Welcome to the forums. Have a http://images.uesp.net//c/c4/Fishystick.jpg.

I appreciate that there must be limitations to how many blades of grass they can draw, but what I don't get is their choice of alternative.

Instead of just deleting the distant grass so that you can see the flat tile surface beneath it, why not replace the distant texture with something that .... looks like it has grass all over it?

Certainly you could render 3d grass around the player, then have 2d grassy looking surfaces in the distance. At least that way the transition wouldn't look so much like "HERP end of grass here."

well i think that about 100 yards would be a reasonable draw distance. i dont know about all of you guys but i find it rather difficult to notice fine deatils in grass past that far. in fact farther than that all i can really see is fields of green and trees and bushes if there are any. although i would enjoy a really far draw distance in a game.

*-* thank you sir! :foodndrink:

What if the tall grass really DOES end there? *Blow your mind*

But honestly, I think I would be too busy going around and killing stuff and whatnot to really care...

For those pointing fingers at the xbox...

Halo Reach, oh wait, but you say thats not open world right?

Red Dead Redemption.

So its not the xbox.

Did you not read the post above yours?

they were posted literally at the same time.

Yes, you are.

This is 360 after all, and grass and similar stuff that is continuously generated can't go on forever. It's different with many other games that aren't so open-ended, because you got less to draw, in total. As such, the detail increases farther into the distance.

Tbh though, I don't really see how it matters. We're talking about grass after all, 50 meters into the distance. Not exactly an major gameplay issue.

If you ask me this is one of the most annoying graphical limitations and biggest immersion killers. Many a time have I entered a trance just staring at the rolling waves of grass, endlessly popping up in front of me while I trek straight lines through the wilderness.

Agreed this is a major disappointment. I noticed it before, in the first trailer when the dragon is flying over head, the bushes are popping in at around 50 meters. I didn't want to say anything at the time but now *sigh.

Unfortunately no amount of hardware can handle this grass situation, only better coding. They need to work out something with their LOD scaling system because this is holding them back. Todd had stated that the draw distance was much greater this time and I had hoped he was referring to grass and bushes too, not just mountains and distant objects.

I agree it's an immersion killer, but it's not going to be a problem on high-end PCs and for the XBOX if it's really that annoying (which I'll admit it was for Oblivion), I just turn the grass off alltogether. The world looks much better that way, grass isn't all that important. But if you're gonna have it, then of course you'd want to see it farther away and maybe see transitional fading rather than a clear border between high and low texturing.

On the other hand, you gotta ask yourself how often you're gonna see 50 feet in front of you when 80% of the gameplay resides within dungeon interiors and towns. So I wouldn't call it critical. But I can respect anyone's desire to roam, however.

In all seriousness, it will be fine.

For being 2011 and seeing how other games have managed to do much much better in this regard (yes, even for the console), I wouldn't say it's "fine". Also, consider that the real purpose and "special thing" about the engine is to draw everything.

I would say it's BAD, in big, red text.

Will we live? Lol, sure . In that regard it will be "fine". But in all other regards, it's... bad and disappointing :thumbsdown:.

but.. its just a demo so far. an old demo at that. they could have turned the draw distance down to make sure it went smooth.

Mostly it isn't, but just look at the picture - on such open land, short rendering distance looks downright ugly

Viking: Battle for Asgard is a game that didn't get very popular or well rated, but it has a great detail of things far away. When far above on a mountain, you can still see details like people 200 m below. RDR is also a good example.

It doesn't look TOO bad when in more high-res fomat however: http://franchisemedia.ign.com/images/04/36/43671_WhiterunExterior01_normal.jpg The texture appears less blurry at least.

Of course it's just a demo, but the game has been in development for like 4,5 years. The engine is what is made first, and therefore how things are rendered.
They don't suddenly realize and think "Oh crap... yeah the rendering distance for grass and bushes and such wasn't that great at all. We better rewrite that part of the engine!"

It's true draw distance could be turned down, but if that's what it takes for the game to run smooth, then I'd still say it's bad in big, red text. Other games on consoles manage to render many times longer grass and bush distance, and still run smooth.
Also, if you were a game developer and wanted to show off your new engine, which the real purpose of and "special thing" is to draw everything, would you turn down the draw distance settings so much that things are rendered like 30-50 meters in front of the player? I certainly wouldn't.

Sorry mate they would use there latest stable build for e3 not an "old demo". Seriously people i don't know where you get this from.

Yeah lets turn down the grass when we show of the grassy plains of Skyrim!! Makes sense.

Kotaku said that's a PC screen.


(Which isn't to say they must be right, though)

lets not forget that what we saw. was not what was shown to the people on the floor. so yes. maybe the people on the floor saw the newest build. that doesnt mean we did.

Yeah it was bro. Just less of it

it was all pre recorded. in fact. those exact moments were described in a game informer article months ago.
and sure the people on the floor saw an extended version of what we saw. but again. that doesnt mean we saw the same build.

In the Utah demo, Todd killed Arvel with a bow and arrow. In the E3 demo, he was stabbed. It's a newer build.

Lol, nice find.

Anyway, I think a dev said that what we saw was mainly the same as seen before, but also a few new parts.