Now that 2015 is gone, which game do you think was the most impressive open world game of 2015 from a technical standpoint? Open world games are perhaps the most difficult games to make, which is why technicalities are particularly important for these games.
I think most people will choose the Witcher 3, simply because it was such an awesome game with an amazing and focused storyline, yet it still had tremendous scope. CDPR really outdid themselves with that game I must say, and as far as enjoyment goes, it got my GotY award easily..
But for me, I don't know if I can say it was the most impressive open world game from a technical standpoint. One thing that bugged me about the Witcher 3, is the LoD. With the exception of vegetation and shadows, the Witcher 3 shares the exact same LoD settings with the consoles, and that to me is unacceptable.
Also the rain effects are last gen, SSR is terrible for small puddles, PBR is below average (leather, metal and wood are above average), and the general physics and destruction are fair I suppose, but the cloth physics is very good.
From the games that I have played, my nomination goes to Batman Arkham Knight. Despite an extremely rough start, Rocksteady has managed to patch the game up to a very acceptable level. After the last patch, the game now runs at constant 60 FPS on a single one of my GTX 980s at 1440p max settings with enhanced rain effects turned on. Interactive paper debris runs on my other GTX 980, whilst the rest of the gameworks effects are turned off.. Smoke effects look nice, but they consume too much VRAM..
But what impresses me the most about Batman Arkham Knight is the exceptional detail.. The City of Gotham is intricately detailed to an astounding degree, yet the draw distance is very long and most importantly, pop in is minimal to nonexistent and LoD changes occur so quickly and so far away from Batman as to be practically unnoticeable. This is in stark contrast to the Witcher 3 where LoD changes occur too slowly and too close, and are very noticeable..
Of course this comes at a cost. I have never seen a game consume as much RAM as Batman Arkham Knight. It topped out at 11GB of RAM of total system memory usage once, so if you remove Windows from that usage, then it's close to 10GB of usage by itself.
Most of the RAM is being used to cache data of course, which is sensible and good programming. I wish more games would do this, as great RAM utilization makes LoD changes and pop in far less noticeable..
Anyway, that's my take. Would be interesting to hear other people's votes for most impressive open world game of 2015
I think most people will choose the Witcher 3, simply because it was such an awesome game with an amazing and focused storyline, yet it still had tremendous scope. CDPR really outdid themselves with that game I must say, and as far as enjoyment goes, it got my GotY award easily..
But for me, I don't know if I can say it was the most impressive open world game from a technical standpoint. One thing that bugged me about the Witcher 3, is the LoD. With the exception of vegetation and shadows, the Witcher 3 shares the exact same LoD settings with the consoles, and that to me is unacceptable.
Also the rain effects are last gen, SSR is terrible for small puddles, PBR is below average (leather, metal and wood are above average), and the general physics and destruction are fair I suppose, but the cloth physics is very good.
From the games that I have played, my nomination goes to Batman Arkham Knight. Despite an extremely rough start, Rocksteady has managed to patch the game up to a very acceptable level. After the last patch, the game now runs at constant 60 FPS on a single one of my GTX 980s at 1440p max settings with enhanced rain effects turned on. Interactive paper debris runs on my other GTX 980, whilst the rest of the gameworks effects are turned off.. Smoke effects look nice, but they consume too much VRAM..
But what impresses me the most about Batman Arkham Knight is the exceptional detail.. The City of Gotham is intricately detailed to an astounding degree, yet the draw distance is very long and most importantly, pop in is minimal to nonexistent and LoD changes occur so quickly and so far away from Batman as to be practically unnoticeable. This is in stark contrast to the Witcher 3 where LoD changes occur too slowly and too close, and are very noticeable..
Of course this comes at a cost. I have never seen a game consume as much RAM as Batman Arkham Knight. It topped out at 11GB of RAM of total system memory usage once, so if you remove Windows from that usage, then it's close to 10GB of usage by itself.
Most of the RAM is being used to cache data of course, which is sensible and good programming. I wish more games would do this, as great RAM utilization makes LoD changes and pop in far less noticeable..
Anyway, that's my take. Would be interesting to hear other people's votes for most impressive open world game of 2015
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