Mipmapping Vehicles

[EmperorTigris]

Whenever I try to mipmap a vehicle texture with Magic.TXD, the game doesn't load up. How come? It doesn't occur when I mipmap other textures.

 

Thanks in advance.

[EmperorTigris]

Nevermind solved it. All good now.

 

The solution was to not mipmap "vehicles.txd"!

[LaDiDa]

I'm fairly sure you can mipmap vehicle.txd's textures (but I don't think it uses them). Changing the format of the textures in RGB(A) 888(8) format to anything else will however cause a crash. Same goes for particle.txd.

[DK22Pac]

You can use mipmaps and compression for vehicle.txd and particle.txd textures, except these textures:

• vehiclegrunge256
• platecharset
• roadsign

[EmperorTigris]

<p>

 

You can use mipmaps and compression for vehicle.txd and particle.txd textures, except these textures:

• vehiclegrunge256
• platecharset
• roadsign

 

You know? The first time I did that my game didn't load up. The next time, I actually mipmapped those textures single by single, to see which one causes the crash and in the end none of them crashed.

[DK22Pac]

Actually you can generate mipmaps for these textures, but you won't be able to see them (mipmaps) ingame (because only first mip level of these textures is used), so it's not needed.

[EmperorTigris]

Actually you can generate mipmaps for these textures, but you won't be able to see them (mipmaps) ingame (because only first mip level of these textures is used), so it's not needed.

 

Thanks.

[Ash_735]

Is there any point in mipmapping vehicle textures? In the 3D era once the vehicle switches from the low quality version, it'd be calling the highest mipmap anyway. HAD era makes sense due to the multiple lod forms and transition.

[DK22Pac]

There's no any relation between vehicle LOD and mipmap levels.

[EmperorTigris]

Is there any point in mipmapping vehicle textures? In the 3D era once the vehicle switches from the low quality version, it'd be calling the highest mipmap anyway. HAD era makes sense due to the multiple lod forms and transition.

 

Mipmapping removes the texture flickering in the game. I can't imagine playing this game without mipmapping.

 

I don't know what you mean.

[Ash_735]

I mean when a vehicle becomes normal, it's going to use the highest mipmap so what benefit is there? I doubt it'll treat it like a normal surface (e.g. roads, plants, buildings, etc). If the 3D era games do somehow use mipmaps on vehicles (when the txd contains them) then I'd like to seem some examples comparing both.

[DK22Pac]

I don't see any reasons why mipmapping shouldn't work with vehicle/ped models.

[XanaBax]

I mean when a vehicle becomes normal, it's going to use the highest mipmap so what benefit is there? I doubt it'll treat it like a normal surface (e.g. roads, plants, buildings, etc). If the 3D era games do somehow use mipmaps on vehicles (when the txd contains them) then I'd like to seem some examples comparing both.

GTA SA uses mipmaps on vehicles. Though I don't know about other 3D era games.

Here's a comparison:

 

 

 

 

Carbon on the 1st pic has only one mipmap level, on the 2nd pic it has 8 mipmap levels

[EmperorTigris]

I mean when a vehicle becomes normal, it's going to use the highest mipmap so what benefit is there? I doubt it'll treat it like a normal surface (e.g. roads, plants, buildings, etc). If the 3D era games do somehow use mipmaps on vehicles (when the txd contains them) then I'd like to seem some examples comparing both.

 

When I don't apply mipmaps on vehicles then the vehicle's textures flicker like crazy for me (especially when they're a bit far away from me). Therefore I have to do it.

Edited February 4, 2018 by EmperorTigris

[Ash_735]

In the above example I can't see any benefit still, if the normal vehicles are flickering (which sounds more like a texture error itself than mipmaps) then I'd like to see how mipmaps are fixing that, can you post some examples of what vehicles flicker in a quick video or screenshots or something and then show the mipmapped ones?

[EmperorTigris]

In the above example I can't see any benefit still, if the normal vehicles are flickering (which sounds more like a texture error itself than mipmaps) then I'd like to see how mipmaps are fixing that, can you post some examples of what vehicles flicker in a quick video or screenshots or something and then show the mipmapped ones?

 

https://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/mipmapping.html

[DK22Pac]

Actually M4k3 gave good example with working mipmaps on vehicle models.

 

Now it's your time to proof your words

 

 

when a vehicle becomes normal, it's going to use the highest mipmap

Show us an example where we can see this.

Edited February 6, 2018 by DK22Pac

[Ash_735]

But in the screenshot provided, the vehicle looks the same in both in terms of textures, only special parts differences which isn't affected by textures.

 

The OP is the one who said vehicles flicker due to a lack of mipmap, something I've never seen before, so I want proof that it's related to vehicle textures (preferably an actual GTA vehicle, not a nodded one). I'm not saying the game doesn't use mipmaps, it's really noticeable when applied to floors, foliage, buildings, etc, but in the case of vehicles and even weapons/pickups, there isn't a visible benefit to applying mipmaps from my own tests.

 

I'll happily test again when I have free time because I even created tester textures to show the different mipmap levels.

[XanaBax]

But in the screenshot provided, the vehicle looks the same in both in terms of textures, only special parts differences which isn't affected by textures.

 

The OP is the one who said vehicles flicker due to a lack of mipmap, something I've never seen before, so I want proof that it's related to vehicle textures (preferably an actual GTA vehicle, not a nodded one). I'm not saying the game doesn't use mipmaps, it's really noticeable when applied to floors, foliage, buildings, etc, but in the case of vehicles and even weapons/pickups, there isn't a visible benefit to applying mipmaps from my own tests.

 

I'll happily test again when I have free time because I even created tester textures to show the different mipmap levels.

Special parts differences? What? I guess there's a misunderstanding.

 

That texture flickering is most noticable on higher quality tileable textures. Floors, roads often use such textures but GTA SA vehicles use them really rarely (I know only Dune's mesh). Some flickering can be noticed from some camera angles and from a distance. Here's a screenshot of the mesh with and without mipmaps. Also, Premier's wheels without and with mipmaps. And slight texture flickering can be noticed on carbon exhaust pipes of NRG-500 if you rotate the camera at a moderate distance from the bike.

 

Now about the previous screenshots. I wrote that the difference is how a tileable carbon texture looks in-game without and with mipmaps. Well I have another screenshot and this time the flickering is really visible.

[Ash_735]

Hmm so what you're saying is that it's more noticeable on modded vehicles because of the use of higher resolution textures, but standard vehicles will rarely show such things, apart from vehicles with mesh like textures, I'll have to check this out, curious to see how well vehicles treat it.

[-Anti-]

Is there any point in mipmapping vehicle textures? In the 3D era once the vehicle switches from the low quality version, it'd be calling the highest mipmap anyway.

There are LOD models using the textures of the regular vehicle model. Which makes the mipmap useful even if the regular vehicle model wouldn't be using it

 

@M4k3: I'm pretty sure that the thing you call flickering is known as Moire pattern.

[Ash_735]

Well an interesting find so far is that on the PS2, ONE vehicle has mipmaps, DUNE, which are missing on the PC version, and on the PS2 they are only mipmapped down to 8x8.