Texture Atlases and other relative questions

Please help me with texture atlases. Web does not say anything with this topic :mad:. Is that a very big secret? :confused: I am trying create materials using texture atlases. But I did not find information how I can using it with Unreal Engine 4. Somebody please provide me some guide about this topic or any information that can help. I will be very grateful for any help.

What’s a problem? Pack your textures into atlas and use it.

No secret - the second and third hits on Google look pretty useful.

What info are you missing the implement this technique in UE4 specifically?

Let me explain. I want to create mobile game. I have tried to use VeTexAtlas plugin for this, but it create “Material Instance” objects that I can used only in UMG. There is no possibility to create material using “Material Instance” (TextureSampleParameter2D or Texture2D node does not offer me to choose approriate material created with VaTexAtlas plugin).
I have also tried to load a chunk from texture atlas using TextureSampleParameter2D (or Texture2D) node. I have used Constant4D node for setup restrictive rect for TextureSampleParameter2D node (UVs input slot), but also with no luck.
Am I moving in a wrong way? Is there any other ways to do what I want? What tools I have to used? What steps will allow me to reach the goal?

That sounds very… complicated.

I’ve come across 3 different techniques for using texture atlases. If you are looking for packing tools to create them, I know they exist, but don’t have enough experience to offer any advice.

  1. Lay out the object UVs in your DCC package relative to your texture atlas (create your UV map specifically to make use of your atlas in the way that you want). Very manual, but very efficient.

  2. Use the textureCropping function to isolate the different parts of your atlas in a material
    https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/Materials/Functions/Reference/Texturing/index.html#texturecropping

  3. Use the ‘Merge actors’ tool to combine meshes together, and create a combined texture atlas from their respective textures

Does that help, or have I misunderstood your question?

  1. What do you mean? I am always creating UVs map and uses it together with my mesh. But If I have array of different meshes?
  2. Function TectureCropping does not do what I want:
    Ask1.bmp (978 KB)
    and I would like to receive something like that:
    Ask2.png
  3. “Merge actors” is not appropriate for me, because I would like to dynamically (randomly) create new levels from meshes that I have.

Are you still having trouble with Texture Atlas’? Do you by any chance know or have access to 3ds Max? (and Photoshop?)

So the merge actor tool is unreal version of texture atlas?

I like merge because it’s easy for an imbecile like me

This is what I did for my needs. It may not be the most optimized, but it gives me the ability to determine what size crop and then shift it around to the right spot of the texture. I have a texture sample duplicated just to show what the atlas looks like prior. In the first Panner I set Speed X to 1 and Speed Y to 0. In the second Panner I set Speed X to 0 and Speed Y to 1.

Here’s the video that helps me a lot: