Hmm.. Megatexture anyone?!!

[JAMF]

CTD also on graphics cards with over 1GB of VRAM, so definitely a feature for the future?

[salmo]

Very interesting, MegaTexture employs a single large texture space for static terrain. The texture is stored on removable media or the hard drive and streamed as needed, allowing large amounts of detail and variation over a large area with comparatively little RAM usage.

I believe this is similar texturing technique that Outerra (3D planetary engine for seamless planet rendering) uses. Just think of the possibilities?