Lite version for the models?

While i'm working on the Mora model

most of the people who use a lot my models reached the point of frustration about the SFM RAM limit, as you know many of my models are a huge load on the RAM on SFM and its even worse when this one its caped to 3 GB and just running a empaty map take 1 gb just leaving the 2 GB to load models

let me make a small brief,

SFM its a 32 bits program so at maximun can use 3-4 Gb of ram on you sistem, beyond that it will crash, taking that in count

the average size of the geometry data of my models are just 10 or maybe 20 mb per model pack, so what its actually taking so much ram?

TEXTURES

Usually, my models are composed in 2, 4K textures for the head and body and small group of 2048, 1024, 512 textures for smaller detaills

but the root of the problem its not the texture resolution (but its a factor)

VTF its the native format for all texture data, the VMT its actually a just a text file what intermediate for the texture and model and tell the texture how it should work

form there the texture have 2 compression format but for mortals im gonna make it easier,

COMPRESED

and

NO COMPRESED

to make it easier

a compressed format its the same way as you see a JPG file however the data color its really affected by this compression especially in the normal maps

in the plus side, a 2k texture compresed can weight 2 or 4 mb

in the other hand you have the same texture with 2k res Uncompresed can weight 12 mb

In my models the rule its 4k uncompressed with alpha map, so each texture for face and body weights 80 MB each one and 60 mb for his normal map making each material around the 120 MB of ram taken to ensure lossless quality as possible to the original PNGs

its not a surprise why my models usually take 300-400 mb of ram each one

also that prevents some squared nipple bumps and artifacts in the gradients or the Greenish tone what the compresor give

now,

the models performs perfectly well when it's alone or with another model of similar weight, But giving 3 or 4 characters starting to cause issues to the SFM stability due his ram limit

so considering what i cannot pack or recompile all models again to accept a lite version the textures what will create a buch of duplicated and tecnically a mess of data

most healthy solution its just swap the VTF with a compression quality

the drawback its... you just can use one at time, if you have the actual textures are the hi res one, but if you want to use several characters and struggles with the ram in a single poster you need to install the low quality pack to reduce the impact of the ram, knowing what the artifacts are barely visible

but if you want the full quality for 1 ,2 or 3 characters in a poster of animation and the details of the texture are vital, (like close up nipples or face shoots or a stand pose with full cloths) you need to install the original textures again

my recommendation its use the compressed low quality ones when you want a lots of characters in the stage and the small details in cloths, nipples,face aren't important at all in the context of the scene, specially in large scenebuildings

and use the uncompressed ones when you want a snapshot of a single character or use with 2 or 3 (at maximum) and want to ensure there's no artifacts in important places

taking that in count, i will deploy future packs with both textures (compresed and uncompressed ones) if you are agreed with this workflow and can handle it

also

Angela Cross
Carmelita montoya
Freya Crescent
Blaze the Cat
Fox Pack
Alilkira and Klem

will have his Compressed edition during this month