[Engine related] Glass and transparency

[viion]

I'd like to see a game on the ps3 that has large environments, render distance, glass and a high LOD. I doubt such a thing exists.

Crysis for 1, XD (which btw is capable of MMO, eg ArchAge)

Large Environments and Render distance means nothing, if you're rendering far distance and everything at once, you're doing it wrong, plus engines just dont work like that, they render what is visible, they dont render stuff you cant see. You can easily reduce the visibility and render amount through glass.

If you had a window into a shop the only thing being rendered is the interior of the shop, not the whole giant world shoved into that 1 shop and loaded at once.

Not to mention, looking outside the shop you might argue "omfg look at all the rendering it has to do for outside the shop" um what is the difference between that, or opening the shop door? ...

[Laraul]

Have you ever had a slight irritation when walking through town or say, Gridania's own Carline Canopy and having not been able to see through the windows and wondered why? I do.
I feel when looking at that old tech-demo that having that see-through glass made it so much more attractive, and perhaps some over looked that small detail that certainly, in my eyes, added a lot for so little.

You take a look at that tech demo and notice that all the glass is used for structural purposes (i.e. walls, ceilings) not ordinary glass windows (which could be done easily by just using an empty hole that links two areas). For all practical purposes, glass should be used in areas where's called for. Not just thrown about. The engine can certainly do distortion effects like refraction and such. But glass won't add anything to the existing areas.

[Rydin]

You take a look at that tech demo and notice that all the glass is used for structural purposes (i.e. walls, ceilings) not ordinary glass windows (which could be done easily by just using an empty hole that links two areas). For all practical purposes, glass should be used in areas where's called for. Not just thrown about. The engine can certainly do distortion effects like refraction and such. But glass won't add anything to the existing areas.

I want smart glass.... that changes opacity at the push of a button....