And if we are technical details, number of vertex data matter a lot (depending on engine of course) So the number of UV islands, hard edges, materials are affecting performance too. And the texture compression too. I was working on several games when I was working as a freelancer, and there were plenty of technical requirements that were not the same at the different client. For example, there were a client with the requirement to delete the blue channel from the normal map, and swap the red and blue channels. Or, there were another one, who required BUMP texture in the diffuse color alpha...
When I did characters for FPS game, we made a head texture (512 for the head) and a body (1024) and an equipment. Alpha channel was used for opacity (alpha tested), and specular was R channel for specular, G for Glossiness If you just want to learn game development, visit gameartisans.org, game-artist.net, polycount etc. If you have specific companies you would like to work for, study their workflow, and tools. From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Martin Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 10:06 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Texture size in games? Hi Stefan, I don't think there is a "normal" size. It will depend on your platform specs and type of game. If it's a fighting game, you may use more resources because it will display less characters at the same time than a strategy game. In a fight game for PS3, we used 1024 for the body and 512 for the face in the final DDS texture. Normal, Specular Map and Color only. I think the polygon count was about 20.000 ~ 25.000 per character. The PSD data was made in 2048, 1024 i think. We usually work with doubled resolution because you never know when the specs will change, or if you'll have a sequel with better specs, or you'll have to change UVs drastically and bake your texture to your new UV. In an arcade game we used a lot of textures per character, 512 for the eye, 1024 for the face, 1024 for the hair, and the rest, as many 1024 pics as needed as long it didn't exceed 20Mb, (or was it 15?) Color specular, color and normal this time. For the last 3DS game we did, it was like 128 x 7 textures. This game had interchangable parts so it had a 128x128 limit per part. and about 7000 polys per char. Here we used doubled resolution too in our PSD source, but some details needed dot level edition in the final resolution. Only 2 ~ 4 bones deformers per point, weights without decimals (Maya) or power of 10 (SI), T pose for characters, no more than xx bones(null bones) per char, irregular UVs and tex.size (bigger UVs for details like a character eyes, etc), no more than x lights per scene, etc. are quite common limitations. Real Time shaders aren't as good as working with pre-render stuff, so we need to cover that by painting a little more the textures. (ex, usually you don't have real time occlusion so you have to paint it, or bake it), sometimes you have to try to overlap your UVs so it will look like you are using a bigger texture (like tiling some parts). Another thing about mipmaping, with the automatic down scaling you'll see seams be sure to bleed your textures outside your UV islands. Like I said, it depends, and you'll have to learn to deal with those limits. BTW, depending on the programmer skill, you may be able to use more or less tex.resolution and polygons. Unity? It will also depend in what do you want to do. If you're going to create assets only, chances are your client will use a different engine so your unity skills won't be that useful. Modeling, sculpting, weighting, texturing, animation, rigging and scripting skills would be better. If you're going to do everything (assets, programming, game planning, etc) by yourself or with a small team, I think Unity could be very friendly for a small project. GL M.Yara On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 3:46 PM, Stefan Andersson <sander...@gmail.com> wrote: Also, if and old dog like me that knows everything and nothing, where would be the best starting point? Conversion of "knowledge". Or rather "don't learn this, totally useless" :) Regards Stefan -- Sent from a phone booth in purgatory On May 15, 2013, at 8:31, Stefan Andersson <sander...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi all! > This might be a strange question, but what would be the normal texture > size today when creating content for games? > I'm trying to learn a new profession and need to test out the basics > at home before I jump out into the void :) > > Also, would unity be a good practice platform? Or any other recommendations? > > I'm trying out something new here, so any suggestions and tips are welcomed! > > Best regards > Stefan > > > -- Sent from a phone booth in purgatory
