Nowadays isn’t impossible for to create large 3D open worlds anymore; just saying.
Technically it has never been impossible. Filling the world with content that keeps the player having fun instead of just pointless geometry “Just 'cause” seems to still be a rampant issue.
As I’m writing game development books, I’ve done my research. It seems people think bigger is better and a LOT of indie developers think that “moving around” is a fun feature in a game and counts as gameplay (Spoiler: Walking around shouldn’t be gameplay).
They think that just because AAA* games have giant open worlds, that’s how they’ve got to compete. By making giant worlds, completely forgetting that movement isn’t gameplay.
Of course I’m not speaking for all independent developers there, but more then a significant portion.
But this is a rant for another day 
Sorry I couldn’t resist, I had a really bad experience on the CryEngine forums a few months back and I never got over it lol. Also, I should mention it’s all fair game, since Crytek’s own CEO publicly bashed UE4 in a past interview. That said, I have nothing but respect for Cloud Imperium Games (I’ve actually donated over $300 to Star Citizen so far haha)
With the large world stuff, the thing that I hate with most/all of the MMO’s around is that there is just way too much jammed into each area (for my liking anyway), ArcheAge being the latest example of this not that I’ve explored the whole game.
I don’t find things enjoyable/immersive when there’s a town every 10 seconds and players/NPC’s EVERYWHERE.
Kitatus, Have you been reading Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design ?
This is an extremely important statement that many seem to brush over or not understand.
I mean, give the player something to do instead of mindlessly walking.
Then again I guess it depends on the game it is used in. I mean no one would want to walk in a FPS Game akin to DOOM (Classic or Reboot), but if it was like Fallout (New or Old) the slow-paced travel is part of the game (then again even in that while you walk you’ll find new areas and items and such so really the player could walk, but not walk and do nothing).
As for the engine debate, I was always curious if Double Precision could help me in any way (having an AMD 290x).
I never really found anything on it so I put it into the “useless” category.
Is there really no way UE4 efficiently uses it?
Is it something that is called upon if one has it?
~ Jason
Source please ?
Source? This thread is two years old. The transparent specular issues were solved a very long time ago…