Curious Valve Decisions
From Valve Developer Community
Note: This article is NOT about bashing Valve. This article is simply a list of things Valve have done that is unusual and unexplained in any officially released item. Perhaps we can expand the knowledge of the community if a Valve employee gives a response to a specific Silly Mistake, like why it was done, or how to avoid it if you are a mapper/modder/coder/etc. When adding a Silly Mistake, include an image showing the silly mistake, or an accurate description of the mistake and how to reproduce it.Material System
de_train
Here is an apparently silly mistake made with the de_train/train_blank_billboard material (for Counter-Strike: Source).
 | This is the material in-use within Hammer. This texture is scaled 0.25 in both directions to fit on a 128w, 64h, 4d brush. |
 | Now we see the actual texture. However, the material itself has for some reason been made as a 512x512 material, with the right "half" taking up the first 512x256 area on the top, and the left "half" using the bottom 512x256 area, as opposed to an inline 1024x256 material. This means it does not infact fit on a single brush, the brush must be split in two, causing more work for the rendering engine due to increased number of world brush faces. |
The question posed by this Silly Mistake is: Is there some negative side effect to using a 1024x256 .vtf file as opposed to a 512x512
Answer 1: This is in fact, not a silly mistake, but an optimization. Square textures render faster, so it's always better to use a square texture when possible. --Spektre1 18:51, 12 Nov 2005 (PST)
Answer 2: Creating a 1024x256 VTF is impossible. --TomEdwards 03:37, 13 Nov 2005 (PST)
- Theres actually a 1024x256 VTF in the de_train materials folder, it has "decal" in its name, but it renders properly as a regular texture when applied to a world brush and viewed ingame. AnarkiNet
Also note that de_train, and I assume all the custom content, was created by Turtle Rock, not Valve. --Tequila 15:17, 13 Nov 2005 (PST)
Answer 3: Older graphics cards handle square, power-of-2 textures much better than new cards. Also, if a card's maximum texture size is say, 512x512, a 1024x256 texture will get reduced to 512x128, resulting in a loss of quality.—Zevensoft (talk) 00:32, 15 Nov 2005 (PST)
