version: "1.0.0" name: texel-density description: Choose, compute, and verify texel density (pixels per meter) so textures look equally sharp across game assets, and pick texture resolutions from it. Use when deciding a texture size for an asset, when one asset looks blurrier or sharper than its neighbors, when scaling UV shells, or when setting a project-wide density standard for Unity, Unreal, Godot, or Blender.

Texel density

Texel density is texture pixels per unit of surface, written in px/m (Unreal teams often use px/cm; 1 px/cm = 100 px/m). One density for every asset seen at the same distance keeps the world consistent.

Pick a target

These are common starting points. The project's standard wins, and it should be written down once and reused.

Compute it

density (px/m) = texture_size_px * sqrt(uv_area_fraction / surface_area_m2)

• uv_area_fraction: share of the 0-1 UV square the shells cover (0-1).
• surface_area_m2: real surface area of those faces, at final scale.

Quick sizing: a surface of about W x H meters needs about W * density by H * density pixels of unique texture. One 2 m x 2 m face at 512 px/m needs 1024 x 1024 px. A whole 2 m crate has six such faces (24 m2), so unwrapped uniquely it needs about 2K or more; mirror or stack identical faces, or use a tiling material, to stay at 1K.

In Blender, check with a checker texture of known size and measure one shell, or use a texel-density add-on. Scale all shells of an asset by the same factor so their densities stay equal.

Choose the texture size

1. Compute the pixels needed from the surface area and the target density.
2. Round up to a power of two (512, 1024, 2048, 4096). Non-power-of-two

textures lose mip-mapping or compression on some platforms.

1. If the result is 4K+ for a regular prop, split into trim sheets or tiling

materials instead of one unique map.

1. Mobile: stay at 1K or below for most props; 2K only for heroes.

Verify

• Checker texture: squares are the same size on this asset and on its

neighbors in the engine, at the gameplay camera distance.

• No shell is scaled up just because there was free UV space. Wasted space is

cheaper than a density jump the player notices.

• Mirrored or stacked shells count once, which is why they save density.
• Report: target density, measured density, and texture size per map.