More Texture Bases

[10Bears]

Camo mentioned on a thread that there would be more texture bases to work from in 1.05.

With this graphic engine I don't see why we couldn't have as many textures as the maker needs.

I prepose Hitech write into the code, (if of course this is possible)that the next base element say "stream" is terr0030. terr0031 is stream meets grass, terr0032 stream meets rock and so on.
  Now your next custom texture "Railroad NS" railroad north/south, would be terr0040 dig it? the base element is always on the tenth. terr0043 would be railroad crosses forest
and so on.
  Terr050, 060 and 070 would all be the city of Bonn. You get the picture.

 What my point is it would sure be nice to have unlimited textures
10Bears--

[hitech]

You might want to check the math on how much texture memory that uses.
A 256x256 terrain texture takes up aprox 65k of vid memory.

HiTech

[NUTTZ]

 

Originally posted by hitech:
You might want to check the math on how much texture memory that uses.
A 256x256 terrain texture takes up aprox 65k of vid memory.

HiTech

But they all aren't drawn at once?


NUTTZ

[10Bears]

Well OK
  Lets say we use 5 new custom bases elements, that makes a total of 10 bases. Each base gets 5 assocations 50 tiles. 50 tiles at 66k apiece is... 3300kb
no biggie..
10Bears--

[Zigrat]

If you allowed say 10 base textures, each texture would need 9 possible transitions to mesh with all others.

assuming a 16 meg video card became required for aces high (voodoo 3 or tnt)

thats 10!x65k =
3.5 megs total needed for ground textures

for 15 ground textures, 15!x65k
=7.735 megs total for ground textures

1024x768 16 bit frame buffer required 4.2 megs

each aircraft skin (assuming 256x256 skins, i don't know their size) would be 65 k

for 30 aircraft that would be 2 megs of aircraft skins (again not sure on the size of the A/C textures so don't know how accurate)

Then add in textures for ground objects etcera (another 2 megs lets say, just an estimate)

--- You still come in under 16 megs, allowing a 16 meg video card owner to have 10 base textures as opposed to the currently available 5. I think 10 would be sufficient to come up with sufficiently diverse terrains as opposed to the currently svailable 5.


[This message has been edited by Zigrat (edited 11-21-2000).]

[LLv34_Camouflage]

Zigrat, thanks for doing the math. There are also the squad insignias for each squad, btw.  Looking at the "squads" directory in my AH folder, I see 126 insignias, 573KB in total.

10 base textures would be awesome!  


 

Originally posted by NUTTZ:

But they all aren't drawn at once?

I believe they are all loaded to the video card memory at once.  Each time a texture is loaded into the video memory, it slows the video card down and creates more or less frame stutters.  This results also in warps in AH.  This is why the textures are all loaded into the memory when you lauch the game.  And that is why newer cards have more and more of video memory!

Camo


------------------
Camouflage
XO, Lentolaivue 34
 www.muodos.fi/LLv34

Brewster into AH!

"The really good pilots use their superior judgement to keep them out of situations
where they might be required to demonstrate their superior skill."

[10Bears]

If you allowed say 10 base textures, each texture would need 9 possible transitions to mesh with all others.//

Ahh Zig, a lot of custom bases only need to mesh with one or two other bases  .. say, "Railroad" only needs to go through grass/forest.
 50 tiles total, tops, would be 3250kb That ain't super big is it? Imagine what I'd do with 33 extra tiles!

[NUTTZ]

Camo, I'm not a programmer, Nor do i have any experience with this stuff. But i was wondering since we do have the option for drawing distant mountains and such, I didn't think it was in the video memory. I thought maybe it reads ahead and loads it from the HD or Ram( what do i know).  Anyhows, I have a quest to make a good coast line, I have 3 personal projects on my slate right now...

1:North Africa
2:South china sea
3:A "Fantasy" arena

I "cheated with the Terrains for North africa, figuring I wouldn't be using snow, i substituted the snow with my water BMP, and made the cornering or meshing tiles so my coastline would be continuous and eye appealing. The beach line and sand really look nice ,I will tease with some Screen shots hopefully before the weekend.

I imported all the terrain BMP's to one picture and decyphered how they tile. Once "I" understood it in "MY" realm of art programs it seamed really simple. My old art teacher told me " Less is More" and I think, from reading this folder , we are looking to ADD more terrain texture numbers, But I think i can work with the exsisting ammount.

BTW , if anyone is working with Corel 9 , or Any version Corel, I can help with any questions you need answered. I took the exsisting water and used the "bumP' command and 3d effects and lighting for wave tips ( ever so slitely) and used ALOT of same sized transparencies overlaping to get the " right" water and sand i wanted.

A few questions I could use answered before I used the old trial and error is ... can the buildings and tower skins be changed?
Or the default runway tiles?

NUTTZ

[Westy]

 
I'm just an innocent, dumb gawker here, but in regard to "I will tease with some Screen shots hopefully before the weekend." I look forward to that. I'm enjoying seeing what you folks are coming up with.

-Westy

[LLv34_Camouflage]

 

Originally posted by NUTTZ:
The beach line and sand really look nice ,I will tease with some Screen shots hopefully before the weekend.

Looking forward to seeing them!  

I imported all the terrain BMP's to one picture and decyphered how they tile.
[/b]

I assume you have read this thread: http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/Forum55/HTML/000088.html

A few questions I could use answered before I used the old trial and error is ... can the buildings and tower skins be changed?
Or the default runway tiles?
[/b]

As far as I know, they can't be changed at the moment.

Camo