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Lab Assistant
#26 Old 18th Aug 2018 at 12:52 AM
So, I'm going to launch into what is probably over-explaining, but I think it might be useful for anyone curious about skin texture size and HQ mods.

When any sim is loaded in the game, all of their textures (their skin, eyes, eyelashes, teeth, hair, clothing and any accessories) are loaded into a single map, that looks like this:



This image is displaying all EA-made textures (I dressed the sim in undergarments, to avoid this being NSFW), but I've scaled it down to a more appropriate size for the forum.

The width (and consequently overall size) of this image depends on your "Sim Quality" setting in game:
Very High 2048x1024
High & Medium 1024x512
Low 512x256

As you can see, the body is four times the size of the other sim-related textures. The scalp, all facial textures, hair, and the accessory map all receive only 1/8 of the total map size. So, if you play your game on very high settings, the game will effectively load a 1024x1024 texture for the body and a 512x512 texture for the face.

If you've looked at the default skin files, you would have noticed that the face textures are not 512x512, but also 1024x1024. EA made the assets at twice their final display size. Would you see a noticeable difference between a 512 and 1024 face in game? I think the answer to this depends on what kind of monitor/screen you use for the game - resolution, size and the resulting ppi/pixel density being the most important aspects to consider. Considering something like a Retina Display that has a higher pixel density, I imagine the 1024x1024 texture would look noticeably clearer in game. I find this to be true for my own game as well.

However, I don't think you're going to see the benefits of a 2048x2048 face texture (and certainly not anything larger) in a game without an edited GraphicsRules.sgr file or "HQ mod". You may find 2048x2048 textures to be clearer, but again, YMMV depending on your screen. All HQ mods specifically edit the max width value for Sim Quality. They don't enable the game to read larger textures, or anything like that. TS3, unlike TS4, will read gargantuan textures as long as they're in the right .dds format and have the correct aspect ratio. But, the game will take that texture, regardless of what size it is, and scale it to fit the combo map. If the textures in HD CC are significantly larger than what your game allows for, they will most likely look blurrier, rather than provide you with enhanced clarity. HQ Mods force the game to render that combo map at a larger size.

A 4096 HQ mod will actually render a 2048x2048 body and 1024x1024 face, scalp, hair and accessory maps. With this setting, I personally see a difference going up to twice these display sizes - 4096x4096 for the body and 2048x2048 for the face. However, again, this is highly dependent on your screen and overall set-up. But, I can say with full certainty that you're not going to get any benefit trying to load a 4096x4096 face texture using only a 4096 HQ mod. It's just wasted space.

These days, whenever I take photo shoots, I actually have my GraphicsRules file set much higher than that, but I wouldn't recommend that to anyone, and certainly not for game play.
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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#27 Old 18th Aug 2018 at 9:11 PM
Quote: Originally posted by ameenah.n.y
So, I'm going to launch into what is probably over-explaining, but I think it might be useful for anyone curious about skin texture size and HQ mods....

These days, whenever I take photo shoots, I actually have my GraphicsRules file set much higher than that, but I wouldn't recommend that to anyone, and certainly not for game play.


Thank you! It has helped me figure out what are reasonable expectation for skins for my game play. Now I am off to have fun with my game and some new skins this thread helped me discover.
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