Topic: When you guys look for texture how large (in pixels) is optimum?

[Toasty0]

What file size do you find best?

Best,
Jerry  

[Fury_of_a_Seraph]

I try and keep them either 512 or 1024, i try not to have anything smaller.

[Captain Ron]

Really depends on what I am doing and how much details I want to show. The largest I will zip up and put on a ship that is going to be downloaded is 1024, I do use larger for my own use though.

So 1024 for areas that will have high details or where I rally want something to show through, like the aztec pattern on the saucer. 512 size generally cover the area where there will be little to no details, or details if I already used 2 - 1024 sized ones (once again to keep zip files down for size. 256 is where I shrink the light maps to if I need to conserve space, I will also use this to cover a area where there is almost no details.

1024 would be optimal for most textures but at 3+ megs each not practical for downloading unless there is less than 3 textures. Also if you use a smaller size for Lightmaps try to only go only one size down or they blur and misalign compared to the standard textures.

1024 =>512 light
512 => 256 light
256 => 256 light (no reason to go samller)

[The_Pelican]

As someone who compiles these ships into mods. I won't use anything above 512x512 - I'll always scale 1024 textures down. It's never yet made any difference. Although scaling from 512 to 256 CAN make a difference, especially on models which are high detail, but have a low number of textures (P81's for example).

I always convert to 8-bit, the difference is absolutely tiny, and the amount of space saved is around 70%.

Many P81 Models used up 20-30MB originally (on my HDD), but I've got that down to around 2MB in many cases.

That's how I managed to squeeze a 300+ Model mod into 170MB.

Of course, Modellers always release their Models in the highes possible resolution, that's expected really. But it's usually not suitable for inclusion into a Mod, not unless you want it to go over 400MB.

[starforce2]

offtopic, but where can I get the klingon variant depeicted in your sig?

[Captain Ron]

Yes, I see your point

But a mod with a large number of ships I understand why you want them small. Since most modeller release in single downloads though we don't see the same issues, and a under 10 meg file (usually try for under 5) is not a problem. The_Pelican has at least shown me why I always end up replacing the ship files that come in a mod, because you may not notice the loss in detail I sometimes do, and if I have a higher resolution version of that ship I do replace it.

A large number of ships in your mods I bet get replaced by more than just me probably as well.

So once again you proved my point by showing it is depending on what you are going to do with the ship. As a single download larger textures make more sense because you do want to do details for a ship. In a mod with a large number of ship, where more than likily the models will be replaced, you would want to use lower res versions for smaller downloads. If you tend to do renders with it you will want even larger textures than 1024 as well as much higher poly model.

[red_green]

snip

Quote:
I always convert to 8-bit, the difference is absolutely tiny, and the amount of space saved is around 70%.

 

On the 8 bit conversion. There can be a significant drop in quality here. You wont see much difference in Feds mainly because the colors are white/greys.  If you get colorful textures such as Hydrans, the drop off is substantial. Thats why for my Hydrans, in the readme, I specify not to convert to 8 bit if using in a mod. I already converted the lightmaps and damage maps to 8 bit as light maps are only read in 8 bit. I also map my entire ship to just 2 bitmaps. This is less strainful to older vid cards and keeps my zipped file size down to about 1.2 mb per ship.

As far as size. I work with 1024 even if its not detailed, because I never know, I may add details later as my skills improve.
I resize the maps to 512 before release. If I update I go back to my original 1024.