Getting Started - Pro Unity Game Development with C# - page 38

Figure 2-2. mainTexture.png is an atlas texture that'll be applied to all objects in CMOD
The file mainTexture.png is an atlas texture sized at 4096×4096 pixels, the maximum texture size
supported by Unity. Atlas textures are essentially created by copying and pasting all your smaller
and independent textures together inside a larger one—the larger one being known as the atlas .
All meshes and objects inside the game will reference the appropriate texture areas inside the
atlas, as opposed to referencing separate files. Doing this allows us to share a single material
(or the fewest number of materials) across all objects, leading to improved rendering performance.
Remember from Chapter 1, which discussed the Rendering Statistics window, that each unique
material rendered to the display increases the draw calls.