Separate texture sets or atlases?

Kligan

I want to hear people's opinion on this one.

I'm making asset packs to sell on digital stores like, for example, fab (previously unreal marketplace).
And one thing I always struggle with it to decide how much stuff should I pack into atlases?
On one hand - atlases save on draw calls, which is, obviously, good for optimization. On the other hand - I always have this question in the back of my mind: "but what if whoever buys the asset pack just wants some things from it, not all, so the rest of the texture space on the atlases will be just wasted".

I know that unreal, for example, has tools to pack different texture sets into atlases automatically. So in theory, if I make my props with separate texture sets, users then could pick whatever they need and merge them into atlases by using those tools.

So, what do ya'll think? Should I just not bother with thinking what and how many props I should pack into atlases and what should have separate texture sets?

Edit: Just to clarify what I mean exactly, here's an example. In the scene I'm working on currently there's a side table that has a reed diffuser, a small bowl, a book and a magnifying glass on it. All those props are tiny, and have 256p textures with average texel density of 11.5. They also don't have a common theme between them to justify packing them into an atlas, like I did, for instance, with flower pots. Having so many low res texture sets, however, increases draw calls for the scene. This is my dilemma constantly

Noren

I think there was a similar thread with a couple of replies a few months ago, but I couldn't find it right now. Maybe someone else has a better recollection or is more successful in finding it.
Edit: Found it. Not as expansive as I remembered, but maybe it will give you some additional points of view.
https://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2799361

poopipe

if they don't group logically they don't belong on the same texture 

unreal won't batch across different meshes so trying to save drawcalls like that is misguided (yes, i know there are caveats) 

Kligan

poopipe said:

if they don't group logically they don't belong on the same texture 

Yeah, that's generally what I'm trying to stick to.

iam717

my .02's incoming.

When working on items, they aren't already packed into the uv space before you move onto the next one?  

Since you are making packs.

Why not keep them separated items separated & when you are ready to pack multiple items together in an atlas then also provide the atlas versions? or variations of atlas combinations, yes probably a little bit more "time-consuming", but might be worth it.  idk tbh.

Perhaps "folder name" separated objects, new folder name "atlas objects", so they can go ahead and decide for themselves and you provided options, which would be viewed (if i where a purchasers of these) as a "professional" thoughtful approach to asset distribution.