How are Witcher 3 and CP77 open worlds layed out?

[0248991]

Hey,
I was watching a Witcher 3 video:

and what stroke me (once again) was the layout of the open-world design - for both Witcher 3 and CP.

Does anybody know how CDPR approaches it?

I mean, I have seen many of their presentations, but come to think about them, they mostly mentioned level design in relation to e.g. quest design - how they deal with different walkthroughs through quest locations, etc...

But how about the design in general?
The general layout of nature - mountains, rivers, forests, valleys, caves, shores, snowy peaks, vegetation,...
Design of inhabited areas - villages, cities, abandoned villages, and paths between them,...
Decoration objects - benches, rocks, fences, street shops,...

I remember an interview with Jose Teixeira where he said CDPR had someone with expert knowledge about vegetation, Pawel Sasko mentioned that piles of trash in CP were generated using Houdini,...

Does anybody know e.g. how CDPR creates these open natural areas - forests, meadows, Badlands in CP,...?

 

[northwold]

Hey,
I was watching a Witcher 3 video:

and what stroke me (once again) was the layout of the open-world design - for both Witcher 3 and CP.

Does anybody know how CDPR approaches it?

I mean, I have seen many of their presentations, but come to think about them, they mostly mentioned level design in relation to e.g. quest design - how they deal with different walkthroughs through quest locations, etc...

But how about the design in general?
The general layout of nature - mountains, rivers, forests, valleys, caves, shores, snowy peaks, vegetation,...
Design of inhabited areas - villages, cities, abandoned villages, and paths between them,...
Decoration objects - benches, rocks, fences, street shops,...

I remember an interview with Jose Teixeira where he said CDPR had someone with expert knowledge about vegetation, Pawel Sasko mentioned that piles of trash in CP were generated using Houdini,...

Does anybody know e.g. how CDPR creates these open natural areas - forests, meadows, Badlands in CP,...?

I think they've mentioned using urban planners for Night City if that's what you mean (rather than what software was used)?

 

[Didacgomez]

Not sure if it will help:

You can find some presentations about their flow in GDC conference.

 

[0248991]

Not sure if it will help:

Thanks
I have seen this, though it's mostly a bug fest presentation - what did they do wrong - not how did they design it.

 

[Didacgomez]

Thanks
I have seen this, though it's mostly a bug fest presentation - what did they do wrong - not did they design it.

Ok, appart from the dialog flow I don't remember any actual "tool" presented. This one is interesting at least, that is the complexity of finding the bugs introduced by the other tools.

 

[0248991]

any actual "tool" presented

Now that you mention it, I remembered redkit for Witcher 2.

I believe there were tools for manual placement and (random) generation in an area.
Not sure if there were other tools for terrain decorating.

Though Witcher 2 wasn't too big and open world.

But with stuff like Houdini, that's probably mostly history now.

I am very interested in Witcher 3's nature - it looks very cinematic (e.g. tree placement forms a labyrinth, blocking views and making exploration more challenging...?) - though I am not sure about realism.

 

[compaysegundo]

Witcher 3 is very cinematic and cool.