Larger Textures?
by Maddermadcat · in Torque Game Engine · 08/16/2007 (7:38 pm) · 12 replies
So, I was working on a vehicle model recently, which is actually quite large in-game (on purpose, of course). Anyway, it's difficult to make the vehicle look good at that size with a 512 x 512 and a 256 x 256 texture. They become stretched too much, making the whole thing look blurry, and rearranging the UVs is nearly impossible at this point. My question is, has anyone managed to increase the texture size limit?
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#2
I never knew 1024x1024 textures are allowed. Don't get my hopes up, now. =P
08/16/2007 (8:27 pm)
1024 should be just fine. I never knew 1024x1024 textures are allowed. Don't get my hopes up, now. =P
#3
08/17/2007 (6:38 am)
Many graphics cards may have serious issues with larger textures as they chunk them out. Be careful.
#4
08/17/2007 (5:47 pm)
It would be really spiffy to integrate some sort of texture atlas system into TGE or TGEA.
#5
08/22/2007 (6:31 pm)
David, would I have problems with 1024x1024 textures? Because it's a bit late to change that now, and your comment worried me. 
#6
Older cards may have problems with 1024 textures, but 512 is a "safe".
I think this is what David is talking about.
08/23/2007 (5:36 am)
Maddermadcat: most of the cards (Radeon 9xxx++ / GeForce 5xxx++) works fine with 1024 textures, but if you go larger - then it's a case when you may meet problems.Older cards may have problems with 1024 textures, but 512 is a "safe".
I think this is what David is talking about.
#7
The NVIDIA GeForce 1 through to GeForce 4 cards support a max texture size of 1024/2048 depending on drivers. The GeForce 5, 6 and 7 series can handle 4096 x 4096. The GeForce 8 cards can handle 8192 x 8192.
The ATI Rage and Radeon series supports 2048x2048, newest ATI cards support 4096x4096 (e.g. X1950).
You have to go back a long way for cards that don't support at least 1024 x 1024. Like 3dfx Voodoo 2/3, they only supported 256 x 256. The Voodoo 4/5 cards supported 2048 x 2048.
There is nothing stopping you from using 1024 x 1024, which covers a large range of cards going back many, many years (of course you should be efficient with your texture sizes, don't just use 1024 x 1024 for everything :P).
08/23/2007 (5:42 am)
It depends on how low a card you want to target. The NVIDIA GeForce 1 through to GeForce 4 cards support a max texture size of 1024/2048 depending on drivers. The GeForce 5, 6 and 7 series can handle 4096 x 4096. The GeForce 8 cards can handle 8192 x 8192.
The ATI Rage and Radeon series supports 2048x2048, newest ATI cards support 4096x4096 (e.g. X1950).
You have to go back a long way for cards that don't support at least 1024 x 1024. Like 3dfx Voodoo 2/3, they only supported 256 x 256. The Voodoo 4/5 cards supported 2048 x 2048.
There is nothing stopping you from using 1024 x 1024, which covers a large range of cards going back many, many years (of course you should be efficient with your texture sizes, don't just use 1024 x 1024 for everything :P).
#8
08/23/2007 (5:46 am)
Ohh.. then I was wrong :) thanks for clearing up Tim.
#9
08/23/2007 (6:16 am)
That is interesting. Thanks Tim 
#10
08/23/2007 (5:41 pm)
Once you get into the 1024-2048 range, you'll be eliminating some users on laptops with integrated graphics chips. Not really a big concern for most games, but you should be aware of it in case you happen to be serious about targeting "casual" gamers, who are likely to be using such systems. Personally, I texture all of my max-LOD versions of vehicles and such at a minimum of 1024, and I think that's pretty standard for modern games; it's simply not possible to skin an entire vehicle with 512x512 pixels and expect it to look decent.
#11
08/24/2007 (2:08 pm)
Create multiple materials and arange the uv's for seperate textures, so you have four or five 512x512 textures mapped onto different parts of an object
#12
Depending on the program you're using, that may or may not work. I know that with Milkshape you can only assign one texture to one mesh group, so you'd have to break the model up into pieces to have different textures on different pieces. The package you're using may be different, though.
08/24/2007 (3:28 pm)
Quote:Create multiple materials and arange the uv's for seperate textures, so you have four or five 512x512 textures mapped onto different parts of an object
Depending on the program you're using, that may or may not work. I know that with Milkshape you can only assign one texture to one mesh group, so you'd have to break the model up into pieces to have different textures on different pieces. The package you're using may be different, though.
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