sprites

Sprites are two-dimensional bitmap images that are drawn into a larger scene, typically moving independently from the background. In games and graphical applications, a sprite can represent a character, a projectile, an item, or a user interface element. The concept originated in early computer graphics and arcade hardware to allow small images to be repositioned without redrawing the entire screen. Modern graphics pipelines render sprites as textured quads with transparency, enabling per-pixel alpha or color-key transparency to blend with the scene.

Animation is usually accomplished by cycling through frames stored in a sprite sheet or atlas. A sequence of frames provides the illusion of movement, with timing controlled by the application or engine. Sprite sheets optimize memory usage and reduce texture swaps, improving performance on limited hardware. Sprites are often drawn in layers with a defined z-order or priority to determine overlap with the background and other sprites. Collision detection can use bounding boxes or per-pixel masks associated with each sprite.

There are hardware sprites, implemented by dedicated sprite engines in older arcade boards and consoles, and software sprites, where the rendering is handled by the system’s general graphics pipeline. Sprites are widely used in 2D video games, emulators, and graphical user interfaces for icons and cursors. In web development, the term also appears in CSS sprites, where multiple images are packed into one file to reduce HTTP requests. In modern engines, sprites are typically assets within a sprite atlas and can be rotated or scaled as needed; in 3D contexts, sprites are often rendered as billboards.