How many texture files can a ship have?

[XxHAMADEHxX]

So I finally figure out how to uv map. However I have one problem.

I have the turret, the upper hull and the lower hull to texture and 1024-1024 is to small to make the texture good.

So my question is. Is it possible for me to use 3 textures?

One for treads?

One for hulls?

One for turret?

Or should I go ahead and bump the texture up?

Thanks

[Nielk1]

The suggestion is to use as few as possible. Generally, one is used for the entire body of the craft if possible, sometimes two, one is used for the treads, and one is used for the cockpit (glare or a black material colored REFLECTION3).

You can theoretically use 100s (not sure the actual cap) but every time you add to the render time.

[XxHAMADEHxX]

Alright Thanks bro.
Ill experiment then. Or Maybe Ill just bump it to 2024-2024.

Edit

Just found a post where GSH told me to use 2048. =D

[Ded10c]

Your textures should always be square and power-two size (256x256, 512x512, 1024x1024, keep doubling as necessary). Some games engines do not choke on textures that don't meet that - not sure about BZ2's since I've never tried it - but it's good practice to make all textures like that because some do have issues with it.

[XxHAMADEHxX]

Gotcha =D

[MrTwosheds]

Yes you want to aim for as few as possible, however there are different ways of doing things.
It is possible to use more than one texture on a single mesh piece, but the process for getting it to work is not quite as straight forward as it should be.
My avatar here is using two textures that actually look the same, only the material properties differ and the team color is only applied to one of them. Because the same 2 race textures are used for several different models, the overall load on the game resources is actually lower than if I used one unique texture for each model.

[XxHAMADEHxX]

Cool and don't worry I'm just going to use the 2048-2048.

Btw does anyone know any good tutorials. (having a hard time not making my tank look ugly =/

[Nielk1]

It is safer to use 1 material per mesh, though you can use more. OM's old MSH2XSI program couldn't handle it if you ever tried to reverse a MSH like that (lost your XSI and needed to make a change, can prove you made the model) but mine doesn't have that issue. But lets avoid the whole MSH fun in the first place and backup your XSIs.

[XxHAMADEHxX]

Sweet. Ill try to do that then God willing except for treads. I think Ill rip out the view hole from the hull. and use that as the cockpit. That way I can just use the same texutre like you guys said =D

I don't need a tutorial starting to get the hand of it. But still send me some if you guys know any

[GSH]

Switching textures causes a DirectX state change, which is not cheap. Many commercial games make a 'Texture Atlas', which is many smaller textures combined into one to reduce swaps. BZ2 has never really done that (apart from the sprites table) due to BZ2's mod-centric approach. But, the principle remains.

A single large texture (e.g. 2048x2048) with areas per section of your ship is probably the best approach.

-- GSH

[XxHAMADEHxX]

Sweet
Thanks

[NostalgicRCB]

2048x2048? That's a bit overkill I sure hope you re ready to fill in all those pixels with lots of detail. At that resolution you may be better of sculpting texture on in Mudbox.

[Nielk1]

2048 by 2048 is quite good for modern BZ2 modding. 1024 by 1024 is what I have used in the past, for basic units it looks pretty good. I suggest making your textures at 4056 by 4056 and reducing the size by half. The more natural the texture (dirts, grasses, biotextures) the larger your texture should be when working, but scaling to 2048 for the game asset works best.

[NostalgicRCB]

Can I see some example of your work? It just sounds absurdly high for something like BZ2 and good game design/modding requires you to use the smallest resolution possible while also achieving a high level of detail. If you really insist on using textures that large make sure they are well optimized and you make great use of all that space. How does BZ2 handle LOD or Culling?

[GSH]

As stated on these forums -- and game programming forums in general -- ideally there is a 1:1 pixel:texel ratio for triangles drawn onscreen. What that means is that ideally for every pixel drawn on screen, it came from one, and only one 'texel' -- pixel in a source texture.

I have a 1920x1200 primary monitor on my main system at home, and a 1600x1200 secondary monitor. If looking at something up close, 2048x2048 would best fulfill the 1:1 pixel:texel ratio. Yes, 1920x1200 is about half of 2048x2048, but for an average object, about half of the texture would be applied to the back side of the object. BZ2 1.3 uses a proper mipmap chain, so that as things get further away, the smaller mips are present, and DirectX switches to them automagically. And, 2560x1440 monitors are for sale now at fairly reasonable prices, and 4K monitors are available, but too pricey for most.

-- GSH