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Texture Sizes...

Started by Stru Oct 20, 2005 at 10:02 PM 7 replies 1.7k views

Original Post

Oct 20, 2005 at 10:02 PM

Since I am trying to avoid the performance hit from using lots of small textures by putting them into a few big ones. I was wondering what the typical maximum texture sizes are for videocards that are around 3 or 4 years old to the present. My card's max texture size is 4096 by 4096 and its 3 years old, but I am guessing that is not typical (it was pricey when I bought it). I'd like to know what kind of size I can use for textures and still maintain some backwards compatibility with older cards. And do the low-end cards have significantly smaller max texture sizes? Also, will there be a performance hit to using 4094 x 4096 textures? And my final question, do DirectX9 compatible cards have a minimum maximum texture size?

Boder

180

Boder

Oct 20, 2005 at 10:34 PM

My TNT2 Model 64 had a max of 2048x2048, the Voodoo's had max at 256 IIRC

load_bitmap_file

Oct 20, 2005 at 10:48 PM

For just 3-4 year old cards I think 1024 x 1024 should be safe.

Kalidor

Oct 21, 2005 at 8:30 AM

The safest thing to do is to get the video card's max texture size, calculate the size you would need to pack all your textures, then split that up into as many separate textures as you need to keep each texture at or below the max texture size for the current video card and pack them all into those textures.

Moomin

Oct 21, 2005 at 8:51 AM

x800 xt PE
max viewport size : 4096x4096
max texture size : 2048x2048
max 3d texture size : 2048x2048x2048

Oct 21, 2005 at 9:30 AM

Quote:
max 3d texture size : 2048x2048x2048

Yeah in theory, in practice you need four gb of vram for a DXT1 texture.. :)
32 gb for an A8R8G8B8 texture of that size... and I thought that gpu's only used 32-bit addresses, what a fool!

zix99

Oct 21, 2005 at 1:59 PM

I recommend you look at this site: http://www.vterrain.org/LargeTextures/. It has a lot of information on such things. (espcially the tables near the bottom)

~zix~

Stru

Author

Stru

Oct 21, 2005 at 10:32 PM

Thanks for all the information guys. Looks like I can use 2048x2048 on most cards (but I will probably go with 1024x1024 to be safe). I can't just put all of my textures into one because some will need to wrap-around, so I need to decide whether to combine them on a case-by-case basis.

blackpawn

Oct 22, 2005 at 3:35 PM

the max texture size you should aim for is 2048x2048. that covers every card you'll care about and then some. the only common chip that doesn't do that is the old intel parts like the 815 and i think 845. but you're probably not supporting those anyway.

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