Best way to optimize texture space

Hello, i have some questions regarding texture optimization it is not specific to UE4 but to gamedev in general.
So i want to know a couple of thing:
A -1-Should i pack multiple Props (meshes) on one texture map (2K or 4K)
-2-If i do and i give each of them an different assigned material in my 3d software do i still have to pack them without overlapping Uvs? or i can scale each of one to fit the map entirely. if am not mistaken different materials in UE4 will result in it loading 3 textures even if the same one is being used (i provided a screenshot of both cases)

I understand that if they all have the same assigned material the second option would be the best for sure since only 1 material and 1 texture are being loaded on more than one prop but the problem is that you lose quite some definition is this case.
If i use 2nd option is there another way to combine all the 3 props into one map without having to pass from photoshop and mask parts needed to than export those into 1 texture?
I know that it is not a general issue and that it depends on each prop if it needs high details or not.

I am still half way into the project and got yesterday texture streaming pool over xx
The thing is that i need to have high resoltuions texture everywhere given that im doing a small scene for VR

here is an example of the scene so you can have a reference of the defintion level that im looking for.
is there a way to change the texture streaming pool “size” ?

How do you guys process to keep a high def texture while having an optimized texture streaming pool?
dont know if im making sense here!

  1. Packing multiple props on one texture map makes sense, when either or both of these are true:
    1. Those props are due to be combined into a single mesh later on.
    2. Doing so allows you to pack things more efficiently.
  2. You can pack UVs whatever way you want, provided that it is texture UVs. Speaking of Lightmap UVs, you need each prop to have these as unique and non-overlapping.

if am not mistaken different
materials in UE4 will result in it
loading 3 textures even if the same
one is being used (i provided a
screenshot of both cases)

You are mistaken. Either way, it is still just one texture.

r.Streaming.PoolSize

console command lets you change the pool size.

The scene, you’ve shown on the screenshot, does not look like one, that could potentially exceeding texture memory budgets.

While you can increase the pool size, by adding the line r.Streaming.PoolSize = 2000 to your config file or in the editor console.

There are lots of ways you can optimize your texture usage. I’ll outline a few.

  • Texture stacking, which is outlined by Luos here: link text
  • Using lower resolution, tiling textures to add close-up detail: link text
  • Replacing texture with scalar/vector parameters, as is somewhat illustrated here: link text
  • Reducing the resolution of textures. Diffuse/roughness rarely need to be 4k.

Although somewhat more in depth, this article explains an alternative to traditional texturing and why you might want to ditch textures wherever possible. link text

Alright it is a bit more clear now for me thank you very much.
About exceeding texture memory right now it is not giving me this error but yesterday it did dont know what happenend that changed it. i’ll input the console command if i face this issue later on.
now about packing i want to pack Uv textures but i dont like the fact that i need to assemble them later on in photoshop, isnt there a way to do it automaticaly or this is the standard way of doing it?
Texture each prop by itself / export each prop texture set / and then combining all of them in photoshop.

Thanks ill dive into that

If you are at the planning stage of asset creation, you can plan them to be on a single UV space and unwrap accordingly. If you already have a bunch of existing assets, and you want to combine these, there is little point in doing so, but you can use Actor Merge tool in UE4 to do this automatically for you.

yes i already have a bunch of existing assets, i want to do so just to optimize my level and try to keep my fps over 60! i know i shouldve started doing that from the beginning but it would be to time consuming to restart all over now. having each prop with its own UV map/texture won’t give me good performance for my scene i think.
Soi guess its a matter of compromising perfomance for quality and vice versa…
About the actor merge tool ill check that out now i think it would be helpfull
Thanks a bunch :slight_smile: