HD Textures for all

[Oldwolf58]

This is going to be quick and simple folks and I don't doubt there'll be many of you that throw a fit over what I'm about to tell you but this insistance of making textures 2048 or 4096 is becoming rediculious. Making an image larger does NOT make it HD. The meshes have a fixed number of faces to 'paint' and all that happens is the uv map gets stretched to the new dimension. A lot of people will say that they can get more detail into the larger image and in some instances this is true but leaving the image at 2048 or 4096 is NOT the answer. I personally use a program called Image Analyzer by MeeSoft. It's a free application. Once I've got the texture image completed to the detail level I'm happy with I simply import the image as a BMP into analyzer and resize it to 1024 x 1024. The default method for this is bitlinear intropolation which in most cases works just fine. The Image is now a manageable 1024 image and hasn't lost any of the detail. There are other methods to resize the image available if you see any loss of quality in the resize. So to boil it all down if you want to create HD textures AND make them so that ALL users can load and enjoy them you should start using some of the available software that can resize the images to a manageable size for all systems and users. I am NOT affiliated with MeeSoft or any other software company I'm just a modder like you all are.

 

For those who wish to follow the proceedure I use here it is in basic steps.

 

1. Use DDS converter to make a TGA image of the Texture I'm going to work with.

 

2. Open the TGA file and send the image to the default editor. (in my case MSPaint.)

(Note: you can if you wish, resize the image at this step or wait until you've edited it)

 

3. Copy the image from MSPaint to the program you use for editing the image (In my case that's Graphics Gale)

 

4. Edit Image and once complete copy edited image back to MSPaint.

 

5 If Image is larger than 1024 x 1024 Save MS Paint image as a BMP file in the texture directory I'm working in.

( note if the Alpha Image is also larger it will need to be saved as a bitmap image for resizing also.)

 

6 Open image(s) to be resized using whatever software you choose to use ( in my case Image Analyzer) and resize texture image and Alpha image if needed to 1024 x 1024.

 

7 save the newly resized images and then open the main texture image with your TGA tool.

 

8 add the resized alpha image to the new tga file if needed.

 

9 save the new TGA file named as the DDS file you are replaceing (example femalebody_1.dds would be femalebody_1.tga)

 

10 use dds converter to convert your new tga file to dds.

 

You're now done and you have an HD texture that is ONLY 1024 x 1024 and usable by nearly ALL the users that play the game.

[Staind716]

Well, to be fair MOST of the HD texture mods have optional versions with different resolutions so that people without a powerful machine can run them. I use 1024 as much as possible for big mods (landscapes, trees, that type of thing) and higher res versions for smaller items. I also like the higher resolution textures for characters because you do notice a difference with them.

 

Not arguing, just saying there is room for both the 1024 and higher resolution mods for users that want them.