Design resolution

News & General Discussion
1

Hi All,

I am working with an external designer and i need to be able to give him advice on design assets for a game we are developing for consoles. Does anyone have any advice on the resolution to design at to get the best quality but keep the download size small.

Really just looking for any advice at all.

Thanks

Jonathan

2

I’m assuming you are talking about textures and graphics? High quality textures are normally 1024x1024, or sometimes they are rarely even 2056x2056.

A simple 1024x1024 image with nothing but noise is around a 1.5MB file size.
Another image that is 512x512 with only noise is around a 400KB file size.

Personally I would recommend 512x512. Just remember to keep all texture resolution as a power of 2 that way they scale properly and the quality is not distorted.

3

Sorry. I should have mentioned it’s a 2D game.

Thanks

4

What console(s), what types of images (sprites? UI?), how are they being used?

Next gen consoles often use 4096x4096 for 3D models, but 2D can really vary.

You could make sprites pixel-perfect for each console or make a master sprite in the highest supported resolution and downscale it. If your artist works in a vector drawing tool, he can rasterize at whatever resolution(s) you need.

Use the same reference resolution for all textures. If you fill the top half of the screen with a 1024x1024 texture, don’t try to fill the bottom with a 512x512. Every source pixel in the bottom texture will be rendered twice as big as the top texture, giving an uneven appearance.

1 Like
5

Thanks for the reply. Right now my major concern is the size of fullscreen backgrounds for UI. I think making a master sprite at the largest resolution sounds the best idea, what would you recommend.

Thanks

6

That sounds like a good idea.