Crytek wants to use existing open street map data for video game environments

German video game developer Crytek has challenged developers to build software that can integrate open source street map data into video games in order to save development time and ease rendering of open world environments.

[Finch]

I had this same Idea when I first used GPS. The lay out is there just need to put it into a game. Then maybe add in Google streets and you have all the houses and layout of the land in place. Just need a generator to put it all together. Always wanted to drive to my house in game and around my City.

[Visualift]

Having access to this data would definitely help developers who are looking to achieve a true sense of scale in their open world games.

[HarryB]

Omg your talkin about massive scale gaming. That's like putting the entire city of new york which will take more than a year to cover every block every street and every house stret lamp lol. Games will cost a lot more than todays games.

[KonsoruMasuta]

Well, technically it would use less development time and probably money.

My question is can the cloud support streaming that much data at once (They plan on pulling this off with cloud). You're talking about massive, detailed, and living cities. Cities that are more detailed than anything you've seen in any game thus far.

[deadfrag]

With the right tools it will actually take less time to render open enviroments!The tool set can be expensive to build but developers will recoup the money spend on the faster development builds of games.What can happen is more games been made in less time but with less quality also.A market flood with games will end up a bad market were only the strong will survive;and the close of many developers will most likely end sooner than latter.

[Goku781]

This is a good idea.

[Stsonic]

This has already happened and it's what we like to call "life"

[Gamer1982]

Its great for realism reasons but its bad as its lazy developing then as developers won't have to make there own open worlds anymore and citys will all start to look the same. We play games to lose ourselves. Why would we want to play in our actual citys?

[KonsoruMasuta]

But what about those games that make place in actual cities?

Sleeping Dogs
TLOU
Tons of Street Racing games
COD
Etc...

Imagine if the game counterparts looked exactly liked they do in real life.

[Software_Lover]

Because it could be fun? You know the back streets? Imagine a racing game where the choice of the city was the flip of a coin. Your city wins and the guy you are playing online doesn't know all the side streets to get places.

I think it could be fun, but I see where you're coming from with the lazy factor.

[rainslacker]

I find it an interesting technical exercise, but realistically, even open world games have to have constraints on what the player can do. Even if a developer rendered the outside of the city in full detail, no matter the scale, what about all the interiors? What would the player do in this massive playground?

It's one thing to say, "Hooray, we can go anywhere we want and do as we please", but having a massive world that isn't populated with game play seems rather shallow, and not fun at all. I won't even get into the technical aspects of having to quality test it all. That alone would defeat any cost savings that some above are saying would happen.

Really think about the big open world games people play. How often do people really just stop to look at everything, or sit there and enjoy the scenery? Once, twice, three times? They do these things because they are unique, and interesting. If it was just real life, what's the point. If you're off killing Zombies, are you really going to care about every lamp post and side street?

More often than not, gamers make their way from point A to point B, because that is the logical progression of how a game is played. Even in open world games, outside of doing some exploration, most people make their way to the next mission or side quest or whatever.

[Software_Lover]

I liked the idea behind the WP game Crackdown 2:Project Sunburst. It was a great idea to have the infected going down actual city streets. It was like you had to protect your neighborhood. I was all over America killing infected. I just wish they kept the game on the marketplace.

[Hufandpuf]

Real city's sometimes aren't as well put together as created cities.

[Gridloc]

There was a game on the original xbox that was a map of Washington,DC. I think it was midtown madness.

[thezeldadoth]

didnt true crime streets of la actually use gps data for their map?

[josephayal]

Crytek make some gorgeous looking games

[GhostofHorizon]

The Last Guy on PSN was probably closest to something like this.