Outerra Anteworld vs Real World Part 2: Taiwan

I wanted to take a closer look from the first blog post I made about Outerra's Anteworld, comparing the real world versus their video game world. If you don't know anything about the game please read my first post here.

I am going to be looking at specific locations and comparing them to what the real world actually looks like, to show how well or how bad they did recreating the world. Which is a huge accomplishment in the video game world what they have done already.

Below is a picture from google maps and a screen shot from Anteworld looking down on earth. Please click on the images to better see them. I actually labeled the locations that you can see on both maps. It is amazing how well they did replicating the shore lines. That is definitely the most impressive thing they've done in this game. I even tried to spot if they are missing any islands but it doesn't seem to look that way. Another impressive thing is how the land vegetation is similar looking in color in both worlds.  A interesting fact, this game world is actually round like the earth unlike most video games that feature a flat playing field.

As amazing as the game looks from space lets see how it compares to the land features. (Note: don't pay to much attention to detail because my computer doesn't run at the highest settings, I am looking more for structural forms that are correct or incorrect.) The game clearing doesn't place the right ground surface lots of times in the game, as you can see in the game its more rocky while in real life its very green. There is a structure of some kind in the real world but just ignore that the game isn't really modeling the world after man-made structures for now. However you can see from a distance that the mountain shapes are comparatively the same as in the real world. You can see that they seem to be missing the stems of rock that branch off into the water.

Please click on the next image to see a more detailed side by side comparison.

The mountains all seem to have the correct elevation in the game as in the real world. However, they lack the correct form and lack cliffs when there should be some present. 

I assume they got lucky on the design below. Where the world generated this rock in a pretty close place to them as it is in the real world. However, in the game this location lacks all the cliffs and land shape as it does in real life, but they did an excellent job on have the shape of the shore line weave in and out like it does in real life. One of the things that makes this video game world look so much like real life is because you can see as far as the eye can see in the video game, there is no distance limitations which is pretty similar to how our eyes work in real life.

Overall this game has impressed me a ton. I can't wait to see how far it comes along. I think they can do a lot of amazing things with it.

Outerra's Anteworld vs Real World

I first heard of Outerra's demo while scrolling through youtube watching stuff in the recommended pages when I came a crossed Gamersdissent's video. I immediately downloaded it by from http://www.outerra.com. Outerra is an amazing game world that has replicated the terrain of the entire world. You don't load levels the whole world is your level.

Sadly my computer does not have the power of most peoples gaming computers.I was a little worried about how well the game would run or if it would even work. Luckily it did work, however ran with very poor graphics and lots of lag. Even with my awful graphics the game still looks beautiful. 

One of the first things I wanted to do once i got into the game was to fly into outer space and see earth from the sky. It was like being a simulated google earth street view on steroids. One of my favorite features is that it does allow you to open up google earth in the lower right hand corner so you know where you are at. Sadly the game doesn't have an official day and night cycle. The shadow from the sunless earth blocked out a great view of America while in outer space.

I knew they didn't build mass cities in the game, but I wanted to find out how well the worlds features matched that of the real world. I was trying to think of a place that I knew pretty well that didn't have a lot of buildings on the features. I remembered a cool place when I was living in Taiwan so I decided to fly there to check it out.

As I walked around the flat surface of what was once a city filled with thousands of people I decided to go to the country side. It amazed me, what I saw when I got there. The terrain wasn't perfect but the elevation was pretty close and the coast lines where even more amazingly replicated. Below is a photo from the game and I photo from the real world that I took while living in Taiwan.

Click on the photo for a larger viewing.

If only the game would let me drive scooters around on the roads to bring back those wonderful memories of exploration on that beautiful island.

For only $15 you can back these guys up and get access to special game features like building roads and stuff.

Click here to see Part 2

Skyrim Hoarder: Riften Pollution

I began to get tired of the excitement from filling up my house with trash. But still amazed by Skyrim on how I can just leave the items on the floor and it would remember is location. I was exploring how well they did water currents carry items, in the lake of Riften one day. Then I thought, what if I could pollute this whole lake with trash.

As I did trash gathered up on shore over time, however everything that sank stayed in place. The currency are actually awful I realized some rivers currents will go one way and switch to the other way. Usually your items won't get carried down stream very far before runny against the shore all in the same place.

Sadly polluting your environment doesn't effect the fish population or even mutate them in anyway.

Click on the Images to enlarge them.

There is a slight current underwater also, but it doesn't carry the items as well because they are heavy.

This was only the beginning to polluting my entire Skyrim Universe.

Skyrim Pack Rat

When I began playing Skyrim I realized it was like no other game. I could touch almost any item in the game and take it home with me. As I began wondering through caves unable to leave any items behind constantly being over weight. Traveling long distances through caves walking slower then a snail. I would return home drop the useless items on the ground, sell the ones worth money, and keep 1 of every different kind of item I can find organized in different selves and chest.

 Not before long my home was a disaster, and I thought I like it this way. So after I got over the I can take every single item in the game, I still took as much as I could just so I could trash my home.

(There are ways you can cheat and carry infinite amounts of weight, I did not do that, I carried all these items the way the game was met to be played.)