Texture resolution

[RvdPol]

Hello everyone,
I was wondering if anyone could give some tips or info on the resolution of the Mustang Textures?

The file in the paintkit of the Mustang was about 4096x4096 pixels out of the top of my head.
Do you guys make it smaller to 2048x2048 or do you keep the same size?

For now I kept it the original size, mainly because it gives nice sharp textures. Or would this be an overkill resolutionwise?

Thanks for your help,
Ronny

[stiz]

Or would this be an overkill resolutionwise?

nope

I just keep it the same size.

[Baron58]

I always do repaints in the maximum resolution of the paint kit, in this case 4096 x 4096. But anything over 1024 x 1024 is wasted if you don't change the TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD parameter in FSX.cfg to =4096. FSX will change this back to it's default of 1024 when it shuts down if you have changed any other parameters during flight!
I hope that is clear!

Ted

[blackhawks]

I always do repaints in the maximum resolution of the paint kit, in this case 4096 x 4096. But anything over 1024 x 1024 is wasted if you don't change the TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD parameter in FSX.cfg to =4096. FSX will change this back to it's default of 1024 when it shuts down if you have changed any other parameters during flight!
I hope that is clear!

Ted

Ted, I don't believe that is the case, unless Mip Maps are enabled. In my experience, textures with only one resolution (no mip) display in the native resolution regardless of the TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD settings.

I've never tweaked that part of my fsx.cfg, and the A2A planes display in the full 4096x4096 resolution on my machine. TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD will control the look of the default FSX aircraft, because mip maps are enabled, but not the A2A aircraft.

[CodyValkyrie]

Mike is correct. The use of the texture max size in the fsx.cfg makes no difference to the A2A planes because of the lack of mip maps.

[Baron58]

I stand corrected
I thought all textures were affected not just mip-mapped!

Ted

[CodyValkyrie]

I learned it exactly the same way. I have my .cfg altered for JUST this reason because other developers have required this.

[bigjuicyspider]

Mike is correct. The use of the texture max size in the fsx.cfg makes no difference to the A2A planes because of the lack of mip maps.

I never even thought about this. In a recent repaint I did, I was using DXTBMP, which saves mipmaps by default. Since my TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD is normally set to 2048, my stencils looked terrible until I changed TML to 4096. This is good to know, since I'm going to go back and eliminate the mipmaps from my Swiss P-51 repaint...darn, 3 different versions in 2 days!!!!

[CodyValkyrie]

This area is out of my particular skill set, but yes, that is the way I understand it. I believe A2A were one of the first to develop this technique. You can see it as far back as the WOP3 P-47, although I'm not sure about the 377.

[Musicman]

4096 for sure. I always use my trusty PSP 7 for painting but it would not open the 4096 paint files. I used Gimp to downsize to 2048 when I made Gentleman Jim and the quality is crap that way. All the fine print/text on the skin were blurry along with many other low quality textures.
I stayed with Gimp using the 4096 reso and did the Shaboom one and the difference is like night and day.

[RvdPol]

Ok thank you very much, lads! That's very useful information.

[bigjuicyspider]

Cody and Mike: You guys are certainly right about the mipmaps. I just modded my paint, and sure enough it is 4096 quality even when Texture_max_load is set at 2048. There almost ought to be a sticky about this, because, at least on my end DXTBMP saves mips by default. This is good to know!

[blackhawks]

I was using DXTBMP, which saves mipmaps by default.

I can't remember the default settings for the Nvidia photoshop plugin, but it clearly has a "create mip maps" toggle switch. Always good to check that it is off... I've screwed that up more often than I can remember switching from one project to another.

Regarding the original post, I'd say always paint and publish in the highest resolution available. If someone using the paint is concerned with file size, they can very easily re-size the final dds files down to something manageable for their use.

I think Paul (gypsy baron) has metioned that he does that for the repaints of other people in the multiplayer flights. He can still see the intended skin, but doesn't have to waste extra HD space.

I've gone a bit crosseyed with the 377 paintkit, but I believe those files are at 2048x2048.

[blackhawks]

Cody and Mike: You guys are certainly right about the mipmaps. I just modded my paint, and sure enough it is 4096 quality even when Texture_max_load is set at 2048. There almost ought to be a sticky about this, because, at least on my end DXTBMP saves mips by default. This is good to know!

I noticed it when I was trying to paint some AI aircraft for one of Ian P's airfields (still am trying). I had mips enabled, and then switched to an A2A kit... blurries everywhere, until I realized my mistake and unchecked the setting.

I learn something new with each new release/paintkit. I think this part of the forum is going to get a lot of use.