Guild of Writers

So I'm trying to create a seamless bark texture in Photoshop. Is there a best size to use, in terms of pixels? I suppose it should be as small as possible. And does it have to be a standard size, like 256 x 256 or 1024 x 1024? Sorry if these are a bit obvious--I just want to be sure I have the right idea before I begin.

It depends on how repetitive you will allow the texture to be, honestly. I would stick with a pretty standard square demension of something like 256 * 256 or 512 * 512. You should keep in mind that as the texture gets bigger, you're going to use more of the client's resources...

Gotcha, I'll go with a 256 x 256 then. Thank you.

I use 1024x1024, but I will probably on my bigger Ages have to size them down to 512x512 if I get too many.

I think you should use at least 512x512, nice and crisp.

But Cyan uses all kinds of different sizes.

-Kato

The key to using small textures (256 x 256) and below, is making them seamless. That way if your object has large faces, you can't see the tiling.
While larger textures can give you a more relistic effect in some cases, keep in mind what Hoikas said.

From what I have been told computers are binary so the best size for a texture is 2 to some power. For example 1,4,16,64,128,256,512,1024,2048,4096 are all usable. The smaller numbers lack detail while the larger numbers can criple your processor. Using even sizes makes your computer processor run an even number of calculations. Using another size causes half steps in the calculation and supposedly slows things down when rendering.

If you can get your avitar close to an object and see the individual square pixels then you probably need a larger texture or tiled mapping on your object. Sometimes you have to have big textures just to make things look realistic.

Avoid the Flintstone effect! Remember the old cartoons where they ran by the same tree and fireplug 50 times. If you put the same crack in your texture and can see it three or four times down the wall it ruins the realism of the scene. It's better to make a 512 square texture with little detail and add decals in places.

Wow, thanks--this is excellent advice, electroglyph.

Wait, computers are binary?
Damn, this changes everything.

Thanks, electroglyph.

If necessary and efficient you can also use textures that are not square. For instance 128x256. In most cases though textures can be combined in a square and UV mapped from there. For instance to texture a log you can use the same square for both the wood and the round cut off sides.

I have a trick for you to make a seamless tex if you have gimp--if not you can get it here: http://www.gimp.org/ Now, when you have that installed open your image in it and go to in the menus Filters->Map->Make Seamless, that should do it for you.