Which would be more efficient?

Hello, all -- looking for some advice on texture sizing for architectural builds.

I've read a few good tutorials about texture wrapping, and have a basic understanding of how textures are downloaded to a client. I'm wondering which of the following techniques would be more efficient for clients, on a 4-sided building:

1. Create 2 512x512 textures and reuse each one twice.

2. Create 1 1024x512 texture and use .5 repeats and then offset it on all 4 walls.

Which will load faster? (I know, I know...I could try it in world and will do so, if no one gives any specific information....but I kind of like to know the math and science behind it too

Thanks!

The second option (commonly called "texture sheeting" will be more efficient. Instead of two calls to the asset server to deliver a texture, you're only making one.

As for which one will load faster, that's not a question that can be answered. There is no predictable rhyme or reason for the order in which textures appear. There are a million dynamic and chaotic factors at work, almost all of which are well beyond your control. You can force a desired texture to load as fast as possible by hovering your mouse over it, but that doesn't mean other textures still won't appear first.

The only thing you can say about texture sheeting in regard to loading order is that all images that are on a single sheet will load at the same time as each other. Whether that happens to be before everything else, after everything else, or anywhere in between, is not something you can control.