Texture atlas: In realtime computer graphics,
a texture atlas (also called a sprite sheet)
is an image containing a collection of smaller images,
usually packed together to reduce the atlas size.
- Wikipedia

Vanilla Morrowind has objects split into different shapes each using its own unique texture. This is bad for performance and is one of the game's primary FPS bottlenecks. Each shape (even within a single mesh file) requires its own drawcall. There are close to 5,000 different textures in Morrowind's data; many of which are very similar or outright identical and some meshes are split into more than 75 different shapes. Merging those meshes into a single shape which references a single texture atlas is the ideal situation for game performance.

The goal of Project Atlas is to identify the most performance heavy areas of vanilla Morrowind and some popular mods and target high usage/strain meshes in those areas for atlasing. This effort involves reworking the UVs for those meshes and creating texture atlases to cover various sets.

Project Atlas is currently in ALPHA.
It only covers a few sets at the moment as we try to tackle the low hanging fruit.
Follow the project's development on GitHub.

• FloorBelow
• Greatness7
• Lord Berandas
• Melchior Dahrk
• MwGek
• Petethegoat
• Pop000100
• R-Zero
• Remiros
• revenorror
• RubberMan
• Sataniel
• Stuporstar
• vtastek
• Wollibeebee
  

• Morrowind Optimization Patch. It is recommended to use MOP alongside Project Atlas, but install Project Atlas last.
• White Suran 2 - MD Edition. Includes atlased meshes.
• Aesthesia - Hlaalu textures. Includes a texture atlas.
• Static's AoF Hlaalu Atlased. Includes a texture atlas.
  



Texture atlases replace the vanilla textures which means that the texture atlas will not automatically be compatible with texture replacers. Some texture replacers have already been patched to be compatible with Project Atlas (see the Related Mods section), but many more have not been. Some of the atlases come with their own texture replacer patchers (courtesy of Sataniel) - they require you to have ImageMagick installed [during the installation process, select options "Install legacy utilities (e. g. convert)" and "Add application directory to system path"]. If the archive doesn't have a .bat file yet, then the texture atlas for the texture replacer may need to be created manually. Check out the Morrowind Modding Community Discord #atlas channel for the latest news on Project Atlas - could be that someone has already made a patch!




It is highly recommended that new assets for the game be made using texture atlases as a best practice - especially when used in cities. Modders are free to use the assets from the Project Atlas mods in their own projects (e.g. White Suran 2 used the Hlaalu Atlas). The team is active in the Morrowind Modding Community Discord #atlas channel for any questions on how to make your own atlased meshes and textures or if you're interested in joining the team!