posted 03-16- 02:55 PM            

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I think I recall people having said it is more efficient to map different parts to a single 256 x 256 texture than it is to load an equal number of separate 64x64 textures.

Thus, would it be reasonable to change all the instrument mappings to a single 256x256 for each air service in SDOE? For instance, the USAAF has a 256x256 tif of instruments as does the USN, RAF, and Luftwaffe. We could fit 16 of the currently used 64x64 textures onto each one of these templates, or increase the resolution a bit and get 9 from each one.

Im considering whether or not I should do this for the F4F, since most of its instruments are different from the USAAF aircraft. Would having 3 256x256 texture maps be too much of a strain? It seems currently there are a lot of superfulous textures that would be better off mapped together on a larger tif.

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posted 03-16- 03:31 PM               

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I thought of doing this also. The amount of memory saved is pretty significant, but only if all planes use the system... the problem is that unless you convert all the other planes to use these templates, your plane will be using it's own gauge texture database and that will end up adding to the memory requirements anytime someone uses your plane.
Anyway, someone could do this.... it's possible, but it would be a daunting project. Also, if you look at it from an Openplane perspective, there's something very nice about the organizational aspect of having gauges unto themselves. It will be very tricky to map gauges once you put them on large templates because people will have to refer to lists or charts to know what's what. And, once this change is made, everyone would have to get onboard with the change via a patch or planepack to update all the planes.
I guess the question is... is it worth it?

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posted 03-16- 06:04 PM               

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In many views only a few of the intruments are visible. In this case it is much more efficient to use individual textures as the hidden gauges would then be able to be switched out, saving texture memory.

There is probably not much difference memory wise between 16 64x64's and 1 256x256, probably a few bytes to manage the texture. This may not even be put into texture memory.

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