Stage

In video game development, a scene refers to a collection of objects and models that exist in the same space. In Super Mario Odyssey, a scene can generally be thought of as a singular level or area (such as the main area of a kingdom, or the interior of a sub-world).

Explanation

In Super Mario Odyssey, the main area of a kingdom is generally its own scene, with each sub-world being a separate scene. However, there are some exceptions to this rule, and there are areas that may seem separate to the player but are actually stored in the same scene. These examples include:

• The main area of the Metro Kingdom and the interior of the New Donk City Hall Auditorium
• The main area of the Luncheon Kingdom and the interior of the Cascading Magma area containing the Climb Up the Cascading Magma story moon
• Shiveria Town in the Snow Kingdom and each of the four rooms containing story moons
• The entrance area to the Underground Power Plant in the Metro Kingdom and the corresponding platforming room

Because these areas are stored in the same scene, they are generally located very far away on the same map. For example, the New Donk City Hall Auditorium interior is located extremely far away from the Metro Kingdom mainland, and the objects within it are unloaded when the player is on the mainland to avoid the player noticing it in the distance.

Properties

Moving Mario between areas within the same scene is much faster than loading a completely new scene. This is immediately obvious when entering one of these areas, since the loading time will be almost instantaneous.

Changes to an area that have scene-level persistence will not be reverted when the player moves between areas in the same scene.

It is thought that the reason these areas are stored in the same scene is to allow cutscenes to be played across different areas without the need to load a new scene. For example:

• Obtaining a story moon from a musician in the Metro Kingdom will transfer Mario to the interior of the New Donk City Hall Auditorium. Storing the auditorium's interior in the same scene removes the loading time from this transfer.
• After collecting the Climb Up the Cascading Magma story moon in the Luncheon Kingdom, the game plays a cutscene that takes place in the main area of the kingdom. If the areas were stored in separate scenes, the game would need to switch between these areas to play the cutscene, which would introduce two loading periods.
• After collecting a story moon from one of the four rooms branching out from Shiveria Town, the game plays a cutscene that takes place in the main Shiveria Town room. If the areas were stored in separate scenes, the game would need to switch between these areas to play the cutscene.
• The reasoning for the two rooms of the Underground Power Plant being in the same scene is not as clear, but it may be to prevent players from accidentally undoing their progress killing the Big Poison Piranha Plants at the end by going back through the pipe.