In many games, even from PlayStation 2 era, the games usually looked like it was a continuous map from start to finish. Take God of War, for example. From start to finish, we are going further on the same path. A lot of modern-day games do that too.
Is it really a continuous map? Do stages change during cutscenes and for us, it looks like it’s just one long map from start to finish?
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Open world games typically are one big map (expect for smaller detailed areas, like if you go into a cave or a building). They only process and render what is around you though.
For big open maps, they use tricks like level-of-detail (LOD). The further away something is, the less detail they render. This is why on some games if you approach something like a tree, you’ll see “pop-in” effects where it jumps from a low-resolution blob, to to individual branches, to individual leaves. Only the things closest to you are rendered in high detail.
For smaller areas with lots of details, they do have to switch out areas. To make a smooth experience without load screens, they’ll use some sort of slow action to transition between the areas. A very common one is elevator rides in buildings; you just stand there in the elevator while the game loads in the next floor. More recently, game devs have used stuff like tight passages to make your character slowly move while they load the next area.
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