How can texture compression improve game performance on low-end devices?

Compressing textures is a must to keep the size of your game reasonable. This is especially true for games on the web where every second waiting for the game to load matters. It's noteworthy that this should not necessarily be done to a point where this compromises on the visuals and you have to find a balance between looks and performance.

For mobile games, texture compression is crucial for achieving an optimal game size and performance. Occasionally, your game may feature textures with large sizes, especially for distant buildings or objects that aren't viewed up close. Therefore, using the right compression method for these textures is essential.

Improved Performance: - Textures are files in a game, so the smaller the file, the less space your game will take up. This would make the game smoother with less memory-based problems, such as low FPS and even crashing. Better Compatibility: - Texture compression can make a game run on a wider range of platforms due to lower specifications. Makes developers’ lives easier: - Games with lots of unnecessary storage could lead to performance issues when the developers are putting the game together in the engine. Therefore, compressing textures can make the game run better in the game engine, which would make the lives of the developers easier.

Benefits of texture compression: Texture compression can help you optimize your game for low-end devices in several ways. First, it can reduce the amount of memory that your game needs to store and access texture images. This can prevent memory-related issues such as crashes, stuttering, and low frame rates. Second, it can reduce the amount of data that your game needs to transfer from the storage to the GPU. This can speed up loading times and reduce bandwidth consumption. Third, it can reduce the amount of power that your game needs to render texture images. This can extend the battery life of your device and lower the temperature.

Texture compression is instrumental in enhancing game performance on low-end devices. It reduces the memory footprint of textures, allowing for efficient storage and faster data retrieval. Smaller texture sizes result in quicker loading times, critical for devices with limited resources. Improved memory usage also facilitates smoother gameplay by minimizing bottlenecks, contributing to a more responsive gaming experience on low-end hardware.

Drawbacks of texture compression: Texture compression is not a magic solution that can solve all your performance problems. It also has some drawbacks that you need to consider. First, it can degrade the quality and appearance of your texture images. This can cause artifacts such as blurring, banding, and aliasing. You need to balance the trade-off between size and quality depending on your game's style and target audience. Second, it can increase the complexity and compatibility of your game development workflow. You need to choose the right compression format for your target platform and device, and test your game on different hardware and software configurations.

While texture compression offers notable advantages, it comes with some drawbacks. Compression algorithms may lead to a loss in image quality, impacting visual fidelity. Artifacts such as blockiness or color distortions can occur. Balancing compression ratios to minimize artifacts while maximizing performance is crucial. Additionally, decompression during runtime incurs a computational cost, necessitating careful consideration of the trade-offs between performance gains and visual compromises.

From my experience, the best texture compression for mobile iOS/Android is ASTC6x6 from a quality and performance perspective. This block 6x6 can be different and for low-tier devices, it might be even 8x8 for higher-tier devices block 4x4. For Apple devices that use the A8 chip (2014) or above, ASTC is the best choice. For older is PVRTC. For Android, it is more complicated. Let's assume you set the minimum Android version to 4.3 which from the specification supports OpenGL 3.0. In this case, you can build 2 APKs: one with ASTC compression and the other with ETC2. Google Store will help with distributing the right app for the target device. if you work with Unity please configure ETC2 fallback for Opengl2.0 devices if any.

Types of texture compression: When it comes to game development projects, there are many types of texture compression formats to choose from. S3TC (also known as DXT or BCn) is a family of compression formats that use block-based algorithms to compress RGB and RGBA textures. It is widely supported by desktop and mobile GPUs, and provides different levels of quality and compression ratios. ETC (also known as Ericsson Texture Compression) is another family of compression formats that use block-based algorithms to compress RGB textures. It is optimized for mobile GPUs, and offers better quality and compression ratios than S3TC for RGB textures.

How to apply texture compression: To apply texture compression to your game, you need to use a tool that can convert your texture images to the desired compression format. Popular image editing software Photoshop can export texture images to S3TC, ETC, and ASTC formats, while GIMP, a free and open-source image editing software, supports S3TC and ETC formats. Compressonator is another free and open-source tool that can compress and decompress your texture images to S3TC, ETC, ASTC, and PVRTC formats. TexturePacker is a paid tool that can pack and compress your texture images to S3TC, ETC, ASTC, and PVRTC formats. Once you have your compressed texture images, you must import them into your game engine and assign them to materials and shaders.

The best 5 advice on how to significantly save memory in build and RAM, and improve performance on low devices: 1. Use atlases per feature with a collection of sprites. 2. Use variants for low high-resolution atlases 3. Even one image placed into one atlas might save significant memory because of working compression* 4. Do not use Mipmaps for UI textures 5. Disable the read-write enabled option for texture, which will not duplicate texture in memory. P.S. Choosing the right texture compression is always a compromise between memory and quality. Mipmaps need POT textures but mipmap adds ~30% memory overhead. Please use atlases carefully, not optimal atlases with a lot of free space will be more expensive for CPU/GPU

Tips and best practices: To get the best results from texture compression, you need to adhere to a few tips and best practices. For instance, use power-of-two dimensions for your texture images to improve compatibility and efficiency. Mipmaps can also enhance the quality and performance of your textures at different distances and resolutions. Furthermore, using atlases or spritesheets can reduce the number of texture files and draw calls in your game. You should also use the appropriate compression format for your texture type and platform, such as S3TC for desktop games, ETC for Android games, ASTC for iOS games, and PVRTC for PowerVR devices.

Here are my 3 tips about texture compression for Unity game engine (can be applicable for almost any game engine). 1. Platform Consideration: Choose compression formats based on the target platform. Different devices and platforms may have varying levels of support for compression formats, impacting performance and visual quality. 2. Balance Quality and Size: Find the right balance between texture quality and file size. Experiment with different compression formats and settings to achieve optimal results without sacrificing too much visual fidelity. 3. Mipmap Generation: Enable mipmaps for your textures. Mipmaps are precomputed, smaller versions of a texture, enhancing performance during runtime and reducing artifacts like aliasing.

Here’s what else to consider: This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?