Postal Babes for UT

[Feralidragon]

Do you still have the original 2Mb texture package? If so, could you send it to me? I want to do an experiment (I have a small suspicion on this DXT1 thing I want to clear out, it's just one of those things that are too good to be true, so I want to make sure about something).

[JackGriffin]

Of course!

TexturesCompare.zip

(1.97 MiB) Downloaded 29 times

Please let me know about the validity of this because I'm going to convert the FF mod if it's valid

[Feralidragon]

Thanks

I am looking into this with a set of 3 total experiments.
The first experiment is: comparison relative uz compression between both packages.
My theory is that they would end up the about same, which would pretty much kill the purpose of having that work of compressing (due to redirect services on servers, and a more effective zip when distributing it).

However, having made the experiment:
Original textures: 2.3Mb >> 1.2Mb
Optimized textures: 1.2Mb >> 800kb

So as far as the first experiment goes, it worths the trouble of compressing.

Now, the second experiment I will only be able to perform when I get home (10 hours from now D: ), and will consist with actual usage and tolerance to potential crashes and compatibility issues on a pure v436 install.
So, I invite everyone in first instance to test this mod in different machines, in different renderers, resolutions and texture quality settings.
If it gets corrupted in a single one of these, or if it crashes a single renderer, well, then... ):


The 3rd one would be trying these in a server, with redirect (but I guess that test was already made).

But if everything works and passes in your tests and the tests I am going to perform, then Dr. Flay made the discovery of the century

[JackGriffin]

It looks pretty close to the same ratio on compression so the reduced size isn't losing ground there. Yeah, this could be really really big stuff Flay.

[Feralidragon]

Btw, these DXT1 textures are still 256-color?

[Creavion]

DXT1 compressed textures ARE smaller than P8 (256 color textures, 8 bit). That is not surprising at all.

[Feralidragon]

Yeah, it's official: UT99 supports DXT1.
I still didn't make the experiments, but I just found this was something already known, read here:
http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Legacy:S3TC

The DDS part, and there's a small trade off.

[JackGriffin]

I'll admit I don't get most of this so what's the bottom line? Use this or don't?

[Feralidragon]

Basically put:
- if you load highres DXT1 in Ued2.0, once you click on them, crash;
- Older hardware that doesn't support DX8 at least won't be able to load up the maps/mods;
- if you make a highres DXT1 package and another twin package with 8-bit low res one, and then use the ucc mergedxt, you get a bullet proof package to load in Ued2.0, in-game depending on your hardware, etc.
- DXT1 is 50% of compression *at max*.

I don't know about you guys, but I am between using and not using them (I have tons of textures, and are all optimized to the point each package has only 2Mb worth of textures, which get highly compressed anyway in uz for redirects, so... idk if it's worth it, I will try anyway just to check out the final effect vs work to achieve it).

[Creavion]

Yeah, it's official: UT99 supports DXT1.

Of course it does! DieHards Highres/Retexture Project exists already for YEARS! He started it long before you found your way in the ut modding scene.

You can not import DXT1 textures into the ed directly (as you figured), not with these old render devices. They either crash nearly after import or they only show these black-white stripe thingies.
D3D8, D3D9 and newer versions of OpenGL are able to "read" these S3TC textures but only ingame (does not apply for Unreal of course).

Basically what you tried is mostly already known for a long time, sry Ferali^^

BTW: I would not suggest you to play with DXT1 textures for real. Very possible you will mess up anything and everything during online playing.

[Feralidragon]

I think you didn't get the actual idea here, I knew about the DXT1 support for S3TC, the actual thing is: DXT1 for 8-bit regular low res textures (=50% compression, and better compression when uzipped).
But anyway, you're probably right, it doesn't worth the effort given the problems it may cause later.

[Creavion]

DXT1 for 8-bit regular low res textures (=50% compression, and better compression when uzipped).

oh... uhm. Ok yearh you got me there. But yearh.. let us forget about that^^

[JackGriffin]

Yay, it's settled

Now can we get back to the dancing gurls?

[papercoffee]

What dancing girls???

[JackGriffin]

I think they wandered off while we discussed this Looks like no love for gopo now