Scale in video games

That "scale" problem you have is caused by camera angle. What you need is VR for that real life effect. Then the buildings in gta will truly loom over you (though as others have said first person is better than third in that regard).

Even gta 5 upscaled to 8k 200 Hz in a VR headset will look pretty good (and should be possible when VR actually uses 8k screens).
 
PinkVaporStew said:
No Man's Sky

ducks
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This was the first game I thought of. I was actually really impressed with seeing a planet so far off in the distance and making my way towards it. Then flying into its atmosphere, then landing and exploring a single planet for hours.

It did get old and maybe it's better with the changes but it's done the best job I can think of with anything I've played.
 
Madmick said:
Morrowind >> Oblivion > Skyrim in terms of immersion, IMO.
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Morrowind: Possibly. I remember loving it when it came out. I'd never played anything like it before, and it certainly set the standard for later ES games. But for whatever reason I didn't put nearly as many game hours into Morrowind as I did Skyrim. Maybe because it didn't become a global phenomenon in the same way. And the tech/budget for games at the time wasn't enough to fully achieve what Morrowind was going for. As I remember it, going to Vivec City really killed it for me. I got fed up running around endless streets and canals that all looked the same.

Oblivion: Meh. Never really fell for it. Felt it was a bit too generic, with no real vibe. Plus it came out in 2006 - around that time I was preoccupied with my college studies and anyway didn't even have the money to spend on a computer that could meet ESIV system requirements.
 
The Witcher 3 is a god damn miracle and it has a great sense of scale imo.
 
Minecraft in VR had an amazing sense of scale, everything felt just right size wise.
 
Eazy123 said:
I've played more games in my life than I can count, but even games like GTA - with their massive open world - never seem to quite capture the true scale of the actual world as we see it. When Franklin goes into his house, it just doesn't feel...big. Walking through downtown Los Santos, you have tall buildings, but they never seem to feel as massive as the real thing.

Yet for some reason, walking the streets of, say, The Division, things feel bigger, but still not fully realized and I can't put my finger on what exactly it is. Maybe it's the pulled-out camera perspective, I don't know.

Are there any games you've played that truly feel like you're actually there?
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Games feel pretty big to me. Then again, I play on a 150in screen. I just installed it about 2 hours ago.



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It's not quite there yet, but it's coming... Think about early 7th generation (PS3/360) games vs late 7th gen games like GTA V or The Last of US. The progression made was astounding. The late 8th gen/early 9th gen games will blow us away. Photo realism is coming as well. Can't wait...
 
If we are talking about city environment then the Division would be the best one I've played so far although I've never played GTA (any of them besides the first one). Witcher 3 cities are pretty big as well but you can feel the "fakeness" because there are a lot less buildings you can go in overall. Or maybe it's the environment? Division is set in an abandoned city whereas Witcher 3 cities are full of NPCs that are well... exactly that.. NPCs.. They walk and do things in a certain way and or pattern so it's pretty much predictable hence robotic.

If we are talking about size of the world overall then it would have been Skyrim/Witcher 3 until I played Zelda Breath of the Wild. You can be at the top of a mountain see something in the horizon far down below and if you have enough stamina you can jump off and float all the way to it (or as close as possible). It feels like you've floated for miles.
 
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SaiWa said:
If we are talking about size of the world overall then it would have been Skyrim/Witcher 3 until I played Zelda Breath of the Wild. You can be at the top of a mountain see something in the horizon far down below and if you have enough stamina you can jump off and float all the way to it (or as close as possible). It feels like you've floated for miles.
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That's what it felt like when you would cast Slow Fall as a mage in WoW before jumping off Dalaran, or the great Log, or from the Tanaris Desert into the Crater, etc.

I also loved the way I felt like I could cross huge battlefields in the blink of an eye as a Jedi in the original Battlefront games. The fact that all of the other characters were so slow gave the force user characters' speed a more palpable and epic feeling.
 
Madmick said:
That's what it felt like when you would cast Slow Fall as a mage in WoW before jumping off Dalaran, or the great Log, or from the Tanaris Desert into the Crater, etc.

I also loved the way I felt like I could cross huge battlefields in the blink of an eye as a Jedi in the original Battlefront games. The fact that all of the other characters were so slow gave the force user characters' speed a more palpable and epic feeling.
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Never played WOW or the original Battlefront. A huge part of me wishes I had. The other part is glad I didn't get sucked into those worlds. I probably would have never seen real daylight if I did...
 
Scale is hard. VR when it's done well can nail it, but that's about it.
Just the silly photogrammetry shit in the Lab, standing up in the mountains throwing a stick for that robotic dog, that's up there.
 
SaiWa said:
If we are talking about city environment then the Division would be the best one I've played so far although I've never played GTA (any of them besides the first one). Witcher 3 cities are pretty big as well but you can feel the "fakeness" because there are a lot less buildings you can go in overall. Or maybe it's the environment? Division is set in an abandoned city whereas Witcher 3 cities are full of NPCs that are well... exactly that.. NPCs.. They walk and do things in a certain way and or pattern so it's pretty much predictable hence robotic.

If we are talking about size of the world overall then it would have been Skyrim/Witcher 3 until I played Zelda Breath of the Wild. You can be at the top of a mountain see something in the horizon far down below and if you have enough stamina you can jump off and float all the way to it (or as close as possible). It feels like you've floated for miles.
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I agree on Division, and while playing BotW last weekend I felt the scale in that was ridiculous as well. That mountain over there would not be climbed as quickly as, say, Mt. Chiliad. MAYBE GTAV in VR would be good, but the way I see it, if Division could give me something damn close to that feeling in third person, a game shouldn't need VR to nail it. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt, though.

Also to everyone in general - keep in mind I'm talking scale, not NPC count or map size or whatever. I mean just take all NPCs out of the game. The map can be a radius of only five city blocks, for all I care. In GTAV, when I'm driving through Franklin's neighborhood, there's like a handful of houses on his block and I can get downtown in two minutes. I mean Los Santos FEELS really damn good but the density isn't there. Maybe Division feels larger because you have to go everywhere on foot, I don't know.

I think developers have gotten too entrenched in the habit of cramming everything into a game. I think that's what made GTA4 so good - the map was smaller than San Andreas before it, but it captured the scale and density better and I think that's what stood out most about it. And I think they could go even further.
 
SaiWa said:
If we are talking about city environment then the Division would be the best one I've played so far although I've never played GTA (any of them besides the first one). Witcher 3 cities are pretty big as well but you can feel the "fakeness" because there are a lot less buildings you can go in overall. Or maybe it's the environment? Division is set in an abandoned city whereas Witcher 3 cities are full of NPCs that are well... exactly that.. NPCs.. They walk and do things in a certain way and or pattern so it's pretty much predictable hence robotic.

If we are talking about size of the world overall then it would have been Skyrim/Witcher 3 until I played Zelda Breath of the Wild. You can be at the top of a mountain see something in the horizon far down below and if you have enough stamina you can jump off and float all the way to it (or as close as possible). It feels like you've floated for miles.
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Seeing the divine beasts from a long way off, and slowly getting closer is a great feeling. Just the opening scene does a great job of illustrating the scale of the game. Almost too big at times (but they've fixed some of those problems with updates).
 
Shoemaker said:
Seeing the divine beasts from a long way off, and slowly getting closer is a great feeling. Just the opening scene does a great job of illustrating the scale of the game. Almost too big at times (but they've fixed some of those problems with updates).
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When they added the Hero's Path, I saw a ton of places I'd never come close to approaching, even after 100 hours. That's saying something.
 
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