Abstract Space

So here's a development concept I think would be pretty neat, what if there was a way to make pockets of "abstract space" in game.

Let me explain, remember this game:


When this game first came out it sent me into a tizzy as to how they did it and what were all the sorts of implications it could bring.

My first thought was that if you did this in large enough scales you could make Quake maps that break dimensions to make them like an Echer drawing, or make a infinit scrolling map were you pop up on the other side and never see the "portal".

Going with this a step further I thing that there is even more applications. Like say, loading interiors from a world map, such as Skyrim. The interior is loaded into memory as you approach, then this abstract space is attached to the door.

Needless to say, you could do caves this way too.

Basically, I would like to be able to create a 3d space that has "portals" that attach to the game space. And of course mess with the physics in that space.

Is there any reason this is impractical?

 

This was possible even way back when Duke Nukem 3D first came out. (Yeah, the first one.) Antichamber uses it extensively.

 

Oh, yeah. It's how they did overlapping paths. (Huge Build Engine nerd. HUGE! Thousands of hours, huge!)

 

By having one area of the environment, and then an exact copy which looks identical attached to one side of it, it will look as though as you proceed past the limits of the environment you wrap around and come back in on the other side. This `illusion` was the basis of those antichamber puzzles where there seems to be no exit i.e. you go down some corridor and end up approaching the place you started from, which was supposed to be behind you but is now in front. It's a simple trick. I'm not really visualizing what you mean by `abstract space` though.

 

I guess you could also do this with multiple cameras, one camera per viewpoint, making it look like areas are joined together when they aren't.

 

Well, yeah. You could do things that way, but that means multiple draws. Not very efficient. I'm thinking something more along the lines of what subtractive engines like the Dark engine does.