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iOS 2D Texture Overrides

When you are building for different platforms, you have to think about the resolution of your textures for the target platform, the size and the quality. You can set default options and then override the defaults for a specific platform.

This page details the Texture OverridesPlatform-specific settings that allow you to set the resolution, file size with associated memory size requirements, pixel dimensions, and quality of your Textures for each target platform. More info
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specific to iOSApple’s mobile operating system. More info
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. A description of the general Texture Overrides can be found here.

Property Function
Format What internal representation is used for the texture. This is a tradeoff between size and quality. In the examples below we show the final size of an in-game texture of 256 by 256 pixelsThe smallest unit in a computer image. Pixel size depends on your screen resolution. Pixel lighting is calculated at every screen pixel. More info
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:
RGB Compressed PVRTC__ 4 bits__ Compressed RGB texture. This is the most common format for diffuse textures. 4 bits per pixel (32 KB for a 256x256 texture).
RGBA Compressed PVRTC 4 bits Compressed RGBA texture. This is the main format used for diffuse and specular control textures or diffuse textures with transparency. 4 bits per pixel (32 KB for a 256x256 texture).
RGB Compressed PVRTC 2 bits Compressed RGB texture. Lower quality format suitable for diffuse textures. 2 bits per pixel (16 KB for a 256x256 texture).
RGBA Compressed PVRTC 2 bits Compressed RGBA texture. Lower quality format suitable for diffuse & specular control textures. 2 bits per pixel (16 KB for a 256x256 texture).
RGB Compressed ASTC 4x4 block

RGB Compressed ASTC 5x5 block

RGB Compressed ASTC 6x6 block

RGB Compressed ASTC 8x8 block

RGB Compressed ASTC 10x10 block

RGB Compressed ASTC 12x12 block
Compressed RGB texture. Supported by all Metal, OpenGL ES 3.2 and OpenGL ES 3.1+AEP GPUs, as well as by some OpenGL ES 3.0 GPUs. This compression type uses fixed 128-bit block size, and depending on the pixel block size (4x4 to 12x12), it may utilize 8 to 0.89 bits per pixel. The size of the compressed texture varies from 64 KB for a 256x256 texture (4x4 block, highest quality) to 7.6 KB for a 256x256 texture (12x12 block, highest compression rate).
RGBA Compressed ASTC 4x4 block

RGBA Compressed ASTC 5x5 block

RGBA Compressed ASTC 6x6 block

RGBA Compressed ASTC 8x8 block

RGBA Compressed ASTC 10x10 block

RGBA Compressed ASTC 12x12 block
Compressed RGBA texture. Supported by all Metal, OpenGL ES 3.2 and OpenGL ES 3.1+AEP GPUs, as well as by some OpenGL ES 3.0 GPUs. This compression type uses fixed 128-bit block size, and depending on the pixel block size (4x4 to 12x12), it may utilize 8 to 0.89 bits per pixel. The size of the compressed texture varies from 64 KB for a 256x256 texture (4x4 block, highest quality) to 7.6 KB for a 256x256 texture (12x12 block, highest compression rate).
RGB Compressed ETC 4 bits Compressed RGB texture. This is the default texture formatA file format for handling textures during realtime rendering by 3D graphics hardware, such as a graphics card or mobile device. More info
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for Android projects in Unity. ETC_RGB4 is a part of OpenGL ES 2.0 and is supported by all OpenGL ES 2.0 GPUs. It does not support alpha. 4 bits per pixel (32 KB for a 256x256 texture).
RGB Crunched ETC Compressed RGB texture. Crunch is a lossy compressionA method of storing data that reduces the amount of storage space it requires. See Texture Compression, Animation CompressionThe method of compressing animation data to significantly reduce file sizes without causing a noticable reduction in motion quality. Animation compression is a trade off between saving on memory and image quality. More info
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, Audio Compression, Build Compression.
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format on top of ETC texture compression. Textures are decompressed to ETC_RGB4 by the CPU and then uploaded to the GPU at runtime. Crunch produces smaller textures than by regular ETC_RGB4 compression, but with lower quality. Crunch textures can take a long time to compress, but decompression at runtime is very fast. ETC_RGB4 is a part of OpenGL ES 2.0 and is supported by all Metal and OpenGL ES 2.0 GPUs. It does not support alpha. 4 bits per pixel (output size varies depending on the texture - from 1 KB for a 256x256 texture).
RGBA Compressed ETC2 8 bits Compressed RGBA texture. Supported by all Metal and OpenGL ES 3.0 GPUs. (64 KB for a 256x256 texture).
RGBA Crunched ETC2 Compressed RGBA texture. Crunch is a lossy compression format on top of ETC texture compression3D Graphics hardware requires Textures to be compressed in specialised formats which are optimised for fast Texture sampling. More info
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. Textures are decompressed to ETC2_RGBA8 on the CPU and then uploaded to the GPU at runtime. Crunch compression can be used to produce significantly smaller textures than by regular ETC2_RGBA8 compression, but with lower quality. Crunch textures can take a long time to compress, but decompression at runtime is very fast. Supported by all Metal and OpenGL ES 3.0 GPUs. 8 bits per pixel (output size varies depending on the texture - from 1 KB for a 256x256 texture).
RGB 16 bit 65 thousand colors with no alpha. Uses more memory than PVRTC formats, but could be more suitable for UI(User Interface) Allows a user to interact with your application. More info
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or crisp textures without gradients. 128 KB for a 256x256 texture.
RGB 24 bit Truecolor but without alpha. 192 KB for a 256x256 texture.
Alpha 8 bit High quality alpha channel but without any color. 64 KB for a 256x256 texture.
RGBA 16 bit Low-quality truecolor. Has 16 levels of red, green, blue and alpha. Uses more memory than PVRTC formats, but can be handy if you need exact alpha channel. 128 KB for a 256x256 texture.
RGBA 32 bit Truecolor with alpha - this is the highest quality. At 256 KB for a 256x256 texture, this one is expensive. Most of the time, PVRTC formats offers sufficient quality at a much smaller size.
Compressor quality Choose Fast for quickest performance, Best for the best image quality and Normal for a balance between the two.

  • 2018–06–14 Page amended with limited editorial review

  • Crunch compression format updated in Unity 2017.3

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iOS Player Settings
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