Unity sprites compression using atlases

Question

I'm trying to define the best way of importing/managing my project's sprites. We tried importing atlases, but it turn out to be inconvenient. I tried the Sprite Packer importing sprites (POT/multiple of 4) separately. The Designers can't get it right. So I was thinking of using Unity Atlas I'm not sure exactly what is does regarding the draw calls and compression. So,... Can anyone enlighten me on this matter?

Answer 1

I'm trying to understand exactly what am I gaining in reference to draw calls and compression.

draw calls influence performance, the numbers show how many objects are being drawn to the screen, if your project is 2D heavy that means 100+ sprites at 1 draw call each. if somehow you could pack all of them into one sprite sheet, it would be easier on the graphics card since it still reads only one object.

This goes more in-depth - http://www.theappguruz.com/blog/learn-draw-call-reduction-and-make-your-games-run-superfast

The Design team corrects/changes the atlas and you have to slice/assign sprites again.

you should talk to the design team about a better approach to handling sprite sheets. personally:

1. I create a 2048 x 2048 texture in photoshop
2. setup grid guidelines and place my sprites within those grids, leave the space below incase you need to add something else or even add them to a new sprite sheet rather than re-doing stuff.
3. export the png to unity, input those grid dimensions to slice > Grid by cell size
4. Name them in the sprite editor and apply. the single object now contains multiple named images you can use.

to edit this without destroying it by, going to it's windows explorer version, not inside unity, edit with photoshot and make changes, once saved, all your names and slices will remain intact even if its content has changed.