@Pincho
If I recall my DirectX correctly (no guarantees !) , if you have a model or a scene that's made up of several meshes and textures that are all contained in the same X file, if the texture is assigned to multiple meshes, it is only loaded once into memory even if it is assigned to different materials for different meshes.
But, if you have two separate X files, each holding the same texture name, I'm not sure if the texture is only loaded once.
To be sure not to load the texture twice, you could use your idea:
Quote: "Or maybe the best way is to rename the texture so that the texture isn't found for either model, and then texture the models using the texture command."
Or, build the X file with both models in it. This could be limiting if they are not meant to be static like in a scene, but you could set each one up with a set of limbs and animate both in your 3d program.
By static I mean, you could build an entire forest of many trees (that never move) and only use the same set of textures for all of them built into the X file. Even if the textures were reference 100 times, they would only be loaded once by direct x.
Enjoy your day.
