Uploading rectangular textures?

Hi,

I'm uploading some targa files that are rectangular, not square. But when I get them into SL, they are forced to be 512x512 squares, and therefore when you double-click on the texture, it looks squished when it opens.

Anyone have a solution for this? I'm entering the images in a contest, and I certainly don't want them to be distorted!

Sorry for the cross-post - I originally posted this in Resident Answers, but someone said I might have more luck in this forum.

Thanks,

There really isn't any way to alter the way images are uploaded. Dimensions are always uploaded in powers of two (see the sticky at the top of this forum). The only way to be sure that your photos aren't distorted is to use Photoshop or some other program to put them on backgrounds that are dimensioned the way SL expects them (512x256, 512x128, etc.). They will look like matted photos that way. Once they are uploaded, of course, you can put them on prims with any dimensions you choose for exhibition. If you want to see the exact dimensions of your original photos, then use the "repeats" and "offsets" controls in the Textures section of your Edit menu.

I had forgotten about the power of 2, but many people have reminded me! I will have to check my original image size in Photoshop. These are for a contest, so I doubt they would be rezzing every entry onto a prim - I imagine they will just double-click on the texture (which I have to provide in a notecard), and look at the image. Any ideas what I can do to make that look good, not squished (other than power of 2, which I will definitely adjust).

Thanks,

In your case what I would do is to resize your textures or pictures to no larger than 1024 at the largest deminsion. Then place your texture on a complimentary background that is square using an acceptable size that SL will upload without any resizing of it's own. Since this is a contest I think you would want as much detail as possible so your square should be 1024 x 1024 pixels.

As an example: Your texture is 1140 x 960. Resize your texture, keeping the aspect ratio the same to make it 1024 at the largest deminsion (width in this case) using your graphics program to do so. Then create a background that compliments your texture at a size of 1024 x 1024 and place your texture on it. Merge or flatten to a single image save and upload that image to SL.

Your texture will not be distorted because the 1024 x 1024 size of the "matted" texture will not be resized by SL. If your texture has deminsions that are already at powers of 2 then you can upload them without any padding by simply resizing in your graphics program to the largest deminsion being 1024.

Keeping in mind powers of two, how important is it that it needs to be 1024? Lag issues, and all...

It's a contest..........as much detail as possible. Besides the textures will not likely be placed for viewing, only opened to view.

If I were hoping to win a contest I would want the maximum detail.........hence my suggestion of using the maximum size for upload. Sure, she could upload at 128 x 128 and be very lag conscious but the judges sure would have a hard time when it came to seeing any detail.