Bad news! Steer clear of the 512x512 Terrain Textures

BSIRegina

Dang! I am close to cussing now as I ever get to. This is just so irritating!

Syera was working on some houses today in Build Town and she noticed the grass looked odd. She grabbed a terrain paint and started painting to see, and found a bad problem.

In Build Town I used the textures I had resized from 1024x1024 to 512x512. According to everything I had read this seemed like a splendid idea, so I was passing this along as well as passing along resized textures to boot!

She took a side-by-side picture for us to see the difference, and this is how it looks. Not so good, huh? I'll be pulling the 512x512 size textures from BogSims tomorrow and I highly recommend to anyone else using resized textures to download and replace them with the full-sized counter-parts. Fortunately that can easily be done by using a 1024x1024 with the same name as the 512x512 or if that isn't possible, right-click and choose Edit then navigate to the 1024x1024 version instead.

Click here to see larger image.


I am so sorry. I feel like an absolute creep for passing along bad information. :oops:

Damienf519

BSIRegina,

Thanks for letting us know this. I'll keep that in mind, when and if I decide to import my own textures into the game.

Diskette66

Dang! I am close to cussing now as I ever get to.

Oh, c'mon Regina, it'll be fun! Just this once

Pary

Is that why the grass on some of the lots in buildtown looked blurry then?
I thought it was my PC pitching a fit after being forced to run the sims for too long without a reboot.

LOL@Diskette

BSIRegina

Okay, Diskette, just for you.

*%@&!

Yes, Pary that would be the reason. I never zoom in as far in my game as she does--I'm usually WAY out of it, plus three feet away from my monitor. Plus, it all looked fine in C-A-W. She came in tonight and gave me a ROYAL chewing. In retrospect, maybe that was almost worth it because tomorrow I will get her good!

Pary

Also, this isn't a big deal.
We're all on a learning curve here, just doing our best, and entitled to make mistakes. Even smurfs.

SikoahGrace

It's all good Regina! I'll just go get the 1024X1024 and I really appreciate you letting us know. Lots of people would have kept it to themselves.

Johnnywr

Regina, you were only trying to help, it`s always appreciated.
I put this down to the continuing learning curve we are all going through with CAW. There will most probably be a good few more surprises and revelations before the first anniversary of Create a World and it wouldn`t surprise me if you are at the heart of some of the more pleasant ones.
You`re still Goddess #1

BSIRegina

I really do appreciate everyone being so understanding, but I still have no excuse for the fact that I didn't test this thoroughly before uploading all those images and having who knows how many people downloading them. I've removed the 512x512 images and added a note to the home page as well as the page with the textures. I'll be uploading an updated version of Build Town very shortly.

misscbong

I think the difference in appearance would be because of the lesser amount of pixels used in 512x512...the more pixels, the more detail! But it was just a mistake, so don't be too hard on yourself! And a blurry background with a low opacity layer of something more detailed on top might actually work well...?

BSIRegina

Yes. Resize the image from 1024x1024 and the image just loses too much quality.

It's okay. I make lamb!

At any rate, I do have an updated version of poor little old Build Town uploading right now, so that makes #2 on the list of fall-out to fix.

The Shire. Oh my, that's going to be the worst. Ah well, perhaps this will be the perfect time to optimize textures, which is something that's been on my list of things to do for the last few days, anyway.

water_cat1

but you have not experted the shire yet, so simply in the painting menu, right click on the textures and edit, POOF, or at least i hope so

auntielynds

I think you should update your original thread on the textures so no one gets confused. I also linked to that thread in the texture links thread.

Here it is in case you've lost track of it.
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/186473.page

BSIRegina

but you have not experted the shire yet, so simply in the painting menu, right click on the textures and edit, POOF, or at least i hope so

Yes, very much so, Water_cat, although I have to remake a few of those textures first. Even so, that shouldn't be nearly as hard as doing them the first go-round because I have the 512s for reference on the tile kills and some of those were nothing more than tile kills. For some stupid reason I just didn't save them as 1024x1024.

Yes, AuntieLynds, I was going to do that, I really was, just haven't got to it yet. There was this, then that, then the other stuff, and well, you know how it is. :oops:

I_am_bean

Thanks for the heads up...btw I love your textures, they are quite lovely!

auntielynds

Yes, I know how it is. Today I've had a fairly quiet day. I'm a caretaker for my father who has cognitive issues and advanced Parkinsons Disease. I also take care of my niece when her father, who is a Pilot, is out of town. So, my Father had a good day today, alert and oriented, and my brother-in-law is home, so yes I had a good day today!

BSIRegina

Thank you, Bean!

AuntieLynds, that is quite a load. A friend of ours mother had Parkinson's Disease several years ago. I remember what it was like for her. My hubby says "Every day you can walk away from is a good one." By those standards I have had a lot of good days in my life.

SummerSong86

That's odd, I liked the blurry textures! They looked like a water color painting. Oh well I'm strange.

chellemh29

I actually noticed something similar on some textures I was working on. I figgured I just messed them up thought. I really don't think this is all that big of a deal, particulary in areas that are not routeable. Mountain areas and mountain detail, or textures that don't require quite as high of a detail setting would be just fine. You have to zoom in pretty close to get the texture detail loss. For lot's, and areas that can be traveled then the higher resolution textures would most likely improve the world, but I still plan on useing 512 by 512 for alot of my texture work in less prominant areas.

BSIRegina

Chellem, I was thinking the same thing, that in some areas it's not going to make any difference. A water texture at the base of a waterfall that's off in the distance, or rock that's used only on a mountain way off, or possibly under water textures. No one would see those places closely enough to notice missing detail. It would just depend on where a person has in mind to place their textures. If someone uses the same rock in the middle of their town as they do around the perimeter, then the larger texture used on all places would be best, I think.

That's odd, I liked the blurry textures! They looked like a water color painting. Oh well I'm strange.

From a distance, they do. But seeing a Sim stand on blurry grass looks pretty bad.

simbody872

Wonder if you can select and crop a 512x512 section out of the grass and it work as well? Or would it stretch it even more?

I may have to test my idea

I don't think anyone will call for your hanging just yet. It was a small mistake as far as mistakes go. Lord knows there were some hideous things with TS2 (even TS3) that have over bloated files sizes because creators couldn't be bothered to learn how to clear out unnecessary files from meshes. These things were terrible and game breaking.

At least you were trying to save us from overly large files It may look a little fuzzy, but it won't break anyone's game. Easy enough to swap out in a world as well. Well at least before it's exported.

Amy