Creating Textures

[Nio Skytower]

What size does a "Sand Texture" have to be, in order for it to look like real sand in second life? I tried 1024x1024 and 512x512 and it always looks way to large in second life and not realistic like it should be.

[KarenMichelle Lane]

The texture size is not the issue, the original sand art or image is what your are tripping over.

The original art needs to be of high quality and sized down or up into it's grain-size proportions to look proper on a parcel/region texture map. The source image needs to be at least 300 dpi of better.

When using / making textures for use as region texture maps you want the same level of detail and proportional focus to get the graininess just right. This needs to be repeated for all 4 texture maps accordingly if you play on having different textures based on terrain height. A little experimentation with GIMP or Photoshop and you'll get the hang of this quick enough. I tend to use 512x512 texture maps for my own region maps.

If you are using these textures on prims in-world, then getting them closest to the original prim size is a good rule of thumb. Beware of using a detailed image on something greater than 1024x1024 as the memory needed to store this image will co9me oout of the available memory on your Graphics card when it is visible at any %

I'm sure other talented SL Answers team members will chime in as well..

 

[Rolig Loon]

Don't even bother trying to upload a texture larger than 1024 x 1024. The servers will automaticall downsize anything larger.  They will also resize any image with dimensions that are not exact powers of 2 (64, 128, 256, 512, or 1024 pixels).  If you trust the servers to do that automatic redimensioning properly, you'll often get crummy results --- blurriness, stretched images, loss of detail --- so it's best to make the images correctly yourself.  It is rarely necessary (or wise) to use images larger than 512 x 512 pixels, because that simply makes extra rendering work for people and contributes to rez lag.  Finally, although the servers will accept JPG images on upload, it's often a poor choice.  JPG is a lossy format. FIle compression algortihms like that result in pixel loss and, commonly, loss of sharpness when you use them in a dynamic environment like SL.  TGA and PNG are more more reliable formats.  Unless you need transparency, upload your files  as 24 bit images, not 32, so that you don't waste memory and possibly create alpha sorting issues in world.

[Madelaine McMasters]

If you are using your sand image to texture a prim face, use the "Repeats Per Face" setting of the edit window's Texture tab to flood the face with multiple repeats of the sand texture (both horizontally and vertically). Adjust the repeat count up until you get the look you want.

I think at least some of the library sand textures repeat well, but if you are bringing in your own sand texture from outside SL, you'll want to make sure you find one that's "tileable" or "seamless". This means that the texture was created in such a way that seams between the repeated sections won't be visible.

As KarenMichelle and Rolig have suggested, try to avoid huge textures. Repeating a small one can give you exceptional detail over a large area, though that entire area will be uniform.