A TextureGroup defines how your texture is treated on Import, and how exactly it is Compressed.

Essentially, TextureGroup is a preset for Compression types, target image size, and image Format treatment.

Full settings can be found in ….Kit\r4data\engine\textures\texturegroups.xml (thx ScoutBr0 for the info!!)

Notes

• Compression is not something that should be avoided at all costs - instead, its a tool that allows you to save resources on something small, to then use more resources on something important.
• If your Texture has many fine details, needs accurate color representation (most relevant for grey/dark things), or takes a whole lot of player’s screen - you may want to use less compression for it.
• If its something less relevant, is used by many objects on screen at once, or objects using it are so tiny the player would rarely zoom onto them - maybe more compression would do just fine.
• Compression is much less noticeable on colorful Diffuse/Specular textures.
• For Normals, more compression = more blocky Compression artifacts, especially if the size of your Normal is small (<512px).

01. First decide what level of compression your Texture needs

• Regular DXT types (CharacterDiffuse, WorldNormal, NormalMapGloss etc etc) for strong Compression, best performance, depending on if your texture is RGB or RGBA; best choice varies depending on a texture types.
• QualityColor for Compression of relative quality and medium perfrormance impact, RGBA & RGB, all texture types.
• Default, None, “No Mips” for No Compression and the worst performance, RGBA & RGB; buggy; all texture types.

Maximum Compression, QualityColor, No Compression

02. Then choose a TextureGroup based on your Texture’s usage

Info on Texture Types.

RGBA Normals:

• QualityColor
• NormalMapGloss and its variations
• None / No Mips

RGB Normals:

• QualityColor
• NormalHQ
• None / No Mips

RGBA Diffuse:

• QualityColor
• anything DXTAlpha

RGB Diffuse:

• QualityColor
• anything DXTNoAlpha

RGBA Other (Spec, Emissive etc):

• QualityColor
• anything DXTAlpha
• None / No Mips

RGB Other (Spec, Emissive etc):

• QualityColor
• anything DXTNoAlpha
• None / No Mips

TCM_… refers to Compression type and not TextureGroups because there’s just too many of them. If you want to check which is which, examine the texturegroup.xml in your r4data.