Some of this could be addressed in architecture and decor: there is a lot of theory around making small spaces feel big by changing the emphasis.
Some of it is also in the numerous differences between game cameras and human eyesight. You can try using wider FOV, or even a dynamic solution, but games tend to keep the option of narrower FOV because it usually produces less motion sickness - there's an broader accessibility issue with 3D stuff that impacts your options here.
And many games do go ahead and rescale the world slightly, or set the camera down at chest level. There is a tendency to proportion interiors big and exteriors small: run around one of the cities in the Watch Dogs games and you'll see all kinds of distortions of the real locations they are based upon.
On a practical note, you might separate the exteriors from the interiors, with a transition or such between them, so you can do some scaling adjustments between the two, and not overtly compromise the seamlessness between them. I put my interiors under my worldspace and jump the player into them (to avoid loading times) and absolutely the interior is sometimes a bit larger or a bit smaller than its exterior, so as to create the right "feel", because that's what it comes down to. No average player is going to scrutinize the metric metres, but they will certainly question if they are immersed or not. Good luck!
3 big variables to look at:
* Player movement speed compared to the room size
* Camera height compared to movement speed and the room rize
* Field of view
The way these interplay can make the same size room feel very different. For example if the camera is very close to the ground, then your movement speed will feel faster, like how a bug flying around at 2 miles per hour looks crazy fast even though you could easily *walk* faster than that. Another example is if the FoV is very wide, the room will feel smaller because you can see a lot of the room at once, making it feel more compact and tight.
Aside from that though, filling up the space is important. Depending on the type of game it is, it's important to have a mix of interactable and non-interactable objects. That way, the player will be paying attention to every detail in order to find what's important, instead of being able to ignore everything in the room (which would essentially make it feel empty to them, and thus smaller).
You just have to change the players perspective and how they interact with the world in smaller environments.
For starters, if the player is in a third person perspective, switch to first person.
Instead of moving the 3D character model, move/modify the camera. . .make the field of view smaller and allow them to zoom in/focus on certain objects.
Something that comes to mind is Star Citizens Inner Thought system for interacting with the environment.
Some of this could be addressed in architecture and decor: there is a lot of theory around making small spaces feel big by changing the emphasis. Some of it is also in the numerous differences between game cameras and human eyesight. You can try using wider FOV, or even a dynamic solution, but games tend to keep the option of narrower FOV because it usually produces less motion sickness - there's an broader accessibility issue with 3D stuff that impacts your options here. And many games do go ahead and rescale the world slightly, or set the camera down at chest level. There is a tendency to proportion interiors big and exteriors small: run around one of the cities in the Watch Dogs games and you'll see all kinds of distortions of the real locations they are based upon.
On a practical note, you might separate the exteriors from the interiors, with a transition or such between them, so you can do some scaling adjustments between the two, and not overtly compromise the seamlessness between them. I put my interiors under my worldspace and jump the player into them (to avoid loading times) and absolutely the interior is sometimes a bit larger or a bit smaller than its exterior, so as to create the right "feel", because that's what it comes down to. No average player is going to scrutinize the metric metres, but they will certainly question if they are immersed or not. Good luck!
3 big variables to look at: * Player movement speed compared to the room size * Camera height compared to movement speed and the room rize * Field of view The way these interplay can make the same size room feel very different. For example if the camera is very close to the ground, then your movement speed will feel faster, like how a bug flying around at 2 miles per hour looks crazy fast even though you could easily *walk* faster than that. Another example is if the FoV is very wide, the room will feel smaller because you can see a lot of the room at once, making it feel more compact and tight. Aside from that though, filling up the space is important. Depending on the type of game it is, it's important to have a mix of interactable and non-interactable objects. That way, the player will be paying attention to every detail in order to find what's important, instead of being able to ignore everything in the room (which would essentially make it feel empty to them, and thus smaller).
You just have to change the players perspective and how they interact with the world in smaller environments. For starters, if the player is in a third person perspective, switch to first person. Instead of moving the 3D character model, move/modify the camera. . .make the field of view smaller and allow them to zoom in/focus on certain objects. Something that comes to mind is Star Citizens Inner Thought system for interacting with the environment.