Skin Texture size? 512 0r 1024?

Is there an accepted standard for skin texture sizes? I'm making my skins with 512px as my target, so as to be a good SL citizen. But a friend told me all the good skins are 1024 px. I'd hate for my skins to seem subpar, yet I dont wanna cause undue lag either.

So, is there any kind of consensus on an acceptable skin texture sizes? Does this matter to folks? Will 1024 px take forever to rezz and is the added detail worth it?

As far as I know all textures get converted to 512x512 JPEG2000 when imported into SL, but to be frank, I've never stopped to experiment. Why don't you try and import a sample of both versions, try them on, and see if it makes a difference?
Maybe Chosen or Robin have a better idea.

I know SL will take up to 1024. I once uploaded a 2048 file by mistake and it got downsampled to 1024, and it wasnt pretty.

As far as the question goes, I know what I myself like, but i'm just wondering what, if any, is the general standard. What's more important to skin makers and buyers, sharper detail or faster rezzing?

Calveen's half right. All textures are converted to JPEG2000 at upload time, but they're not resized to 512 automatically.

However, when you "wear" a texture, meaning use it for any part of your clothing or skin, it gets baked onto the avatar's outfit composite texture set. The outfit textures are always 512, so putting a 1024 onto your clothing and/or skin won't do you any good. All it will do is increase the time it takes to bake the outfit in the first place, since you have to download a 1024 instead of a 512. The outfit will look exactly the same either way.

Annyka, what your friend was probably talking about was that it's a good idea to create clothing/skin textures in Photoshop at 1024 or larger, and then downsize them to 512 as a final step before uploading them to SL. Working at larger sizes makes fine detail work much easier. For example, if you're trying to match lines across seams, if you're one pixel off the mark on a 512, it will be noticeable. However, if you're working at a larger size, the margin for error is much greater. If you're one pixel out of alignment on a 1024, it's far less likely to be noticeable after you downsize to 512. Make sense?

Bottom line, upload clothing and skin textures at 512. Upload all other textures as small as possible. See the guide on texture sizes at the top of the forum for more info.

Thanks Chosen! I'm glad that was the answer, because the 1024 px didnt look any better to me anyway! I was worried that maybe i had a bad eye for the details.

I did read through your texture size post too, and its a great resource. But I didnt see anything about how skins and clothes were baked, so I thought it was just a cost/benefit tradeoff. Learning that how the skins get baked makes it a no-brainer. Thanks!

There are actually slight differences in the way finer details are represented between 1024x1024 textures and 512x512 textures. The truth is you'll get more accurate details from the 512 image. The reason being that Photoshop (not sure on other raster image editors) is better than SL at sampling down image size. Stay away from 1024 textures for avatars.

Good point, Nam.

Total noob question here:

If I work on a canvas greater than 512x512, where do I go as the final step to downsize it to 512 to make it suitable for SL?

In Photoshop it's Image, Image Size. Then you get a window where you enter pixel size. You may want to check 'Constrain Proportions', so that you get the same ratio when you resize one dimension, it'll resize the other automatically.

Ah ok, I don`t feel so unlearned now haha I`m familiar with that method. So in that case you have to make sure not to overwrite your main larger file. I thought there was perhaps a way to kind of "export" it into a 512x512 jpeg file or something. *Shrug* Perhaps there is

You can record a simple action that will resize your image and save as targa for you, and make sure you wont overwrite your file.

If your unfamiliar with actions, its really very easy.

!. With a file open, you just create a new action in the Actions window and name it something sensible.

2. Start recording, this will record every step you make until you stop it

3. Resize your image to 512 px. Photoshop CS2 and up now have more options for resizing. You can choose normal Bicubic, which is always a good otion, or Bicubic Sharper and Bicubic Softer, which will add sharpening or blurring respectively. I think its mainly a matter of taste which works better.

4. Save As and save your file as a 32 bit targa, making sure that you have "As a copy" checked.

5. Then do Edit/ Step Backward, to undo the resize and restore your file back to its original size (you cant use the keyboard shortcut, you have to select it from the menu)

6. Stop recording

Important: If you want to save separate versions of the targas, make sure you check the second little box to the left of the Save step, called "Toggle Dialog On/Off". This will make the action stop and ask you to name the saved file. Otherwise, it will just overwrite the last saved Targa, which can be fine if your working on one single file, but not so good if your making multiple textures from one PSD file.

And Voila! You now have a custom one button action that will automatically resize your file to 512px, save a targa, and revert your file back to normal.

I usually save my final Photoshop art at the full size I designed it at (often 2048 x 204, with all layers intact. Then I do a save-as, and in that second copy of the file I resize the image to the final desired size. That way I don't risk overwriting my master file.