Why is a unform color tga a problem?

[frogpipe]

I've already processed my assets, but I am wanting to understand WHY is it a warning?

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Because large single-colour images are a terrible waste of resources when in theory a single pixel of that same colour is all you need to achieve the same effect.

 

[frogpipe]

Well for the record these were 8x8 textures.

Are you saying that a 1x1 image won't cause this error? Do you know this for a FACT? I'm asking as a content creator and re-skinner.

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

I'm surprised if they placed the limit at 8x8. I read they were going to crack down on stupidly big single-colour textures (for example, I've seen 512 x 512 used). But I don't know what size they finally adopted as the upper limit and I don't have TS12 so I can't find out for you. Easy enough to test though. Why not try 1x1, 2x2 etc and see what happens?

 

[frogpipe]

Well I still have a few that need fixing, stuff I haven't released yet, so I think I will!

 

[Pencil42]

Why use a texture at all? Use the m.notex material and set the color in your modeling program.

Curtis

 

[frogpipe]

I didn't make the models.

But for those that I do make.... wha cho talkin bout willus?

 

[ianwoodmore]

Uniform Color Errors

Assets with filesizes less than 8x8 most certainly can and do cause uniform color errors.

Don't think 1x1 qualifies as a power of two either. In any case Images2TGA will not fix assets with 1x1 pixel fillers.

 

[frogpipe]

I reduced the images to 1x1 and they do indeed still throw this error.

Rather maddening.

I also discovered that you can't get an asset with BMP textures to commit any more. You get an error.

I had to convert them to tga's when I resized to 1x1*

*I was Wrong... Now they are committing correctly.

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Don't think 1x1 qualifies as a power of two either..

Well, it should. 2[SUP]0[/SUP] = 1

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

I didn't make the models.

But for those that I do make.... wha cho talkin bout willus?

Willus :hehe:.

He's talking about the method where in your 3D mesh program (gmax, big Max etc) you can create a Material by selecting a colour from the little spectrum thing and give the Material a name ending in m.notex (e.g. blue.m.notex). Apply that to the mesh and it will work without needing any actual image file.

m.notex textures are only uniform colours but you can vary their opacity if you want to make semi-transparent windows etc.

If you were annoyed by the uniform colour warning/error messages, it's easy enough to add 1 pixel of a slightly different colour, but it sort of defeats the good intention of the warnings.

 

[frogpipe]

That's what Texture2TGA from PEVsoft does, alters one pixel so it's not the same HEX number, but is so close a human eye can't tell the difference. I've done this manually too.

I will say these points:

• This easy work around nullifies any potential benefit intended by the check, making the check more of a nuisance then any thing else.
• Wish I had a nickel for every 1024xwhatever "thumbnail" I've seen.
• In my laziness I actually resorted to making my 8x8 textures 16x16 so PEVs program would work to make them pass the check, so the net effect was that my textures got LARGER.
• Using m.notex makes you need the original mesh files to alter the color - a re-skinner can't change it.

 

[pcas1986]

That's what Texture2TGA from PEVsoft does, alters one pixel so it's not the same HEX number, but is so close a human eye can't tell the difference. I've done this manually too.

I will say these points:

• This easy work around nullifies any potential benefit intended by the check, making the check more of a nuisance then any thing else.
• Wish I had a nickel for every 1024xwhatever "thumbnail" I've seen.
• In my laziness I actually resorted to making my 8x8 textures 16x16 so PEVs program would work to make them pass the check, so the net effect was that my textures got LARGER.
• Using m.notex makes you need the original mesh files to alter the color - a re-skinner can't change it.

I prefer to put my little blocks of uniform colour in one of the main texture files and collapse the relevant mesh or mesh section to that block. Simplifies the whole thing.

 

[frogpipe]

I agree, esp since fewer texture files, regardless of size, is better for performance.

 

[chrisaw]

I prefer to put my little blocks of uniform colour in one of the main texture files and collapse the relevant mesh or mesh section to that block.
Simplifies the whole thing.

That's what 've been doing as well, but recent posts say not to have big variations in scaling as it mucks up the mipmapping. (although I can't find anything
relating to what ratios of scaling are acceptable).
Chris.

 

[pcas1986]

That's what 've been doing as well, but recent posts say not to have big variations in scaling as it mucks up the mipmapping. (although I can't find anything
relating to what ratios of scaling are acceptable).
Chris.

I assume you mean rescaling of original texture files? I've never done that for my assets but for an asset for which I am writing a script I did it to speed up the commitment process. It was taking about 2 minutes to commit. The resolution wasn't as good in game but for my testing purposes it didn't matter.