Texel Density : What It Means & How To Use It
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.ย. 2024
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Texel density is a way for art directors to have a consistent feel to everything in the game. It prevents a prop from being higher res than the table it's sitting on, or a wall from being blurrier than the painting that's hanging on it.
It allows for a consistent look to the game that allows the game world to hang together and look like it's part of a larger whole.
The Uncharted games are great examples of this.
Aside from lens effects like depth of field, note how the environment hangs together so nicely. Nothing is super high res, nothing is blurry, it all looks consistent.
This gives the players brain the ability to "buy in" to the scene and accept it. If you looked up from your desk and noticed that the light fixture on the wall was blurry, you'd rub your eyes and wonder what was wrong.
That's why art directors obsess over texel density.
This isn't always possible, of course. Sometimes you have to just eyeball things and sometimes things get LOD'd down to fit into memory and any number of other situations.
That's game art for you!
Motion Graphics : Skye Nelson, aka "SkyeShark" ( skyeshark.artst... )
I am a freelance artist specializing in environment and prop art, for both the Unreal and Unity game engines:
www.warrenmarsh...
I'm studying game art by myself, and had trouble understanding this, but you made it very easy to get. Thanks!
Glad it helped!
I’ve binged so many of your videos the last couple of days. Your explanations help me understand concepts, even if I use other tools. Thank you
i've been a 3D artist for a good time now, i just assumed texel density was: the more squares the better. I haven't been this wrong in a long time, goddamn this is SUCH a gamer changer...
Quality content like always! as MODO user and artist I really appreciate what you have been doing for all this time.
Thank you! :)
Thank you so much for your tips. I've been watching a lot of your videos. It's been a lifesaver.
Another question, when you ask a client what texel density they need, what information you expect to get and how do you use it?
Just played with this all day today and love how much of a time saver this is. Thanks for posting this video!
Right? It's huge, especially when you're trying to get things to hang together in a scene ...
love this its so well explained .
I'm glad I was able to break it down decently. It's a hard topic to describe in a relatable way.
i love your hairs and also your knowledge
Thank you Mugatu
Thanks for the video man texel density is one of those very esoteric concepts. BTW I wanted to ask you have you ever had a problem getting a job because your 3D modeling software preference? Most jobs ask you to use Maya or Max.
To be honest, I've maybe just been lucky but it's literally never been a problem. Everyone I've worked with have wanted FBX files delivered and they didn't have any preference in how I created them. That said, I'm sure any studio that had specific Max or Maya scripts to run would obviously feel differently.
Nice vid Warren; I'm glad you're drawing attention to a critical aspect of texturing that's lacking in nearly all UV tutorials out there. Do you have a few examples of good texel density values? For instance, is 1cm = 10.24 pixels standard nowadays for AAA games (or higher)? I've heard about 1cm = 8px before. Is there a value you would personally never drop below?
I really don't know, to be honest ... let's go with what Karam said. :) I just shoot for whatever the client requests...
Amazing warren, there is not so much guidance out there for textal density when combining props and tileable assets together, thanks. I would like to know a little more about performance that you have mentioned when using lower-res texture for matching the texal density of tileable texture, whatever the resolution is, the textures that we going to use something else for the props without instancing isn't? in this example from your video. So simply it couldn't do the batch processing since it's using a different set of textures, so merely the texture resolution does make a performance issue? I am a bit puzzled. But the second idea is great, we can use a single texture set for different props, so the UV space wastage for individual props wouldn't a problem amazing!!
Fantastic explanation, thanks so much. Would you say there are certain TDs for certain genres of games? Like 1024 TD for FPS etc. Or is that just a myth, because it is gonna get broken all the time.
I wouldn't say there's any rules like that ... it's whatever looks good for your game and situation. You can't set rules, really, because every game has different concerns from target platform to camera controls to whatever else ...
@@WarrenMarshallBiz awesome, thanks for the fast reply! Hope to see some more content from you soonish or in the future? Really like your content, gonna go through all of it.
I saw a comment on polycount that condenses some things related to texel density pretty well, imo:
"If you need unique UVs, you either sacrifice Texel Density or use a bigger texture"
"If you need to hit a certain Texel Density you either share UVs or use a bigger texture"
"If you need a specific texture size you either share UVs or sacrifice Texel Density"
Of course, in production using bigger textures is rarely ever an option, so other techniques like tiling textures and trim sheets come into play, especially for bigger assets.
I've had the same experience ... yeah, "use a larger texture" is something that I've heard maybe once in my career. :P Generally, sacrifices are made instead...
super nice mate
How would u do like a large object such as a arch and wall to keep texel density as I am using 1024 texel denisty but the map size has to go to 4k to get into the space?
That Modo texel density tool sure makes fixing it a lot easier!
It's super useful! And once you get past the weird values, it's pretty easy to use ...
Heya warren , how about Texel density for texture atlasing ? for example 3 - 4 props in one single 0 to 1 space? could be problems more than 4 props? for a game resolution... suppose 2K map or 4k maps ? how can I deal for pieces like that ? texel density is probably the best way to feel the balance in a game project for example... I was discovering by the time , if I put more than 4 o 6 3D asset depending of their own measures in the 3Dpackage , sometimes ,not always, texel density do not help me , so In that situation I was forced to go furrther a little editing or overlapping some uvs , also editing the texture in no more than 4 materials for 0 to 1 space...
It's not an exact science and it gets super murky when you start using trim textures and atlases ... I mean, just do your best to make everything look like it belongs together. That's really the end goal. You don't have to nail it, mathematically perfect.
@@WarrenMarshallBiz in my short experience for my own purpose projects, I suffer to much when I try to create a correct TD together with Atlasing packing... for example for Metal fences (such as futuristic war fences such as WarHammer40K , or some stuff like that) also I suffered the TD knocking down for atlasing for more than 4 or 6 props in 0 to 1 space, for tiling texture or one or two materials in the same UV space I have not deal with it , cause tiling is not a switch case for me...I suffer it for variated materials purpose and atlasing all the time...big fan of atlasing, but TD sometimes is not my best ally , for large object (in measures goals , fences , cliffs , junkPiles)
did you did hairstyle only for this video ?
Thanks you :)
Thanks sir
Lets say you have non square modular meshes, how could i utilize Texel Density then to make sure it tiles outside 0-1. when i have non square meshes and map them for modular meshes and then apply my TD it always extends breaking some tiling
It should work ... I don't have a ton of experience with non-square textures tho, so maybe there's some hidden gotcha in there.
Thanks for the video! That cleared up a lot!
Was wondering how this translates to Lightmap Resolution in Unreal with a 2nd UV set?
Having a hard time to get a clean bake around edges with modular wall meshes. When checking out the Lighmap Density View I'm always a little out of grid. Gotta look more into this...
I don't tend to worry too much about lightmap resolution as I can tweak it inside the game engine pretty easily. As for getting it aligned correctly, you're probably falling afoul of the 1 texel padding thing that lightmass does. Check out my videos on lightmapping where I talk about the grid and all that ...
Love the Video, Thanks for explaining this mystery, and just before I start a personal environment project how timely. :) Would love to see how u use trim sheets. Another game art mystery ! I assume that it is important to have textile density consistent for tiling textures otherwise it wont look correct. Am i right?
I think as long as it looks good from your perspective, you're fine. Trim textures are basically just tiling textures, but in one direction only. So, same rules apply.
Shut up and take my subscription!! Thanks for this useful video.
at 8:17 you relax out the Vase's UV to get rid of the distortion, but in your Quick Tip #14 you talk about how rectanglerizing your UVs has advantages for like packing and stuff. Does it just depend on the asset and whether or not that part of the mesh/UVs will be clearly visible? Like in certain scenarios, you can't afford to have the distortion goin on right?
Yeeeah, it depends ... Like, with that vase if I use the rectangle it'll have a lot of distortion because the neck is so much narrower than the body. On the other hand,. the rectangle would pack better. So it's really a preference and judgement call ...
Surface detail (displacement and normal maps, any design on the texture) would figure into this, too, I'd guess.
Hey Warren,
I have seen you in some forum entries before and this time it´s the first time me watching one of your videos, but to be honest I am a little bit confused about this video. May I ask you something?
You just did. ;) But sure, go ahead.
Warren Marshall
Haha thanks for giving me another one then ;) and yeah thanks also for all the help you offer everywhere.
Then I wondered that you mentioned texel density is more about consistency and not about getting all highres. Also you mentioned that naughty dog is pretty good at having equal amount of detail everywhere what you also repeat in your examples.
But isn’t it impossible or better very difficult currently to have everything in equal detail and I am especially referring to the foreground where the result of dividing the available texels through screen pixels is often smaller or much smaller than 1 when you come close or even really close to an object. In contrast to the background everything is in my understanding way sharper (referring to textures only) since LODs often use those big textures that were created for the highest detail meshes and are used often by these LODs since UVs have been preserved when LODing.
So am I understanding right that it should be more the goal to look at the maximum closeness a player can have to an object to determine the targeted texeldensity for an object and this way reach consistency and save memory and that by default things are currently more sharper/detailed from texture side in the BG than in the foreground/very close to the player?
Or do companies like naughty dog really reach same texture detail everywhere with some extended tricks or do I maybe misunderstand somehow....
It's more about the picture as a whole. If the player looks at a scene and one thing jumps out as super high res or super blurry, then the illusion breaks. Consistency is the primary goal.
I don't know Naughty Dog's specific techniques but I doubt there's any technical voodoo happening. They're just very good at maintaining a consistent texel density feel by knowing what each mesh will be used for and not getting wacky with the scaling and things like that.
Thanks a lot for the great videos! So its a good idea to use a single texture for multiple mesh items? If I have multiple mesh items in Modo, and I want them to share UV space, I just copy/paste the UVs from one object to another? I mean, if I want to keep the meshes separate but let modo pack the uvs as if it was one
> So its a good idea to use a single texture for multiple mesh items?
It can be, if the meshes are in the same area in the game. It's more efficient for rendering.
> If I have multiple mesh items in Modo, and I want them to share UV space, I just copy/paste the UVs from one object to another?
You can, or what I usually do is just copy/paste the polygons themselves ... the UVs come along for the ride.
it's uncanny how much you actually look like mr tumnus
So if I have an image size of 2048, and a texel density of 1m covers 2048 pixels, and I apply that to a prop larger than 1m, does that mean in order for the Uv's to fit they would either need more than 1 UV or I would have to sacrifice texel density? Sorry I'm new to this concept and am trying to understand it.
It sounds like you exactly understand it, well done. :)
If your prop is larger than the UV space then you'll need to either use more than one texture, introduce some tiling textures for the large flat areas, or get creative with mirroring and sharing of UV space. That's if maintaining strict texel density is super important to your project.
In practice, most games are fudged and eyeballed .. so you can get away with a little more density here and a little less there. As long as the differences aren't TOO large, you can get away with it. Especially in a fast paced game like a shooter...
great man, thank you very much! How can i create proper uv's and preparation towards uv tiling? and how exactly do i create uv tiling? is there any good tutorial u can recommend me? Thanks in advance!
This is one of the best videos I've ever seen on tiling textures and atlases. Hope it helps!
th-cam.com/video/IziIY674NAw/w-d-xo.html
@@WarrenMarshallBiz Thanks man!
Great video thank you
Excellent, Warren. Does the ability to set a texel density exist in Max?
Jude Wilson yes with textools plugin
Yeah, what James said. I believe you'd have to use a plugin.
Thanks for the replies, men.
The Textbooks plugin hasn't been updated since 2010, sadly. However, I'll download it all the same and see if it still does the job. Thanks again.
Personally I use Advanced UV Normalizer from PolyTools3D. Solid feature set and TexTools was kinda glitchy for me and destroyed my Uv Shells sometimes.
Top!
Im just leaving this here ❤️
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I was the 512 like hahah
yayy im the first viewer
Grab that brass ring, man.
I feel like there needs to be an EASIER way to do this. It looks so unnecessary complicated.