I was working on something and I had wondered something, what sort of resolutions for textures are acceptable? By that, I mean abnormal sizes, such as 512x768, or 64x96. Do these sort of resolutions work in NWN? Would be nice, because it would eliminate the need to overbloat texture files, if you only need a little more texture space, instead of a whole lot.
If not, would it be better to just split that extra needed space into an extra texture (if possible) or just upgrade the size a bit more?
It depends on what you are doing, some builders will make 5-10 smaller textures for a single creature, while others make entire buildings with a patchwork texture of doors windows roof walls all in one giant texture map...
Ive recently done a series of wall murals with frames for 512x256, and sometimes used smaller tgas 400x200, 498x249, and other irregular sizes, and aside from a bit stretching if the ratio is off, i have noticed no issues with using non-binary sizes.
(Typicly unless you are working on a large object or tileset, you will rarly need above 512x512 , at least for horse sized objects or smaller...)
If you want to compress to DDS textures however, you do need to make them combinations of binary-ish numbers (2,4,8,16,32,etc) i believe.
Ahhh, thank you. What I am working on requires quite a bit of texture space for what I am wanting to do. However, would it be more effective to do a 512x768 TGA or a 512x1024 DDS? I really want to figure this out, because I don't want to find out I did something wrong after I've already textured my model fully. Asking these questions can also potentially help out others who come with similar ideas.
I generally don't like to touch 1024 for resolution, either. I prefer to stick around 256 and 512 for most things. I need more texture space than I anticipated for my model, but not that much.
As to elaborate what I am working on, I am working on techno-magic wings for the Technomancy Challenge, I have them set up to animate, setting up their texture space, and am going to be importing them into a program to work on the texture itself. I anticipate I need a couple texture files, not counting emitter textures. I am just hoping it won't bog down, because of this.
I recently made a tree foliage texture (with transparency) at 4096 size and was surprised that NWN did not complain. Mind you there was a single tree, and all parts of the model with that texture were bound to the same mesh.
I usually use .tga textures, these will work in basically all dimensions you can come up with.
As far as the .tga vs .dds is concerned: to my knowledge textures were converted to .dds back in the day for performance reasons (any veterans around may correct me on this one). For now, you should be fine with either of the file-extensions as long as your texture is properly mapped onto your model.
As Carcerian already pointed out, it is also possible to limit the amount of textures you are going to use by making a ''patchwork-texture''. This is done through the UVW-unwrap modifier (using your 3D-modeling software of choice). This technique requires some practice but, in my experience, allows for greater control over the detail of your texture map without needing multiple texture files.
In conclusion: either .tga or .dds is fine; .tga will work in any given dimensions; multiple textures are fine but techniques for limiting the amount of textures are present
Alright, groovy. My software of choice is 3ds Max / MODO, I'm more familiar with the former, but the concept really does not change much program to program. I'm familiar with patchwork layouts, and they are useful but they hold the same problem as any texture map, you need to know how to fit the pieces of the puzzle together for optimal packing.
As for conversion to DDS; back in the day, that would be a thing, but even today there is no harm in doing it still I think. If your dimensions can afford it, then I say go right ahead. Especially if you're going to use a bunch of separate images, I would think. The game does not get bogged down, but it is still good practice to fully optimize every bit of your models that you can.
<blowing the... >
I have done rectangular as extreme as 32x1024 without problems but had issues with 512x768 and other odds and sods...
<... Whistle>
A question, could it be that on some computers, 512x768 would work, while on others it would break and appear wonky or crashy? But alright, I will wait for tomorrow then! 
Acceptable texture sizes should conform to a power of 2, ie 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 and so on. Length and width do not need to be equal, thus a 256x512 texture would work.
Don't remember what happens when using a texture that does not conform.
MDA
A question, could it be that on some computers, 512x768 would work, while on others it would break and appear wonky or crashy? But alright, I will wait for tomorrow then!
I could see that being the case.... I'm currently having trouble with some of the heads in the last PQ update, the textures don't show up. Even though they are smaller (something like 64x137) than textures that show up fine for me (512X512), I was told the issue is a GPU one.
I haven't gotten around to making the texture's dimensions into a binary number, but since they aren't and they don't show up, yeah... I can see it being an issue for some computers.
<doffing hat...>
First an old ghosty thread with Tyndrel. Like our friend, the images seem to be long gone, but the sense remains.
second is in the CCC guidelines.
A tangential thread about NPC textures.
None of these are official references but they all stem from years of experience with NwN ;-P
Plainly put, and it may be specific to certain graphics cards, The power-of-three, er, two, dimensions are charmed and non-power of two dims cause problems with tiles, placeables and character textures.
<...hand on heart>
I could see that being the case.... I'm currently having trouble with some of the heads in the last PQ update, the textures don't show up. Even though they are smaller (something like 64x137) than textures that show up fine for me (512X512), I was told the issue is a GPU one.
I haven't gotten around to making the texture's dimensions into a binary number, but since they aren't and they don't show up, yeah... I can see it being an issue for some computers.
Manny can you list out those heads for me. I'll take a look at the textures and see what I can do.
EDIT - NM, found your original post.
This is just a guess and all, educated as it may be, but past graphics cards did not support non-binary dimensions it seems. So therefore, in an older game, although after such an amount of time has passed from the creation of the game to now, it is unlikely to find such, there could still be people with specs that don't support more modern toys or methods.
With that said...
I could see that being the case.... I'm currently having trouble with some of the heads in the last PQ update, the textures don't show up. Even though they are smaller (something like 64x137) than textures that show up fine for me (512X512), I was told the issue is a GPU one.
I haven't gotten around to making the texture's dimensions into a binary number, but since they aren't and they don't show up, yeah... I can see it being an issue for some computers.
How old is your GPU, Manny? If you are affected, and have a dated system, it could just be tied to age of GPU. However, with this being said, one must remember to not exclude those with older systems if that is the case, because as scarce as it might be, in an older game it must be kept in mind. In more modern games, older computers can be completely disregarded, but for a game that was built with older systems in mind, leaving the older systems behind in the dust, is a bit of a bad move. 
To me, being crippled, slowed down, or hampered by anything added to NWN is a bit of an odd thought, but I know such is not the case for everyone, and I suppose everyone should realize that too.
<reluctantly giving...>
I have a gforce 305m mobile gfx card that is good enough to run NwN2 decently. It still has issues with non-binary textures in NwN1 :-P
I have also owned a fairly recent radeon card and had the same success/issues regarding textures, but that machine is purely bisiness now, so that's from memory :-P
It is my hope, moving forward, that maybe something can be done to leverage the great pool of NwN assets into a new, more modern engine. But until then... *shrug* just make your textures binary :-)
<...disclosure>
Even in modern engines like Unity3d, it is preferential to use binary textures (or at least this was the case in Unity3d back when i was using it a few years ago). In general its a good practice to maintain as the world is filled with legacy code which ran with this assumption for textures.
Just do it.
DDS files have 4:1 or 6:1 lossy compression, compared to (optional) lossless compression in TGA files. So even if you expand the DDS 768 width to 1024, it may still be smaller and load into memory faster than a TGA file.
How old is your GPU, Manny? If you are affected, and have a dated system, it could just be tied to age of GPU.
It's no so much that it's old, but that it's an onboard graphics chip (intel) on a laptop meant for business, not games. Most of the time when I get whited out models in game, I know it's just that my system doesn't like them, so I ferret out the texture and shrink it down for a patch override. Most of the time it's an easy enough fix for me to do on my end and Im just happy that this dinky little machine plays NWN at all (and actually, plays smoother and doesn't crash from hardpoint's dragons like my last laptop with a nvidia card and twice as much ram... go figure).
Acceptable texture sizes should conform to a power of 2, ie 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 and so on. Length and width do not need to be equal, thus a 256x512 texture would work.
Don't remember what happens when using a texture that does not conform.
MDA
Just to expand upon this...
Looking back through VERY OLD irc convo logs, what MDA says is very true; however, the textures should be incremental scalings of 8 based upon an 8-bit binary scale. Hence these sizes WILL work (along with any combo thereof):
8x8 - minimum recommended size
16x16
32x32
64x64
128x128
256x256
512x512
1024x1024 - maximum recommended size
The game engine is optimized for 256x256 and 512x512 mapping.
Furthermore, for odd shaped textures it is recommended that the larger axis never be more than 2x the size of the smaller axis (e.g. 256x512, 512x1024).
A little off-topic, but that's one of the things that has caused me no small despair about NWN. Anything prior to Skyrim beyond ULTRA settings, my system can handle. Every game runs flawlessly. But my favorite game of all time? STILL drops on the fps and is plagued with micro-lag! I've troubleshot so much over the years, done everything we could imagine, and it still won't play in top shape!
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