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Author
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Topic: Everything you wanted to know about 512 textures and SDOE.
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Razer
Pilot
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posted 06-09- 01:33 PM
   
512 textures will not cause a problem for anyone, even if your card does NOT support them, you will simply not see the high detail.If we were to issue a Planepack 6.1 patch to 6.2 to add 512 support for every plane this will NOT hurt anyone that can't use 512 textures. Bryan has already added the GUI to limit the texture size on the client computer. All you have to do is set the Max Texture Size to 256 and even if you have a 512 texture in the DIR it will be resized by SDOE. If a plane sm is set to 512 textures nothing will happen to peoples computers that can't use 512 textures since you've limited the size to 256. This will NOT cause problems for people online IF we handle this like a problem with the planepack and release a patch and change the standard to use the patch. (I.E Planepack 6.2) The planes being set to 512 will not cause problems that I know of in 1.5 it will just simply resize the tif. (Bryan?) I think one of Nat's planes was already set to 512 even though it wasn't added to the patch yet. (not sure about that cause i've changed a lot of my planes to 512)
The only thing left to do is figure out how we are going to handle the planepack patch. Do we want to issue a patch? If so, the par file update with all (most? data12?) of the SM files would be around 30 megs and add 512 support for every plane. If you've ever wondered how the Lanc or Mossie would look if it had more detail now it's here!
I'm sure the WW1 guys are going to switch over to 512 soon and some may have already made the jump.  It's up to the community on how we handle this. The switching over to 512 can be done by one person but would go a lot faster if we had a set group. I do know some planes don't open in OPS and this would mean using OL tools to get to the files. Some testing would need to be done to make sure we don't cause problems to planes after making the changes. Video Cards that support 512 textures: (not complete list) 3DFX Voodoo 4/5
ATI Rage 128
ATI Rage Mobility128
ATI Radeon
Matrox G400
NVidia GeForce 256
NVidia GeForce 2MX
NVidia GeForce 2
NVidia GeForce 2 Ultra
NVidia Quadro
NVidia Quadro 2 Pr0
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Tony "Razer" Martin
Brought to you by the Campaign for a better Pacific.
FS Hangar
[This message has been edited by Razer (edited 06-09-2001).] IP: Logged |
Jerry
Pilot
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posted 06-09- 02:42 PM
Razer, since the patch allows up to 1024X1024 why not change the .sm files to that rather than 512? Since the actual resolution used is determined by the user it would allow skins of the highest detail for anyone who wants to build/use them. If we change to 1024 now it would save having to do it again later as more people get more computing power and want to try them.IP: Logged |
Razer
Pilot
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posted 06-09- 03:20 PM
It doesn't really matter but I think only geforce2 and above support the 1028 textures. Voodoo4/5 only support up to 512 so that high res is really only supported by a select few of SDOE'ers so I was saying just go up to 512 for the standard and if a plane maker wants to go that high they can.a 1028 resized to 512 is still going to look damn good so it's just what ever the community wants to do. IP: Logged |
Nat
JAG
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posted 06-09- 03:24 PM
I guess using 1024x1024 textures could be called a "pre-emtive strike" in that we could have the ready for the next generation of graphic card that supports them, as as you mntion, the texture size is user controlled in any case so it wouldn't be a problem.That said, where we would hit a problem is with people like me.. come on, how often to you hear me have a serious bitch about the size of the plane pack.. yep, everytime anyone mentions it.. so, work out how big the pack would be when you move to 1024 textures, if you never heard me bitch before you would then! IP: Logged |
Jerry
Pilot
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posted 06-09- 04:07 PM
The plane pak could still have 256 textures as the default to keep it smaller for downloads and for slower systems. As long as the .sm allowed for 512 or 1024 the people with the cards to support the higher textures could download the skins seperately. Right?IP: Logged |
jedi
Pilot
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posted 06-09- 04:25 PM
Actually a 1024 resized to 512 will probably look BETTER than a 512. The 512s we have now which are resized to 256 certainly look better than a stock 256 skin... Of course, all those 1024 skins are gonna use up somebody's web space pretty durn fast...  ------------------
--jedi-- IP: Logged |
Razer
Pilot
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posted 06-09- 04:51 PM
(at work on a slow ass 233)Jerry, you are right. the plane pack will still use 256 textures to keep the download size done and 512 schemes will be on sites so you can download what ever you want. Jedi, don't keep reminding me. [This message has been edited by Razer (edited 06-09-2001).] IP: Logged |
Bryan Russell
Pilot
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posted 06-09- 09:48 PM
The 1.5 version is effectively setup for a maximum texture size of 256x256. I have tested a plane set for 1024 and it works fine, re-sampling the texture to 256x256.It is certainly better to create skins as high resolution, but IMO PSP or Photoshop will do a better job of resampling down to the desired size than the game will. SDOE is'nt bad, but a pre-shrunk one is marginally better. Just to throw my opinion about what teh planes should be setup as. I think all textures a plane builder wants to be full resolution, should be set to 1024x1024, even if they intend to release at 512x512. That way the 512x512 will be used verbatim, but if someone chooses to release/use use a 1024x1024 they can, and others can always excercise the texture size limit option. ------------------
Wings with Wires Go here for info about the Unofficial Patch IP: Logged |
spin
Pilot
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posted 06-10- 07:22 AM
Razer,I can issue a planepack sm update (data12 only) with 512 or 1024 textures enabled. This is probably a change I can make myself for the 6.1 sms (along with a couple of minor updates). I expect it won't take too long and the download for the 6.2 update from 6.1 will be smaller than the 6.1 download. It doesn't make sense to add 512 textures to the pack because of file size but we could issue a high-res pack and/or people could download the fles they want. I would need a place for a high-res pack. Spin. P.S. Razer, please send me a step-by-step explanation of how to make the texture setting change. IP: Logged |
Razer
Pilot
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posted 06-10- 12:11 PM
Spin can you mail me at razlude@bellsouth.net Hangar stuff seems down.IP: Logged |
Werner Molders
JAG
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posted 06-12- 09:26 AM
Ok, just to be clear, is it true that if your board isn't on the list in razer's first post, you're out of the 512 club? Bryan? Werner ------------------
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Pachy
Pilot
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posted 06-12- 09:52 AM
Add the old TNT2 Ultra to that list!IP: Logged |
Jeeves
JAG
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posted 06-12- 10:47 AM
Werner--I think so...but I do have a copy of a plane with a 512 texture on it- and even though my Banshee doesn't support them-- it still is one of the best skins I have seen on a plane in SDOE And I'll bet my FR's aren't suffering as much as they would if my card did support them ------------------
Brought to you by the campaign for a better Dauntless! Jeeves =FC= IP: Logged |
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