How are open-world games becoming as detailed as linear ones?

J

Joed

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I mean, look at Horizon: ZD and the new God of War (one open world, one linear). Horizon looks on par with GOW despite having this huge other world to render. Hell, Forza Horizon 3 looks on par with Gears 4 as well, same thing.

Mafia 3 and Watch Dogs 2 look ridiculously beautiful too.

Should this be happening? Logically, it shouldn't?
 
beautiful is a subjective thing.

you say Mafia 3 looks beautiful. I say it looks really dated.

Forza horizon 3 vs Gears 4 have totally different art style. Hard to compare the "beauty". Need to compare its quantiable merits.
 
Now these days open world games aren't so much lacking in fidelity anymore. It's really more about consistency. You'll inevitably find a lot more dull looking spots in Horizon than you would in God of War. Not necessary a new thing either. GTAV looked about as good as the very best corridor games last gen. That is as long as you do not find yourself walking around in that rare back alley the designers deemed unimportant (a lot harder to find then one might think. The lesser spots in GTAV are really where you can see that monstrous budget working its magic)
 
The techniques to cleverly predict what data and when to stream to the RAM have become better with time.
The fact that consoles got a 16x RAM increase compared to the earlier generation probably also makes a big difference.
 
Video RAM I'm guessing. And those long videos about like how devs are procedural texturing and stuff. Algorithms, basically! :p

Also I read this actually as "why are open-world games become more linear like linear games", damn preconceptions :p
 
I believe there are certain visual element in a linear game that simply can't be reproduced in an open world game. Such as the moving titan level or those highly scripted sequences. The "titan level" stuff in the new GoW would probably be even farther out of reach considering they're gonna take the whole thing to the next level and then some.
But yes I do get what you mean tho, Horizon ZD is probably doing a lot more technical stuffs for its graphics than most linear games these days.
 
Seems obvious, because we are reaching diminishing returns.

One of the most difficult problems is to get open world games to look as good as linear ones. But when the improvement in linear ones seems to have slowed, you naturally next throw all that power (you have to throw teraflops at something) at trying (and inevitably succeeding to some degree) to make open worlds look as good as linear ones.

Witcher 3 would be another good example you missed. Battlefield 1 multiplayer another.

So basically, IMO it's the natural evolution of things. Open world graphics are the low hanging fruit right now.
 
Yeah battlefield is surprisingly awesome looking for such big world. But dice sacrifice the physics.

Same with gta v physics that got downgraded.

But battlefield 1 seems dialing the physics to 11. I really miss the time when u can make a hole for cover, can destroy an objective by sniping it using a tank, can lure a group of enemy into a building full of c4 and ready to collapse, in BFBC.
 
If I had to guess, the biggest factors would probably be asset streaming and shaders. Game installs are huge for both single player and open world games. So storage for high quality textures and assets is not really an issue. Most games stream assets now, so a well crafted streaming engine with lod will only load the required assets. On top of that, so many game visuals come from shaders, algorithms. It's not like the old days where everything was baked into textures and levels had to be loaded in full before they were played. That left open world games, or games with large play areas at a huge disadvantage.
 
I think open-world games were almost on par with corridor games even last gem. Red Dead Redemption, GTA 5, Assassin's Creed 3, Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag and Assassin's Creed Rogue were unbelivably good looking!
 
I also forgot about Batman Arkham City and Batman Arkham Origins, those games also were absolutely amazing!
 
rockaman said:
Video RAM I'm guessing. And those long videos about like how devs are procedural texturing and stuff. Algorithms, basically! :p

Also I read this actually as "why are open-world games become more linear like linear games", damn preconceptions :p
Click to expand...

Imagine an open world game on rails!!! LOL.

Or better yet imagine this pitch by a game dev, "It's like Dragon Lair but its an open world game!!!"
 
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