Using single textures

Single textures use a single image for the texture.

Before you can create a texture in Kanzi Studio you first have to have an image you use in that texture. You can create the texture image in a third-party tool and import the image to Kanzi Studio. See Importing images.

Make sure that the image and texture formats match. When image and texture formats do not match, Kanzi Engine converts them during the loading of your Kanzi application using the CPU of the target platform. This can significantly increase the amount of time it takes to launch your application.

For example, if a texture is grayscale and uses transparency, in Kanzi Studio set the texture Format property to Grayscale alpha (8-bit) instead of, for example, RGBA (8-bit). A 256 by 256 pixels RGBA texture uses 262 kb (256 * 256 * 4). When you use grayscale with alpha channel, the same texture uses 131 kb (256 * 256 * 2).

When image and texture formats do not match, Kanzi Studio shows this warning in the Log window:

Application WARNING: The format of the texture '<TextureName>' does not match the format of the image '<ImageName>'.
	To improve the performance of your application, make sure the formats of the image and the texture match.

Creating a single texture

To create a single texture:

1. In the Library press Alt and right-click Materials and Textures and select Single Texture.
2. In the Properties set the Image property to the image you want to use for the texture.
   Avoid creating mipmaps from .jpeg textures, because the .jpeg image format causes the quality of the mipmaps to degrade.
3. Texture Settings properties to control the texture filtering. Start by setting the Mipmap Mode property to the mipmap mode you want to use. Then set the Magnification Filter and Minification Filter properties to Linear. Note that using mipmaps increases the memory use.
   Usually the best starting point for setting texture filtering is to set:
   • Magnification Filter to Linear
   • Minification Filter to Linear
   • Mipmap Mode to Nearest. If you are sure that the texture is not minified select Base, otherwise start with Nearest. For example, the default value for a Render Target Texture is Base. With this setting, the texture does not have mipmap levels and the base level is always sampled.
     If you set the Mipmap Mode property to Linear or Nearest do either of these:
     • In the Render Pass you use to render this texture set the Mipmap Level to 0 and enable the Generate Mipmaps property. With this setting Kanzi generates the mipmap levels.
     • Create as many Render Passes as you have mipmap levels in the texture.

   Set the Format property to the format you want to use for the texture. Because not all devices can render all texture formats, make sure that your target platform supports the format you select. For example, texture formats with a non-power of two pixel size are not always supported (RGB) while RGBA format is widely supported.

   

   Note that some texture formats are available with OpenGL ES versions higher than 2.0. To set the OpenGL ES version, in the main menu select Project > Properties and set the Target Graphics API property.
   
   For example, set the Target Graphics API property to OpenGL ES 2.0 Extension Pack to use the RGBA float (16-bit) texture format.

   Magnification Filter Minification Filter	Mipmap Mode
   	Base mipmap	Nearest mipmap	Linear mipmap
   Nearest sample	Number of samples: 1 Uses the nearest pixel in the texture. This combination is equal to point sample. It returns the crudest result of all combinations and can cause aliasing when minified. Use this combination to get a very sharp result when magnifying the texture.	Number of samples: 1 Helps texture caching and helps reduce aliasing. However, it can produce a sharp transition when the texture is used on a flat surface. Use this combination when you want good performance and cannot afford better quality on your target platform. This combination is usually the fastest.	Number of samples: 2 Takes one sample from two mipmap levels and interpolates between those samples. Use this combination for special effects. For example, to implement the rim light effect.
   Linear sample	Number of samples: 4 Interpolates between four nearest pixels in the texture. Use this combination to magnify gradients. However, do not use it for minification.	Number of samples: 4 Takes two samples from two mipmap levels and interpolates between these samples. Use this combination as the starting point. This combination is usually the best compromise between quality and performance. If you know there is no minification, you can set Mipmap Mode to Base.	Number of samples: 8 Takes four samples from two mipmap levels and interpolates between these samples. Use this combination when you want the best quality and your platform is powerful enough to effortlessly render the result. This combination has the largest negative impact on performance.

Using a single texture

You can use single textures on Model and Image nodes:

• To use a texture on a mesh, set the material that supports textures to use your texture, and then set the mesh to use that material. See Creating textured materials.
• To use a single texture on an Image node, in the Project select the Image node, and in the Properties set the Image property to the single texture you want to use on that Image node. See Using the Image node.

See also

Creating textured materials

Using cubemap textures

Using render target textures

Images

Material types and materials

Importing

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