Texture & Material Optimization

Texture & Material Optimization

Understanding PBR

Physically Based Rendering (PBR) ensures materials look realistic under any lighting:

• Base Color: The albedo/diffuse color
• Metallic: Metal (1) vs dielectric (0)
• Roughness: Smooth (0) to rough (1)
• Normal Map: Surface detail
• Ambient Occlusion: Contact shadows

Texture Resolution Guide

Optimization Techniques

Texture Atlasing

Combine multiple textures into one:

• Reduces draw calls
• Better GPU performance
• Smaller total file size

Channel Packing

Pack grayscale maps into RGB channels:

• R: Ambient Occlusion
• G: Roughness
• B: Metallic

Compression

UV Mapping Best Practices

• Minimize texture seams
• Maintain consistent texel density
• Use UV islands efficiently
• Leave padding between islands

Material Instances

Create variations without duplicating textures:

// Unity example
Material baseMat = Resources.Load<Material>("BaseMaterial");
Material instance = new Material(baseMat);
instance.SetColor("_BaseColor", newColor);
instance.SetFloat("_Roughness", 0.5f);