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Field Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 12th Sep 2020 at 5:08 PM
Can TS2 handle textures beyond 1024x1024px?
Maybe it's a stupid question or maybe it has been asked before, but I'm looking for more resolution to get a bit more detailed textures and with less pixelation, above all on skin/hair textures, even the most awesome TS2 skin textures I've seen have some pixelation in them, very noticeable in game, also a bigger map could be helpful to get a better definition in alpha maps cuts for clothing items, to get them less jaggy in the visible borders, of course I'll no go up to 4096x4096 the default texture size in my other creative endeavours, but my idea is to go at least 1536x1536 at 600 dpi, if not 2048x2048 that would be my ideal.

My apologies for my stupidity and thanks in advance.

From now on I'm just a lurker, the sad truth about the Orwellian status of the sims community is not "off-topic" neither is "politics".
Check part of my current (non sims) creations at my J.R.'s Angels page
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Alchemist
#2 Old 12th Sep 2020 at 6:10 PM
I haven't seen anyone use textures that large on Bodyshop textures, but there are buy/build objects, like the sky globes, that use 4096x4096, so the game is capable of reading larger textures. It can cause a strain on computers, of course, so some people try and use them sparingly.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#3 Old 12th Sep 2020 at 6:40 PM Last edited by jotaerre : 13th Sep 2020 at 3:27 AM.
Thanks a bunch @omglo your answered my question in a neat way, if game can load that size on a skydome, it's able to load it in any other object, and you call to my attention to a detail I didn't take on account, the pressure on system resources it can have, despite currently we have more system resources available than 16 years ago, it's still an issue due to the huge amount of CC we can have, and my interest is above all custom genetics, stuff done not to be sparingly used, I think I can give a try at the minimum size I told (1536x1536) and see how it works, despite I think my question was rightfully answered, I'm still open for any additional opinion.

From now on I'm just a lurker, the sad truth about the Orwellian status of the sims community is not "off-topic" neither is "politics".
Check part of my current (non sims) creations at my J.R.'s Angels page
Mad Poster
#4 Old 12th Sep 2020 at 6:55 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 12th Sep 2020 at 7:07 PM.
1536x1536 isn't a viable size. There's 512, 1024, 2048 and 4096, but nothing in between for Bodyshop and SimPE (Bodyshop throws tantrums, and you'll get weird errors ingame if you try anything else). And once you start sizing up to 2048, texture memory easily goes nuts if you add enough, so it's probably not worth it. Pretty sure TS2 isn't meant to be running on HQ.

You can use bigger sizes, but it's really not worth it. First of all, for CAS you need to size up every single texture. And I sincerely mean every single. Everything using the SimSkin shader relies on the skin textures for the sizes, so to size up makeup, clothes, etc. (anything using SimSkin) you have to size up all the skin textures you intend to use - and yes, I sincerely do mean all of them. Plus all the textures you want to make bigger. And then you have to size up bump maps, because those throw a tantrum unless they're the exact same size as the original textures. If the skin has 1024 as the largest size, but the clothes that go over have 2048 as the largest size, then the skin uses 1024. This does not matter for the SimStandardMaterial shader, though (accessories, non-skin parts of clothes, hairs).

Honestly, the only body textures I've found any reason to size up is the infant body skins, because I needed something bigger than 512x512 for clothes, and they were the only ones I didn't need to fix a whole heap of other textures for (there's just one per skin).

512 and 1024 (and smaller sizes) are basic, try to stick to those as far as you can. 2048 (1024x4), and 4096 (1024x8) are very large and not something TS2 particularly likes to play around with in large quantities, so both should be used very sparingly.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#5 Old 13th Sep 2020 at 4:29 AM Last edited by jotaerre : 13th Sep 2020 at 5:10 AM. Reason: Add info
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
1536x1536 isn't a viable size. There's 512, 1024, 2048 and 4096, but nothing in between for Bodyshop and SimPE (Bodyshop throws tantrums, and you'll get weird errors ingame if you try anything else). And once you start sizing up to 2048, texture memory easily goes nuts if you add enough, so it's probably not worth it. Pretty sure TS2 isn't meant to be running on HQ.

Thank you very much @simmer22 for that helpful info about BS and simpe, 2048 sounds great for my plan, a lot better than 1536.
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
You can use bigger sizes, but it's really not worth it. First of all, for CAS you need to size up every single texture. And I sincerely mean every single. Everything using the SimSkin shader relies on the skin textures for the sizes, so to size up makeup, clothes, etc. (anything using SimSkin) you have to size up all the skin textures you intend to use - and yes, I sincerely do mean all of them. Plus all the textures you want to make bigger. And then you have to size up bump maps, because those throw a tantrum unless they're the exact same size as the original textures. If the skin has 1024 as the largest size, but the clothes that go over have 2048 as the largest size, then the skin uses 1024. This does not matter for the SimStandardMaterial shader, though (accessories, non-skin parts of clothes, hairs).

Honestly, the only body textures I've found any reason to size up is the infant body skins, because I needed something bigger than 512x512 for clothes, and they were the only ones I didn't need to fix a whole heap of other textures for (there's just one per skin).

512 and 1024 (and smaller sizes) are basic, try to stick to those as far as you can. 2048 (1024x4), and 4096 (1024x8) are very large and not something TS2 particularly likes to play around with in large quantities, so both should be used very sparingly.


Thanks again my friend for the good intentions, I didn't tell my idea, my fault, I'm not planning to upscale any skin in my SavedSims nor my DL folders, my original plan (not a project yet) is to make a new skin set from scratch with better resolution and a bit more realism (yeah I know that use that word is a deadly sin, I don't care about, I enjoy being an incorrigible sinner and don't regret for it ) for custom bodyshapes (another deadly sin) only, and I think anyways I have to make a try, no matter if I break some rules, it would be a good learning experience for me and perhaps I could get something totally new in the attempt, if I don't try I'll never know if it's viable or not, in any case I'd make a 1024 set to have it as an ace up to the sleeve if something goes wrong, the other part of my whim is to create a new couple of Xhires bodyshapes linked to those skins, as Warlokk did with his lovely female bodyshapes, but I'd make the mines shapely from teen to elder, not only adults, one for male, half way between Maxis and slim bodybuilder in volume, but with better muscular definition than both of them, I'd call it "Fitguy" and a female one possibly based in the shape of my angel Kaoru, a morph I sculpted with Blender some years back for Daz3d's G2F figure, of course I'd call it "Angel" bodyshape, another pic of Kaoru .

From now on I'm just a lurker, the sad truth about the Orwellian status of the sims community is not "off-topic" neither is "politics".
Check part of my current (non sims) creations at my J.R.'s Angels page
Scholar
#6 Old 13th Sep 2020 at 2:12 PM
For skin textures don't reduce the quality by 'building DXT' as most cc skins are but import as Raw 24bit the way Maxis skins are then there is no loss in quality, the game will handle 2048+ textures. Don't be coaxed in to reducing the mesh vertices count either, Bobby TH's meshes work well and have no noticeable impact on game performance, I still use all of them regularly. I'd love to see(get) a new bodyshape.
Mad Poster
#7 Old 13th Sep 2020 at 3:14 PM
I've seen files from some people using the Raw formats via SimPE, and it seems this kind of explodes the filesize to at least 4 times the size of DXT (by the way, DXT3 or 5, not DXT1 - DXT1 has horrible quality, DXT3 and 5 is, if not perfect, at least passable). Not sure if some of them are doing it wrong, but even compressed these files are 5 MB with a 1024x1024 texture, which seems quite extreme for a recolor file, let alone several of them. I'd rather stick to smaller sizes with DXT...

The game does handle bigger sizes, BUT it depends on overall game performance. If your game is already struggling, it won't help to throw 4 or 8 times the size of textures or 4++ times the polycount at it in great numbers. One small set of meshes probably won't be a problem, but 20 sims on the same lot with a million+++ polys and just 2048x textures for CC content is begging for trouble unless you have a computer that truly can handle it. Sometimes it's that one drop that overflows the glass in the end (pink-flashing, crashing, frying computer parts, etc...)

For the skin/bodyshape idea, in theory it would work, but remember if you use the skin with already made face details (if you scale up the face, too - remember eyes, head and makeup are separate textures) or clothes, these will scale up, so you could get some strange results there (also a LOT of issues with bumpmaps, so be prepared for a lot of strange outfit results in CAS if you have shaders/bumpmaps enabled).
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#8 Old 26th Sep 2020 at 3:49 AM
@Chris Hatch and @simmer22 thanks to both of you for the helpful comments and tips.

Chris, I must agree about DXT and raw formats, most of the skins I already have, even my modified ones are in dxt format and its quality despite not being the worst quality we can get is an issue for me, on the other hand the best quality skins I have (Navetsea's ones) were done in raw24 format, but their file sizes are definitely huge, about the shapes, Bobby TH's ones works very well in my system despite their "high" poly count, anyways if I decide to go that way, I'll try to stay close to Warklokk's Xhires figures' poly count, maybe a bit more polys in some areas for my idea.
Quote: Originally posted by Chris Hatch
I'd love to see(get) a new bodyshape.

Me too!!

From now on I'm just a lurker, the sad truth about the Orwellian status of the sims community is not "off-topic" neither is "politics".
Check part of my current (non sims) creations at my J.R.'s Angels page
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