Open cities and buildings? : V - Skyrim

» Thu Oct 28, 2010 8:23 pm

Obviously it would be cooler if they were open, but I wont cry if theyre not.

» Thu Oct 28, 2010 10:54 pm

Well, blame the consoles if they aren't, one of the best things about morrowind is that they are open. Jump and levitate etc won't be in the game if they are closed/

» Thu Oct 28, 2010 11:42 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtC0lpKKE38

» Thu Oct 28, 2010 11:39 pm

The Xbox 360 and PS3 hardware say no, the cities will remain in seperate cells.

Yeah, this is the biggest problem.

Now just because they are in separate cells doesn't mean you can't look through windows or open doors, nor does it mean that transition between the cells will happen with a loading screen. It can as well be seamless, with a similar technology as seen in Prey and Portal.

It does however mean that "interior" and "exterior" geometry isn't technically connected, besides at the portals themselves, which makes effects like (on-screen) destroyable buildings very, very hard to do - likely impossible.

» Thu Oct 28, 2010 8:42 pm

Open cities may be possible, or at least larger open towns, but there's no way we'll get open buildings.

You see that in games like GTA and RDR because there aren't as many objects with physics. Compared to the exteriors, interiors in Bethesda games tend to be much more densely packed with objects, all of which have physics and can be scattered by a powerful spell, etc. Asking the game to process all that *and* the NPCs outside would be an extremely daunting task, not just for the consoles, but most likely even for a high end PC.

I would gladly give up all the useless clutter being movable and have them be static for open buildings.

» Thu Oct 28, 2010 11:10 pm

I wouldn't mind open cities. But for some reason I wouldn't mind closed buildings.

» Fri Oct 29, 2010 2:25 am

I, frankly, am sick and tired of hearing the word "immersion". Nobody seems to know what it really means, and it's probably the biggest buzzword in the videogame world.

» Thu Oct 28, 2010 5:25 pm

Well, blame the consoles if they aren't, one of the best things about morrowind is that they are open. Jump and levitate etc won't be in the game if they are closed/

Morrowind was also on a console.
Besides, don't forget Bethesda can't target only the PC audience that keep their PC's updated.
All companies allow for older hardware to run their games, so don't blame consoles. Its just simple marketing...

» Fri Oct 29, 2010 12:48 am

I, frankly, am sick and tired of hearing the word "immersion". Nobody seems to know what it really means, and it's probably the biggest buzzword in the videogame world.

Maybe you are just mad because you dont know what it means? Anyway, in the case of video games, it is a very subjective term. For me, it is the measure of how little I find myself focusing on the type of paint used as opposed to the painting itself.

» Thu Oct 28, 2010 6:51 pm

Morrowind was also on a console.
Besides, don't forget Bethesda can't target only the PC audience that keep their PC's updated.
All companies allow for older hardware to run their games, so don't blame consoles. Its just simple marketing...

Almost all objects were in interior cells and none of them had actual havok physics either. As far as the marketing tho you are right. Personally I think if they can't do open world cities then there should be an invisible barrier that follows the city wall that if you manage to jump, climb, or fly over it it just loads you into the cell.

» Fri Oct 29, 2010 4:12 am

Open buildings are impossible, with the current tech. But who knows what the new engine is even capable of.

As for the town shown in the Article, that likely was one of the smaller villages.

» Thu Oct 28, 2010 11:10 pm

Open buildings sounds a little out there, but open cities is certainly something I am hoping for

» Thu Oct 28, 2010 3:44 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtC0lpKKE38

This is really amazing, i hope something like this is used

» Fri Oct 29, 2010 2:19 am

Bethesda has rebuilt the engine, so it depends how they approached the AI. Unless they are running every script even when you are nowhere near, how hard should the AI hit? And why would you really need to do that?

» Thu Oct 28, 2010 4:46 pm

what they could have is a loading screen when you enter an interior space, but then add a portal to windows allowing you to see into the other cell, and thus looking out the window, this was done in fallout once in the illusion vault (72 or something) where you looked into a vault window and you saw an illusion, which was just a peak into another cell, maybe the engine will be optimized enough to do this everywhere

» Fri Oct 29, 2010 12:06 am

Maybe you are just mad because you dont know what it means? Anyway, in the case of video games, it is a very subjective term. For me, it is the measure of how little I find myself focusing on the type of paint used as opposed to the painting itself.

I forgot "sick and tired" and "mad" were the same thing. No. I get ANNOYED (not mad) when I see the word "immersion" tossed around constantly over EVERYTHING. I feel the same way every time I hear "Web 2.0".

» Fri Oct 29, 2010 2:56 am

Completely open cities and building is in fact a very possible reality. There is tech out there that allows systems weaker then the consoles to achieve such things in very large enviroments with great detail. With this new engine they could have made it with this type of enviroments in mind. We wont know untill we get more info but I wouldent rule it out with such little information.

» Thu Oct 28, 2010 12:21 pm

You don't want open cities?... :eek:

Open cities mean you have to load them even when you're not in them, thus making the game slower/load times greater. Separate cells mean you only load it when you use it and faster gamep/faster load times.

» Fri Oct 29, 2010 1:35 am

Chances are that interior cells will be separate from exterior cells.

» Thu Oct 28, 2010 8:18 pm

Yeah, the tech demo that was linked on the last page was interesting. Albeit, it lacked the sort of detail that will undoubtedly be in Skyrim, though I don't know if that will matter too much.

Mostly, I just want to be able to freely walk in and out of houses, see- hell, even climb- into or out of windows, and quietly levitate over city walls.

» Fri Oct 29, 2010 1:09 am

this is yet another situation where i pray to the nine that bethesda is using the umbra tech. it would be very possible to have large open cities on all platforms, possible even building interiors within the same cell!!!!!!!

BETHESDA PLEASE USE UMBRA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

» Fri Oct 29, 2010 3:05 am

Almost all objects were in interior cells and none of them had actual havok physics either. As far as the marketing tho you are right. Personally I think if they can't do open world cities then there should be an invisible barrier that follows the city wall that if you manage to jump, climb, or fly over it it just loads you into the cell.

Yeah I had posted an idea similar to that.

» Thu Oct 28, 2010 9:27 pm

The major ciies are walled in it seems, judging by the map. Good thing, even though it will look unrealistic on most provences in the future.

*Imagine blackmarsh with no open city.