How do they go about creating open-ended worlds

[Madame Adequate]

What's the largest single player game in terms of open world space in recent years?

Technically, it's going to be something like Elite, or X. In planetary terms, I wouldn't be surprised if it is Daggerfall. Wiki says that game area is around 63,000 square miles - Vvardenfell has 9 sq. mi. and Oblivion is about 16 sq. mi. by comparison, IIRC.

I'm unable, it seems, to dig anything up re: game area sizes.

[nozkits]

I have been playing Oblivian quite abit lately and when I play it just amazes me on how much work it would have to take to create a world like Oblivian has.

It took me almost an hour and a half just to go from one end of one of the countries on the game to the other. And that is just one country (their are like seven or eight different countries within the continent of Tamriel that you can explore).

And it gets mind boggling when you think that they would have to create a picture from every single possible angle from every single possible distance on every single spot on the map.

I know that they use computers alot to help them out in it but you would still have to tell the computer what to make.

Does anybody know how they go about creating open-ended worlds. I would think it would take years just to create the map let alone any of the storylines or quests that make up the actual game.

Oblivion really isn't that open ended when you compare it to Morrowind. Please check out Morrowind it has way more content and is a lot more open ended.

[Madame Adequate]

In the sense that you can pretty much go anywhere and do anything, I'd say they're mostly on a par - however, the removal of certain things from Oblivion do, I agree, reduce the freedom slightly. The specific example I'm thinking of is Levitation.