Texture resolution

[threexgreen 3,135]

I have my texture resolution set to ultra 4096x4096 but it just crossed my mind this is only because FB and (I think) FSDT sceneries want it like this. Since a 4k TV doesn't even have this resolution I'm doubting this even makes sense to select? On the other hand, will turning it down to high yield any performance increase when there aren't even any textures actually using ultra resolution?

[Nighthwk 566]

28 minutes ago, threegreen said:

I have my texture resolution set to ultra 4096x4096 but it just crossed my mind this is only because FB and (I think) FSDT sceneries want it like this. Since a 4k TV doesn't even have this resolution I'm doubting this even makes sense to select? On the other hand, will turning it down to high yield any performance increase when there aren't even any textures actually using ultra resolution?

4K textures will just be a higher resolution, making them look nicer. Like going from a 1080p monitor to a 4K monitor. You will see a bit of a difference, but not a huge one when compared to 2048. The only performance impact that I'm aware of is increased VRAM usage. I'd reccomend 2048 as you can barely tell the difference between the 2 and every little bit of VRAM you can get in V4 helps. Once you run out of VRAM, it will be a slideshow.

[Chock 17,769]

This is probably one of the best explanations there is as to what the difference will mean:

http://tay.kinja.com/screen-resolution-vs-texture-resolution-a-point-wort-1786369820

[mawibo 33]

1 hour ago, threegreen said:

... because FB and (I think) FSDT sceneries want it like this ...

To add to what has been said above, FSDT (and maybe others) use 4K textures for performance reasons, not for reasons of higher resolution: 16 1k x 1k texture sheets are combined into 1 4K x 4K texture sheet. The GPU thus has to load a smaller number of files leading to a small performance increase. VRAM usage is however the same as when 1k textures would have been used. If you use one of those sceneries and then limit the texture size to 2k or lower, the simulator will actually downsample the textures and you will loose details. If the source material does not include 4K textures, you will not see any difference in quality or performance between the 2k and 4K settings. The setting is a limit to the size of the textures the simulator will use.

All of this is independ of your monitor resolution: the final image quality in your brain depends on the resolution and quality of the source material, your eyesight, the distance between your eyes and the monitor, the resolution of your monitor, the quality of your monitor, the size of your monitor and what you consider to be good quality.

Maarten

[threexgreen 3,135]

Thanks everyone, it's clear as day to me now!