Single Open World or Partitioned?

[animalfather]

Single Open World or Partitioned?

Do we want a single gigantic seamless world like in GTA or a partitioned world with sectors?
I wouldn't mind a partitioned world, there are more possibilities for cool stuff that way and more content. What do you guys think?

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

Sectors. Definitely. Singular maps tend to be all for show and little for actual gameplay and interactivity, and frankly, trudging back and forth in a huge map get pretty fucking boring once you start to have a the place memorized.

Several differently sized (some big, some small, some in the middle) districts the player can freely travel between on an overland map using either his feet, public transportation or a vehicle of his own.

Example:

Spoiler

Green areas represent playable areas (and their sizes), though of course the overland map should have some gameplay too for the inquisitive player, so it's not just a loading screen or something to simply look at.

 

[Suhiira]

Sectors. Definitely.

Agreed.
Huge open world maps are by necessity sparsely populated with meaningful activity. You can only process so much data so fast, and huge maps take up a LOT of processing power.

 

[felixsylvaris]

Particition for better performance.
CP could have high volume up or down (skyscrapers and stuff)
The trick is to make transition which looks natural, like corridor giving loading time or elevator. In Witcher 3 it was bridges i suppose.

 

[Suhiira]

Particition for better performance.
CP could have high volume up or down (skyscrapers and stuff)
The trick is to make transition which looks natural, like corridor giving loading time or elevator.

Elevators or entry/exit from large buildings (not mom-n-pop shops) would be perfectly reasonable loading zones. Places you won't have to enter/exit frequently but would expect considerable change in art or activity content.

 

[cyberpunkforever]

i'm goo diwth one gigantic map or many big maps
what i don't like is large empty spaces, it's useless
not gigantic map only for the sake of beeing gigantic, there must be something good/interesting/fun/to do in it

 

[Lisbeth_Salander]

Single open world = low performance = bad graphics
Partitioned but big open world like witcher 3 = better performance = nice graphics

 

[Snowflakez]

Naturally, I'd love one big open world, but I know that would be problematc from a performance and engineering standpoint. As such, I'm perfectly fine with it being sectioned off, a la The Witcher 3. I never once had a problem with it there.

That said, I play my games on PC. I heard TW3 console players had some REALLY awful load times, which is obviously not going to be ideal with CP2077. I hope they work that out this time around.

 

[Guest 4149880]

Nothing wrong with open world games performance wise with engine techniques like Umbra's occlusion culling being used, the hardware is not the problem. I think it comes down to games that are too big are just wasting a lot of space and resources just for the sake of scale, and for only one game where the environment will never be used again. The player can only ever be in one area anyway, leaving the rest to load in the background until your arrival.

With a game like Cyberpunk 2077, I think it would be best to build a sort of modular Night City and surrounding areas into zones to get the very best out of the density and verticality of the world. And it might also allow CDPR to better make adjustments to the games environments separately. It would also allow making sequels and reusing the existing Night City environment much easier when they can work with smaller but still quite large environmental set peace's rather then a one giant world. Its a matter of resource efficiency and would get rid of those sparse wide open areas that are mostly empty that many open worlds have.

CDPR shows with Witcher 3 that smaller zones allow for this high level of density within the world while it remains a very huge world. Carry these designs over to 2077 with even better techniques.

 

[animalfather]

Load times could be masked by you driving your flying car through the motorway dodging traffic.

 

[sv3672]

It depends, for The Witcher 3 it was seen as an accomplishment that there are no loading screens except when traveling between different regions that are lore wise at great distances from each other. If CP2077 targets next generation hardware like the PS5 and there will be no distant locations outside Night City, then CDPR may try to implement a seamless open world that can be explored with no loading screens ever (except if the player's character dies), it is a technical challenge, but not impossible. But multiple regions like in TW3 make sense if the travel times between them would be unreasonably long.

 

[exogenesis09]

Cyberpunk 2077 will absolutely make it a Partitioned Open World. There is some speculation that there is every region on the open world map where if you destroyed some walls or a building, they will get repaired by some robots by the time you get out from that area and go back from it again.

I may still say there will still be loading when you get out of the regions, but still depends how RedEngine 4 works. In my speculations, it will be more like Minecraft where the game will depend more on Anti-Aliasing.

Why do I say that? Because Anti-Aliasing is similar to loading chunks on the game. If they going to remove Loading Time they have to make it similar to Minecraft. When you are exploring and entering new region and the chunks loads automatically and changes while you are playing the game.

Example of No Loading Scenarios to Regions like Minecraft.
Region 1: Only Pigs Area
Region 2: Only Sheeps Area
Region 1 (Day) —> Region 2(Noon): You saw Sheeps.
Region 2 (Noon) —> Region 1 (Night): Pigs Gone. You only saw Wolves now.
Region 1: Stayed there till Sunset wolves moving around and disappearing waiting for Pigs but you don’t care enough so you went to see some Sheep by noon.
Region 1 (Noon)—> Region 2 (Night) : Sheeps gone and only saw Zombies.

This is why some speculations, that PS4 and Xbox One will not be able to have Cyberpunk 2077 but only for recent Console Xbox One X (not sure for PS4 Pro) with its new specifications for future games. I don’t really have problem for Loading Times but just in case they are trying to be something different and dominant from other Partitioned Open World Games with new REDEngine 4. They have to show us this in the future. We’ve been waiting this for 4 years.

 

[Guest 4149880]

Because Anti-Aliasing is similar to loading chunks on the game. If they going to remove Loading Time they have to make it similar to Minecraft. When you are exploring and entering new region and the chunks loads automatically and changes while you are playing the game.

Anti Aliasing is the process of smoothing jagged edges or curved lines, depending on what the player is viewing in the game to make them appear smoother. Its not about loading the environment.

 

[exogenesis09]

Anti Aliasing is the process of smoothing jagged edges or curved lines, depending on what the player is viewing in the game to make them appear smoother. Its not about loading the environment.

Still relates to the topic we are talking about here. The Aspects of it for this Generation Consoles and how it will work on Cyberpunk 2077. I also mentioned how Minecraft Loading time work will work on Cyperbunk 2077 and how it will depends on Anti Aliasing making player viewing in the world make them appear smoother for our current consoles. I may misunderstood what Anti Aliasing really do for the game but also Anti Aliasing what actually makes Open World work smoothly right? That what relates of what I am talking about for Loading Times here.I don’t know what term should use on the middle way to explain it. They both relates to the environment and what we want for Open World games.

No Fast Travel Loading seems impossible for me because there is thing called Anti Aliasing to make them smoother.
There should be a game where you only loads when you first time exploring a region, Starting the game, and Died to respawn. Everything should be save and active on the game while you are progressing or playing the game. Only stops when you close the game or (dead) loading while advance time. GTA 5 No loading for different areas is what feels good about this game and Anti Aliasing just do the work.

 

[Guest 4149880]

Still relates to the topic we are talking about here. The Aspects of it for this Generation Consoles and how it will work on Cyberpunk 2077. I also mentioned how Minecraft Loading time work will work on Cyperbunk 2077 and how it will depends on Anti Aliasing making player viewing in the world make them appear smoother for our current consoles. I may misunderstood what Anti Aliasing really do for the game but also Anti Aliasing what actually makes Open World work smoothly right? That what relates of what I am talking about for Loading Times here.I don’t know what term should use on the middle way to explain it. They both relates to the environment and what we want for Open World games.

No Fast Travel Loading seems impossible for me because there is thing called Anti Aliasing to make them smoother.
There should be a game where you only loads when you first time exploring a region, Starting the game, and Died to respawn. Everything should be save and active on the game while you are progressing or playing the game. Only stops when you close the game or (dead) loading while advance time. GTA 5 No loading for different areas is what feels good about this game and Anti Aliasing just do the work.

I guess what your more referring to is rendering. A lot of open world games render everything close to the player with high detail and the further away everything else is, the less rendered detail it has. Also Umbra occlusion culling only renders what the player is currently looking at, and everything else is actually not being rendered at all, for example everything behind the characters point of view and opposite sides of structures and environments is gone. If you're looking at a building, the other side technically isn't there at all, until you look at it, its then instantly rendered milliseconds before your point of view reaches it.

 

[animalfather]

This is why some speculations, that PS4 and Xbox One will not be able to have Cyberpunk 2077 but only for recent Console Xbox One X (not sure for PS4 Pro) with its new specifications for future games. I don’t really have problem for Loading Times but just in case they are trying to be something different and dominant from other Partitioned Open World Games with new REDEngine 4. They have to show us this in the future. We’ve been waiting this for 4 years.

i think the game will skip this gen of consoles. and be exclusive for xb2/ps5. even the X and Pro have really weak cpus.

 

[Rawls]

I think I'd prefer them to build off the Witcher 3. Large areas ... but a few different zones to improve performance. I still consider it open world even if there are 3 large areas (Novigrad, Skellige, Toussaint) two decent ones (Kaer Morhen, White Orchard) and a few smaller ones (Vizima Palace, worlds in through time and space, O'Dimm's nightmare world).

 

[Snowflakez]

I think I'd prefer them to build off the Witcher 3. Large areas ... but a few different zones to improve performance. I still consider it open world even if there are 3 large areas (Novigrad, Skellige, Toussaint) two decent ones (Kaer Morhen, White Orchard) and a few smaller ones (Vizima Palace, worlds in through time and space, O'Dimm's nightmare world).

Agreed! A game doesn't have to be technically open world to be open world in spirit.

Also, why do you think they split Novigrad and Velen into separate areas on the world map, when they are interconnected? I always wondered that.

 

[Rawls]

Also, why do you think they split Novigrad and Velen into separate areas on the world map, when they are interconnected? I always wondered that.

I mean technologically speaking they are part of the same map. I think they are discussed as distinct places to give each side of the Pontar it's own sort of feel. One is more classically feudal, heavily populated and sophisticated while the other is wild, ravaged by war and famine and even somewhat mystical. I think it was wise to have them feel different, even to the point of all the NPCs essentially considering them different worlds, even if they are only on the other side of the river.

But lets not swerve to far off topic ...

 

[Snowflakez]

I mean technologically speaking they are part of the same map. I think they are discussed as distinct places to give each side of the Pontar it's own sort of feel. One is more classically feudal, heavily populated and sophisticated while the other is wild, ravaged by war and famine and even somewhat mystical. I think it was wise to have them feel different, even to the point of all the NPCs essentially considering them different worlds, even if they are only on the other side of the river.

But lets not swerve to far off topic ...

Sorry.