Missing landscape

[Ruflus]

According to 'The Hobbit' ('The Return Journey') it should be possible to see the Lonely Mountain from the High Pass. If we has a bit more of the High Pass (elevated compared to the frozen lake portion we have now) on the Rhovanion side then this could be accomplished.

[Celebrawn]

According to 'The Hobbit' ('The Return Journey') it should be possible to see the Lonely Mountain from the High Pass. If we has a bit more of the High Pass (elevated compared to the frozen lake portion we have now) on the Rhovanion side then this could be accomplished.

If it's not visible from the eagle's eyrie, then it's a draw distance issue.

[ENDrain]

It's a loooooooong in-game way from High Pass to the Lonely Mountain. For such an old and limited engine as lotro's it's virtually impossible to render one visible from the other. You could overcome it by adding 2D background with the Lonely Mountain drawn on it, but it's a questionable approach.

Another thing is that from game design perspectrive Misty Mountains and the Lonely Mountain are located in different dimensions. The whole game world is broken into regions, or dimensions, or simply maps - Eriador, Rhovanion, Gondor and Mordor. Misty Mountains are in Eriador, "connected" via portal to Vales of Anduin in Rhovanion - meaning when you enter a certain position on one map you are teleported to another position on the other map. But even if you had unlimited draw distance, all you could see to the east of High Pass would've been just default-textured green hills and/or plains going as far as developers bothered drawing them.

[Scenario]

Technically, the eastern slopes of the Misty Mountains have been represented in several regions of the game so far. With the Vales of Anduin, players will be able to travel from the western side to the eastern side via the High Pass.

Once you are on the Vales of Anduin side (from the High Pass), you will be in the same physical heightmap that Erebor exists in. Unfortunately, the engine can only render terrain out so far and you won't be able to see the silhouette of the Lonely Mountain from the Vales of Anduin.

[Turin347]

Once you are on the Vales of Anduin side (from the High Pass), you will be in the same physical heightmap that Erebor exists in. Unfortunately, the engine can only render terrain out so far and you won't be able to see the silhouette of the Lonely Mountain from the Vales of Anduin.

So just as clarification I would like to ask, is it really impossible to extend every or some object draw distance? There is no possibility at all to make some advanced option available for capable PCs? Is this some sort of undeniable invincible engine limitation?


--Duf of Ark

[Scenario]

There is currently a limit in the engine for how far out different classes of objects can render in order to help manage memory usage as you traverse the landscape. FarTerrain is a class of asset that can load out the farthest but it probably would not be safe from a performance perspective to extend the distance it could render out in order to see things like Erebor (doing so would also mean that you would have to extend far terrain rendering all around the character instead of in a single direction - so things like Rohan would also be visible as far as game data was concerned - and moving around the landscape would cause much more on-demand load and unload of far terrain assets).

[DiogoVP]

There is currently a limit in the engine for how far out different classes of objects can render in order to help manage memory usage as you traverse the landscape. FarTerrain is a class of asset that can load out the farthest but it probably would not be safe from a performance perspective to extend the distance it could render out in order to see things like Erebor (doing so would also mean that you would have to extend far terrain rendering all around the character instead of in a single direction - so things like Rohan would also be visible as far as game data was concerned - and moving around the landscape would cause much more on-demand load and unload of far terrain assets).

Ok, if that would be an issue for some computers, couldn't you just make it an option to render far assets or not, so that you don't have to force that on everyone?
It would be great if we had a screenshot mode where we are able to see further and with better quality.

[CmdrMagic]

There is currently a limit in the engine for how far out different classes of objects can render in order to help manage memory usage as you traverse the landscape. FarTerrain is a class of asset that can load out the farthest but it probably would not be safe from a performance perspective to extend the distance it could render out in order to see things like Erebor (doing so would also mean that you would have to extend far terrain rendering all around the character instead of in a single direction - so things like Rohan would also be visible as far as game data was concerned - and moving around the landscape would cause much more on-demand load and unload of far terrain assets).

So ever since Southern Ithilien was released we could see the silhouette of Minas Tirith, darkened and shadowed in the background (you still can). Is the game rendering the real MT or is it just a background image the game is placing there to have that effect? Could you do something similar to show the lonely mountain from a distance?

[Turin347]

--Duf of Ark

[Thoroval]

Is it possible to show it with a custom skybox (or whatever LOTRO uses for "sky") just from High Pass? It can go back to normal when the player gets lower altitude.

[gildhur]

There is currently a limit in the engine for how far out different classes of objects can render in order to help manage memory usage as you traverse the landscape. FarTerrain is a class of asset that can load out the farthest but it probably would not be safe from a performance perspective to extend the distance it could render out in order to see things like Erebor (doing so would also mean that you would have to extend far terrain rendering all around the character instead of in a single direction - so things like Rohan would also be visible as far as game data was concerned - and moving around the landscape would cause much more on-demand load and unload of far terrain assets).

Would there be a technical option to add an exception for certain assets? Like have Erebor be exempt from the draw distance limits, so that anywhere it's in your line of sight you can see it? That would only be from a few zones in Rhovanion, so it's not like you'd be seeing the Lonely Mountain from the Shire.

[Scenario]

It's not something we currently have the ability to consider. We're already stretching what we can get away with the landscape engine and I would be worried about putting more burden on it. And our engineering resources are very well booked up.

A skybox object isn't necessarily a good solution either, because of visual effects such as parallax. It would just kind of slide around in the background of the sky - would not be in a fixed location relative to your position in the world.

[Dorri_Hammerfist]

IA skybox object isn't necessarily a good solution either, because of visual effects such as parallax. It would just kind of slide around in the background of the sky - would not be in a fixed location relative to your position in the world.

no need to put it everywhere, maybe only at eagle's eyrie as there is absolutely no room to wander about (unless I am missing something) and the parallax effect won't take place since viewer's/player's relative position in the world will be more or less fixed?

[Thoroval]

A skybox object isn't necessarily a good solution either, because of visual effects such as parallax. It would just kind of slide around in the background of the sky - would not be in a fixed location relative to your position in the world.

Well I was just thinking from a single perspective. From the Pass, not from everywhere. You've done similar (from my perspective anyway) elsewhere. I remember seeing stuff in Mordor and the northern kingdoms from way high up looking down and it had to be dev magic of some sort.

[Phantion]

It's not something we currently have the ability to consider. We're already stretching what we can get away with the landscape engine and I would be worried about putting more burden on it. And our engineering resources are very well booked up.

A skybox object isn't necessarily a good solution either, because of visual effects such as parallax. It would just kind of slide around in the background of the sky - would not be in a fixed location relative to your position in the world.

I know this is well over a month and a half later.... but I thought of something that could be relevant.



How is the red Mordor sky kept stationary in East Gondor and Old Anorien- or the line of clouds above the Dead Marshes (and equivalent skies in the Battle of Pelennor Fields quests)? There, somehow, part of the sky appears to get locked in one direction or position. It's a fascinating magic trick! You know best about something more.... tricky, like an image of a distant mountain. Attempts were made out of the windows of Dol Guldor to render such an effect with the Misties- with limited results.