Question

I come from a 2D animation background and so when ever I us an animated sequence I prefer to use a sequence of images. To me this makes a lot of sense because you can easily export the image sequence from your compositing/editing software and easily define the aspect.

I am new to game development and am curious about the use of a sprite sheet. What are the advantages and disadvantages. Is file size an issue? – to me it would seem that a bunch of small images would be the same as one massive one. Also, defining each individual area of the sprites seems time cumbersome.

Basically, I dont get why you would use a sprite sheet – please enlighten me.

Thanks

Answer 1

Performance is better for sprite sheets because you have all your data contained in a single texture. Lets say you have 1000 sprites playing the same animation from a sprite sheet. The process for drawing would go something like.

Set the sprite sheet texture.
Adjust UV's to show single frame of animation.
Draw sprite 0
Adjust UV's
Draw sprite 1
.
.
.
Adjust UV's
Draw sprite 998
Adjust UV's
Draw sprite 999

Using a texture sequence could result in a worst case of:

Set the animation texture.
Draw sprite 0
Set the new animation texture.
Draw sprite 1
.
.
.
Set the new animation texture.
Draw sprite 998
Set the new animation texture.
Draw sprite 999

Gah! Before drawing every sprite you would have to set the render state to use a different texture and this is much slower than adjusting a couple of UV’s.