seamless world.

We have real time snow that falls and collects...thats never been in a game before. If Red Dead Redemption had a seamless world with open buildings and cities then I can assume that beth was able to pull it off with their new game engine in Skyrim.

I'm pretty sure there are still going to be separate inteirors and exteriors as before. Interiors are way too detailed for such a thing to work smoothly I think. Especially if you want the AI to keep on working.

Idk, I may be putting too much faith into the new engine but I still feel if it can render real time snow effects which is crazy. The detail of an interior shouldent be too big of a problem especialy with some of the new tech out nowadays where you can detail things all you want without causing any performance issues.

I'm hoping this new engine will at least be able to handle a bit more NPCs at once.

First off, Red Dead Redemption has a smaller Game World (Considering Todd have said Skyrim will have a larger world than the previous TES Games).
Second, Red Dead Redemption's houses are boring and very little detailed. Skyrim will have much more detail in the houses (Like OB and MW) and it has dungeons.

So, comparing Red Dead Redemption and Skyrim in that sense won't work.

Actually, past Bethesda games HAVE used portals, just to limited effects. I'm not sure about Oblivion, but Fallout 3 definitely used portals-although strictly for looking through certain windows. The fact that they've never used the technology to a particular extent before is no indicator that they won't use it that way in the future-it's just as likely that they weren't familiar enough with it to be able to implement it in this way, or that there were limitations to the technology or game engine that they had to get around.

Another less technical way to explain what portals are is to give an example-a more popular example would obviously be the game Portal-although I don't think it's the best example since while it was certainly inventive it always took you from point A to point B in the same basic environment. A better example would be the first person shooter Prey, which used portals very creatively-taking the player from one environment to an entirely different environment and doing some serious mind screws with physics and proportion as well.

The way portals are being proposed to be used in this case will make them completely invisible to the player-when they walk through a door directly from an exterior to an interior space-the only thing they might be thinking is "Cool! I've never seen this in an Elder Scrolls game before!", because it will be entirely seamless in-game-or at least it will be most of the time. The technology could also be used for some more surreal moments involving magic and such.

All this said, I'm having my doubts since the GI article has come out-you'd think that if gamesas is doing something so radically different with regard to exterior to interior transitions, it would've been mentioned. Then again, maybe they didn't think to mention it or maybe it's being saved to be revealed later-one can only hope this is the case.

Their detailed to the time periods style and architecture along with the setting. But yes while RDR is a very ambitious game that Todd Howard himself has stated that he's enjoyed and Obsidian too took a small peek at for New Vegas.

While you can compare them in the seamless world sense fact is they are two different genres(Albiet one has RPG mechanics while the other is an RPG) with engines built for different goals in mind. So it wouldn't make sense to compare them other than if Skyrim can pull off a seamless and organic world that transitions without a hitch other than entering/leaving dungeons.

Yes, based on the time, they are detailed, but what I mean is that Oblivion (And then Skyrim) have much more stuff in houses, and the houses are generally bigger, thus demands more Power than Red Dead Redemption.
I too enjoyed RDR very much!

I suppose a makeshift system could be employed where you go up and "use" a window or door in sneak mode, and your character would peek through it. The engine will create a camera in the other cell with the same orientation as your character and then overlay the view on top of your screen. Would be nice, especially if there's any particularly intricate stealth missions involving patrolling NPCs or something of the like.

Personally however, I don't think it's necessary.

If cities are in exteriors again, a-la MW, I'm already happy

Oblivion was just a pain in the ass in that matter. Many times I had the feeling that I was looking more at the loading screens than actually playing the game. Seriously.

So the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device will be in the game???
EPIC!!!!!!

Occlusion culling would make going into interiors seamless and lag free. IF you can't see it don't render it. Why would it be bad on performance? Intelligent optimization would make going into dark caves a spooky task while waiting for your eyes to adjust.

Can you give an example of that? I don't remember such a thing in FO3.

I provided a link to the GECK tutorial below...

Fallout 3 had portals in it, this is how it works, for people who don't know http://geck.gamesas.com/index.php/gamesas_Tutorial_Optimization#Portal.

I think that they will definately use it in interior cells (dungeons, houses, caves), and I hope they use it for cities, too. Maybe replace interior cells with it. So when you open a door, instead of teleporting to a corresponding room, the door actually opens, and you can walk in and out as you please, without loading.

But I think that portals are going to be in Skyrim, they already know how to use them and it will make the game more efficient.


You win for that epic comment. :cake: (Just kidding).

If you have a single world space of combined exterior and all the interiors, the sheer amount of data would choke any current system to a stand still. Not possible.

Portals would not be that bad, because they join only two environment together.

I too am interested in this, I wonder if anyone knows more, the interior/ exterior system feels a bit aged, not that I mind, still love it!

All I thought of was:

"Speedy thing go in, speedy thing come out."


OT: It'd be pretty cool to have this system that the OP was speaking of in Skyrim. But remember that ES games are huge. They can't always make the graphics top-notch.

I addition to what was already mentioned, there's this excerpt regarding Vault 106 from the Fallout wiki:



http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Vault_106

This is a rare example of a "Portal" being used creatively in Fallout 3. I'm sorry I didn't state myself more clearly-I was talking mainly about windows contained within interiors looking into other parts of the interior-there obviously weren't any interior-to-exterior windows that you could look through and see outside in Fallout 3. It'd be awesome of we have such things in Skyrim, though.

Another thing I'd like to note is that interiors and cities could potentially still be handled as separate spaces, but with the "portals" linking them together seamlessly. This would be an advantage mainly to editing-although linking things like windows could be somewhat tedious (linking doors is something that would need to be done anyway).

If I'm not mistaken the old Unreal Engine (the one that came out before UE3 in 2004) had portal technology....