Texture Resolution and Compression

[NyxPixel1]

So I seem to have realized that the compression settings I was using for my IOS stuff doesn’t seem to be the proper way to go about it.

I’m working on a 2D game, in which the background images are just planes with textures on them. Most of these images are 1024x512 in size. I was typically setting it to DXT5 compression (I do most of my work on a Windows machine), and when I opened the project on my Mac and built to my device it seemed to look good. One particular image I dropped in the other day seemed to really be crappy looking, even though it had the same settings. After researching, it seems I have all of this wrong, I think.

Here are my questions:

I’ve read posts on these forums and else where that conflict each other regarding PVRTC (which I understand is the only compression for ios). On Unity 3.5.7f6, will PVRTC compression work on a file that is power of two (1024x512 for example), but not square(1024x1024)?

Regarding the scenario I explained above, is the texture being uncompressed when I built it to the device, thus causing it to look crisp (but using more resources obviously)?

Lastly, I found this thread:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/102651-Please-integrate-the-powervr-tool-from-imgtech

Is this still current? Do users on 3.5.7f6 need to use the script from DanTreble to get the “Best” quality settings to work properly?

Sorry for the long post, I just want to be sure I am using the proper method for getting the most out of my textures, while still being resource conscious.

Thanks for any advice!

[Agent_007]

On Unity 3.5.7f6, will PVRTC compression work on a file that is power of two (1024x512 for example), but not square(1024x1024)?

When you have Unity in iOS build mode, the texture preview shows the format. PVRTC doesn’t support 1024x512 textures, but with certain texture settings, the Unity scales it to 1024x1024 and then compresses it.

Regarding the scenario I explained above, is the texture being uncompressed when I built it to the device, thus causing it to look crisp (but using more resources obviously)?

With iOS, “the most crisp” option is uncompressed RGBA32 without Mipmaps. If you check Unity build log, it shows the texture sizes, and that allows you to confirm the file sizes of textures (e.g. 1024x1024 PVRTC 4bit file without mipmaps takes 512 kB of space, but RGBA 32 bit takes 4 megabytes).

Do users on 3.5.7f6 need to use the script from DanTreble to get the “Best” quality settings to work properly?

No. Once you override the texture compression from iOS section (select PVRTC), then you can select the quality
http://blog.heyworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Quality.jpg

[NyxPixel1]

@Agent_007

When you have Unity in iOS build mode, the texture preview shows the format. PVRTC doesn’t support 1024x512 textures, but with certain texture settings, the Unity scales it to 1024x1024 and then compresses it.

With iOS, “the most crisp” option is uncompressed RGBA32 without Mipmaps. If you check Unity build log, it shows the texture sizes, and that allows you to confirm the file sizes of textures (e.g. 1024x1024 PVRTC 4bit file without mipmaps takes 512 kB of space, but RGBA 32 bit takes 4 megabytes).

No. Once you override the texture compression from iOS section (select PVRTC), then you can select the quality
http://blog.heyworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Quality.jpg

Thanks for the clarification and answers, much appreciated!