Question about Texture Atlas's..

iamtravis316

I had a question about Texture Atlas's. I know what they are and why to use them, the only thing I don't understand is how to make them. Is it something you set up yourself, like in the unwrap uvw, or is it something you set up with code. I will be using it in the Shiva Engine, and each character will be 256x256, on a 1024x1024 texture Atlas. Ive also seen some max scripts that do this for you, are they worth using? If so which one would be the better one. So if any one could tell me the process of makeing a Texture Atlas (not what they are, but how to make them) that would be great! Thanks!

3DK.P.

Not sure if you've already read this article or not, but it does explain the creation of a texture atlas. Here's the link : http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060126/ivanov_01.shtml

Hope that helps!

El Burritoh

---nevermind---

iamtravis316

Thanks 3DK.P. that helped.

3DK.P.

Awesome, no problem, glad I could help.

renderhjs

a colleague from my university wrote this:
http://scriptspot.com/3ds-max/texture-atlas-generator

I would suggest though as an artist build them yourself, also try to use a texel density or normalize script to make sure that the pixel density for each face is somewhat equal throughout the models that are used on that texture atlas.

iamtravis316

Yeah, I will defiantly check that out, thanks.

iamtravis316

Also this is for the iPhone, so does it matter if I use the nvidia atlas tool or that other plugin thing or do I have to use a certain one/ or special procedure for the iPhone? Or is it all the same thing?

CrazyButcher

your coders should profile first if iphone is performant with large textures, or if it favors smaller stuff... ie run a few benchmarks with dummy textures at different sizes and different "atlas" configs... all this doesnt require real textures, just some representative mesh with proper uvs.