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In Dark and Light view distance will be 50km (30miles). How might this effect game play?
blacksac
Member Posts: 1,045
In Dark and Light you can see to the horizon (50km) in game. So a mountain 50km away is visible to the player. This is a very long view distance with no landscape clipping (only the resolutions of the terrain are effected).
Here is a movie that shows this feature.
http://www.darkandlight.com/Downloads+index-req-getit-lid-8.html
How will this effect immersion in game? Is this a good feature, or wasted on players? How can something like this be used to help game play?
My feeling is that it plays an immersion role. Where one may get the feeling that the world is truly a big place by seeing distant mountains and cities.
I imagine the sense of excitement at seeing distant objects and places will compel people to explore further.
Comments
Wow I think I'm in love
I can see how having a view distance of 50km would add to the immersion by ALOT, but how good a computer would you need to do that without that kick-ass-ness lagging? (yes I just made up a word)
Not to side-track the thread a bit ... but ... OH NO! Please tell me this is not another Everquest "Boat" trip. I.e. its beautiful, amazing and fun the first couple of times you do it. But, after that, you begin to hate the time consumed going from place to place.
Spooooon!!!!
Spooooon!!!!
Well nice to look at, and first time you see it you're like
,
but as stated above the gameplay effects will have to be tested, too.
"All wiyht. Rho sritched mg kegtops awound?"
Conceptually, this is a great idea... However, I feel it will be a wasted feature, as the majority of people will have to whack away at the quality of the in-game graphics in order to utilize this. Not all of us are running a Hyper-thread P4, 1+ G of RAM, and a 256 MB G-card, eh? I think this idea should be built on, and perhaps compromised or made semi-optional at least.
On the topic of what this will do for the game, I think it will lend a helping hand in many aspects of the game. First off, when exploring in an MMO world, it would always be nice to see your destination off in the distance, and to be completely immersed in the environment on the way there. Or they could cut this idea out and you could count the trees as they pass until you reach your destination....(coughEVERQUESTcough).
~The Dark Master~
~The Dark Master~
Wow, I've just seen a few screenshots of Dark and Light. It simply looks amazing.
I'm a explorer type gamer. The idea that you can really reach the places in the distance sounds great. Also it adds a lot to the atmosphere to see what you have to pass on your journey.
However, I hope that it will be an optional feature because on the screenies it looks very hardware intensive ^^ And nothing could be worse but to waste resources on a graphical gimmick.
first off that feature is extremely nice, if only more games would do that. I think light and dark has a real good chances to be a real good game, they have a nice weathering systems the GFX look pretty good, and no clip plane, who knows if the content is right, it could turn out be a real nice game.
View distance does not really affect the client computer hardware. Your computer screen is the same size no matter what the depth distance. What slows down client hardware is any rapidly changing scene and distant views do not change much. What distance does tax is the server hardware since it must render the depth dimension in addition to width and height dimensions. The ability to handle large distances just indicates the power of their new server engine.
The Dark and Light devs have said that certain characters will be able to develop zoom vision skills or buy devices that allow that. They also have mentioned that some races will have better night vision. So distance adds another challenge for exploration and recon types and group PvP balancing.
Elite Member - MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA
MUAHAHAHAHAHA
Well duh people, of course its going to be optional. Does anyone honestly believe they are going to have game elements forcing people to have it on? Please, noone who has .1 of development/marketing common sense ever will. If you don't have the hardware, dont use it. I do not see how it can possibly be "bad" though.
In fact, I keep seeing the threads discussing "extra" features in games (DnL seems to be leader with weather, space, all the little sliding/gliding/WETheHellElseItHas things). And I think its great! Way to go DnL devs for all the creative things they did, and EQ2 devs for voice, and UO/WoW devs for item betting in duels, and whoever else who makes anything new.
What I don't get, is why people actually COMPLAIN about these things. I do not see how any EXTRA feature can be "bad". If you do not like it, thats fine, but then you just pretend its not there and the game is like it is without it. None of these things can possibly hinder gameplay, only help. If you think they can't help, that still doesn't change the fact that they aren't hurting. They are "extra feature" after all. Someone else migh enjoy them. (I don't really like the idea of NPC voice overs for instance. I am not going to play EQ2, but if I did I probably wouldnt use it. But I still think its great that they have it because many other people will like it.)
-Structure Fire - 11 Fire/Devices Blaster - Justice
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-Solister Thunderblade - 50 Pole, Thrust Arms - Pellinor (retired)
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I have looked and have found no other game with such an amazing view distance. So how it will effect game-play is up for speculation since it has never been seen before to this level.
I personally think it must improve immersion to another level, especially for any exploring and adventuring players, but I think it will effect everyone who sees it, even if only glancing at the horizon once in awhile, it will imbue a sense/feel for the world, making the world seem more alive.
Looking off into the distance seeing a vast landmass and seas stretching out before us must inspire something in us. Haven't humans been explorers since the beginning of time?! I know I still have that gene.
Sure, you can see terrain 50 km away.
But, how far away will you begin seeing other players or monsters/NPCs?? That is what will affect lag.
Well since players are much smaller than mountains and forests, I would expect you could only see people and mobs only a few Km's way. As far as lag, my understanding of it is that the server technology is totally new, and has a much larger capacity than traditional server tech, thus the huge world, view distance, and large numbers of players and mobs that wil be seen, and planned for. They understand the issue of lag, since they will have 10's of thousands of players on at the one time all in only one world, this is their priority. They say the server tech can easily handle it all. (Maybe someone can explain the tech)
Note: The issue of the original post wasnt about tech, but gameplay elements, like immersion
It's not really about the server... If you can see other players 1 km away, there could be hundreds of players in your view that are not even close to you. That is a lot of data that the server would have to send to you. Position, action, facing, movement, etc of all of the players in your view.
I can't see any game giving more than a couple hundred meters of view distance for other players or monsters. If they do pull off a km or more then it will be amazing.