Texel density and things I just dont understand...
polycounter lvl 8
I understand texel density, why its important, and how to use it. But I think Im missing a few key points that I cant wrap my head around when making an environment. For example, what I usually do, is figure out my texel density for my scene - lets say its 512 per meter. Next is, I author all my tiling textures from Designer to be 2048, and in Maya, I will scale all my UV islands to be texel density correct for 512 per meter at 2048 texture resolution.
This has made my scenes all have correct texel density doing it this way. The only time Ill ever use any textures that are lower than 2k, is if I have a prop that would need a unique 1024 or a 512 texture to be "texel density" correct for my scene. I use 4k textures for terrain. But thats the only time I ever will use a 4k texture for an environment. Everything else is just aimed to be 2k, unless like I said its a prop that doesnt need 2k texture size and can use something smaller.
Is this correct? Am I going about this wrong? I see sometimes theres 512 or 1024 tiling textures used, and I just think "why not just make that 2k and get less repeating?". Are they just using lower resolution for texture pool reasons? Or is there other reasons?
Help my brain understand. Just when I think I've gotten this, I see things that I dont get and its driving me crazy.
This has made my scenes all have correct texel density doing it this way. The only time Ill ever use any textures that are lower than 2k, is if I have a prop that would need a unique 1024 or a 512 texture to be "texel density" correct for my scene. I use 4k textures for terrain. But thats the only time I ever will use a 4k texture for an environment. Everything else is just aimed to be 2k, unless like I said its a prop that doesnt need 2k texture size and can use something smaller.
Is this correct? Am I going about this wrong? I see sometimes theres 512 or 1024 tiling textures used, and I just think "why not just make that 2k and get less repeating?". Are they just using lower resolution for texture pool reasons? Or is there other reasons?
Help my brain understand. Just when I think I've gotten this, I see things that I dont get and its driving me crazy.
Replies
Something that has a 4k tileable would have smaller uv's, whereas something with a 512 tileable would have much larger uv's.
I see sometimes theres 512 or 1024 tiling textures used, and I just think "why not just make that 2k and get less repeating?". Are they just using lower resolution for texture pool reasons? Or is there other reasons?
Sometimes using a 1024/512 tileable can be artistic choice, sometimes it's because you wouldn't notice repetitive details in certain applications of the texture, other times it could simply be because of memory/texture pool reasons. I think it really comes down to what the tileable texture is used for mainly, and how/where in the game its applied. Terrain can benefit from a 2k (4k still seems overkill), whereas something like a baseboard trim for your walls can just simply use a 512 tileable painted wood texture. Baseboards would be smaller geometry wise relative to everything else in the scene, it would be much lower to the floor from the players view, and also the texture itself has pretty low frequency noise/details, so you wouldn't really notice that its repetitive. These are all reasons why one would benefit from just having a smaller 512 tileable.