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Games with the most impressive draw distance

What's with the semantics bullshit by some posters in this thread? Don't be a putz and turn it into a system pissing match.

BOTW is pretty amazing for what it does on handheld hardware.

Xenoblade was the first game that really wowed me in terms of console hardware oh draw distance. X was equally as impressive.
 
I was overall very impressed by draw distances in Zelda, but there were cases of crazy close pop-in as well on objects and enemies. The strangest thing to me was the variability on the LOD, sometimes objects would load in from extremely far away such that I could see moblins drawn in as tiny specs in the distance, and other times they'd be drawn in almost at aggro range.

Overall though the amount of detail in the environment, divine beasts, and dragons was enough to leave me extremely impressed.
 
I think Breath of the Wild has impressive draw distance, but really aggressive level of detail fading. You can see geometry from far away, but actors tend to fade in and out rather abruptly.

I think people tend to attribute LOD with draw distance. While two separate things, they do share some commonalities. Being able to make out geometry in the distance, while a feat for the Switch, doesn't necessarily give it something like "best draw distance". As meaningless as that title is, as so many things can be attributed to a games overall look and feel.

If you held a gun to my head to give you an answer on best draw distance, I would probably say Battlefield 1. But there could be others if given more time to go through my game list.

What's with the semantics bullshit by some posters in this thread? Don't be a putz and turn it into a system pissing match.

BOTW is pretty amazing for what it does on handheld hardware.

Xenoblade was the first game that really wowed me in terms of console hardware oh draw distance. X was equally as impressive.

Impressive for Switch? Absolutely.

But there are so many other games that do draw distance better than BotW.
 

Wagram

Member
Not sure why people are saying BoTW. I mean sure the draw distance is there, but it's not very impressive.

Not sure why you or anyone else cares what people decide to choose.

You're just ruining the thread with shit posting.

Having a difference of opinion is not shit posting. You'll learn to live with it.
 

Kangi

Member
I think Breath of the Wild has impressive draw distance, but really aggressive level of detail fading. You can see geometry from far away, but actors tend to fade in and out rather abruptly.

Basically.

The map is huge and the sheer distance from which you can make out landmarks is impressive given that. Downplaying that being performed on Wii U hardware is silly.

But then there's places like the Goron Hot Spring where the signpost for it basically faded in two feet away from me.
 
I haven't played BOTW, but is the LOD scaling really that impressive? Not a knock, but actually curious.

I recall Witcher 3 being fairly decent with draw distance and lod transitioning, at least nothing too noticable. Playing on PC however, so I could be mistaken.
Not even close. It has aggressive pop in.
 

MAX PAYMENT

Member
Battlegrounds has also a pretty impressive draw distance...

ZlrAR3y.jpg



PettyForsakenCrocodile-size_restricted.gif


https://gfycat.com/PettyForsakenCrocodile
(full size)
Is a shot like that even physically possible in real life?
 

Palmer27

Member
I haven't played BOTW, but is the LOD scaling really that impressive? Not a knock, but actually curious.

I recall Witcher 3 being fairly decent with draw distance and lod transitioning, at least nothing too noticable. Playing on PC however, so I could be mistaken.

Novigrad on consoles used to have issues with LOD but otherwise the game was one of the better draw distances on console.

Yeah you can go MAAAD on pc http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/949/?

Ghost Recon Wildlands would take the cake for most impressive draw distance I've ever seen!
 

n0razi

Member
What's with the semantics bullshit by some posters in this thread? Don't be a putz and turn it into a system pissing match.

BOTW is pretty amazing for what it does on handheld hardware.

Xenoblade was the first game that really wowed me in terms of console hardware oh draw distance. X was equally as impressive.



Maybe because the thread title is "Games with the most impressive draw distance" and not "Games with the most impressive draw distance running on handheld hardware"?

Its like having a discussion about great football players where people bring up Tom Brady and Peyton Manning and some random guy pops in and says "hey Tim Tebow was impressive in college!"
 

Dremorak

Banned
Horizon is actually super impressive, not for its long draw distance, but because it is designed in such a way that you can't see very far because of the layout of the open world. Its a very clever thing that you wouldnt notice by just looking at it
 

Hellshy.

Member
I have no pic but nobody has posted Horizon Zero Dawn. I thought It had some pretty good detailed draw distance especially for consoles
 

Dynheart

Banned
Not sure why you or anyone else cares what people decide to choose.

You're just ruining the thread with shit posting.

QFT.

If the game impresses someone on it's own merits alone (hardware etc), then I do not see a problem.

The title reads "games," and I would argue that BoTW could be counted as one of those many. In addition, there was not a criteria set here, like some top 5 list like some posters are treating this thread. Just throwing some random technical jargon to make BoTW sound less technical than the rest (which should be captain obvious) of the games post here takes away from the spirit of the thread.
 

Kangi

Member
Maybe because the thread title is "Games with the most impressive draw distance" and not "Games with the most impressive draw distance running on handheld hardware"?

Its like having a discussion about great football players where people bring up Tom Brady and Peyton Manning and some random guy pops in and says "hey Tim Tebow was impressive in college!"

Except "most impressive given the limitations" is a perfectly fine qualifier. Else there's no sense bringing up any example that isn't a game that makes use of super high-end PC hardware. Objectivity would make threads like these dull.

It's more like "I think one of the most impressive athletes is <x> because he performs at an average level despite only having one arm."
 
Maybe because the thread title is "Games with the most impressive draw distance" and not "Games with the most impressive draw distance running on handheld hardware"?

Its like having a discussion about great football players where people bring up Tom Brady and Peyton Manning and some random guy pops in and says "hey Tim Tebow was impressive in college!"

Sports analogies are awful.

Also, it doesn't matter. We went through this shit in the post next gen photos thread and people tried to play semantics and stop others from posting Wii U photos.

It's still an impressive title and I think it deserves a spot.
 
witcher3_2016_09_02_2kbuuc.png


There can be only one.


BOTW's "draw distance" is LOD textures and smoke and mirrors. The actual draw distance is pretty bad.

Most developers use smoke and mirror to make their games look better than they actually should, so what?
I've spent far too much time overlooking the land from a high cliff or mountain top in BotW because the world looks appealing from a distance.

Far too many people getting anal over what's "impressive" in this thread without accounting for the fact that everybody is impressed by different things.
 
What's with the semantics bullshit by some posters in this thread? Don't be a putz and turn it into a system pissing match.

BOTW is pretty amazing for what it does on handheld hardware.

Xenoblade was the first game that really wowed me in terms of console hardware oh draw distance. X was equally as impressive.

The topic isn't about how impressive draw distance is for the console it's on though.
 
How is Ghost Recon Wildlands?

It's really good. Don't know if it's the best, but it's up there.

Recon-Helo01.png


I'm only playing on Xbox, I imagine it's better on PC. I love that, for the most part, if you can see it, you can go there(TM).

Recon-View01.png


Recon-View02.png


One of the things I really like is at night, you can see little headlights driving around in the far distance, and if you fly over there.. sure enough a car is driving around. Hard to see, but you can see little lights in the distance.

Recon-Helo04.png
 
GRAW was very impressive for one of the first games from last gen

tom-clancys-ghost-recon-advanced-warfighter-20050920063607399.jpg


(Pic isn't that great, but it was the best I could find XD)
 
Except "most impressive given the limitations" is a perfectly fine qualifier. Else there's no sense bringing up any example that isn't a game that makes use of super high-end PC hardware. Objectivity would make threads like these dull.

It's more like "I think one of the most impressive athletes is <x> because he performs at an average level despite only having one arm."

I think it's fair game to open the discussion up to most impressive considering the hardware, as long as there is some acknowledgement you are not putting X game forward as objectively having the best draw distance. After all, the thread title is "most impressive" not "best".

If we are talking about impressive for the hardware, I was always pretty impressed by Transformers on PS2.

2862_2003-12-29screen2_large.jpg
 

oni-link

Member
The topic isn't about how impressive draw distance is for the console it's on though.

People can post whatever they're impressed by, someone has already named a Dreamcast game and no one is getting upset with him

The thread needs more pics and less semantics and bickering
 

LeleSocho

Banned
I've played BotW recently and have been really impressed with it's draw distance



So what are some other games with really impressive draw distances?

You gotta be kidding me, stuff in BotW pop in and out within a radius of 10 meters from Link... even grass.
You picked up the worst game in recent history to start this thread.
 

jett

D-Member
Considering the hardware I thought BOTW's draw distance was pretty nice, even if it has aggressive LOD. I believe you can see the entire world at all times.

On a similar note, while now kinda sad-looking, Ocarina of Time always impressed me back in the day, considering we had fog-filled garbage like the Turok games.
Code:
[IMG]http://www.zeldadungeon.net/Zelda05/Walkthrough/09/BigPoe06_Large.jpg[/IMG]
 
People can post whatever they're impressed by, someone has already named a Dreamcast game and no one is getting upset with him

The thread needs more pics and less semantics and bickering

We agree on this, I wasn't pointing it out to argue semantics, I just think it's unecessary to try to make excuses, if you think it belongs here then great, no need to try to add an asterisk.
 

Dynheart

Banned
The topic isn't about how impressive draw distance is for the console it's on though.

What is the topic about, though? I am reading several interpretations here. What can one infer from "games with the most impressive draw distance?"

There are no list criteria set by the poster
There is no platform/hardware specifications set by the poster
There are no technicalities as far as actual specs/tech/etc specified

So the only things left are:

Visual impressions or
Personal interpretation of the actual title/OP

The presentation of the OP's post would lead me to believe the visual impression of the game. If the game impresses him, I do not see why anyone here feels the need to go out of their way to take that from him/her.
 

DJIzana

Member
Because it has amazing artstyle? Its the same reason people say Xenoblade has an amazing open world because the artstyle and the way its done makes it look beautiful even on less powerful hardware.

Well said. Do other games do it better? Sure. Doesn't mean it can't be good though.
 
On a similar note, while now kinda sad-looking, Ocarina of Time always impressed me back in the day, considering we had fog-filled garbage like the Turok games.
Code:
[IMG]http://www.zeldadungeon.net/Zelda05/Walkthrough/09/BigPoe06_Large.jpg[/IMG]

Stepping out of the Kokiri forest for the first time and seeing that giant field and Mt. Doom off in the distance in front of you with virtually no fog to mask anything was just surreal.
 

FinalAres

Member
Its totally fair to say "I think this has great dd for a handheld" in this thread. It makes for a broader discussion. For me Zelda's world design, and topography is part of why the draw distance is great, you can often see right across the map.

On the other hand, it's totally fair for people to disagree with BotW, that's also interesting discussion. The number if Zelda white Knights getting upset at people making any minor criticism is truly depressing.
 
Wildlands looks great. I know it's scored high for its co-op play, but how is it if you play it single player?

I liked it solo or co-op, co-op definitely has a lot more 'wow' and crazy moments, but single player is perfectly serviceable. The AI companions are more or less "just there" and don't add much but some banter back and forth. They also help you eliminate up to 3 (or 4) targets at once. It feels like an OK basic representation of co-op while alone.

I think I did the main story about 50/50 Co-op and Solo. Just wandering around the world solo is pretty cool though.
 

Xumbrega

Banned
It's really good. Don't know if it's the best, but it's up there.

Recon-Helo01.png


I'm only playing on Xbox, I imagine it's better on PC. I love that, for the most part, if you can see it, you can go there(TM).

Recon-View01.png


Recon-View02.png


One of the things I really like is at night, you can see little headlights driving around in the far distance, and if you fly over there.. sure enough a car is driving around. Hard to see, but you can see little lights in the distance.

Recon-Helo04.png



damn.
 
You must be joking.
Scenery.jpg

I swear Oblivion is one of the visually and aesthetically most bankrupt AAA games to ever release. It's butt ugly and it looked like shit back when it was released too. Technically, the draw distance was good, even though the textures were super blurry in the distance.
 

gfxtwin

Member
Shadow of the Colossus was a feat for being on the PS2 hardware and I STILL can't help but compare the DD in most games now to it. The sense of scale was magic for a PS2 game.




Aside from that, Red Dead Redemption, The Witcher 3 and Arkham Knight have impressed me the most:

 
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