max texture size
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Can I go with 2048x2048 textures?
Are they avalibale on daily (or maybe older) hardware?
The Voodoo cards only did 256x256. When nVidia introduced the TNT (I think in 1998) it supported 2048x2048 textures. Since then any serious card has supported it. Recent cards do 4096x4096. However there have been some limited cards since then (the Kyro and Intel integrated graphics chips) that only support 1024x1024.
Keep total memory in mind, a 2048x2048 8-bits texture is 4 MB, a 32-bits one is 16 MB. Using one 16 MB texture will already require your users to have a 32 MB videocard.
As a jpg they can be quite small, however they are uncompressed while loaded. Look into (directx) compressed bitmaps for such huge textures.
Keep total memory in mind, a 2048x2048 8-bits texture is 4 MB, a 32-bits one is 16 MB. Using one 16 MB texture will already require your users to have a 32 MB videocard.
As a jpg they can be quite small, however they are uncompressed while loaded. Look into (directx) compressed bitmaps for such huge textures.
Textures of this size should be compressed (DXTC) if possible (expect for depth maps and similar), and should always use mipmapping. Otherwise, you can easily saturate VRAM bandwidth.
But as long as you allow for a fallback, I don''t see any problems. Just make sure that you actually need this resolution, and that the textures you use are worth the memory. If you do, then make sure to not use too many really large textures.
But as long as you allow for a fallback, I don''t see any problems. Just make sure that you actually need this resolution, and that the textures you use are worth the memory. If you do, then make sure to not use too many really large textures.
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