[Opensim-dev] The case for greater than 1024x1024 pixel textures.

[Kevin Cozens]

On 11-11-06 11:53 PM, Amy Smith wrote:
> This is part of an effort to increase the awareness in
> the developer community of a longstanding need among
> OpenSim content creators and designers of simulator
> environments, for higher resolution pixel textures

I'm not sure that is such a good idea. It could fill up the memory of a 
video card if you had several large textures in nearby objects. I have 
wondered about the possibility of one or both of two other options.

First, add support for scalable vector graphics. This wouldn't solve the 
"cartoon look" but would allow for things like signs and certain other 
images to be scaled without loss of quality to any size required.

Second, add support for a (Renderman-like?) shading language system. Shaders 
are used by rendering systems used in 3D modelling and/or animation programs 
(such as Blender). Examples of shading language based rendering packages are 
Yafray, Aqsis, Pixie, and 3Delight. This would not be an easy thing to 
implement as there would need to be changes on the viewer end to support 
editing of shader parameters. It would certainly open up a lot of 
interesting possibilities for item textures and effects.