Texture size etiquette?

Hi all,

I'm planning on making a series of high quality sculpted art items for sale that'll have roughly 14 prims each and I was wondering what texture size I should use.

I'd like to use 512x512 to get as much detail as possible on the items but I'm aware that a series of items in one space that each use 14, 512x512 textures could be laggy.

What's the correct etiquette for texture sizes these days? Could I get away with using 512s?

Many thanks,

Amael

Yes, use 512's.

You should use the smallest size that gives you the most acceptable level of detail, and avoid 1024's unless you are piling a bunch of smaller textures into the 1024 so that it can used on many repeated items like signs that have diff names all on the larger 1024x1024 graphic but all offset - so the same can be used for like 20 signs because on that texture is 20 diff sign images.

But even then, try not to use 1024's unless absolutely necessary or you are consolidating many images into 1 texture image file.

I am sure some of the texture pro's will come along and give you better info.

I am by far an amateur and stay relatively ignorant of many aspects of SL's technical side.

512 is probably your best bet for a sculpted item. Unfortunately, since a sculpted prim has only one surface, and is mapped a bit oddly compared to normal prims, you can't usually get away with using a smaller texture and repeats, like you could on a sphere.

You should at least try a 256 x 256 surface texture, however, if the sculpty doesn't require a lot of detail. You may manage to get it to work well enough at that level.

And for more than you ever knew you might want to know about texture sizes and formats, see the stickied thread:
/109/e6/150360/1.html