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Texture Sizes

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johnno56
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Texture Sizes

Post by johnno56 »

Hey guys,

Just a quick noob question.

What is the recommended size of 2d textures (ie: walls and floors and stuff like that). 256x256, 512x512 or 1024x1024? Can I use textures smaller than 256x256?

J
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tyche
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Re: Texture Sizes

Post by tyche »

WEll, you've got the basics right, right off the bat. Textures have to be some multiple of 64 in each direction. I've gone as small as 128 X 256, but usually stuck with 500 X 500. And at that I usually had to scale them down in the .cfg files. It really depends on what you're using the texture for, and how well you can make it seamless.
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johnno56
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Re: Texture Sizes

Post by johnno56 »

I am trying to recreate the old dos wolfenstein 3d. I think the graphics were so basic, that the question of seamless, may not be too big an issue. But me, I prefer neatness. I found the tutorial, on this website, on how to import textures and it worked just fine. So, multiples of 64? I suppose I could use the old "trial and error" and start with 64x64 and work my way up. I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for the tips. Much appreciated.

J
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Re: Texture Sizes

Post by Hirato »

You can use whatever, we just recommend powers of 2 (1/2/4/8/16/32/64/128/256/512/1024/etc) for convenience and to account for the fact that some hardware has poor support for non-power-of-two textures.
We generally recommend 512 for textures if you want nice crisp and clear images, Anything lower is going to get increasingly blurry; you can turn off /reducefilter to turn off [bi/tri]linear filtering - but that's a client side setting.
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johnno56
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Re: Texture Sizes

Post by johnno56 »

Ok. So power of 2. The higher the clearer the image. I would imagine making it more than 512x512 it may effect performance of the video card. The funny thing with wolf3d is that most of the textures were 64x64 and the colours were a shocker. If I try to enlarge them beyond 256x256, I'm afraid they will pixilate beyond usefulness. Looks like I may have to either keep looking for 256+ or recreate them at 256+ or create the map using traditional textures. Which ever way I go, It's gonna be a lot of work, a lot of fun, but a lot of work...

Thanks for the info...

J
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johnno56
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Re: Texture Sizes

Post by johnno56 »

Ok. I have tested importing 256x256 (enlarged from 128x128) and, for the purpose I need, 256x256 works just fine. The textures are slightly pixilated but not too bad. If and when I get a map done, I will post it. I'm not very good at creating maps and even worse when it comes to scripting, but at least I have fun doing it.

J
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Re: Texture Sizes

Post by Hirato »

johnno56 wrote:Ok. I have tested importing 256x256 (enlarged from 128x128) and, for the purpose I need, 256x256 works just fine.
Unless you're using some special filters or altering the enlarged image, this won't magically make it look better than the 128x128 version.

Also, textures are relatively cheap on the GPU, the problem is when the VRAM starts to get heavily utilised it needs to start swapping into RAM and this is what kills performance.
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johnno56
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Re: Texture Sizes

Post by johnno56 »

The textures are quite basic (probably 16 colours) and enlarged with some pixelation but not too bad. Not 100% sure if the original wolf3d was 16 or 256 colours. In any event, the importing of the textures worked ok. Now that I know how to do it, I can located or create, better textures. I only need the textures to be the height of the sliding doors (256x256?). The original game only had textured walls, decorations and doors. Both the ceiling and floors were light grey and a darker grey respectively. If you have played it before, then you will probably remember, the terrible colour schemes. If not, you can look it up. It is not my intent to create a wolf3d game like the modern 3D version. I want it to be similar to the original without the need for excessive violence. ie: Find all the treasure and figure out any puzzles before the player can progress to the next level.... anyway, enough waffling on. I have to get some sleep. My keyboard is not drool resistant....

J
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