Viewing Thread:
"Draw distance"

This really annoys me.

Let's take the original Quake... in fact, let's take Quake 3. Not much difference really. Now, when you load up a level, what's the first thing you'll see?

Correct. A wall.

Look around... yup, more walls. It's really claustrophobic, and it's only done so you can have more blood stains splattered on the floor.

You see, draw distance is something that I believe is dreadfully underused. I would much rather play a game where I can look in detail across landscapes, across hills and deserts, than have games where I can blow up a box and watch as it falls into thousands of pieces.

Unfortunatly past computers and consoles have not had the power to do something like this. Which is why we get the hidiously cramped levels of Quake and Tomb Raider and so on.

But now, the next gen consoles do have the power. They will be able to draw distances those miles away... so you can stand at the top of a sand hill, and look down on the busy town beneath it, or look into the distance at the mountains and hills... not that horrible "matt painting" background, the real deal, rendered hills and mountains.

Another aspect, I suppose, could be the sea. Fogging is often used when in the sea... because apparently you do get rather bad vision down there anyway... but wouldn't it be great to go into a game and just see the crystal blue sea... thousands of fish, shipwrecks, ruins... excellent.

The closest we get to that?

A silhouette of a whale and a little radar in the top right corner that tells us that there is indeed a wall 10 metres in front of you.

Perhaps this really is the real future of gaming. Well, it is for me, anyway.

Any views on the subject please?

I think that big back grounds like that scare most people.

If a game is made correctly, big environments would work.
Sometimes, though, if they're a bit sparse, they can get boring.

We'll have to see what imagination the devellopers have.

Turbonutter wrote:
> Yes, the Resi with 3D real-time enviroments IS fantastic NOW on the
> PS2.

Has Code Veronica X got a still camera??

If it hasn't, then I'll buy it.

If it has, then I'm not buying it.

Good idea YH.

And I'm not arguing, I'm stating facts. (Over and over and over...)

Perhaps it does, but then there is no evidence for it, so you can't actually prove it.

The Bill?!?!

Pfah!

Terminator 2 is on Channel 5 in a couple of minutes, I'm going to watch that (again).

I don't want to go into this argument right not (The Bill's on in 5 mins) but the PS2 does, in fact, have superior polygonal capabilities.

Having seen some video clips for Unreal Championship I can say that it does, indeed, look fantastic.

That's all I have to say on the matter.

Thanks.

It does on paper. Yes.

But then, they haven't actually properly tested the polygonal powers of the Gamecube yet.

So I would say it's a bit hard to compare? No?

Heh, just one more thing to add:

The PS2 has significantly superior polygon producing capabilities to the GameCube, and therefore will allow further draw distances with more detail.

Yeah, the GameCube's coming out. Hehe.

:)