Unload Atlases in Mix Match after Runtime Atlas Created

TimGRS

Hello,

I'm using the Unity Runtime 3.5 with Unity 5.5.0p4 and looking into how to create an avatar system with customizable body parts and equipment.

The Mix and Match example in the Spine Unity package looks like a great starting point, but I had some questions about how the sprite sheets are loaded into memory. Based on my understanding the "spineboy_Atlas" and "RaggedySpineboy_Atlas" are both loaded into memory and then select texture regions are copied from them and placed in an atlas generated at runtime called "repacked".

The "repacked" atlas is used by the Equipped Hero game object. I assume that at this point the "spineboy_Atlas" and "RaggedySpineboy_Atlas" are still loaded into memory even though they're not being used directly by the Equipped Hero.

Since the Equipped Hero is now using the "repacked" atlas, is it safe to unload the spineboy and RaggedySpineboy atlases?

Pharan

Is it safe to unload the Spineboy and RaggedySpineboy textures after the repack process? Yes.
Is it safe to unload the AtlasAssets after the repack process? It should be. It doesn't do anything except hold a bunch of references.
And the AtlasAsset is really only used when the Skeleton is first loaded. All the pertinent data is stored in SkeletonData and each Skeleton itself.

If you're doing something super customizable, you may just be better off with using Sprite assets instead of getting parts from atlases. That will save you the step of having pack custom parts through Spine.

But yeah, after the skeleton is deserialized, it should be safe to unload the original loaded atlas and texture.

If you run into any problems or notice anything, do let us know!

TimGRS

Thanks for the confirmation Pharan. Yeah my plan is to use loose sprite assets for all the avatar parts and then at runtime repack all the player's selected parts into an atlas to reduce the number of draw calls.