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Texture Sizes
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 Re: Texture Sizes
Posted by Hornpipe2 on Fri Nov 21st at 3:01am 2003

For maximum compatability with older hardware, what texture sizes should I stick to? (i.e. is it considered bad practice to make a 512x64 texture?) I've seen something once where it warned me not to do something like, uh... use more than 65535 area or something, I don't recall. [addsig]



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 Re: Texture Sizes
Posted by Hornpipe2 on Fri Nov 21st at 3:04am 2003

Never mind, I've figured out my own problem anyway, after a quick google search. However this info may help someone.

http://www.slackiller.com/tommy14/tex-dimensions.htm

Basically I was right, don't exceed 65536 pixels in area. Also you can't use more than 512 on a side or so, that's bad.

[addsig]



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 Re: Texture Sizes
Posted by Campaignjunkie on Fri Nov 21st at 5:33am 2003

Well 512x512 is probably the maximum you want to push it. I don't think I've seen a 1024 texture in HL yet though... [addsig]



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 Re: Texture Sizes
Posted by Jinx on Fri Nov 21st at 6:15am 2003

according to that link, 256x512 is as high as you want to go. that seems based on engine limits..?

I remember hearing 256x256 was the max for some older video cards and higher dimensions would be scaled down and blown up (blurred)... but that was a few years ago, and 'older' would probably have meant old 8meg cards lol. That's what I've always stuck with, though.

To be honest, big textures are kinda overrated. So many textures just tile anyway, and a lot of the 1024x1024 ones I've seen in UnrealEd could just as easily have been 256x256- ie they look just like 4 of the same 256x256 tiled. That, or they are too damn big and you have to scale them down, not good for the polies. Though I'm sure I'll change my tune as I get more used to using them.





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 Re: Texture Sizes
Posted by Cash Car Star on Fri Nov 21st at 8:22am 2003

Unreal 1024 x 1024 textures might as well be blown up 128 x 128 for the detail levels I use to make the game run smoothly...



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 Re: Texture Sizes
Posted by Gorbachev on Fri Nov 21st at 3:15pm 2003

256x256 is the max for older video cards to display, the compile tools say that 512x512 textures *can* cause problems. I have a few 512x512 textures in my maps for stuff like grass and dirt so that you don't have so much of a repeating effect. [addsig]



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 Re: Texture Sizes
Posted by Hornpipe2 on Fri Nov 21st at 4:00pm 2003

? posted by Jinx

according to that link, 256x512 is as high as you want to go. that seems based on engine limits..?

I remember hearing 256x256 was the max for some older video cards and higher dimensions would be scaled down and blown up (blurred)... but that was a few years ago, and 'older' would probably have meant old 8meg cards lol. That's what I've always stuck with, though.

To be honest, big textures are kinda overrated. So many textures just tile anyway, and a lot of the 1024x1024 ones I've seen in UnrealEd could just as easily have been 256x256- ie they look just like 4 of the same 256x256 tiled. That, or they are too damn big and you have to scale them down, not good for the polies. Though I'm sure I'll change my tune as I get more used to using them.

The link says that you want a "lump size" of no more than 65536, otherwise software mode and older video cards won't show your textures or will screw them all up. So 512x256 is the max, not because of engine limits, but please think of those of us using software mode or a Voodoo 3.

NS uses lots of 256x256 textures that look rather nice, but be aware (of course) that bigger textures means more texture memory used - with a 4mb limit, that's kind of bad...

[addsig]



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 Re: Texture Sizes
Posted by Jinx on Fri Nov 21st at 5:06pm 2003

you can boost that limit to 8mb with ZHLT though. dunno if that would be much slower on older cards or not. I think it's reasonable to figure most people have at least a 16mb card by now. and why the hell would anyone play in software mode?



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 Re: Texture Sizes
Posted by Hornpipe2 on Fri Nov 21st at 7:01pm 2003

I've known the occasional software mode player, especially at LAN parties where some people don't own computers to speak of, and we give them a Pentium 200mhz to play instead. Also, going over 4mb makes the game unplayable (I think) on some older graphics cards that don't actually HAVE more than 4 mbs of video RAM.

I played in software mode as recently as a year ago. Hell, I still do sometimes just to watch cl_drawflat 1 or whatever that variable is.

[addsig]



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 Re: Texture Sizes
Posted by Gorbachev on Fri Nov 21st at 9:43pm 2003

I'm sorry but I won't sympathize for those who're using software mode. There is a point where letting lower end users play is out of hand. Someone using Software mode and getting like 4 fps isn't someone I'm aiming to map at. That's really below any recommended setup. r_speeds is one thing where it is an engine limitation, but something like this isn't the same. I can just imagine how brutal the game plays on something like that, and if you're any kind of gamer then you shouldn't be using something like that. [addsig]



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 Re: Texture Sizes
Posted by Jinx on Sat Nov 22nd at 2:03am 2003

yeah, I have sympathy for people on older computers with older cards, but you have to draw the line someplace. why should we be making our maps to be played on computers that probably don't even meet HL's minimum system requirements, those that were on the box when we bought it 5 years ago?





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 Re: Texture Sizes
Posted by Orpheus on Sat Nov 22nd at 2:17am 2003

draw the line someplace as jinxy says.. someone using software mode is just as unreasonable as us trying to play a map above 1000 r's

i say, try to grab as many people as possible and let the others use old maps.

[addsig]




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