Glitching Out Of Red Dead Online Reveals Low-Res Wonderland

[NewsBot]

Red Dead Online features a massive map filled with all kinds of activities, minute details, breathtaking vistas and enough content to make sure you won't feel the need to go beyond it any time soon. But even the biggest video game maps have their borders, and if you find a way out of bounds, that's when things truly start getting weird.

Maintaining the illusion is what makes or breaks immersion and, in order to keep up the suspense of disbelief, developers will go to all kinds of lengths to hide the frayed seams of their virtual worlds. We've seen a snapshot of how the world of Red Dead Online is made to seem bigger than it is back when a few players managed to glitch their way into a low-res Mexico, but this time some others ventured much further and documented the journey.

Kalonica has shared a visual summary of their expedition beyond the edge of Red Dead Online's map. When players reach the border of the area the developers intended for them to see, they'll encounter either natural obstacles like mountains, or a less elegant invisible wall. Sometimes, it's possible to use glitches to get past these invisible walls.

Red Dead Online's vast vistas make for fantastic views, and they continue on beyond the player boundary to maintain realism. However, since players aren't ever meant to see these places up close, they're less developed, and actually going there reveals some development tricks. If you manage to glitch your way out of the map - which is done at one particular point, next to a particular cliff, only works with your weapon drawn and takes several tries - you can get a closer look.

First, things will look mostly normal. The wilderness around you will follow the biome used within the borders, you just won't encounter animals, NPCs or anything to interact with. If you go further out, the first change you'll see is the rougher transition between ground texture tiles, and eventually a marked decrease in ground texture resolution.

This is a "level-of-detail" technique used to save on processing power. Basically, the further away something is, the lower the resolution it needs to be since you won't notice anyway. Inside the playing area, this scales dynamically - as you get closer, the object in question is constantly replaced with higher and higher LOD versions. Since, under normal circumstances, nobody would be close enough for the ground texture to change out here, it's static.

The next step when getting further out is the disappearance of props. Bushes, grass, and other plants and foilage will disappear completely, leaving only a barren ground texture. Again, this is a LOD technique, since from the border you wouldn't see them anyway. It's also here that the procedural topography starts getting rough.

With maps as big as the one in Red Dead Online not every single hill, mountain and bump in the road is handcrafted. Much of it is procedurally generated based on an algorithm to make it feel varied and natural. This far out, hills and bumps will stop looking smooth or natural. You'll start seeing a lot more straight vertices, hard angles, and even completely unnatural topography like a cluster of small pyramids.

Going further in this increasingly alien landscape, another large straight line slices the ground in half, where the los-res ground texture is replaced by a textureless, solid-color ground. Soon after that, the ground disappears entirely and is replaced by a vast, empty void that exists below the game map. Interestingly enough, this void is recognized as water by the in-game physics - after falling for an hour, that is.

At this point the character's stamina just ran out, since all they could do is swim endlessly and die. Thus ends the daring expedition beyond the border of Red Dead Online's map. It's eerie and strange, but if you've ventured out of bounds in other games before it will seem similar too - most games use the same tricks, and look identical to this one from the outside.

The post Glitching Out Of Red Dead Online Reveals Low-Res Wonderland appeared first on RDR2.org.

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[buttlint]

2 hours ago, NewsBot said:

At this point the character's stamina just ran out, since all they could do is swim endlessly and die.

Maybe they should stick with gunslinging.........drowning in a mudhole is a pretty rookie move. 🤣

This is how you do it.

[buttlint]

Please accept my apology in advance if any of the following turns out to be total bullsh*t. Upfront, I am a story mode only player and to cheap to play online. But....if you think that jumping the map might be some fun, maybe these tips might help you, If not.......print it, shred it and flush it. All of my tests were done in single player mode and I can only assume that they work in the online mode.

How to get off the map. I tried this in single player mode, and really didnt have the patience to keep slamming my head against a brick wall. Instead......I walked up to the entry point, stopped, and started slamming gin, rum and moonshine until I passed out. That got me off the map and I didnt have to deal with any "sticking point". I just walked west, away from the border and I was free to roam wherever it wanted.

The original authors said they were forced to walk? In single player, there are two herds of horses due north of the entry point. Tame one and you are off to the races. (I have those spots marked if anyone is really interested.) I assume again, that online will work the same as single player.

If you are really hot to go to Guarma again, head south. I've heard that R* has already screwed that plan up with black screens. Even if they didnt, that's a tough trail to take. Just lots of things to deal with. If you must go, try it in single player first, you will learn to hate " going to Guarma" real quick. 

My advice is "go north young person".  It's far more interesting than anything in the south. Scenery, animals, danger and interesting stuff.  Avoid the mesh, slippery slopes and product updates and its something else to do. If these tips work for you, let me know. If they dont, I will just STFU.