How to not waste texture space while keeping texel density in check?

ligazetom

Hey everyone.

I recently got to know about texel density as a thing. Until now, I just unwrapped whatever I needed and gave the most important parts the most texture space.

I've read quite a few posts and forums, so now I have a plane as reference and all that, but I can't figure out one thing. Let's say I go with 10.24px/cm.

(I've made an simple UFO for fooling around, the plane is 1m x 1m) Now it looks like this:
and the UV looks like this:

Obviously I am not able to fit that all in 0-1 space. It is already 2048x2048 texture. So ok, let's say I am willing to lower the resolution to 5.12px/cm.
Now it looks like this:

but the UV has now so much wasted space:


So please, tell me how am I supposed to care about texel density when it either wants me to use unreasonably high-res textures or have wasted space on lower res ones, which means even less detail. I'm lost.

Udjani

When i was learning about texel density for some reason i was trying to ignore what people where saying, that if you will use an unique texture for a model, the chances of getting it to fill all the texture and having somewhat the texel density that you need is pretty low. 

You could mirror pieces, or use more than one texture for the model, maybe even trying a non square texture. 

Zack Maxwell

Atlasing similar assets together can be a way around wasted space. It also reduces draw calls.

sprunghunt

make it at 7.68px/cm instead?

ligazetom

sprunghunt said:

make it at 7.68px/cm instead?

Well, for this one model maybe, but since I want to keep more models consistent I don't know if it's good idea, not speaking about power of two size.

ligazetom

Zack Maxwell said:

Atlasing similar assets together can be a way around wasted space. It also reduces draw calls.

Yea, but this is not static mesh. It will be a pawn so I really don't have anything else to share texture with.

poopipe

It'll probably fit at 10.24 if you straighten shells and overlap stuff

Mirbobo

We don't live in a perfect world, so it's completely normal that not all of your assets will hit the same texel density. What you should care about are the noticeable differences between assets. Just aim as close as you can with your UVs, by overlapping and mirroring etc.