Quick question about doodads

[Kieme(ITA)]

Hi everybody,

I'd like to ask something about doodads, since I have no knowledge of game development, programming etc... my knowledge about these doodads things is how do they look like in the game,so here's the question:

is it possible to change the size of the doodads?

Example: a crop in game has a 1024x512 resolution, is is possible to make a 1024x1024 doodads in its place?

Or does the game only recognize it if it's in the correct original res?

Thanks in advance,

[Fuser]

The game recognizes textures with the factor of 2 of the stock ones, but won´t resize the 3d model, just the texture. You can make better resolution textures (that somehow will be resized by the engine)and they look better too.

[Kieme(ITA)]

Thanks Aris,

so, a perfectly double sized texture should be recognized for the doodas too?

I might start experimenting, but the problem is, there might be (surely be) errors on my side on the doodad preparation so that I'm not sure if it's just impossible or not to have larger ones.

No dice, I did try to fool the program with a 200% sized doodad, a 400% one and it still resizes them at his stock resolution / size.

Well, so long giant mushrooms mod!

[Fuser]

Yes, the game recognizes them, resizes them and the overall result is a slight improval at the cost of a MUCH bigger texture size.

[MikeyD]

Some doodad textures require a straight black-or-white knockout Alpha channel, no greyscale pixels allowed. If, in the process of resizing, the alpha channel extrapolates a fuzzy grey edge to an object it'll kill the art entirely. Some doodad art isn't like this (leaves, grass are safe) but some is.

Textures can be resized and reproportioned but dimensions need to stick to the 'power of 2' rule. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048. And don't forget you're 'stealing from Peter to pay Paul', the more graphics card resources you dedicate to rendering grass the fewer resources there are to render everything else.

[Kieme(ITA)]

Very well, thanks for the explanations.

I just hope there will be a larger variety of doodads / terrains in future CM games, as they can be modded to obtain very different results and have a certain potential when it comes to nature representation.

[Juju]

Yeah, what MikeyD said. You might want to especially watch out quadrupling file sizes for 'background' elements that are all over the map, such as the tall grasses. That'll kill your frame rates for no real gain.