When to use Atlas Sprite/Label and when not to

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When to use Atlas Sprite/Label and when not to

(9 posts) (7 voices)

Started 2 years ago by SageGames
Latest reply from PhilM

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SageGames
Member

I found this interesting post, but I didn't want to steal the subject:
http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/forum/topic/153#post-756

Basically my question is why would you ever NOT use an Atlas something if it is so much better than the non-Atlas version? And why isn't Sprite depreciated and/or wrapped or updated to behave like Atlas Sprite? Same for Label and anything else "Atlas". I even see that some of the demo code actually uses both LabelAtlas and Label in the same method...

And what does the word Atlas mean in this context anyways?

Josh.

Posted 2 years ago #
Codemattic
Moderator

You might want to use Label to get the better font rendering that comes with using Quartz - at the expense of speed.

You might want to use a Sprite just bc its easier to program with and update. So you may prototype your game with Sprites even if you will use AtlasSprites later on.

Atlas = a book of illustration or diagrams. In this context it means you have one big image loaded into an opengl texture which actually holds a series of smaller images. As opposed to all the smaller images each loaded in to their own texture.

Posted 2 years ago #
SageGames
Member

Codemattic - Excellent explanation indeed. You should add that to the wiki next to where it says to use the Atlas version. It would be good to know how/why.

http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/wiki/doku.php/prog_guide:best_practices

Posted 2 years ago #
ob1
Member

I think there were talks about merging Sprite and AtlasSprite in the future anyways, and make the class easier to use.

Posted 2 years ago #
riq
Key Master

@SageGames: Feel free to update the wiki.

Everybody is welcome to update the wiki. You don't have to be a developer to edit it. Just create an user, and edit/modify any page.

thanks.

Posted 2 years ago #
slipster216
Moderator

The current plan is that in 0.9 atlas sprite and sprite will effectively be the same thing, and the speed boost of atlas sprite will come by way of parenting a sprite to a spriteManager. Overall, it should be an easier to understand system, and much more flexible (no parenting restrictions, etc). The details, which are still being hashed out, are here:

http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/forum/topic/1713/page/1

Posted 2 years ago #
leftright
Member

Thanks to the Cocos2D community, I'm making great progress with our first cocos2d game! With regards to Atlas vs Sprites, will there be any penalty hit in terms of performance is we did a bunch of one off stuff (bg, static objects) using Sprites and then other objects using several AtlasSprites?

Posted 2 years ago #
SageGames
Member

leftright - from what I can tell from the comments people have made in the forums and my own review of the code, is you get a speed bonus from each atlas sprite that shares a same atlas manager already in use on the screen by another atlas sprite. But there is no penalty from having both sprites and atlas sprites. But at the same time there is no benefit of atlas manager if it is the only being used by one atlas sprite.

Posted 2 years ago #
PhilM
Member

"But at the same time there is no benefit of atlas manager if it is the only being used by one atlas sprite. "

I can think of one benefit, AtlasAnimations vs the old animation method (png sequences). But yea, the true benefit seems to comes when your sharing the atlas sprite manager.

Posted 2 years ago #

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