asset-optimization

Asset Optimization

Workflow Overview

Asset optimization follows this 4-step pattern:

1. Audit - Identify largest assets, measure load times
2. Compress - Apply platform-specific compression
3. Convert - Transform to efficient runtime formats
4. Validate - Verify quality and measure savings

Texture Optimization Workflow

Step 1: Audit Current Usage

# Find all textures and sort by size
find ./Assets/Textures -type f \( -name "*.png" -o -name "*.tga" \) -exec ls -lh {} \; | sort -k5 -hr | head -20

# Output total size
du -sh ./Assets/Textures

Step 2: Apply Compression

BAD - Uncompressed RGBA32:

Character_Diffuse.png: 2048x2048, RGBA32
Size: 16 MB
Memory: 16 MB at runtime

GOOD - Platform-optimized BC7:

Character_Diffuse.dds: 2048x2048, BC7
Size: 2 MB
Memory: 2 MB at runtime (8x savings)

Step 3: Batch Convert with texconv

# Windows - Convert all PNG to BC7 DDS with mipmaps
for file in ./source/*.png; do
    texconv -f BC7 -m 0 -o ./optimized/ "$file"
done

# Mobile - Convert to ASTC 6x6
for file in ./source/*.png; do
    astcenc -cl "$file" ./optimized/$(basename "$file" .png).astc 6x6 -medium
done

Step 4: Validate Quality

# Compare file sizes
du -sh ./source ./optimized

# Visual diff (requires ImageMagick)
compare -metric PSNR source.png optimized.png diff.png

WebP/AVIF Conversion for Web

WebP Conversion

# Single file - 80% quality, lossless alpha
cwebp -q 80 input.png -o output.webp

# Batch convert entire directory
find ./images -name "*.png" -exec bash -c 'cwebp -q 80 "$0" -o "${0%.png}.webp"' {} \;

# With fallback generation
for img in ./images/*.png; do
    cwebp -q 80 "$img" -o "${img%.png}.webp"
    # Keep original as fallback
done

Before/After Example:

hero-banner.png:  1.2 MB (PNG, lossless)
hero-banner.webp: 180 KB (WebP, 85% savings)

AVIF Conversion (Better Compression)

# Install avif encoder
npm install -g @squoosh/cli

# Convert with quality 60 (good balance)
squoosh-cli --avif '{"cqLevel":60}' input.png

# Batch process
find ./images -name "*.png" | xargs squoosh-cli --avif '{"cqLevel":60}'