u/Critical-Common6685

Hey devs

I’ve been experimenting with texture atlases in my Unity project and started thinking deeper about how big games actually manage memory.

I’m using multiple atlases (some up to 8K), grouped by categories like wood, metal, street props, posters, etc. All assets share UVs mapped to these atlases — which is great for batching and reducing draw calls.

But here’s something interesting:

Even if only ONE small object (like a traffic sign) is visible, the entire atlas still gets loaded into memory, right?

So with many large atlases, wouldn’t that:

• Increase base VRAM usage
• Become risky without proper streaming
• From what I understand so far:
• Atlases = better performance (less draw calls)
• But require careful balance (size, compression, streaming)

Currently using:

• BC7 (PC) / ASTC (Android)
• Planning to use mipmap streaming

Curious to learn from others:

How do AAA games balance:

• Atlas size vs number of atlases
• Memory vs performance
• When to split vs combine textures

Would love to hear real-world workflows 🙌