Limits to Sprite Frame Manager and item swapping

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rzero
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue May 02, 2017 10:40 am

Limits to Sprite Frame Manager and item swapping

Post by rzero » Tue May 02, 2017 11:06 am

I'm evaluating the trial version of Creature, and I have some questions about the limits of the item swapping system.

Let's say I start with a human character with body parts all in one sprite atlas image. Then, in the Sprite Frame Manager of the Creature editor, I import images for sprite swapping, let's say I have 10 different hats. What happens when I export to Unity using these imported sprites? I'm guessing that those imported images get packed into a single atlas along with the original human body parts? Is that correct?

(The only example I can find that appears to be using this feature is the flame effect on the buttons of the Game UI Deme -- in the video tutorial I can see the flames added via the Sprite Frame Manager, and in the Unity project the file buttonExport_character_img contains both the flame sprites and the button sprites.)

My real question is, what are the limits to this system? What if I import something like 10000 hats and then try to export it, will Creature try to create a giant atlas? Or will it throw an error with something like a 4k atlas size limit?

Also a question about memory: at runtime in Unity, let's say the player chooses to wear 1 of those hats -- is the entire atlas (including the other unused 9999 hats) always loaded in memory?

chong
Posts: 1178
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 2:21 am

Re: Limits to Sprite Frame Manager and item swapping

Post by chong » Tue May 02, 2017 3:41 pm

Hello,

Yes right now, the entire atlas is loaded into Memory. Regarding texture size limits, it is hardware dependent I believe:
https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/textu ... mit.66300/

If you want to do something fancier, you will need to write some extra code on the side ( modify the existing plugin ) accommodate what you need. What it will entail is to support swapping of different texture atlases of your choice, each a different set of images.

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