Ultima X: Odyssey Interview, Part One
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Q: Let's talk about the gameworld, Alucinor. In overview, how will it diverge from those of UO and other familiar persistent state titles?
A: Right off, the first difference between UO and UXO is that UXO will be working with zone maps, as opposed to a seamless world like UO. The reason for this has to do with our desire for the world to be very diverse. From one location to another, things can look very different. We have mountainous areas, swamps, magical forests, a pixie forest, dungeons, plains, deserts, towns - you name it. Naturally, the more variety there is in the world, the more 3D objects and textures we need. With a particularly diverse world like Alucinor, it would be impossible to fit it all in memory simultaneously; hence we went with a zoned world approach.
However, Alucinor is different even from most existing online worlds in that we've worked extremely hard to showcase the 3D nature of it. Our use of the Z-plane is quite extensive, and the result is visually more immersive than typical online worlds.
