Been noticing all the new player model reskins have these ultra high res cloth and fabric textures.

I can appreciate all the hard work that goes into these, and it's true, they do look good...up close.

Whenever I download these great skins, I find myself going into photoshop and resizing everything back down to 1024x1024 and using them. Why? Because, realism for me doesn't mean being able to see the seams of fabric sewn into the enemy's uniform from 100 yards away.

No offense, but they're too sharp, and the seams are too big. I think we should concentrate on more detailed details, such as stitching, rips and tears in the fabric, and WRINKLES and creases. I hardly see any skins with wrinkles shaded and highlighted. I'd rather see that than anything high res.

Just a thought from me. I appreciate everyone's work and it's fantastic, but just something to think about.

Am I alone?

i agree with you

It wouldn't be that bad if LOD could be applied to textures being rendered over long distances.

Originally posted by engineer
It wouldn't be that bad if LOD could be applied to textures being rendered over long distances.

Isn't that mipmapping? I don't think most of the custom player skins have it enabled but it's really easy to go into VTFEdit and enable it yourself.

Originally posted by engineer
It wouldn't be that bad if LOD could be applied to textures being rendered over long distances.

It can acutally, but requires a rebuild of the models. From the Valve WIKI page on the QC file format (http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Qc#Level_of_Detail_Commands)...


replacematerial (original material name) (replacement material name)

* Replaces all instances of a particular material on a model with a different material. This can be used to cause lower LODs to use a smaller version of the texture, for instance.


SO using that, you could only turn on the very high res texture at close range.

Strongly agreed.
No offense, but they're too sharp, and the seams are too big. I think we should concentrate on more detailed details, such as stitching, rips and tears in the fabric, and WRINKLES and creases.

Agreeance to the tenth power.

I find myself doing exactly the same thing. We keep having these threads with

SUPER FANTABULOUSLY HUGE HI-RESTACULAR TEXTURES!

that I just end up sizing down. It's ridiculous.

I deleted my earlier response for this more detailed one ;)

I am compelled to respond because I feel that the high-res Josuf/Josepf skins I originally put out caused this wave of extrmely huge skins (although someone else would have probably eventually done it).

So a brief explanation of what and why:
My original intention, or goals, were 3 -

1) Perfect a technique for making skins that I had slowly been working on over the last few years. Traditional skinning has never looked realistic enough for me and has too many limitations. HL1 based game models were too under-detailed to take advantage of skinning using photos. HL2 models have enough detail to pull it off very well. I use a combo of photos and traditional skinning tricks to make my creations.

2) A sort of technology demo - show what the game engine was capable of for those who were unaware.

3) Give some really good base skins to the DOD community to use.

It's no secret I found the default player skins utterly lacking, obviously 512x512 working skins that were never really finished blown up to 1024x1024. I'm certain the reasons for that lie in production times and deadlines, as I am certain the next incarnation of DOD:S will have much improved player skins. When I made the first skins I never really intended for (or thought anyone would) copy the size I created them at - 2048x2048. %50 of the reason I left them at that size was also the reason I refused to dirty them up - I wanted to leave a good base for others to be able to work with. The larger and CLEANER the original picture, the easier it is to modify. I know this from years of skinning models myself. Eventually when I started compiling entire skinpacks, I started offering reguler 1024x1024 skins as well, and for good reason. To be honest, it's really all you need unless you have a really high-end system with bells and whistles.

My honest opinion on the best skin sizes
player skins = 1024x1024 (alternate hi-res 2048x2048 for cards that can handle it)

v_weapons = 1024x1024

v_weapons with ironsights = 2048x2048 (with alternate 1024 for really old cards)

w_weapons = 512x512

I would like to address one last subject. I have seen a rash of player skins lately, while good, are really lacking in any true, fine details that would require the use of 2048 size. Small details like stiching and eyelets are completely absent. fabric textures have, for the most part, been far too large and exxagerated. (even if the uniforms were made out of burlap they wouldn't stand out like that). And you will NEVER see the extra detail of a 2048 on the v_models unless it's a model with ironsights. What I'm saying is that hi-res is nice, but many of these releases do not, or cannot, fully take advantage of extra room for detail and therefore are just wasting processing power and limiting the skin's use to those with upper end machines.

Originally posted by Waldo
It can acutally, but requires a rebuild of the models. From the Valve WIKI page on the QC file format (http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Qc#Level_of_Detail_Commands)...



SO using that, you could only turn on the very high res texture at close range.

Jeez - who taught you that trick? :rolleyes: :P

Originally posted by Trp. Jed
Jeez - who taught you that trick? :rolleyes: :P

Some crazy Swede wannabe!