Editing Arcane University:DDS Data Format
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*DDS images can be of any dimension expressed in powers of two up to the limits of your application or hardware, but no dimension can be less than 4. So 1024×512 is fine, but 2048×2 is not. Since Block Compression works with texels and each texel is a 4×4 block of pixels, it follows that it can’t work with an image with a dimension smaller than 4. | *DDS images can be of any dimension expressed in powers of two up to the limits of your application or hardware, but no dimension can be less than 4. So 1024×512 is fine, but 2048×2 is not. Since Block Compression works with texels and each texel is a 4×4 block of pixels, it follows that it can’t work with an image with a dimension smaller than 4. | ||
− | ==Mipmaps== | + | ==DDS and Mipmaps== |
− | An object seen up close needs a relatively high-resolution texture so that it doesn’t look pixelated. But an object seen in the distance needs much less resolution to look reasonable, and smaller resolutions require less resources. | + | *An object seen up close needs a relatively high-resolution texture so that it doesn’t look pixelated. But an object seen in the distance needs much less resolution to look reasonable, and smaller resolutions require less resources. |
− | + | *A mipmap is a set of pre-calculated versions of the same image progressively decreasing in size until the image reaches a dimension of 1×1. The idea is to have a handy set of smaller images that can be used to increase rendering speed and reduce aliasing effects while allowing the creator to optimize the appearance of the image at each stage. With mipmaps, the render engine can use the smaller, pre-processed version. This speeds things up significantly when you consider a scene of many objects at varying distances from the viewer. With most image file formats, the render engine must generate the mipmaps when the image is loaded. This takes time, and the render engine may not make the best choices for the appearance of the image. DDS files give you control over this process, allowing you to pre-generate mipmaps and store them ready-to-go along side the source image in the same DDS file. There is of course a penalty. Mipmaps take up space, increasing data size by 33% beyond that required to store the source image. This increases both size on disk and size in video memory. Unless your primary concern is file size, the benefits of mipmapping more than outweigh the costs. | |
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==There are tons of compression codecs! Which should I use?== | ==There are tons of compression codecs! Which should I use?== |