Texture atlas

<h2 id="benefits">Benefits</h2>
<p>In an application where many small <a href="/facts/Texture_(computer_graphics)/9gDTsuXN">textures</a> are used frequently, it is often more efficient to store the textures in a texture atlas which is treated as a single unit by the <a href="/facts/Graphics_processing_unit/PTK1RQVp">graphics hardware</a>. This reduces both the disk <a href="/facts/Input%2foutput/WQTE8Jas">I/O</a> overhead and the overhead of a context switch by increasing <a href="/facts/Memory_locality/fYFKDv5q">memory locality</a>. Careful alignment may be needed to avoid bleeding between sub textures when used with <a href="/facts/Mipmapping/z0alvP6k">mipmapping</a> and <a href="/facts/Texture_compression/HcyqY6aj">texture compression</a>.
</p><p>In <a href="/facts/Web_development/UW5ypSzj">web development</a>, images are packed into a sprite sheet to reduce the number of image resources that need to be fetched in order to display a page.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a>
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<h2 id="gallery">Gallery</h2>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<h3>Explanations and algorithms</h3>
<ul><li><a href="http://download.nvidia.com/developer/NVTextureSuite/Atlas_Tools/Texture_Atlas_Whitepaper.pdf">Texture Atlas Whitepaper</a> - A whitepaper by <a href="/facts/NVIDIA/8QfCgqbu">NVIDIA</a> which explains the technique.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.gamedeveloper.com/programming/practical-texture-atlases">Practical Texture Atlases</a> - A guide on using a texture atlas (and the pros and cons).</li>
<li><a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.695.2918">A thousand ways to pack the bin</a> - Review and benchmark of the different packing algorithms</li>
<li><a href="http://www.codeandweb.com/what-is-a-sprite-sheet">Sprite Sheets - Essential Facts Every Game Developer Should Know</a> - Funny video explaining the benefits of using sprite sheets</li>
<li><a href="https://www.sharetextures.com/blog/texture_atlas">What is Texture Atlas?</a> - Blog post that explain atlas textures and their usage areas</li></ul>
<h3>Tools</h3>
<ul><li><a href="https://www.codeandweb.com/texturepacker">TexturePacker</a> - sprite sheet packer with graphical user interface and tons of options. Works with almost all game engines.</li>
<li><a href="https://libgdx.com/wiki/tools/texture-packer">LibGDX texture packer</a> - Open source texture packer utility from libGDX</li>
<li><a href="http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/330742/Texture-Atlas-Maker">Texture Atlas Maker</a> - Open source texture atlas utility for 2D OpenGL games.</li>
<li><a href="http://opensource.cego.dk/spritemapper/">SpriteMapper</a> - Open source texture atlas (sprite map) utility including an <a href="/facts/Apache_Ant/CT6ABXEx">Apache Ant</a> task.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.sharetextures.com/atlases/">CC0 Atlas Textures</a> - Copyright-free atlas texture library</li>
<li><a href="https://gitlab.com/bztsrc/spratlas">SprAtlas</a> - simple Free and Open Source atlas packer with multiple options</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>"SDK White Paper Improve Batching Using Texture Atlases" (PDF). Nvidia. Retrieved 16 October 2018. <a href="http://download.nvidia.com/developer/NVTextureSuite/Atlas_Tools/Texture_Atlas_Whitepaper.pdf" target="_blank">http://download.nvidia.com/developer/NVTextureSuite/Atlas_Tools/Texture_Atlas_Whitepaper.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>"SDK White Paper Improve Batching Using Texture Atlases" (PDF). Nvidia. Retrieved 16 October 2018. <a href="http://download.nvidia.com/developer/NVTextureSuite/Atlas_Tools/Texture_Atlas_Whitepaper.pdf" target="_blank">http://download.nvidia.com/developer/NVTextureSuite/Atlas_Tools/Texture_Atlas_Whitepaper.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>"Implementing image sprites in CSS". Mozilla Development Network. <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_Images/Implementing_image_sprites_in_CSS" target="_blank">https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_Images/Implementing_image_sprites_in_CSS</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Texture atlas open-in-new

Texture atlas