Is this a true rule-of-thumb? For example, would a building probably require a 4096 texture map, while a small gun probably would require a lot less (1024)? I think this is true, but just want to confirm this is right.
For bigger geometry (like a castle for example), you would typically create it from various parts that tile (reuse the texture). You can then add variation with another texture that has different tilling (more dense for example, or shifted) so not every block looks the same. Just creating a huge texture won’t do the trick if you need a lot of detail in such cases but it all depends on the art style. You probably need a few texels (pixels in texture) per centimeter for it to appear really good when looking closely so detail maps are a rescue here. But yes, in general, bigger object on screen need bigger textures. When looked from afar, the texture resolution is automatically changed (mipmaps). Unreal’s streaming also makes sure not all mipmaps (high resolution) are loaded if not needed. I would say a small gun has textures around 512 to 1024 in resolution, while a character needs 2k or more. Buildings/environment would need even more but you typically use detail maps to fake that extra detail.
Thank you for the info, Zig! Do you have any information on these detail maps you can point me to? I’ll search myself, of course, but maybe you have a resource in mind. My buildings are coming in with 4096 textures, but they still look pixelated up close.
You will need to separate the house into different parts, each one have its own texture & UV. You are trying to squeeze the whole house into a single image map, this why it is so pixelated.
To add on to Infiltrator point. The important thing is relative size, then actual size. In other word, how much screen space it occupied.
Lets start with some examples. We start with a simple one. Lets say you have a square poster (flat 2D mesh), & your game is running at 1000x1000 resolution (to simplify),
when the poster will take up maximum of the entire screen ( when close up), to prevent pixielation, you will need a texture resolution of 1000x1000 (closest is 1k), any higher will be waste of resource, any smaller, blurring or pixelation.
when the poster will take up 1/2 the screen (in length), than you need 500x500 (nearest is 512).
e.g 2
Now instead of a poster, you have a box now, & at the closest distance, the box will take up 1/2 the screen space (length). You remember a box has 6 sided, & each side take up approximately 1/4 of UV map.
One side of the box took 1/2 screen space, which make it 500x500, & since each side is 1/4 the UV map, then for the entire box, you need 4x500 square which is 2K texture map.
Obviously, you may not want to optimize the size of all textures to closest distance you can from camera, because, it will be overkill. Decide at what distance should the texture still looks sharp, then optimized for it base on that distance.
I hope you understand the logic I am trying to convey.