About the new rules for maps.

[Mystique]

5. No maps with big high res textures. Why in the hell people use 1024 x 1024 textures for an object on the map is beyond me. not one is going to see the object as big as a 17" monitor. make your textures/meshes small low res. I am tired of map downloads being so huge cause the textures/meshes are extremely hi res. 128, 256. and 512 size images are ebst for many occasions. There is no reason for a map to be over 5 megs. The larger the maps in megabytes, the more resources (Video, RAM and CPU) players will need to play it smoothly.

Well let me explain something here. Sure, a 1024 x 1024 texture may take up a bit more memory than a 512 x 512 texture, but sometimes it's really needed to make a static mesh or a surface look good. Joey, you should know this because I showed you the hellbender example. And plus there IS a texture compression tool in UnrealEd so that the texture doesn't take up that much memory. Also unless you want the map to look like crap, I suggest you allow it to be at least no more than a 40 mb download, some of us mappers have alot of custom textures and static meshes in the map. People have cable modems, and I'm sure their computers are efficient enough to run these custom maps. Hell I would run big 35 mb custom maps just fine on my old P4 2.0 ghz with 512 mb of ram and an ATI 9700.

There a ton of epic maps that use 1024 x 1024 textures. This does NOT mean the texutre is gonna take up the entire screen, not one bit. It simply covers the surface or mesh and makes it more detailed looking. That doesn't mean someone should fill the map with a ton of those textures, but rather just a few to cover large areas, and static meshes. It just makes it look more appealing while playing.

[BaronVonRotterdam]

I wouldnt enforce these rules until joey has a check through them. No matter what anyones opinion is joey has the last say.

[ZombieSlayer]

I don't think I've ever seen a 30+Mb map...

I know squat about mapping, and I'm kinda over my head just adding more player starts and path nodes on some of these maps :lol:

Why would you need a 1024x1024 mesh to cover 1 object? What's this bender example you got Scully?

[DeathBringer]

well I've made a few maps with custom textures/meshes and the bigest size I've ever have was 4mb i mean I've never seen a 40mb map ever and if i were joey i would never put a map that big on the server.

[SirBeast]

It just makes it look more appealing while playing.

Personally I'd rather a map look LESS "appealing" than have lag caused by the server trying to process heavy-duty textures (1024x1024) for all the players at once.

Which is also why it was suggested that the textures used for the deemer be toned down, since it apparently causes some lag as well (from what I have heard). I and other players have stated that the deemer rocket could be a single color/low-res texture if it would help reduce some of the lag issues involved with it.

[Mystique]

For example, if you use a 512 x 512 texture on a static mesh, it looks "ew stretched out" and not pleasant to look at. But I guess that's only if you care about detail. Same thing goes with a surface, if you don't care about detail at all, leave it at that. But hey, lots of EPIC maps use 1024 x 1024 textures in their maps. And plus the way I see it, if we're gonna have 50mb worth of downloads on the server including monster animations, textures, WOP animations, textures, then why not allow a big map? Doesn't make sense to me.

[SirBeast]

For example, if you use a 512 x 512 texture on a static mesh, it looks "ew stretched out" and not pleasant to look at. But I guess that's only if you care about detail. Same thing goes with a surface, if you don't care about detail at all, leave it at that. But hey, lots of EPIC maps use 1024 x 1024 textures in their maps. And plus the way I see it, if we're gonna have 50mb worth of downloads on the server including monster animations, textures, WOP animations, textures, then why not allow a big map? Doesn't make sense to me.

It's not the size of the download from the server that matters to me - you were absolutely right in that a lot fo us do have cablemodems (myself included) or DSL, so the DL time from the server for a package this size is inconsequential.

As I stated before, what concerns me is the processing resources the server uses for high-res textures that are used up when trying to keep everything going for all the players at once. Admittedly, if there are just a couple of high-res textures here and there on a couple of stationary objects it probably wouldn't be an issue. It's when you have high-res textures all over the place, on stationary and moving object, when the server resources start really getting taxed hardcore, and causing the lag.

That being said, eliminating maps based on the fact that it utilizes 1024x1024 textures doesn't exactly make sense - as i said, if the map uses 1 or 2 high-res textures on a couple of obects, there aren't going to be many resources being used. But if a map uses a dozen or so high-res textures - and what those textures are being used for/on (stationary/moveable objects) - is when we might begin to have some lag issues.

Suffice it to say that I am not totally against the use of high-res textures - it all depends on their frequency/type of use map-by-map.

[DeathBringer]

well joey has all them big files why would he need the big maps too? that doesnt make any sence but i see what your saying about how it looks but joey wants all small maps why would you have a suface that needs a 1024x1024 texture. but paint probly means like a black texture why would you need a 1024x1024 back texture when 64x64 is just fine but mabee im not reading the rules right or something.

[Mystique]

Another example would be this: Open up the editor and find a static mesh that uses a 1024 x 1024 texture. Then extract that texture and resize it to 512 x 512. Or the same thing with a large surface area. Then re-apply re-sized texture. Makes quite a bit of a difference, doesn't it? If you guys want a visual example I'd be happy to give one. Again I'm not saying flood the map with big textures, just sometimes they ARE needed so that a surface area or a static mesh doesn't look enormously stretched out.

[DeathBringer]

well any way i think pant means dont put a over sized texture on a small wall.