Maximum map size?

quick question, I've read through the help/documentation, i was wondering how big you could make a world in Unity (in meters and/or km)

 

Infinitely large, if you implement proper streaming and a custom coordinate system. Nothing is really stopping you from reading/writing to disk as you need data.

 

Nothing on a computer is Infinite.
Although the main limits on your maximum world size are going to be your own ingenuity and resourcefulness.

 

Why not? If we assume that time can be infinite, than a computer playing a game with auto-generative maps would have an infinite world (obviously, what I wrote is for the "nerds corner", and totally doesn't answer the question - and also, obviously sooner or later that computer would crash/break/be-destroyed-by-a-nuclear-bomb and the infinite map generation would stop, but, in theory...)

 

I have a question about scene size: I´ve read that the larger your scene get stuff like animations get jerky because of greater errors in the calculations, but when exacly does this begin to happen? I know I can´t get a "it happens whenever an object is 1000433.65 units from world origin"-answer, but maybe someone have a general idea of when it begin to get noticable? Is it early like above a thousand units, or is it likely that I could be up in millions without noticing anything?

 

Single-precision floating point generally gets you 7 digits, so your coords can be, say, 123.4567, or 1234.567, or 12345.67, or 123456.7. I doubt you'd want fewer than 3 digits after the decimal in most cases, though depending on the scale you're using 2 might be enough.

--Eric

 

The maximum world size you can have, without an own coordinate system handling, is < 100k in each direction at maximum (better shoot for a bit less, its not like you could hold that much in RAM at a time anyway and with PVS not streaming you can not bake them reasonably either), beyond that objects will jitter seriously due to the resolution of the transform matrix failing misserably.

 

if i have a server to host it on will the size be able to increase?

 

To create a custom coordinate system that uses double-precision floating points instead of single-precision requires the Unity source code? If not, how hard or time consuming is it to make?
Also, what involves in implementing a proper terrain/assets streaming in Unity?

My intention is to create a big open world that could have 100km or more in one direction with lots of vegetation. My goal is to create a virtual world of my country showcasing the main points of it, like beautiful landscape or architecture.
The only engine that handles such big world with proper streaming from what I've found seems to be Unigine Engine, but I need more than just a 3D engine. From what I see they say nothing about character animation.

Is Unity a good candidate for big open worlds?

 

I'm using Unity for a combat simulation library. So far am quite happy with the results. Am able to lob artillery shells realistic distances over realistic scenery that I can deform if necessary.

 

evil echo im curious about your combat sim. will be downloadable on asset store? i am interest din doing a mad max style game with jet fighters.. size being continental united states.. expect terrain to be roughly 500gb at most..

need guidance simplest methods..

 

Im here reading responses to this question as im building a space game and as you probably know space is HUGE. Im currently building map that is 3 layers of 9 scenes laid out like a Rubik's cube (27 scenes total). In the center is my mothership and all the surrounding scenes have asteroids that can be mined. My scenes are each 50k cubed. So my map is 150k across/up and down/front to back. If I was to add another space station for my space truckers to haul supplies to and from, How far away could I put those scenes? Can I put my 2 Rubik's type worlds 500k apart? and if so could I place another the same distance in the other direction?