New Textures' Resolution?

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Pfhorrest
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I'm remaking all the Eternal textures in vector formats because I wanted to make them higher-res than they are and wanted to be able to make them arbitrarily higher-res in the future without having to remake everything again then.

It then occurs to me that with them in vector format now, I could release them now (that is, as soon as they're done) in arbitrarily high resolution already, so how high should I go for this release?

My original intention was 1024x1024, which is twice the current resolution, but maybe I should go up to 2048x2048? You'll still be able to see pixels when your face is mashed against a wall (e.g. a terminal or charger) in 1024, but I worry that maybe VRAM will become even more of an issue than it already is with 2048.

Maybe I should make textures you might be expected to smash your face up into (terminals, chargers, switches, maybe media surfaces because swimming? maybe doors, windows, etc?) 2048, and the rest 1024 to save on VRAM?
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Crater Creator
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It's hard to make everybody happy. I mean, I think goran's 512 infinity textures look great, even on a 30 inch display. I can't imagine going higher than 1024, first for fear of hurting the framerate, and second because the textures only matter so much when all the characters etc. are still low-res sprites.

Wouldn't it be cool if the game could render vector-format textures? I wonder if any game engines can do that.
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I think it would probably be best to have the terminals/switches/chargers be x2048

The rest of the textures should be x1024, as higher resolution would not be necessary for the rest of the environment. I doubt many people stand in the middle of hallways with there helmets pressed against the walls when there are things to do.

If you take into account what a person will be paying attention to in a given place, you could optimize further. For example, if you have a texture set that is generally used in less brightly lit maps (like the pfhor set) you could leave most of the darker colored textures at x512, as people won't be paying as much attention to them as compared to the brighter ones (lights and stuff) which attract the eyes. Provided it is done carefully, you could save quite a bit of VRAM and still appear to have the same visual quality.

(Sorry if this post seems to ramble on a bit to much, lack of sleep makes me do that)
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treellama
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We went with 512x512 for the all-in-one releases. Anything higher looks out of place considering the level of detail in level geometry and sprites in the originals. Eternal's the same way: I think you'd see way more of a difference by improving the levels as opposed to making the textures 16x as big. For comparison, Tempus Irae's textures are only 256x256 (except for the amazing high-res landscapes).

If you do feel the need to make them larger, by enabling mipmaps and setting the texture type in MML, Aleph One can use lower resolution versions by changing the texture quality sliders. Which nobody does. But if they did, no need to worry about VRAM. Just download size.

I've never heard of vector artwork being used to create game textures before. Good luck with that!
ChristTrekker
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32×32. Except for terminals and pattern buffers. Those should be 4096×4096.
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