How T3D implements DDS and mipmaps?
by Ben Quirk · in Torque 3D Professional · 04/24/2010 (2:25 pm) · 2 replies
From my understanding, T3D will automatically give JPG and PNG a mipmap image. Does this mean that JPG/PNG images are converted into a DDS format automatically and placed somewhere in the cache? Or am I off my wonkers?
If JPG/PNG are automatically generated to a mipmap, are normal, spec, light, and other images effected as well?
For system performance and quality on characters and props, would it be more practical to create/import custom DDS image formats into T3D rather than using just a JPG/PNG image?
Vram is not a problem when just using JPG/PNG in our build, however I am guessing DDS will load faster and might give better frame-rates?
I am aware how T3D automatically creates DDS for billboard imposters.
Will DDS files work OK with Macintosh systems with the Intel processor?
If JPG/PNG are automatically generated to a mipmap, are normal, spec, light, and other images effected as well?
For system performance and quality on characters and props, would it be more practical to create/import custom DDS image formats into T3D rather than using just a JPG/PNG image?
Vram is not a problem when just using JPG/PNG in our build, however I am guessing DDS will load faster and might give better frame-rates?
I am aware how T3D automatically creates DDS for billboard imposters.
Will DDS files work OK with Macintosh systems with the Intel processor?
About the author
www.benquirk.net Computer Graphics and Multimedia Artist. Currently an active artist working in producing 3d and 2d animations for law firms.
Associate Tom Spilman
Sickhead Games
No... you need to make DDS compressed textures if you want to use them.
You are correct. DDS will load faster from disk, take less time to copy to the GPU, and will even render faster. You should always prefer to use DDS textures in your games.
It does... but thats a specialized system specifically for imposter generation.
DDS has been a hardware standard since about 1998 and it works on all desktop GPUs regardless of the OS.