Texel Density and Tiling Textures
polycounter lvl 2
Hey, everyone!
I am working on a project with a few specifications and I had a question concerning how texel density correlates to tiling values.
Here are the specifications:
-4k texture
-256px/meter texel density
-The texture must tile
My initial thought was to tile the texture 16 times because 1/16th of 4096 is 256 and would achieve the proper texel density if applied to a 16 square meter plane. Or...would it?
I checked my math over and over and absorbed every thread that exists on texel density. Eventually, I found some handy tools and guides, including Paul-Thomas Ravel's Texel Checker tool for Designer, as well as the awesome and comprehensive guide provided on 80 Level by Leonardo Iezzi. Here is the visualized output from Texel Checker at 256px/meter with a resolution of 4096:
My question is this: would this 4k texture, tiled 16 times onto a 16 meter square have the desired density of 256px/meter or would it remain 4096px/meter? Or should I, instead, understand it as my 4k texture needs to be stretched over this 16 meter square?
The problem with that would be that the texture represents objects which, in the real world, would only be about a meter across (a manhole cover and some bricks, for those curious). I don't know why those giving me these requirements would want a massively over-scaled texture.
Does screen space ultimately rule texel density with tiled textures? Is there any other way to achieve a 256px/meter texel density with a texture that represents 1 meter of world space?
Texel density is a concept I understand largely as a concept. I understand the need for visual cohesion and consistent texture scale, but I am obviously unsure how to truly measure it. Iezzi's guide is helping me understand but, when taking the constraints of this project into account, everything I thought I knew gets knocked out of wack.
Any information or advice you guys have would be much appreciated!
Thanks,
Brett Marshall Tucker
I am working on a project with a few specifications and I had a question concerning how texel density correlates to tiling values.
Here are the specifications:
-4k texture
-256px/meter texel density
-The texture must tile
My initial thought was to tile the texture 16 times because 1/16th of 4096 is 256 and would achieve the proper texel density if applied to a 16 square meter plane. Or...would it?
I checked my math over and over and absorbed every thread that exists on texel density. Eventually, I found some handy tools and guides, including Paul-Thomas Ravel's Texel Checker tool for Designer, as well as the awesome and comprehensive guide provided on 80 Level by Leonardo Iezzi. Here is the visualized output from Texel Checker at 256px/meter with a resolution of 4096:
My question is this: would this 4k texture, tiled 16 times onto a 16 meter square have the desired density of 256px/meter or would it remain 4096px/meter? Or should I, instead, understand it as my 4k texture needs to be stretched over this 16 meter square?
The problem with that would be that the texture represents objects which, in the real world, would only be about a meter across (a manhole cover and some bricks, for those curious). I don't know why those giving me these requirements would want a massively over-scaled texture.
Does screen space ultimately rule texel density with tiled textures? Is there any other way to achieve a 256px/meter texel density with a texture that represents 1 meter of world space?
Texel density is a concept I understand largely as a concept. I understand the need for visual cohesion and consistent texture scale, but I am obviously unsure how to truly measure it. Iezzi's guide is helping me understand but, when taking the constraints of this project into account, everything I thought I knew gets knocked out of wack.
Any information or advice you guys have would be much appreciated!
Thanks,
Brett Marshall Tucker
Replies
The way I would achieve this is to use smaller (1024 or 512) tiled textures, with a lot of blending to hide repeats. Plus high-frequency detail textures, for even higher closeup detail.
But the best way to solve this is to simply ask your client/employer for more information, an example to dissect.
Thanks for the response. Yes, that's 2.56px/cm. It is just to show off this tiling texture so maybe breaking the budget is okay in this instance.
I agree that smaller texture resolutions would be the best fix. I'm only thrown by this because of their limitations. This is also the first time I had to seriously consider texel density so I was hoping I was just misinformed.
I didn't want them to think I couldn't figure it out but, due to the odd nature of their restrictions, I will definitely ask them for clarification.
I appreciate the help!
Edit: Any insight into how texel density with tiling is calculated? I would imagine it would just multiply with every tiling value.
Im not sure if i understand your last question, but you can achieve 256px/m even with smaller textures, just the tilling would be more visible.
Thanks for the breakdown. Makes total sense and puts texel density into perspective for me a little more. My situation seems a little unique due to the requirement that i use a 4k texture but also that it has a 256px/meter density. I guess making a 16 meter square manhole cover is the true way to achieve this but it just seems like a wacky thing to do, haha.
It is also confusing because I don't know how I can correctly visualize this for them since they only want screenshots and my ZBrush sculpt. Anyway, thanks for the help and I will follow up when I find out more!
Turns out this density/resolution ratio in the prompt was wrong. It should actually be 1024px/meter. Much easier to manage. Thanks for helping me make sense of it nonetheless!
I suppose all of the forumlas in the world can't rectify a typo, though! Thanks again to everyone who replied.