hi,
been using the vtf plugin a lot recently, but mainly use the compressed texture..etc templates to save, but i turn off the nice filter.


i just want to know what options more experienced modders use, do you all stick with the standard templates, or use different options etc

id like to know what options are best for:
weapon textures
player textures
normal maps (i use compressed texture, but select normal map in the options, since saving with normal map template causes a 16mb file????)

thanks
Darren

I usually compile weapons textures in DXT1 (compressed texture) without mip-maps and with nice filter (sometimes without level of detail)

and for normal maps I use "normal map with alpha option" (I use alpha channels for phong) and changed to DXT5 with the same options.


I dont know if this is the best way but I use this.....

Here's a chart that Jed made so you can see the difference in formats. I usually just used the compressed texture preset for most textures, and normal maps for normal map textures (duh :P)'

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/5071/dxtncomparisonpd7.jpg

DXT1 and DXT5 have no real difference except in the compression of the alpha map.

The Nice filter is actually bogus in that it's just a flag that gets/got set by the original VTEX program and has zero effect on saving a texture from VTFEdit or the VTF plug-in. The filter options available in the plug-in are in fact superior to Nice filtering anyway.

For mip-map generation, Kaiser is probably the best and is the one I use 99% of the time. I usually set mip-sharping to defauly or off as sometimes it can have a negative effect.

As for those that turn off or don't use mip-maps, for v_models thats perfectly fine as the model doesnt need them but for anything else it can, to some degree, degrade the visual quality of textures. Mip maps exist for a reason and disabling them on things like prop and player models can cause moire patterns, ringing and other visual artifacts.

As to whats best, it's really empirical in that you have to use your own eye and judgement.

DXT1 and DXT5 have no real difference except in the compression of the alpha map.



That was a big eye opener for me. I was having some serious problems with a few alpha textures months ago and I chalked it up to something I was doing wrong BEFORE I compiled them. This makes things clearer. (pun intended)