Textel, Texture Density (Larg Assets)

Incomitatum

I saw this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8rVVAW5E7Y&feature=player_embedded#

While I was geeking out, I decided I am confindent enough to build one of these:


Here's the deal, I model to scale normally, and I think it would be really neat to see a huge, scale, version of this Cruiser.

In modeling in inches, on a wall, I normally consider a 128in^2 wall to get a 512 map (1:4 ratio).

Problem is, I am looking at this thing.


The Blocks are 128, and in laying them out, I am going to have to use 4096 textures on this thing; and if I break it up into main body chunks and texture those 1 at a time, then 7-8 of those textures.

How would you all deal with such a large model, and still keep a nice texture density?

I suppose the easiest answer would just be, "Don't texture it to scale".

PhilipK

I'd say, after looking on that design that it has tons of different metal plates etc, which is really good for you if you want to use a high pixel density. You could have 3-4 plates or so in some different sizes on perhaps a 512^2 or 1024^2 and reuse those over your ship in a smart way?

Ambient occlusion could be baked in to vertex colors, and I bet you'd like this pretty highpoly if it's to have such a high pixel density.

It's really all about how far away you will see the object (mostly). If only very far away, use a lot lower pixel density, and you can then also map it more uniquely, only the large details, main colors and gradients are important from far away.

Otherwise, did you consider using detail maps (if you're taking this ingame in some engine if it supports that)? It can make a huge difference and sometimes be the only way you can somewhat uniquely texture such a huge model but still maintain a pretty good quality closeup.
I worked on a game which largely depended on using detail textures that faded in at about 50-60m distance from the object. It worked surprisingly well as long as you keep in mind that the base texture has a very low pixel density and is there to help the object from far away, keep high frequency details to a minimum in the base texture and focus on big gradients and color/brightness differences.

But yeah, those are some options I can think of, hope that helped.

ZacD

The most important thing when it comes to texture rez, it mostly depends on how close to the object your going to get.

Also try to think if there parts where you can reuse the texture, like have the engines all use the same part of the texture, mirror a lot of it.

r_fletch_r

You can mirror 90% of that ship, if you look at it and consider which parts are symmetrical but not simultaniously visible you can easily decides which bits you loose nothing by mirroring. The sides of the Bow section are a good example your never really going to see both sides at once.

You can also save quite a bit of uv space by modeling the low poly as an airtight mesh or with as few overlapping areas as possible. If an area of the model is covered by another and cant be seen then it should never be wasting space in the uv map.

Incomitatum

In faking details, can I also have my Normal maps be smaller than my diffuse to save space? Or is that a BAD idea?

Incomitatum

Yes, I do intend to mirror the whole body, and duplicate the engines. However, this thing is still going to need rather large textures if it is going to sit in a hanger, and be seen by a player.

@r_fletch_r
The lowpoly will be nearly airtight, and yes, will have little-to-no overlapping parts.

Mr_Drayton

So, if this ship should sit in an hangar... I think you would need rather big textures, since the player can get pretty close to the model. No, sorry, really close! How to do this?

Taking in mind an hangar scene, I would use larger maps for the sides and the facing down parts of the ship, wich are the parts the player should be able to see very close.
Then, you may use smaller texture area for all the facing up surfaces, since I suppose the player can't go directly on them, and at least, he can look them from an elevated walkway around the hangar (wich is not too close to the ship).

Also, since you are in a closed place such an hangar, you may want to focus a large part of the vRam on this ship, leaving just what it needs to the player, other characters, the objects and the hangar walls. This should be fine if your engine supports streaming of textures.

Sure you can have Normal Maps smaller than Diffuse maps, but the overall look depends on what kind of surfaces are in the Normal Map. If there are mostly square-shaped areas, then it should be fine, but avoid using smaller maps if you are working with many round-shaped parts, since it may look quite blocky.


Not sure about all those things, I'm quite a beginner and I'm still learning. Nice topic and question, anyways.

sprunghunt

If it's really large (like in your example of a hangar) then you shouldn't worry about making it in one big piece. I'd split it up into components and texture each of those with a separate texture. This way when you assemble them in a level editor you can re-use bits of the geometry and save memory.

EG the radar dishes could all be one radar dish repeated.

Also one thing to keep in mind is the total amount of memory you have to work with. If you have a large asset like this that's taking up 60% of the space in your level then it can take up 60 percent of the memory. That means using 5 or 10 2048 textures might be just fine.