Since gaming in the 80's one question has always crossed my mind, why can't game developers combine genres? Why can't a driving simulator work in the same world as a flight simulator in the same world a war strategy simulator? Then in the 90's this idea became more widely asked with the added question, why can't a FPS also be added to this list as well as RPG's and Mech Warrior?

Surprisingly the answer was not "because pc's can't handle it" rather because no one could be bothered creating such a world.

Well, now, that holistic idea is almost a reality thanks to creations such as Outerra. This idea has been tested before in such games as BF4, but the sad reality is that while it's a good FPS the flight simulator community consider it a joke when it comes to flying craft.

EXQUISITE MIDDLE-EARTH-FROM-SPACE IMAGES Travel to the land of hobbits and wizards, elves and orcs!

Created by Outerra, using the M-E digital elevation model |  Underwire February 4, 2014 at WIRED

JRR Tolkien’s Middle-earth is still the undisputed champ of fantasy worlds beloved by cartographers. Several projects over the years have tried to map the land of Lord of the Rings—some great, some unrealized. Now, however, two of them together have gone beyond simple drawings and created a set of stunning renders.

Outerra, based in Slovakia, has created a “3D planetary engine” that purports to be able to render a world in full detail, from space all the way down to pebbles on the surface.

Steve Edwards and Carl Lingard started the ME-DEM (Middle-earth Digital Elevation Model) Project in 2006, with the ultimate goal of rendering the entirety of Middle-earth in open-source data. Last year, they exported their data into the Outerra engine.

IMAGES

Middle Earth: seen from space—with labels

Middle Earth: Frodo's journey traced in red

Mountains of Mordor

Erebor: the Lonely Mountain

Mountains of Minas Tirith