How to make and use texture atlases for a 2D game?

Development Platform & Builds Debugging, Optimization, & Profiling
, , , ,
1

Hi! I’m making a 2D game and, in order to optimize it, I would like to generate lots of atlases like the one below and use them in my project instead of using lots and lots of spritesheets.

I read about tools that can output an atlas based on a batch of images inputted by the user, as well as a XML file that describes the location of each spritesheet ([Like this one][1]). My question is: how can I use this set of files (XML+Image) in UE4 in order to correctly extract the sprites and generate the corresponding flipbooks? Is there and easy way to do so, or do I have to manually input the location of each sprite sheet in the atlas in order to extract it?

236442-snes-super-mario-world-mario.png
236442-snes-super-mario-world-mario.png970×370 44.8 KB

2

I believe ue4 has an extract sprites option on textures, have you tried that? Its just a right click on a texture object in the content browser, under sprite actions.

3

Yeah this is what I’ve already been doing, but I wanted to know if there is a simpler version, like importing an XML file that creates all the corresponding flipbooks.