I was wondering have you guys ever thought about "Draw distance"? By draw distance I mean the distance you can see in a game. I remember in 2002/3 original farcry creators were boasting the 2 mile draw distance in farcry. But its becoming a rarity in recent games, especially in open world games. In most open world games we can see a "certain" distance. It feels like as if we are running in a trademill and the "open world" is opening to us. But never get the real feeling.

Now I am going to use this example as abstract. Dont mix it with "super mario galaxy / nintendo". All recent "open world games" do these.

Try to put all "open world" games in this pic. It feels like we are covering a certain distance. Unless we go to a certain level (above, like GTA V) we cant have good field of view.

Here is another game. Just look at the field of view. Granted the game has more field of view but I dont get the feeling of walking in a big city.

Now check these screenshots of witcher 3. It feels like, "Look at that distance. There are something to explore. I can see it. I need to be there".

I personally think this is because of developers obsession with graphics. Consoles and PC ( yes, you cant change a good spec 10x times in an instant) still have limited horsepower, granted consoles are more limited. They are getting powerful but their progress is slower than the increasing resource of graphically better looking games. Gaming isnt what it used to be in past. Now we only want photo realism when gaming should be about the feel.

Blame it all on Insomniac.

LOD is both a blessing and a curse.

I still think to this day Crysis from 2007 still has one of the best draw distances ever!! Also Just Cause 2's Draw Distance is pretty epic as well! I am curious to see how much it will improve on the current consoles however

I'd take frame-rate, large levels, and draw distance over graphical detail any day. I honestly adore 60 fps and hate going without it.

Not the best shot but something I love about Monolith Soft's  X

Looks great.

Ever played Shenmue 2 on the Dreamcast.

That is some agressive LOD right there, NPCs would basically appear 10-20 meters right in front of you.

Funny thing is, Xenoblade had a very short draw distance for small things like grass. It wasn't uncommon to see enemies fading into existence in the distance, either, but I might be thinking of the transitions between day and night, when certain monsters' shifts would end. X seems to be going the same way with the grass while aiming for large draw distances for enemies. Not sure how much the grass would bother OP. :P

I never owned dreamcast. I was still a SNES gamer back then. They probably didnt utilized LOD in that game.

When I think of draw distances, I think of Shadow of the Colossus.