Arena bouts

[Lord Thodin]

Ive got a gripe about games that give you an arena to fight in, but then lack the immersion. What I'm saying, is why am I hearing the yells and cheers of 1000's of people but see 3ish? For example, Fable 1, Fable 2, Elder Scrolls 1V: Oblivion, Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando, Overlord to name a few lack the crowd to match the sound. In Fable 1 your hearing jeers and cheers of a football stadium like crowd, yet see a total of about 15 people. In Oblivion, you could swear you were walking out into the field for the Superbowl, but look around only to see about 4 or 5 people seated to a section. Hell in Fable 2 you hear the people cheering but you cant see them at all.

Basically im saying I'd be willing accept a little bit of a longer load screen to be able to walk into an arena and actually feel like im doing so. Maybe thats just me. What are your thoughts?

 

[Soulgaunt]

I guess it sort of makes sense. I mean, I don't think there were a lot of people back then. So it might not be a problem of lacking people, but maybe a problem of excessive sound effects and such.

 

[megapenguinx]

shameless bump

Calm down and wait more than 7 minutes next time.
Although not immersion, I've been seeing more and more games have arena matches for some unknown reason. If there were tons of people in the audience, they'd just end up being those crappy looking sprites which wouldn't help the immersion factor that much anyways.

 

[Flour]

Basically im saying I'd be willing accept a little bit of a longer load screen to be able to walk into an arena and actually feel like im doing so. Maybe thats just me. What are your thoughts?

It's not a loading problem, but a simple hardware limitation.

You can't just add a few hundred moving models to a level and expect it to keep running at a steady framerate.
The only two options are using a few low resolution models which anyone will notice, or make the models part of the background and never move which is even easier to notice.

 

[Lord Thodin]

shameless bump

Calm down and wait more than 7 minutes next time.
Although not immersion, I've been seeing more and more games have arena matches for some unknown reason. If there were tons of people in the audience, they'd just end up being those crappy looking sprites which wouldn't help the immersion factor that much anyways.

Pardon me, its 6am here, ive been up all night, and im restless. I get where your coming from because i actually thought of that, but why not layer it. Make the really distinguishable faces close up, put some crap-ily animated models a little behind them, then some shite wire frames behind them, then maybe some sprites. You know, just to make an arena SEEM like an arena

 

[Ushario]

The lack of characters sitting in the stadium is generally due to constraints related to game performance. Its all well and good to want 400 screaming yelling blood thirsty fans in the Oblivion arena, its another thing to ask your computer to render it.

Most games have a polygon limit set on everything. This is dictated by the target demographic and what kind of hardware they are likely to have. Things like this means that more people can enjoy the game.

 

[megapenguinx]

shameless bump

Calm down and wait more than 7 minutes next time.
Although not immersion, I've been seeing more and more games have arena matches for some unknown reason. If there were tons of people in the audience, they'd just end up being those crappy looking sprites which wouldn't help the immersion factor that much anyways.

Pardon me, its 6am here, ive been up all night, and im restless. I get where your coming from because i actually thought of that, but why not layer it. Make the really distinguishable faces close up, put some crap-ily animated models a little behind them, then some shite wire frames behind them, then maybe some sprites. You know, just to make an arena SEEM like an arena

Look at the post above this one, he's got it spot on. Most hardware couldn't handle a thing like that. Plus it would be necessary resources going to waste on something unnecessary.

 

[BolognaBaloney]

I agree, this was always puzzling in Oblivion, but as mentioned it's due to hardware constraints. But if the tech allowed it, I would love to see crowded arena's, or more populated cities for that matter.

 

[TheScarecrow]

I agree, this was always puzzling in Oblivion, but as mentioned it's due to hardware constraints. But if the tech allowed it, I would love to see crowded arena's, or more populated cities for that matter.

I'd certaintly second more crowded cities in Oblivion.

 

[BolognaBaloney]

I agree, this was always puzzling in Oblivion, but as mentioned it's due to hardware constraints. But if the tech allowed it, I would love to see crowded arena's, or more populated cities for that matter.

I'd certaintly second more crowded cities in Oblivion.

This has always bothered me in open-world games, when I walk into a huge city and see six people I wonder where the hell everyone else went.

 

[ohgodalex]

This has always bothered me in open-world games, when I walk into a huge city and see six people I wonder where the hell everyone else went.

Agreed. I can't imagine how an entire world is populated by maybe 20 normal human beings, and perhaps 50 others who don't talk/repeat the same phrase over and over again. When there are more evil monsters than human beings on the planet, something is wrong.

Threads like this seems so pointless.
"Hey guys, wouldn't you like it if games were better in some way? Too bad that can't happen. Discuss."
Obviously, I would like to see more realistic populations, especially in arenas, while I play games.