Single or Multiple texture ?

Hello !

 So, here is my problem. I'm making a LOT of building and stuff for my Lock On style map. But I don't know what is the better way to organize my texture. All the texture are very small (128 x 128, 64x64 and 32x32).

 For exemple I have 10 64x64 tree textures. And I want to make 10 models with that. Should I let the texture separated, or should I use Pan Tool to mixe them all together...

 

 The goal is to have a very LARGE (up to 1000 ) number of models (basic: 4 to 12 faces...) with Hight FPS.

Usually the rule is to have 1 large texture for 1 model, instead of 10 small textures for 1 model. But if u have many models (your situation) u shouldnt have 1 big texture with small spaces of uv for each model. if u make it that way, 1 small tree will call a 1024x1024 texture, instead of the tiny one...that X the number of trees u have will overload the performance with many videocard calls of the big texture...i think this is general rule considering video cards...at least it is in my 3dengine..

So my advise is to keep the tiny textures, instead of merging them.

An other interogation...

Does the use of very small textures (64x64, 32x32) for distant lod is able to increase significantly the fps ?

I use one 256 texture for the main lod. Then an other 64x64 or 32x32 for the last lods. Should I merge those textures in one big ?

(I'm making trees, bush, for building BIG forest).

No, don't use different textures for each lod.

In ArmA if texture is not needed in high resolution anymore (because of distance or low framerate) the engine automatically scales it down in memory (dropps out every one in two pixels, that's why all textures need to have dimensions of powers of two).

On the other hand loading a texture from HDD or from ram into the video memory is performance consuming and will cause FPS dropps.

So use the same txture for every LOD and let ArmA worry about it.

Quote[/b] ]In ArmA if texture is not needed in high resolution anymore

It's not since Arma It's all the same in ofp - called precalculated mipmaps

Sorry to re open the debate but I read that on the forum:

BIS ohara

Quote[/b] ]Drop of FPS in vegetation is caused by overdaw, it means that grafic card is not able to draw so many pixels that scene needs. When GC draw scene, it automatically cut hiden pixels, BUT only if this pixels are not alphatransparent. Vegetation is builded from polygons with some opacity textures, so this cuting (early Z test on HW) not work here. There is no simple solution, better performance will be with low shading detail settings (simplified pixel shader), but overdraw is still there. Also using of worst LODs will not help so match, because less polygons means worst tree shape aproximation and final surface (what is most important for overdraw reduction) will be similar. We are still woring on some research in this area.

Q

Quote[/b] ]Based on ohara's explanation:

So the basic reason is that ArmA (Saharni?) has way to much

objects and textures from which the engine cannot cut the hidden pixels.

So the problem should be less grave on rahmadi (less populated)

and the converted ofp islands (even more with ofp vegetation).

General question to modders/texture artists:

is there a way to create vegetation without alphatransparent

pixels / textures?

So... Why not create one BIG texture 1024 x 1024 for all my trees. And then why not create a lod without alpha channel ?

Some pics of my work for the moment. The trees are from Lock On