Texture Sets

Texture sets is a plugin developed for UE5, and provides an opt-in framework for building advanced, streamlined texture pipelines.

Basic Concepts

Texture sets has 3 main user-facing components that define the framework:

• Texture Set: The texture set asset itself. Imported from a raw asset (texture files, PSD, substance file) or by referencing existing textures in the project. References a Texture Set Definition to define the required inputs.
• Texture Set Definition: A data asset built from modules; defines inputs, outputs, a packing scheme, and compression formats.
• Texture Set Sampler: In the shader graph, a new type of texture node, similar to an existing Texture Sampler. References a Texture Set Definition, and creates a Texture Set parameter for the shader. Node outputs are unpacked sample values, as defined by the Texture Set Definition.

Want to know more of the nitty gritty? Check out the Technical Overview.

Benefits of Texture Sets

• Opt-in. Doesn't break or invalidate any existing data. Loose texture assets still exist.

For Artists:

• Texture Sets eliminates the need for manual texture packing. Just import your texture maps, and the packing happens behind the scenes.
• Texture settings are standardized and centralized. Never worry about sRGB settings or selecting the right compression format again!
• Co-authored textures are stored together in data. Just assign one texture set to your material and all the appropriate maps and material parameters are set together.

For Material Artists:

• Decompression and unpacking of textures happen automatically inside the sampler node. No need to swizzle channels to undo texture packing in the graph.
• Common well-defined techniques such as flipbooking or parallax occlusion mapping which are often difficult or messy to support in a material graph. These can be implemented once and handled with the click of a button on the sampler.

For Art Leads and Technical Artists:

• Texture Sets Provide project-wide control of texture packing layouts and compression formats, allowing iteration and optimization later in production without the need for data-patching.
• Increase asset portability; Import assets from external sources and leverage texture sets to bring them in-line with project standards without needing to alter the raw data.

For Engineers

• Provides a framework for advanced compression or rendering techniques that require both pre-processing and runtime logic, and are typically cumbersome or near impossible to implement at a production scale traditionally. e.g. NDF pre-filtering, relaxed cone-step mapping, derivative mapping, vertex animation compression.
• Provide optimized implementations of common complex material techniques in code, which are easily accessible to material artists. e.g. triplanar mapping, flipbooking with motion vectors, parallax occlusion mapping.

Ready to try it out? Jump in to the Quick Start Guide and create your first Texture Set!

Authors

Search for Extraordinary Experiences Division (SEED) - Electronic Arts
seed.ea.com

SEED is a pioneering group within Electronic Arts, combining creativity with applied research.
We explore, build, and help determine the future of interactive entertainment.

Texture Sets is an Electronic Arts project created by Martin Palko, with the full support of the teams at EA Motive and SEED

Contributing

Before you can contribute, EA must have a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) on file that has been signed by each contributor. You can sign here.

License

The source code is released under an open license as detailed in LICENSE.md