Runtime Virtual Textures in Blender
Theres a big part of the community that makes large scale scenes/environments and a common restraint is that object blending isn't really possible. Ya you can blend between a albedo but what if there are several painted textures layers all with varying normal and height data, not a chance... Not to mention you have to duplicate the entire node setup of the ground into the desired object you want to blend with.
Adding in RVT would add in features like:
Easier Object-to-Terrain Blending
Decals that could ride on material info and physically add displacement. Example shown off here youtube.com/watch But basically instead of having to add the decals inside the landscape shader which is probably large enough in shaders at this point, you could have a new seperate mesh that can read and blend with the landscape mesh instead.
Height Blending / Normals for terrain deformation effects
More memory effecient, an alternate but related fix was mentioned here projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues/123955 but as a interest and we don't know when it would be coming in.
etc...
an interesting read on webGL regarding Virtual Textures: discourse.threejs.org/t/virtual-textures/53353/2
3 Comments
It is difficult to connect all the dots. Virtual textures/sparse textures/texture streaming.m are optimizations to load less resources on the GPU. Only load what you actually need.
This request sees that it can help with decals as parts of the shader/logic can be placed elsewhere.
If that is the case it could already be done, but less efficient , using udim. If that is not the case this proposal is missing some explanation how the user could achieve this. Are new buttons needed? Or properties or nodes.
Side note: Texture streaming is still planned, just waiting for free developer who can do it and right priority. Cycles part is already in development.
In my opinion is a real too intiaitive to strating to implement this new feature for the next Blender Version this thinf offers mutliple advanatge even he can be difficult to implement but is an essential features for the long terms and gininf somes most advantage than the actual system texturing.
E.g : Decals system
So i give an Upvote ! It's an feature of i want in blender ! For EEVEE & Cycles
I'd love to see texture streaming in Blender, so many people face memory limitations.