Texture Expansion Packs and Shaders - Advice and clarity required

vijayasimhabr

I seem to be learning something new every week. and this week, I found out that, for clothing or Hair, I can just set the surface to any shader color i have from any other product.

But then, you also have a lot of clothes and hairs which sell bonus texture packs. I have been buying those constantly.

So, am I a chump for spending all the money on these texture packs, especially, when I can set anything I want from the shader collection? I am just so confused and feeling ambiguos about future texture pack or expansion add-ons for clothes and hairs.

Leana

Custom textures and shaders both have their advantages and drawbacks.

With custom textures you can paint specific details where you want, for example add trims or ornaments in specific places. You can also paint your textures to ensure smooth transitions at seams.

With shaders you can have a lot of variety. On the other hand, you're limited to tiling patterns, and the result will be highly dependent on what material zones that item has and the quality of the mapping of the item you used: if the mapping is uneven your pattern will be distorted, by example. You also might get more problems around seams.

So no, you're not stupid if you buy a texture set which includes options you like.

unused account - glossedsfm

vijayasimhabr said:

I seem to be learning something new every week. and this week, I found out that, for clothing or Hair, I can just set the surface to any shader color i have from any other product.

But then, you also have a lot of clothes and hairs which sell bonus texture packs. I have been buying those constantly.

So, am I a chump for spending all the money on these texture packs, especially, when I can set anything I want from the shader collection? I am just so confused and feeling ambiguos about future texture pack or expansion add-ons for clothes and hairs.

 

Unless a texture pack has a specific appearance that you want like lettering or a picture or graphics then just use the default textures or alter its appearance with shaders.  You might not have experienced it yet but because of how some hair products/items are UV mapped you might not be happy with its appearance after you've applied a shader.  My advice is to make sure that you are at least happy with a products default appearance.  Dont buy it thinking "i'll just use my preferred shaders and it will look fine".  Because you might get that rare product that wont look quite right with a different hair texture/shader on it.

vijayasimhabr

Leana and glossedsfm

Thank you for your suggestion. I believe, I am beginning to understand when custom expansion packs are beneficial.

You are correct that shaders give variety, but expansion give a more custom look. Thank you. this clarifies my question.