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whats better mesh or atlas
ok so say i have 2 square walls each made out of four cubes. and both use different textures. however both textures are made for uv stretching so basically nice blending between each image.
is it better to stretch one of the four cubes on one wall, delete the other 3 and then make the uv larger to match.
or would it be better to combine the four walls into one and then put the textures into an atlas for less draw calls but more triangles and verts
so draw calls or triangles and verts?
Answer by tomka · Jun 01, 2012 at 04:05 AM
As a general rule of thumb, increased draw calls will be more expensive than increased geometry.
So it's generally cheaper to render more at once rather than less multiple times.
This is because when ever you make a "draw", it needs to push that information down to the GPU and then proceed again. This briefly stalls the operation, resulting in slower speed.
However! It's only a general rule of thumb. Given that Unity is a reasonably advanced engine, it's quite possible that even though your code looks like it is making multiple draws, those draws may (may!) result in fewer draws than your code would imply.
The only way to know for sure is to test and see what kind of results you get, but as a general rule of thumb you are much better off drawing more at once rather than drawing less more often: ergo put it into an atlas and increase the amount of geometry will probably be cheaper.
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