How many textures in a game?

BlitzPlus Forums/BlitzPlus Programming/How many textures in a game?

Andy(Posted 2003) [#1]
How many textures should I expect to be able to use on a standard lospec PC(128x128, 256x256, 512x512)...

I need a brush for every texture(design decission, am aware of multitexturing), are there any limits to the number of brushes?

Andy


Neo Genesis10(Posted 2003) [#2]
This should really be in the 3D forum...

Depends on your definition of "low-spec". I'm using a P3 550 w/GeForce 3 for most of my basic work, and havent (yet) hit an unacceptable amount. It all depends how you're loading things in and what the poly count is. If you try to restict the game from only loading what it needs for a particular level you shouldnt have too many problems.

The only limit is what your target system can handle - run a few tests to be sure.

FYI: My (now ancient) World Editor loaded in no less than 500 512x512 textures without problems while dealing with open areas of 10,000 polys or so.


Rottbott(Posted 2003) [#3]
On a low-spec system I think VRAM will be the limiting factor. Assuming you're running 800*600*32 double buffered on a 32 MB graphics card, you have 28.5 MB of VRAM free for meshes and textures. So, according to my calculations you can fit about 112 textures sized 256*256 in there. But that doesn't leave any space to speak of for meshes and stuff.


podperson(Posted 2003) [#4]
There shouldn't be a hard limit -- the system should switch to using system memory when it runs out of VRAM, which then turns it into a performance issue.

E.g. A 512x512 8-bit texture = 256kB. 500 such textures = 125MB; so you're definitely not getting those textures into VRAM.


Andy(Posted 2003) [#5]
Well, I am nowhere near 500 textures, but will be using around 50-60 or so... I assume that I can use any number of brushes.