Which is the better texture resolution for characters in a AAA Game

Development Rendering
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Hey all folks, what do you think?

Which is the better texture resolution for characters in an AAA game, ideal resolution for player characters, NPCs etc…?

I’m using a single 1024x1024 map for main character. But some NPCs enemies has required two or more 1024x1024 texture maps, one for the creature mesh and others for mechanical parts attached in this creature. In a same creature can two or more maps, loading simultaneously, be able to causing a dramatic performance drop in a AAA game using Unreal Engine 4 and moderns GPUs? Can I to use two or more texture maps in a single creature or for a best performance is advisable to use a single 2048x2048 map?

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Two materials for a character is not too bad. It is pretty normal in my experience. Obviously if you can simplify it down a bit it will help but I wouldn’t go to any great lengths if the extra material is making things easier. For bullet train our enemy was still two textures since we wanted to make sure the head had sharp resolution since it was unwrapped in a way that would have taken a lot of space from the body etc.

At one point though our character was 5 materials since it was adapted from an old non-VR project. We did see some benefit simplifying it down from 5 to 2. But the main reason we did that was to optimize the materials since they were very expensive multi-layer materials.

3

Thanks RyanB

Now I feel more safer to know that is not too bad to use Multiple UV maps for a single character, even more than the target of this my project is not focused to mobile platform.

Now, about resolution for modern games in Unreal 4, like (Moba, Tower Defense, third person RPG, more or less cartoonist style), does anyone know what is the ideal resolution for main Character, Bosses, NPCs, Minions, Creepers or other characters. What resolution is usually used: multiple uvs or materials with 512; 1024 or 2048 for each pawn?

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This is not an easy question to answer because there are so many other factors that come into play here. For example your target platform is one of the main factors that will determine how big your textures should be. Also things like how many characters are on the screen at once or how detailed your environments are will also affect this. Once you have ironed out these details you will need to use the built in performance tools to check if you are with in your performance goals. If you find that you are not then you will need to start making cuts to your content.

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Thanks Sam Deiter, RyanB for your advice!, is very consistent!

But, talking about visual style, for example, initially for PC we have currently two great extremes: Fortnite with a cartoon style and ARK: Survival Evolved with a more realistic visual style.

And considering a texture to be used in a game should not be exceeding 2048x2048, for example. No matter the style used, either it cartoon or realistic, could be viable in a last generation game for PC (initially) a LOD containing textures with 2048 in very close characters or player character, a 1024 to a little far and 512 for crowd and very distant NPC characters, my theory makes any sense? A texture lod system is widely used in almost all games? There must be a standard, a common sense in most games currently developed in UDK and Unreal 4 that work fine In a most current PC.

If this makes any sense:

As an examples, running Fortnite or ARK: Survival Evolved. What is the maximum and minimum resolution used? Is used a lod system?

Finally anyone know the texture resolution used in NPCs and Player characters in Batman Arkham Knight, the non fixed initial release for PC?

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Bump. Bump. Bump. Again!

Apology if I seem impertinent or a slightly annoying newbie.

I could not FIND anything about material amount and their respective resolutions for characters optmized for PC platform (specifically) in a AAA game like Batman Arkham Knight or ARK in your max resolution. (About ARK, I could see it installing ARK Development Kit?). As I am not interested in modding any existing game content, but going to develop a new (Original) AAA based game from scratch, I have not downloaded it yet.

I know!, I can use optimization tools, or test each case empirically, but there should be one heuristic, an average or standard used as a starting point by most artists.

My question!!!
An average or standard used as a starting point, only for comparison. Anyone know what is the best (suited) texture resolution, material amount and UV laminas per character: both, A) Cartoonized Character for a cartoon game. B) A PBR character for a average realistic game.)?

Thanks.

~

7

hey lunybunny,
As you mentioned MOBA’s you might find valves Dota 2 texturing guides helpful. I’m unable to give you the links as I’m at work but just search for Dota 2 texturing guide or similar and they’ll pop up, there’s a handful of pdf’s I think. From memory they cover things like texture size and contain other useful ideas I found. They may not be entirely appropriate for PBR based workflows but for someone like me who is new to modelling and texturing etc I still found them useful.

good luck!

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thank HJRS

I’ve noticed about these pdf
It’s really quite useful.

In Dota 2, has been loosely mentioned something about the resolution in the game characters

For this game, using Valve’s Source 2, the characters can not exceeds 512x512 (for texture and UV per character) and 256x256 (second material and UV for Hats, animated effects and weapons).

Then I concluded that a game like DOTA 2 is a cartoonized Moba game with a isometric view. And this is quite obvious, these characters are not meant to be seen too closely. Correct me if I’m wrong.

For a isometric or topdown cartoonized game Is more economical to starting with a resolution in 512x512 with one or two material and UV for each game character, typically the second material and UV in very low resolution (256x256) is used for smaller attached thing like a hat, weapon or animated tiled effects in masked areas in our character.

If you, moderator, allow me to add this link, it is a excellent beginning to understand a texturing process using only one UV and material at 512x512:

http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2CharacterTextureGuide.pdf.

RyanB have mentioned 2 materials or textures: One for Head and another for body, and, it is looks a lot like what I’m achieving here. But this way I’m separating organic parts of mechanical parts, both, in two UVs or diffuse textures (Two materials), all at 1024x1024. This is a NPC only!. What do you think about this?

o2UqL0I.png
o2UqL0I.png1024×512 151 KB

But for a third person game like Dead Space, Batman Arkhan Knigh or ARK Survival Evolved using character resolutions at 1024x1024, 2048x2048 or 4096x4096, using more than five materials and UVs? What do you think about this?