Hardware Split images to large for RAM

[astrosammy]

I'm just trying to create a high resolution Earth texture, using the December image available here as source.
A level 8 texture of the 2km/pixel version was easy.
But as I'd like to create higher resolutions I have to use the 500m/pixel version.
It is 86400 x 43200 pixels in size, splitted into eight 21600 x 21600 png files.

My first question is: What is the maximum texture level that can be archieved with that files?

And now the big problem: My 4 GB of RAM can't handle the 21600 x 21600 files.
Is there any way to split them into smaller parts, WITHOUT having to load them into the RAM?

 

[orb]

An image of 65536x32768 pixels would make level 11, and 131072x65536 - level 12.

You can have from it level 11 textures near equator and level 12 near poles.


4GB RAM should be sufficient for loading 21600x21600 px R8G8B8A8 (32bpp) image. It takes up 1.8 GB of memory when uncompressed. An uncompressed 32bpp image of 32768x32768 px size takes exactly 4GB of memory.

 

[astrosammy]

So it looks like I didn't wait long enough. I'll try it again.

 

[jangofett287]

Don't forget that your OS and all other running programs need to use that RAM as well.