hey, i want to make a skin with the size 32*2048 (special rason), but i don't know if this could make problems with older graphic cards.
my teammate told me to make a 512*512 skin. But we both don't know which one is faster/better (I prefer the 32*2048-skin, because of my special reason. I'll only use 512 if it's really necessary)

now if i calculate:
32 * 2048 = 65536 <-- smaller
512 * 512 = 262144 <-- bigger

now, what is faster? Are both versions supported by oler Graphic cards?


thx,
Bird

Think of it in terms of megapixels. The limit is the amount of video memory the card has. If your target users have a 32 MB video card, an 8 megapixel bitmap is the largest you can go (except if alpha was used). 512x512 is 1/4 of a megapixel or 256 kilopixels (in relation to bits and bytes, though it'd technically be 262 KP). 32x2048 is 64 KP. 512x512 would allow for higher resolution, but for the same KP value, a 256x256 would also work. I have used a 16x1024 texture once (for a sky with basic fading) and didn't have trouble. 32x2048 should certainly work, unless the user had a 128 KB video card (such things are ancient nowadays).

But aren't textures always square in memory?
I thought if you made a texture 128x256 it'd be stored in memory as 256x256 anyway so its not economical.

nope. Its width and height should be a power of two because it's the natural order of pc's and faster to check, but that's it.

also you shouldnt exceed the maximum texture size.
on my radeon9800 for example i can only use 256x1536px (bigger texture causes black-holes) for environment-mapping and the skycube itself can have 512x3072px