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Question about texture sizes for fills

Torg SmithTorg Smith
in Mapping with ProFantasy's Software
I am creating my own custom raster style and currently creating textures for fills. I am using an application called Substance Designer 6 and it outputs texture sizes aligned with base two numbering (16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, etc.).

I noticed that the textures being used are square sizes VL 20, LO 100, HI 400, VH 1000 for a lot of the existing ones. I was originally going to go with 32, 128, 512, 1024 but the first three skip a number and the last two don’t. I then thought about doing 32, 128, 512, 2048, but do not know if this will unduly stress CC3+ or not. I have a pretty beefy computer with 3.4GHz quad core, 16GB RAM, and SSD for storage. Another option I was thinking about was 16, 64, 256, 1024, but I would prefer more detailed textures.

How does CC3+ decide what textures to use? Would the 32, 128, 512, 2048 be a bad choice?
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Comments

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
    The main issues with larger textures is that they need to be loaded, so larger textures will result in slower redraw times and more memory consumption (also remember that CC3+ is a 32-bit program, so it can't use more than 4GB of memory). I haven't really experimented with oversized textures, so I cannot say exactly what performance issues it will have.

    I do recommend staying with the standard CC3+ sizes though, as these are the ones set in the templates. Remember that if you simply make the largest one, cc3+ can generate the rest for you automatically. If the sizes are too much off from the set values, CC3+ may not pick the optimal texture at any point. Do note that these values can be changed though, but it is a global setting for all fill styles in that map. You can find this setting by clicking the Display Speed Settings button, and then fill style resolutions.
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  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited April 2017
    Also, remember that you can try generating the larger textures and then resizing/resampling them down to the closest CC3+ size. For example, if you generate the 1024 size you can then resize/resample that down to 1000 using just about any decent image editor, such as Photoshop, of course, or good free alternatives like GIMP, FastStone Photo Resizer, or Irfanview.
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  • Torg SmithTorg Smith
    Posted By: MonsenThe main issues with larger textures is that they need to be loaded, so larger textures will result in slower redraw times and more memory consumption (also remember that CC3+ is a 32-bit program, so it can't use more than 4GB of memory). I haven't really experimented with oversized textures, so I cannot say exactly what performance issues it will have.

    I do recommend staying with the standard CC3+ sizes though, as these are the ones set in the templates. Remember that if you simply make the largest one, cc3+ can generate the rest for you automatically. If the sizes are too much off from the set values, CC3+ may not pick the optimal texture at any point. Do note that these values can be changed though, but it is a global setting for all fill styles in that map. You can find this setting by clicking the Display Speed Settings button, and then fill style resolutions.
    Thank you, your "Display Speed Settings" allowed me to find it in the help file and the description in there is good.

    I am planning on creating all the textures in the template I am creating so they will all be consistent. I prefer a cleaner looking map, so I don't normally over do it with a lot of stuff.

    I am planning on playing around with the fills as I want a good blending with the sheet effects. One reason I want to create the different sizes is that the size is taken into account with the noise generators I am using. This allows for a clean tiling effect.
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  • Torg SmithTorg Smith
    Posted By: DogtagAlso, remember that you can try generating the larger textures and then resizing/resampling them down to the closest CC3+ size. For example, if you generate the 1024 size you can then resize/resample that down to 1000 using just about any decent image editor, such as Photoshop, of course, or good free alternatives likeGIMP,FastStone Photo Resizer, orIrfanview.
    I use GIMP for a image modification software. Substance Designer 6 is a texture making software for video games. Good tiling is very important for games, so this excels at that.
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