Gpu max texture size limits texture packs

[MauveCloud]

I discovered in the main Minecraft forums an additional limitation on texture packs that might be good for people who've had issues with large textures to know about, and correct some earlier messages about it: because of the way Minecraft (at least in version 1.7.2 and higher) combines textures into atlases, the max texture size of the gpu will limit the total size of textures that are usable.

I have the following setup:
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770k
Cooler: Thermaltake CLP-0556
MB: ASRock Z87 Extreme4
RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) Crucial DDR3 1600MHz
GPU: 2x Zotac GTX 780
PSU: Seasonic M12II 850W
Case: Corsair 200R
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB
HDD: Seagate 4TB
ODD: Lite-On iHOS104-08 4X Blu-Ray Disc Reader
Wi-Fi: Rosewill RNX-H150G
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 retail
Left Monitor: Asus PB287Q
Right Monitor: Samsung P2770HD

Using pure vanilla 1.7.10 (not even Optifine installed), I can run the PureBDCraft 512x texture pack even with the maximum memory allocation set to only 2GB, but once I install Optifine with default settings, it crashes with a StitcherException even if I give it 12GB. Also, I was watching in Task Manager, and it only got up to about 3.9 GB of memory usage before the crash, so I have to disagree with some of the other posts that said the 512x textures require 32GB or higher of memory - I doubt even a server board with 1.5TB of memory would help. When playing with mods and about 14 resource patches in addition to the main PureBDCraft, I have to bring it down to about 128x.

Minecraft 1.7.10 (and presumably 1.7.2 as well, idk about earlier versions) creates one atlas for blocks and one for items, but 1.8 creates one for both, which is probably why nobody can get the 512x textures to work for 1.8. It's hard to tell whether other things like mob/vehicle textures are included in those.

The max texture size for most recent video cards seems to be 16384x16384. I considered writing a utility to allow users to make their own texture mixes, but then I realized that not only would that potentially conflict with resource/texture pack licensing, it doesn't look that good to have blocks with different texture sizes adjacent (such as by having smooth stone at 256x and a mod ore at 64x).

I hope this information is helpful to other users, and it might even help the resource pack makers toward making a usable 512x resource pack for 1.8, but if somebody knows a way to make Minecraft generate multiple texture atlases as needed, that would be even better, as it might allow using a full set of 512x textures, including mod patches.

[BradleyRWatson]

The people saying that 512x needs 32GB's of RAM are only on about 1.8 MC, not 1.7. I mean, I could run 256x, on 1.7, with 4GB's of RAM and an IntelHD Graphics Card(a really bad one) on my old comp that is.

[MauveCloud]

The people saying that 512x needs 32GB's of RAM are only on about 1.8 MC, not 1.7. I mean, I could run 256x, on 1.7, with 4GB's of RAM and an IntelHD Graphics Card(a really bad one) on my old comp that is.

That wasn't the main point of my post. However, I just tried 1.8.1 with only 2GB allocated, and it was able to handle the 256x PureBDCraft textures, so if it was just a question of having enough ram, I would expect the 512x textures to work with around 8GB allocated, but even with 12GB allocated, they don't. (also, when I tried to run 512x with 2GB allocated, I got an error message in the game window that clearly indicated insufficient memory, so more system memory helps, it just isn't sufficient to enable 512x textures)

I can think of a couple of possible alternate reasons why some machines with 32GB have been able to use 512x textures in MineCraft 1.8.1:
1. I think they've been Linux systems, so Minecraft might internally be using different code to handle the textures.
2. They might have had professional-level graphics cards with higher maximum texture sizes.

[HanFox]

*moved to Chit Chat*

You don't appear to be asking for help, nor does the thread talking about the technicalities of GPUs and the limitations of MC/OGL really strictly help anyone.

Feel free to continue to toss ideas about and debate the issue here though.

I stand corrected.

[MauveCloud]

I was hoping it would help others to realize that just upgrading to 32GB might not be enough to make the 512x textures work in 1.8 (or in 1.7.10 with Optifine connected textures), but I guess most people (myself included) would have trouble affording (or justifying) the purchase of that much ram in the hope of enabling higher-resolution textures in Minecraft anyway.

However, I am to some extent asking for help, as I was hoping somebody might know of a workaround for the texture size limitation, which might actually allow usage of higher resolution textures without requiring me to buy more system ram.

[HanFox]

There is no workaround without someone getting in to and refactoring the entire atlas code and that's really up to Mojang to find a better solution and I'm not sure they're really open to such dialogue. Too busy adding knees and elbows...

It'd likely be an issue with the Java (lwjgl) OpenGL implementation which I would imagine has certain limiting factors compared to other engines in "better" games.

What would be interesting would be to find another Java based game that works well with large amounts of 512x+ textures. If they do exist pointing Mojang toward the better implementation via their bug tracker may be beneficial, but in all honestly Java just doesn't seem meant to do such things.