next »

[Tuba]

I'm working on a 3D game for the first time and this is something I've been having difficulty with. Been searching for some tips on the Internet but strangely I couldn't find much information about this.

Taking this screenshot from Dishonored as an example:


It's hard to find where the brick wall texture is repeating but it has to be repeating somewhere because we can't afford unique textures this big... or can we?

It's probably using decals and normal maps to feel more distinct, but I can't really confirm that.

So, anyone with experience on this could give me any tips on how to make my textures/environment feel less bland without breaking the texture memory?

[ThemsAllTook]

I'm not sure how relevant it is today, but an old technique I remember hearing about was to use multiple textures on the same surface - one with a repeating pattern, and one that's stretched over a larger area to add some subtle color variation to break up the grid. If the scale difference between the two is aperiodic, it might be possible to create an infinite surface without tiling being too noticeable.

[Mannapi]

There are a few options.

One is to have 2 separate UV channels, and use them in a shader for different textures, one modulating the other.

Another would be to use the world position as a texture coordinate for looking up into a modulating texture, either 2D with a bit of magic, or my preference, a 3D texture.

There are probably others that I can´t think of off the top of my head.

[BorisTheBrave]

Your dishonoured example does use a repeating pattern. I've highlighted some stand out bricks that occur multiple times, you should be able to follow the pattern from there.



It could be there is some low frequency variation or decal as the bricks aren't the identical color each time, but I think it more likely to just be global illumination differences. Can you find a high-res image?

----

You can also use wang tiles to avoid having a repeating grid, but I don't think this is common in AAA games.

However, I gather the biggest trick is simply in the artistry of the texture. To spot a repeating pattern, you have to find a distinct feature that you can see in multiple places. I looked for unusually light or dark bricks in the above.
So the trick is to make textures that show what you want without having any distinguishing features (or equivalently: features have lots of similar features in the same texture, making it hard to spot an exact duplicate). Doesn't matter how repetitive your tiles are if the user cannot easily spot it!

Likewise, breaking up large flat plans with extra geometry works very well and improves the look of the game in general. That is used effectively for the y-axis in your example.

[Mannapi]

I forgot to mention vertex colors!

[Tuba]

Lots of useful information already, thanks.

That screenshot was actually taken from me, 5 years ago, I've resized it to post on a website and sadly I don't have the original one.

What is the acceptable size for a texture these days though?

[ThemsAllTook]

At least 2048 for sure. Maybe 4096 these days? Depends how much on the cutting edge you want to be. Here are the sources I check for that sort of thing:

https://developer.apple.com/opengl/OpenGL-Capabilities-Tables.pdf
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

[Tuba]

I used 4096 for some spritesheets in UE4 and it takes a while to load... :/

Thanks for the links

[Ordnas]

There is the detail map, a second texture that contains some variations, tiling the 2 textures at different frequencies.