Open World Game

rattyx

Hi polycounters, I have a question bothering me for some time, what is the workflow of creating maps for an open world game. Let's say for ex. Guild Wars 2, or other mmos out there.


I think that they made a big 8000+X8000+ terrain directly as a plane in 3ds max and then detail it into mudbox, and then open it in UDK and populate it.
Tell me if my theory is correct or suggest me some new ideas.

passerby

could be, but mostly likely they would have divided it up, and used level streaming, to stream different parts of the map in and out of memory

rattyx

but how to match seamless different maps, I also thought about your theory but how to unify them seamlessly?

SO the workflow could be like i make a 15.000x15.000 map then devide it in maps by 512x512 and remake it in UDK? by importing height maps?

Zocky

IIRC, GW2 world is devided into different zones, and you have teleports between them, but i'm not sure how they if the map was farther devided.

But, iirc, there was similar (j)rpg created within UDK, Blade and Soul, and i remember a guy here at polycount talking a bit about it, iirc, they did say they split world in various parts, but i can't remember much more then that.

So, try looking for that thread, iirc, it was showcase of 25min video or so if that helps. Maybe you'll find some usefull info there.

passerby

once you make a terrain from heightmap it is possible to select parts of it and assign them to different levels. the terrain it;s self wont be the performance killer so it could go in the persistent level but you will want to stream in and out the assets on the terrain in different areas.

so you would want to use things like walled citys, high rock mountains/rock formations and things like that to limit what can be seen, so not all levels are streaming in all the time.

also cases like the walled city, what you can do is set building that are higher than the walls to be part of the persistent level, or a always loaded level, and have the lower building only stream in once your inside the walled area etc.