I'm using a copy photoshop, and even though im more into the programming of games, ive always drawn and im realy enthused about making games just how I'd like to in my free time. And in photoshop im using at largest around 800 x 800 pixel bitmaps, and if my structure is too largethe map is too blury close up. I'm making a supposedly futuristic glass castle and i don tlike what the brick looks like up close. I'm only using like 3 800 x 800 bitmaps for the whole castle. How big of bitmaps am i supposed to be using? this im happy with, its the small thrown room and im enjoying getting to this point in photoshop drawing this is the castle from far away and this is what im running into when i get close up to the large castle, using one 800 x 800 bitmap for what you see here

You should stick to sizes that are powers of 2, so 1024x1024 or 512x512 or combinations of those sizes 1024x256 etc.

The amount of detail and txeture size would edpend on the type of game it's made for, for an FPS or other gams where you see it up close you'd use tiling textures for most of the parts combined with skinned bits, tiling trim textures etc.

For an RTS you'd use a 512 texture usually, or 1024 if you want to go nuts, that's far enough to put in more detail than you can think of. try to mirror UV maps, reuse certain parts and details etc.

i know, but im saying then that photoshop is always making things too darn blurry for me when i approach my structures up close,

im making a demonic ninja bad guy game and the camera is going to follow behind him, i cant stand first person shooters, ive never enjyed playing them, but im after the same level of up close crispness to my textures as in a first person shooter

Then you need to use tiling textures, combined with trims that contain the details etc. Hard to tell from those images but it looks like it could use a lot more polygons if it's going to be so upclose. That will help you segment the geometry to apply the tiling and detail textures properly.

Just fire up another game if you have to (like UT2k3/4 or whatever) and look how it's done there, it's mostly tiling materials combined with edtail txetures here and there.

ok thanks for the info strangefate,
but while im looking on the internet for information about how to accomplish this,(im guessing lay alpha keyed textures on top of the tiled texture)

does anyone have any web pages that i could look at on accomplishing this technique?
im not even sure what its called.

Decals... that's what some level editors call em anyway...
most do it for you without showing u the innards.. i.e u apply a tile texture to environment and then just click and drag decals to selected areas....

i think u can do it with the 2 map channels in max in uvwmap...
usually u make the edges of the decal transparent for fluidity with the tiles using *.png's with alpha channels or any sort of transparency that u can use in your game... it works the same way as in say "dawn of war" or "black & white" where u can/could customise the emblems/tattoo's on your character... same concept, different practice...

tile size... i wouldnt go over 256x256 ....
remember.. doubling the resolution of a texture quadruples the filesize...

You could also use detail textures (almost the same thing as decals). There are lots of articles regarding this and here is one I've found (quick google search): http://www.opengl.org/resources/tutorials/sig99/advanced99/notes/node88.html

No decals and such. Decals are only good smaller things.

Made something quick showing the usual technique.

You create different textures. The basic materials tile in 2 or all 4 directions seamlessly so that you can use 1 and repeat it on a large wall, that way there's no resolution problems.
Also, you have textures with a set of trims, usually tiling vertically or horizontally, can either have the trims on separate files or put them together into one, saves resources ingame.

Then you segment the geometry and apply different materials to it so that you can apply the different textures properly.

The basic materials use cube mapping, it's just a UV mapping type like planar, cylindric, cubic etc. should be able to find it in any 3D app. Trim UVs need to positioned properly to use the right trim texture and space.
3d apps and games tile/repeat them automatically across the UVmapped space.

Hope that helps

If it's going to be close up you might want to extrude/bevel the geometry for the trims instead of just slicing it like i did, so it doesn't look to flat. Textures can't replace real geometry up close, they will always look flat.