title: Tutorials
author: Decker-cdunde
desc: textureimports
desc: texturelinks

The differences between importing and making links to textures for the Texture Browser are these:

1) Imports are actual copies of texture image files which make the .qrk file,
where data is stored for both methods, much larger then just linking to them.
However, the linking system has its bugs and those links can become broken
or the files they link to may be moved, again braking the links.
Therefore, importing copies is more reliable then making links.

2) On the other hand, if you are dealing with <g>Shader</g> or <g>Material</g> type
image files using the linking method would be the preferred method just because of the
fact that those files are not really image files, but are text files that point to
the actual image files they relate to and interact with for the game.