spritesheet

A sprite sheet is a single image file that contains multiple smaller images, or sprites, used in 2D graphics to animate characters, effects, tiles, and UI elements. The technique reduces texture swaps and draw calls, improving rendering efficiency on modern GPUs.

A spritesheet typically organizes frames of an animation or a collection of tiles in a grid or irregular layout. Metadata accompanies the image to describe the position and size of each sprite, the animation sequences, and optional collision or origin data. Common formats pair the image with a separate atlas descriptor in JSON, XML, or YAML.

Two related concepts are the sprite sheet and the texture atlas. A sprite sheet usually refers to a grid-based arrangement of uniform frames; a texture atlas is a larger image that packs many smaller images with an external descriptor, allowing irregular layouts and varying sizes.

Creation and use: assets are generated with tools such as TexturePacker, Zwoptex, or Tilemancer, and integrated in game engines like Unity, Godot, or Unreal via built-in editors or runtime parsers.

Advantages include reduced state changes and better cache efficiency; limitations include wasted space, difficulty updating individual sprites, and size constraints on the atlas. Depending on hardware and mipmapping, padding and trimming are commonly applied to prevent bleeding between sprites.

Best practices include consistent frame dimensions, padding between frames, trimming of transparent areas when appropriate, and keeping a clear naming or indexing scheme for animation sequences.