How many mipmaps?

[MentalGear]

Hello

 

 

I have downloaded loads of textures for FNV and on some of them I want to do corrections for private use.

 

Now my question is:

How many mipmaps are common e.g. for the original New Vegas armor textures?

 

All I can say is most of the modded textures have 10 mipmaps(11 in plugin setting), but I assume thats partly due to paint programs where you can't set the number of mipmaps.

Is there any difference in game-performance if, lets say the original texture would have 5 mipmaps and I use textures with 10 mipmaps?

 

 

Greets MG

[MentalGear]

Now thats a worry.

Half the world seems to upload modded textures here, but no one knows how many mipmaps they should have?

 

Thats like driving a car without knowing what the gearlever is for.

[ozziefire]

Now thats a worry.

Half the world seems to upload modded textures here, but no one knows how many mipmaps they should have?

 

Thats like driving a car without knowing what the gearlever is for.

You want a response in under 24 hours, what do you think this is? The Internetz? :)

 

Many of us don't even know what a mipimap is, I'm flat out porting any meshes here.

[MentalGear]

I'm rather shocked :ninja:

Number of mipmaps of a texture should be common knowlwdge if one is uploading textures.

I thought number of mipmaps in original textures would be the most basic question of all for a modder. :smile:

Even know a site where your files wont get hosted if you upload the wrong number of mipmaps for your modded textures.

 

Come to think of it, maybe I should ask a much more complicated question:

 

 

Can anyone explain how I can export the original textures(.dds files)?

 

Then its a matter of ten seconds and I know the number of mipmaps.

 

 

EDIT:

Just taught myself how to extract the dds. files and took a look for myself.

For anyone who wants to know, like all the texture uploaders, how many mipmaps your textures should have:

 

I've now looked at 30 original textures and they have between 0(pipboy images), 8(machete, maglockpick), 9(teddybear, fireextinguisher) and 11 mipmaps(world textures, dog).

Edited April 22, 2011 by Mental Gear

[tunaisafish]

The last time I heard that term was back when I was modding TS2 (coding not modelling).

 

Not *all* engines use them. SL assets use just one flat image on a prim surface.

At a crowded place we used to get the girls to take their hair and jewelry off to ease the lag.

Yes I'm sure if I zoomed into their diamond ring it would look very pretty... but downloading 30k for every pixel of sparkle was a bit much sometimes.

 

This link will get you to the dds :)

BSA files

[MentalGear]

Yeah would be good to know for sure if mipmaps are used *headscratch*.

But why would Bethesda then go to the length and put in different numbers of mipmaps, if they are not used?

I'm pretty sure they wont have done that if mipmaps were not used.

 

 

Here is a link for a tool which shows you the mipmap count(Geditor), because its rather tiring to count them.

 

Geditor:

http://www.gtr4u.de/index.php?page=DatabaseItem&id=gtr-2-allgemein/gtr2-utilities/1-geditor&l=2

 

Just start and import your dds. file from Fallout NV:

http://www.abload.de/thumb/testcqsj.jpg

Edited April 22, 2011 by Mental Gear

[tunaisafish]

btw, I wasn't saying FNV *didn't* use them :)

You're talking to someone with the artistic talent of a dung beetle. I stay well away from graphics when I can.

 

If they are in the files then yep I guess they are used.

As to why no modellers have yet replied... as ozziefire said it's still early. Your question was also asking if anyone had actually *experimented* with the values. So no need to be shocked ;) There are lots of very talented modellers on these boards.

[nivea]

I use photoshop, I just click the generate mipmaps button with ALL selected.

 

Dont know if thats the "right" way or what but it works in game, thats all that matters to me most the time. XD

[MentalGear]

@nivea

 

The selection 'ALL' is only OK if you know that the number of mipmaps of your source .dds file is correct or the same as the original texture it is replacing.

Otherwise you just reproduce the error. But normally 1 or 2 textures with too much mipmaps should not reduce the performance at all.

In my case the whole game has new textures so the overall performance hit should/could? be much greater.

 

@tunaisafish

I'm not really shocked, just wanted to be funny in an awkward way :ninja:

[Floatsup]

Gimp, and mips are only used in some of the textures I ran across, All the textures have them though. But I only seen a few where they actually were used.

 

I just click generate mips and don;t give a crap about wtf it means. I wouldn't worry about it considering the size and price of drives now a days. If tour trying to be thrifty, then don't generate em for your own use. Should save you 50% of the file size.

 

Now don't ask me if they get used in resizing cause I have no clue. And actually I really don't care what mipmap is. Other then its a check box, so I click it. and something happens. After that, I go into nifskope, and click a flower, and change my picture. then I open this other icon, and grit my teeth. Then something else happens. Then I click another button, and test it. Then I go back to Gimp, and start again, cause something looks like crap.

 

At least in modding experience.

 

Cheers