Were Bungie's ambitions higher than what they could deliver? (Destiny)

by uberfoop , Seattle-ish, Sunday, September 14, 2014, 10:10 (3522 days ago) @ FyreWulff

LOD and memory management.

They've outright mentioned in the patch notes that they've even adjusted LOD volumes in multiplayer maps for the 360 and PS3.

tl;dr if you can't go there yet, the engine has no reason to load full detail on something. Destiny retains the Imposter system from Reach, as well.

LoD or not, those skyboxes don't have the general shape I'd expect of a functional gameplay environment. I also had that thought of the 2013 E3 demo, and those areas were substantially more detailed at the time.

Even if they do ultimately "become gameplay areas," what they wind up being isn't going to remotely resemble what you're looking at sufficiently well to really be considered "that area we see over there", unless Bungie has succumbed to complete and total insanity.