Spring RTS Engine

I just started texturing, and I'm wondering what size my textures should be: 512x512, 1024x1024, 2048x2048.... I'd like the textures to be as big as possible, because big textures are easy to work with, but I don't know how big I can make them without overloading spring (should my models ever make it into a mod).

Anyways, does spring even need more modelers or should I learn to program?

Texturers are in high demand - probably the biggest shortfall of any skill is in texturing.

As for your question re: sizes, it depends on the unit. Most S44 units are on 512 x 512. That doesn't stop you working at 2048 x 2048 and downscaling though.

128x128 would be best if you could pull that off. 256 is you need some more wiggle room.

@512 when you have a bunch of those different units onscreen, some users will experience some slowdown (Based upon my experience in old old old evo).

Speaking of evo... If you go ingame and build the hovers, many of those textures are 128x128 and they look great, so it's all in how you do it.

Remember that downscaling is easy, upscaling isn't.

The size of the unit is also important; something small won't need as big a texture as something big. Also make sure to optimise UV space; this includes mirrors (ie overlaying identical UV shells - for example, a KBot's legs are usually identical to each other, so reuse the UV space for extra texture res) and managing scale; scale up the important parts that attract the player's eye (for example, the top parts of a tank), whilst shrinking parts the player won't see (again; the undersides of a tank) or are small / monocolour.

And yes, as Zwzsg said, it's easier to downscale but harder to upscale, so if in doubt, go for higher resolutions to start with, and see if it's too high / low.

Forboding Angel wrote:128x128 would be best if you could pull that off. 256 is you need some more wiggle room.

Don't do this. Use 512*512. Not too big, not too small. If it turns out too big (it won't) then you can scale down.

tldr: use 512x512

How do i... Ahh... Downscale a texture once ive made it? I use wings3d on linux.

Well, you don't make textures in wings3d, but in programs like photoshop.

Just make them 512x512, and you'll be fine.

I, personally, make my textures at 1024x1024, and downscale as needed once I'm done.

Downscaling is baaaaad, mainly because you're allowed to work sloppy and everything's not as crispy clear as it could've been if you worked on it in the desired resolution in the first place.

(128 or 256)x256 is fine for small guys and vehicles
(256 or 512)x512 for larger stuff like buildings

u can always consider making one, 1024 texture for many models

I've found I quite like working at 256x256. But it depends on the size of the unit, and the level of detail you require.

Ahh... I guess I'll try to work at 512x512. The problem is that the borders of the polys touch and it's hard to tell what pixel goes to what poly I draw my textures in Gimp, but I really wish wings3d had a builtin image editor.

Your UVs are packed too tight if the borders touch, leave at least 4px spacing

What goes where? Programs like Blender or MeshMapper can do normal bakes for a quick color bake. You can also assign materials to your model and convert them to vertex colors in wings which you can then bake in the UV editor to the assigned texture.

Personally I keep the UV window open in wings and reload the texture for every change. There's no automatic reload or hotkey available to do that so you've got to this manually.

Newer versions of Photoshop also allow you to load up your model inside the app so you can see your changes live.

well the only way to get my components to not touch is to work at a higher res, and apparently that's bad. I do reload the tex with every change though. I'm kinda stuck here

just scale everything on the uvmap to 95% of its current size?

Working at 256x256, i leave at least 2 pixels between each piece, then when it comes to painting the texture I grow selection of each piece as im painting by 1px, so that when the texture gets mipmapped it reduces/eliminates 'bleeding' of the surround onto the model.

well the only way to get my components to not touch is to work at a higher res

Uh no, you can move the UV isles around too

I leave a spacing of 0.02 units for 512, 0.04 units for 256 etc. between isles to prevent bleeding... this is about 10 px.

Hoi wrote:Well, you don't make textures in wings3d, but in programs like photoshop.

Just make them 512x512, and you'll be fine.

Somebody has not looked at the latest bunch of blender improvments?
I am disappointed

OP: 512 is ideal. But without a proper uv unwrap, it won't matter if you use 128 or 2048.

so turned around, if you properly uv-wrap, you can use 2048 ?

Thank you