Question about very big/vast area making

Animas

Sorry if this might be something very simple, but I'm interested how do people go on about creating something that is very big?

To give more info I'm having a deep(around 2 km) valley with mountains( at least 4 kms) or huge chamber in mind (400 m * 800 m).
When I try to make such objects (just block up, so literally planes and boxes) max just crashes. It does work better with chamber (I imagine since it's smaller).

So the question is how do people work with such large areas? Are they modeling things scaled (like 1 km = 100 m so they divide all the values by 10 or so) or could that be just a hardware problem (as a matter of fact this gave me a kick in the ass i needed to order an upgrade to 16 gigs of ram, so we'll see if that helps).
I am also wondering if this project is even possible to complete in max or should I think about making it in unreal (would be a perfect opportunity to learn it more).

Eric Chadwick

What is the end goal exactly? Are you making a game level? Or vfx for a movie? Or portfolio art so you can get work? Or just hobbyist for fun?

Animas

The end goal is to have a static artwork that I could put into my portfolio. Up until now the biggest models I had to deal with were the size of small building so you can imagine the slight confusion when trying to make something a bit bigger.

oglu

if its static or the camera does only move slightly its not that hard... just work in layers...
everything thats in a 5 meter radius is super detailed... everything in a 25 meter radius is less detailed... 
with every step away from the cam you need less detail... and the far back is a mattepaint...

musashidan

If it's a still render project then just fake it. Eyeball the scale and use the camera to give you more depth and a sense of a vast area. Also change your system units to something more suitable for a large scene.

Look at VFX breakdowns on YT and see how they use matte paintings to turn tiny studios into far off landscapes.