I've searched the threads here for "FireFly" and read only a few references to the "Maximum Texture Resolution" feature in FF. Can anyone explain what this does in more detail and how raising or lowering this value affects the final render?
e.g.: the default value for the FF draft is "1024" does this number refer in any way to the screen resolution; like 1024-768? My screen is 1280 by 1024; so if I set output size to match my screen size would that be appropriate and would there be any sacrifice quality?
My ultimate interest here is to reduce render times.

Thanks for your insight, Larry-L

It has no correlation to screen resolution. It has to do with the effective resolution of the textures used -- both image maps and othewise. Essentially, firefly resizes a texture map to match the maximum texture resolution number on the fly for a per pixel usage. This is extremely handy for highly detailed, tiled textures. The setting works best at the effective range of the texture as displayed in the render itself -- so if your render size is 1024 and you are doing a close up image of a face, you'll want to have a fairly high MTR, in order to improve the resolution of the texture. If you are dealing with a scene, and have no great closeups, then vary it according to the amount of detail necessary in the image -- but note that the higher this number, the greater the processor and memory usage will be.

Thanks OddDitty, could you please carify your point; what do you mean by the "effective range of the texture res. number..." ? Is there a rule of thumb for determinig the MTR? It just so happens I am dealing with facial closeups on a scene I am doing. LL

There's no real set rule for it, but I'll try my best. Basically, it has to do with how close to the subject the viewer percieves themselves to be. So, the closer you get, the more actual space of the render is going to be covered. You'll want to have a setting that makes the texture map in use at least as close to the viewer as the figure the map is applied to is. hmm that's worse. um, if the face fills the whole screen, use bigger numbers to pull out more detail, lol. Good rule of thumb. It's one of those things you haave to experiment with to get the best results from for your particular image. That said, after asking the other memebers of Odd Ditty Foundry, We'll toss out another rule of thumb (this one from ynsaen) "set the MTR value to equal the size of the largest texture map in use in the scene, and you'll be fine". so, if the largest texture map in use in the scene is 1510 set your MTR to 1510. If you go higher, you will sometimes get blurry effects (just like you would if you enlarged the map), while if you go too low all the details of the texture will be lost.

Ok, I'm almost there. How does one determine the size of a tex map used in a scene? e.g. some of the threads I've seen refer to texture maps being made as large as 3000 by 3000 and changing those in PS to a lower value. Is this what you are refering to?

yes, that's exactly what I'm referring to. In your image, the figure you are using has at least one texture map -- likely 2 if it's a more recent figure -- for the body and/or head. This would show up in the material room. That map will be located somewhere in yor Textures folder within your poser runtime (Poser/Runtime/Textures). The largest dimension of that map would be the number to put in the MTR.

Sweeeeet!!!! Thanks, It's clear to me now. How'bout this; will reducing the size of these maps affect the quality of the resolution of the final render--especially in closeups?

Actually, not terribly. ynsaen recommends keeping maps in the area of 2048, which is on par with current motion picture standards in animation houses, but to retain the larger sizes as a back up in case. The larger sizes, it should be noted, are particularly useful for very large size renders (3096 and above) used in print ads.

Thanks OddDitty for all your help. I've had others explain this before, but not in as simple to understand terms like you. I appreciate it. LL