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How do I make a huge open world map?
Hello, I am making an RPG/FPS/tactics game that has a very large map, like mega huge. Also, this map has vast open expanses such as deserts and mountain ranges, this means that solutions relying on tiling/ sub-maps will most likely be really obvious. Also, one of the game's main mechanics involves the ability to switch between two "realities" effectively meaning I need two maps which will, of course, take ages to load in. In short, I would like to know if what I am aiming for is even possible given the current state if technology and if so how do I go about doing it?
It depends on how detailed the world is gonna be. To be specific, how detailed the world that the player should be able to perceive at any one point is gonna be. You can have huge landscapes that go on for miles in each direction, but you can't also have hundreds of buildings, characters, trees, and rocks around as well. Commercial games like Skyrim basically divide the world into chunks, or cells, and each time the player enters a new cell the surrounding objects are loaded into memory while the ones from cells that are now far away are cleared. Similarly, the terrain mesh is divided into chunks and when a player comes near a cell, it switches to a detailed version, while far away terrain cells switch to a low-poly mesh. So, it's impossible to answer your question conclusively. The basic technology makes it possible, it just comes down to how much you have to push it, and also what platform you are developing for, and what system specs the user's machine should have.
I see, so it's like $$anonymous$$inecraft style chunk rendering but ins$$anonymous$$d of completely obscuring distant chunks, you just reduce them to much lower graphical fidelity.
This article here Infinite Terrain Generation in Unity 3D basically covers making infinite worlds, now its not what you're asking for, so I didn't put at as an answer, but with some work, it can do exactly what you want.
