I do know that you shouldn’t use too many textures, honest I do.
I know that using textures that are 1024 by 1024 pixels (the maximum size in SL) take for ever to load for people with old computers and slow connections.
But unfortunately textures start degrading so badly as soon as you make them smaller.
And in a historical sim like 1920s Berlin where people expect and love to see lots of little authentic details, it is just very important to have sharp textures that look good.
And when I create the facade of a building, with writing on the wall, old tattered advertisement posters, cracks in the plaster and lots of other tiny details, you just have to use a big texture or somehow cut the picture in smaller bits and make sure they all connect perfectly.
I remember hearing about some plan that allowed textures in SL to be downloaded to our personal computer cache.
This would make them load almost instantly regardless of your internet speed.
I would LOVE that, especially as I spend 99% of my SL time in the same sim.
And in todays world, space on a hard drive is a lot cheaper and easier to get then a faster computer or better internet connection.