Well, I have been able to create a 32x32km map at a 3m resolution which is around 12k x 12k pixels. But when importing the map, it only creates 4 regions that cover 4x4 proxies. That means that I still need 5 regions more that for some reason are not being created. The proxies of these missing regions are there but they cannot be loaded. Only the proxys that have regions covering them can be loaded. Something I’m doing wrong.
Nevertheless, if I crop the map into what I really need and use a 16km x 26km map at a 2m resolution, which is about 8k x 12k pixels then I can load the map correctly. Since that is what I need I guess I could make that work.
On the other hand, maybe I use level system in which each level has a small terrain heightmap of some relevant location, and I will connect these levels with some teletransportation. Maybe I would set these levels with world partition too if they are bigger than 8k x 8k, but the bottom line is I wouldn’t need to worry about performance. Of course it wouldn’t really be an open world, since you would be able to free roam only some locations and not the real life full map. Maybe it’s also better like this in order to avoid having to populate irrelevant areas. On the other hand, I will have to establish some logic to reduce stats when travelling form one level to another.
edit: I have been playing around with an 8k map without world partition and I might have subestimated how big this maps can actually be even if they seem little at the editor viewport. I think I’m going to stick to the idea explained above and not create such a huge map, but rather small pieces of it that will be in different levels.
edit2: now I can use a single static mesh as landscape too, since I will be using just one static mesh and not have problems with the edges not matching.
Thanks a lot to everyone who participated in this thread @MostHost_LA @noone @Frenetic @TimBayer @game-maker
Even though I will not create one huge open world, I will surely run into problems of other kinds and I will open other threads hahaha