Archive for the ‘Texture Tutorials’ Category

Typically when you are generating a texture map for film, vfx, print, etc. you don’t have to worry too much about texture resolution. We typically just pick the best size for our texture map based on how it looks. Size does not matter… at least for those cases. However, when you are doing a game texture the textures need to be at certain sizes in the majority of cases. Most interactive 3d including games has limits imposed. The limits are trying to have your computer hardware move the most photo realistic or high polygon geometry as possible. Not to mention all the effects, controls, physics, and so on. In the case of the majority of games you need to make your textures in powers of two. The most common sizes for textures in games are:

2^7 128 x 128
2^8 256 x 256
2^9 512 x 512
2^10 1024 x 1024
2^11 2048 x 2048
2^12 4096 x 4096

As of this blog we’re running right about in the middle of this scale but moving to even higher and higher resolutions.

Now why is this important? Well I’m dealing with artists here so we will just keep it simple. Computers work better with powers of 2.
So in fact it is not a bad habit to work with these dimensions. First off many hand painted or heavily photoshoped textures can be used over and over again and the image ratio won’t matter. The second is that they might make your scenes more efficient. When you purposefully limit your texture sizes you learn how to make the most with the least.

If anyone wants to comment on the finer details of powers of two maps please feel free. I will post any pertinent information you provide with links etc. Thanks!