Unity Runtime Texture

This asset is an abstraction layer on top of Texture2D.LoadImage to create Texture2D objects at runtime from raw PNG/JPEG data. Image files' contents are stored in RuntimeTexture assets and are used to create Texture2Ds on demand. With this abstraction layer, you no longer need to store the image files in e.g. StreamingAssets directory, you can hold references to RuntimeTexture assets in your scripts and generate Texture2Ds using them.

Pros

• Smaller build sizes since raw PNG/JPEG images are usually much smaller than uncompressed Texture2Ds
• No need to store image files in StreamingAssets folder or load them manually using Texture2D.LoadImage
• RuntimeTextures can be resized from the Inspector. Note that resized image's bytes will be calculated using Texture2D.EncodeToPNG or Texture2D.EncodeToJPG, resizing the image in e.g. Photoshop will probably produce a smaller image file

Cons

• Generated Texture2Ds will be uncompressed and thus, at runtime, will consume more memory compared to compressed Texture2Ds. Hence, RuntimeTexture is mostly useful for replacing already uncompressed Textures (like images in drawing games)

Discord: https://discord.gg/UJJt549AaV

GitHub Sponsors ☕

INSTALLATION

There are 4 ways to install this plugin:

• import RuntimeTexture.unitypackage via Assets-Import Package
• clone/download this repository and move the Plugins folder to your Unity project's Assets folder
• (via Package Manager) add the following line to Packages/manifest.json:
  • "com.yasirkula.runtimetexture": "https://github.com/yasirkula/UnityRuntimeTexture.git",
• (via OpenUPM) after installing openupm-cli, run the following command:
  • openupm add com.yasirkula.runtimetexture

NOTE: Requires Unity 2017.2 or later.

HOW TO

There are two ways to create RuntimeTexture assets:

1. By default, RuntimeTexture assets use ".img" extension (can be changed from RuntimeTextureImporter.cs). You can simply save your PNG/JPEG images with .img extension
2. Right click a Texture asset in Project window and select "Convert To Runtime Texture" to create a RuntimeTexture asset from that Texture

RuntimeTexture assets have the following properties:

• Texture2D Texture { get; }: if a Texture2D isn't yet created for this RuntimeTexture, generates a Texture2D using Texture2D.LoadImage and returns it. Later calls will simply return that existing Texture2D
• int Width { get; }: width of the image
• int Height { get; }: height of the image