Quick question. Is it possible to create a decal texture atlas for a bunch of different grunge textures? If so, is there any benefit to combining them as an atlas or is it better to stick to separate textures per decal?
I’m aware that the documentation doesn’t recommend it, but it also doesn’t state that this can’t be done or is a bad way to do decals.
bump…
Got a link to the doc that says this isn’t recommended?
I don’t believe there is a way in engine even now, I have tried to import and extract the images as sprites 2d much like a sprite sheet but I cannot convert them into texture 2Ds even using dynamic material instances in blueprints. How I would go about it for just single alpha grunge textures is just packing them into an RGB(A) mask as this would reduce draw calls from 4 (1 per alpha) to 1 but RGBA also uses more memory.
Another work around is laying your decals out in photoshop and make sure they are on different layers then using export each layer as seperate image output and just bringing them into engine and making a tool that will apply a dynamc material instance to a decal inside of a Actor Blueprint (if you are doing this way you will need a proxy static mesh in the actor as it wont let you make the dynamic material instance using the input actor as the decal but it will if you use the static mesh, but then you would apply it at the end of the construction script) for this you will need to make a database containing the textures.
If it is just for flat surfaces tho you can make an atlas but you will need to use 3d software to UV map planes to each decal and then bring them in engine. This can be made into a tool as well using a similar database system as the other decal technique.
It may not be a straight answer and i know its long but i had to research this for my university assignment and these are the only work arounds I found that work.