Could a Zip mode be technically possible?

[Aloys]

Beside a 'run' option, I'm all for a proper Zip mode feature for a number of reasons. But this being a 3D game this is complicated.. Hence my question to you guys: is this something that sound remotely possible?

I'm no UE expert, more of a Unity guy, but regarless of the engine for such big scenes you have to use some form of background asset streaming. And teleporting around tend to mess with that badly. Even if we are teleporting over short distances, at some point we are gonna hit an area that hasn't been loaded yet.. I guess it could be possible to check when the player clicks if the neighbouring areas haven't been loaded yet and to 'pause' the game until they have been.. Wouldn't be perfect, but might work. (or is it how UE handles these situations by default).

Depending on how big the assets it might just be nothing more than a 1s hickup which is good enough.

[nick]

Definitely possible. As you guessed there would be a noticeable pause between zip nodes if you're moving between large areas. It wouldn't be anywhere near as bad as 1 second on a modern PC, though.

[Aloys]

Nice, and is this something you contemplated doing?

[nick]

Yep! It's always been on the list of things we'd like to implement (although it's not quite there yet).

[Aloys]

That's good news.
I hope it makes the cut; that's something that's very much part of Riven's legacy.