>The problem is Quixel where it's a pain in the a.. to work on non-square/ non consistent texel size Both DDO and NDO support non-square textures by nature of being reliant on Photoshop, which itself supports the same. Inconsistent texel density isn't a problem that I'm aware of that would affect working with either tool…
I probably shouldn't get in the middle of this because I agree with you. But I'm curious if you'd consider this as passable or very, very amateurish?: http://polycount.com/discussion/74780/gunslinger/p1 I always think about this piece when I think about texel density because there's a huge differences in texel density…
DDO is better in regards of that , still you have to readjust everything for texel size variations. That's why I often prefer Max, Blender or Modo procedural material to be then baked into the textures. Especially Blender Cycles ones. You just don't care about texel density ,UV orientation etc and your materials are…
My 2 cents: the gunslinger looks great, and the end-user, the casual gamer just notices how nice and detailed everything is, especially that leather belt. The clothes and dirt on them are totally passable in the whole. First view impression is most important, and nitpicking about slight, sensible texel density differences…
I agree with big part of what you have just said. The boxes and objects that could be reused and your over-optimization comments are 100% correct. But I don't agree that examples I mentioned are rare exceptions. They are exceptions for main animated characters and props where we have enough texel resolution usually . But…