One Super-Sized Source map... Created 9 years ago2015-04-26 16:39:16 UTC by RollingBarrel

Well.
Is it possible?
By super-sized I mean a few times bigger than the current maximum map size. Maybe even more so...
I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to have one large map in Source rather than several maps with change levels in-between; I was thinking about Hammer and if it were possible to compile one super map with some changes to the maximum map size, fog/areaportals to render certain sections at a time when in-game. Obviously changes would have to be made to Hammer to allow the compiling and creation of a super sized map successfully.

If this isn't possible, is it possible to do so by seamlessly joining maps together to allow no level changes/loading points?

Reason I'm wandering is that I'm considering the possibilities of either open world RPG, or a recreation of the old PS1 game, Driver 2. No change level sections would mean that you could have a recreation of something like Driver 2 without upsetting vehicles, etc. coming out of a change level section...
Super sized is no doubt super-unlikely, but any help, thoughts, or ideas would be nice. For now I'll enjoy making Source FilmMaker stuff and doing schoolwork

It is possible to create visuals outside of the map up to 16 times bigger then the actual map using 3D skyboxes.
However, this is not playable area. There's no way to make playable maps bigger then the current map size I'm afraid. Though, changelevels aren't that bad. They're really short and shouldn't be interrupting gameplay too much in a singleplayer game.
But if you are trying to make an open World multiplayer game, or open World game in general, I'm afraid the Source Engine isn't what you're going to need. The engine was designed for linnear singleplayer games and round based multiplayer games.

I hope you find this information usefull.

I recall talk of an RPG-type thing quite a ways back. Nothing ever came of it, I don't think.

I can only imagine even if you could get such a map into the game, for any real amount of detail, you'd need significant amounts of VIS-blocking for it to run reasonably. That said, I don't Source, so I wouldn't know

EDIT: May have been this, but I seem to recall talk more along the lines of this thread, so I might be thinking of something else.

Cheers again guys
You're right Dr. Orange,
It shouldn't really make much difference to the game anyhow, for a lot of effort. Maps are big enough as they are for now anyways.
Thread looks interesting Jessie, wander if Tetsu0's still doing it...
Shame that something can't be done about it in the Source engine- but perhaps one day, when Source 3 arrives...
Back to Physics background research... Whoops, better get started on that.

Don't suppose it'll help solve mah super map problem though.

I've always wanted to. But i never took the time to develop a storyline and an experience system would require code.

I think there are MMOs made on Source, don't know if they are open world but it's possible I guess, Lineage II has a huge world and is built on a variant of Unreal 2 engine utilizing what is called "map streaming" to seamlessly join maps, however that would require big modification of the engine or a great deal of reverse engineering. Your best bet on Source would be a non open world, with perhaps faking the distance like someone mentioned before, using multiple servers or something like that.

I think the closest there is to a role play game on the Source engine would be Dota 2.

Source could work with an overworld-like system.
Map transitions in source are very powerful.
You'd just need to make your transition points pretty small - aka a town entrance or dungeon or a gap in an otherwise impassible wall.

Tis but a pipe dream to make an rpg

I think the closest there is to a role play game on the Source engine would be Dota 2.

DOTA 2 isn't an RPG at all. It's more like real time strategy than anything else.

The closest thing to an RPG on the Source engine would be something like Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. I don't think the levels are particularly huge though.

have you heard of a stinky company called google? there is a typical korean mmorpg on source called Vindictus

This idea was somewhat accomplished in a GMOD mod (The tower ?) where different servers had different maps, so an area change would mean a connection to a different server, but the state of the player was preserved. This can be done on source or gsrc with some clever user of server side scripts.