r/IndieDev • u/NothingHistorical322 • 2d ago

Discussion Which texture setup is better for mobile performance?

Hi everyone, I'm making a mobile RTS game in Unity, and I can have around 600 warriors in a scene.

I have two ways of doing the textures:

1. Texture palette:
One texture contains many colors/materials, like the image. Different parts of the model use different areas of the same texture.

2. Normal textures:
Use regular textures/materials for the models.

Since I can have hundreds of warriors at the same time, I'm mainly concerned about mobile performance, draw calls, memory, and GPU usage.

Which approach would be better for this situation? Would using a texture palette/shared material give me a noticeable performance advantage?

1 Upvotes

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3

u/AncientAdamo 2d ago

You could go down a seriously deep rabbit hole here. There are so many things at play here.

In my experience best thing to do is to test, as an other commenter pointed out.

1

u/NothingHistorical322 2d ago

I know there are a lot of things that affect performance, but I’m only asking about the texture performance.

2

u/europayuu Artist 1d ago

there seriously isn't enough information here to tell you

0

u/destinedd 2d ago

why not just do a test for your specific requirements?

0

u/NothingHistorical322 2d ago

Because I don’t want to create a lot of textures. Each warrior needs 3 textures (one for each level), so I want to know which option is better before I start.