Handling of non-unique textures

[Duredhel]

Is the game engine smart enough to not load the same texture more than once?

 

For example, I've got a mod active that adds new malehead_msn.dds files to every race's male folders. So, there are now multiple instances of the same texture and I was wondering if it will try to load each one into vram as that race needs rendering. It seems wasteful to me but if it knows not to load the same texture more than once then no harm, no foul.

 

If it does know enough to only load one instance of a texture into vram, what does it do if it encounters two textures with the same name, in different folders, that are actually NOT the same. Will it load then load up both instances realizing that they are not the same or will it assume they are the same not bother with the second instance?

 

I didn't see anything in the DDS file specifications that would aid an application in quickly determining a "version", like a CRC hash for example, so short of doing an exhaustive FC I don't actually see how it could know if two DDS textures were identical or not. Perhaps, that's my answer though. It can't, and therefore will load each and every instance of a texture regardless of them being the same or not.

 

Any insight would be most helpful.

 

Thanks!