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Games with the most impressive draw distance

Well said. Do other games do it better? Sure. Doesn't mean it can't be good though.

We are talking draw distance. Not artstyle. No one is disputing that. That is, in of itself, a completely different discussion.

And I don't disagree it is good for the hardware it is on.
 
Mafia 1 with the super draw distance mod

23732416604_c080bdb0b9_o.png
 
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.

Looked amazing to me the first time I played it on the PS3 back in 2007. I could never go back to it though, the animations are so jarring to me now.
 
As aforementioned, I'd go with Wildlands as being one of the standouts. The screenshots above are absolutely reflective of my experience on PS4 too. It really helps with immersion, especially when you turn off a bunch of HUD elements.
 

HeatBoost

Member
With the way detail scaling works, hasn't draw distance become less technically impressive?

I mean, compared to the PS1 era it's a technical marvel, but I haven't gone "WHOA, I CAN SEE SO FAR AWAY" since last gen it feels like

Mafia 1 with the super draw distance mod
damn this looks weird. Is this what happens when you don't have crazy good lighting and depth of field effects? Because it looks super weird
 

LordKasual

Banned
Final Fantasy XV, definitely. Especially the Clegine and Duscae regions.

ffxv-duscae_screenshot1.jpg


Just looking out at the environment and landmarks is beautiful...but what makes it mindblowing is the convincing lighting and scattering on display.


It makes nearly any location look amazing, even when the LoD is obvious.

What's neater is that Duscae (alot of the game actually) is kind of concave in its design, so when you're driving over some of the roads and pan the camera, you can see a ridiculous amount of distance. Most games have alot of rocky mountains and hills and stuff that obscure where you're looking.
 

zelas

Member
If we're just talking about draw DISTANCE you can't go wrong with ARMA. But I'm more impressed with games that actually attempt to maintain a higher LOD over a distance. Such as:

Uncharted 4

or

Just Cause 3

Little to no detail land masses (Skyrim, BotW, Xenoblade X) just don't do it for me.

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

You're just ruining the thread with shit posting.

Title says "most" yet you're not sure? Why don't you just chill.
 
ARMA 2/3 defaults to 10km view distance but can be edited to as high at 50km or possibly more

And you can target and hit enemies at that distance.
 
I like how in Horizon, you can see Thunderjaws roaming around from absurd distances. The Last Guardian is another great example.

thelastguardian_201613qlxb.png


thelastguardian_20161ahy0o.png


thelastguardian_2016142z6u.png


thelastguardian_201618kyu4.png


I really enjoy how you can see places you've been to or are going to visit later on, at various points during the game, and in relatively decent detail.
 

Gulz1992

Member
Obviously it doesn't compare to current-gen games, but for a PS1 title, I remember that Spyro the Dragon had really impressive draw distance.
 

Wamb0wneD

Member
Zelda hardly surpasses what Oblivion did years ago

Izuna hardly surpasses what Ninjablade did years ago

If we're just talking about draw DISTANCE you can't go wrong with ARMA. But I'm more impressed with games that actually attempt to maintain a higher LOD over a distance. Such as:
Unchartedtrade%204_%20A%20Thiefrsquos%20End_20160508101546.png

Uncharted 4

I just realized that all those windows on the left are copy pasted... :(
 
Since it hasn't been mentioned, I just started playing it yesterday and I'm not very far in so there's probably a lot better shots I could take later but I've been kind of impressed with the Enhanced Edition of Dying Light's draw distance. Only took a few shots and decided this was the best one I took.

EDIT: Second.

Mafia 1 with the super draw distance mod

23732416604_c080bdb0b9_o.png

I'm not one that's a fan of DoF effects but maaan that mod makes stuff look way too clear/clean for how far away it's supposed to be. I need to play Mafia again, still have a physical copy of the PC version laying around somewhere.
 

13ruce

Banned
Lol the Zelda shitposts are amusing.
Anyway i found the draw distance of Witcher 3 and Zelda BotW pretty amazing.

Dunno why people are bashing on it because for a handheld it's pretty good. So it kinda counts.
 
you have got to be joking with BOTW being your example
the fall off in the level of detail is really bad

sometimes enemies and animals straight up just vanish in front of you because of it


+1 for Witcher 3 looking amazing, also Uncharted 4
or if you want a comparably cartoony/stylized look then The Witness looks better than BOTW in that regard
shit, I think Wind Waker handled it better
 
Lol the Zelda shitposts are amusing.
Anyway i found the draw distance of Witcher 3 and Zelda BotW pretty amazing.

Dunno why people are bashing on it because for a handheld it's pretty good. So it kinda counts.

With Zelda, it really depends on the metric. Distant objects look great, but enemies etc pop in pretty close. I can totally see why some people find it impressive, and others find it distinctly unimpressive.

I also don't think "for a handheld" means all that much because it's a next gen system that came out 2 months ago, but I'm just talking personally here not trying to convince anyone of anything!
 

Tainted

Member
In recent memory the GTA and Just Cause series first come to mind, at least for the PC versions with everything cranked up.
 
I don't have any pics to share but I was always impressed by how far away you could see enemy models outside combat in FF XIII. Game is still among the nicest looking PS3 games for me.
 

poodaddy

Gold Member
Witcher 3 after some config tweaks on PC has an impressive draw distance. BOTW on console is indeed very impressive with its draw distance; wizardry on the part of Nintendo.
 

Octavia

Unconfirmed Member
Holy shit. No other game has nothing on this when it comes to draw distances. Jesus fuck you can see the godamn space station from the planet. Insane draw distance.

Technically Starmade and StarForge beat them to it, but those games aren't quite as impressive on a graphical level.
 

PrismStar

Member
Out of the games I've played, I'm impressed the most with FFXV. The world feels huge, there's always a lot to see when traveling. It can look bad in some parts but overall I love it.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Googled an image of Arma 3 and stumbled upon a similar thread, lol.

But yeah, Arma 3.

The caveat with Arma 3 is that if you have the draw distance pumped up to that level the game will usually run at like 15fps (at least that's what happens on my rig). "Playable" draw distances are much less than the shot above, but still better than most most open-world games barring stuff like Wildlands and Just Cause. Arma 2 is the same but is even more impressive considering it came out in 2009.

What's most impressive about draw distance in Arma games though is that the games keep track of AI and physics across the whole map. Where in a lot of games (like Far Cry) bullets despawn after 200 meters, Arma will keep track of the bullet trajectories of AI characters fighting each other five or 10 miles away from you. Just don't be surprised when the game is running at 25fps on a bast rig when it's doing that.

elite dangerous

I'll raise you Space Engine.

Sure it's not really a game, but it's the same concept with less loading. You can actually seamlessly move the camera between star systems and galaxies. When you go fast enough the stars moving past you even give off a cool Star Trek blur.

Plus obviously you can seamlessly land on atmospheric worlds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enM_vSHGE-g
 

Juraash

Member
Technically Starmade and StarForge beat them to it, but those games aren't quite as impressive on a graphical level.

So is the space station thing an actual object you can like travel to? Or is it something just stuck in the sky/skybox. Seems like you could fudge things pretty substantially if it's just for show.

I'm not even 100% sure what game that is though, so I acknowledge I could be way off base.
 
Zelda without a doubt, has great draw distance. If it didn't you wouldn't have the situation the game is so popular for. Seeing something interesting in the distance, and going to it. Its LoD is the issue, not draw distance.
 
Looked amazing to me the first time I played it on the PS3 back in 2007. I could never go back to it though, the animations are so jarring to me now.

Yeah, back when I played Oblivion on the 360 I was pretty impressed when you come out of that dungeon and into the main world for the first time at the beginning of the game, I think I even walked up as high as I could just to look around.

It's absolutely not that impressive anymore, but it's honestly one of the only times I remember being particularly impressed with draw distance.

Honestly, BOTW might be one of the only games since then that impressed me at all, since it makes it a part of the gameplay to use your binoculars to tag things in the distance and the fact that it's on a portable system.

The only other recent game I can think of was Xenoblade Chronicles for the 3DS, which isn't much of a looker, but having a game with such a huge sense of scale on a handheld was pretty impressive.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Final Fantasy XV
finalfantasyxv_20170508sfm.png

finalfantasyxv_201705vpsuf.png


Arkham Knight
batman_arkhamknight_2t4ue9.png

batman_arkhamknight_2ggk7b.png


Rise of Tomb Raider's Geothermal Valley
riseofthetombraider_1bhs4k.png


and of course Horizon: Zero Dawn
horizonzerodawn_20170riua8.png
 
Zelda without a doubt, has great draw distance. If it didn't you wouldn't have the situation the game is so popular for. Seeing something interesting in the distance, and going to it. Its LoD is the issue, not draw distance.

A draw distance of low poly terrain is not impressive when its devoid of complimentary detail. Whoever posted Big Rigs as a comparison is on the money. You can create your own equivalent on the Unity engine very easily, and says more about the engine and how far they choose to render the geometry than anything else.

The dragon game Jim Sterling played, Big Rigs, Zelda

obviously zelda looks better in the closer elements than these games, but rendering basic distant geometry like that can be objectively measured and theres really nothing to discuss about it.
 
BotW is awesome with far away geographic features but at the same time objects very close to you tend to pop in.

I was going to say something similar.

Playing on Wii U in case switch has less pop-in but even just today I paraglided across what must been like 5 Km or so to get a specific enemy spawn and he only popped in within the last 200 meters or so.

If it's just actual geography, botw has great draw distances but object pop in is fairly jarring

Again at least on Wii U
 
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