GDX Texture Packer

There's a lot to work on when it comes to game development, and designing and managing textures numbers among them. Open-source and free-to-use game development frameworks have been surfacing over the last few years, granting developers more opportunities to create new games.

libGDX is one such platform, and it grants users the possibility to create cross-platform games, thanks to its streamlined environment. Distributions of libGDX come with texture packers, and if you're on the lookout for a GUI for such a thing, the GDX Texture Packer provides a much-needed interface to help users better manage their projects.

When it comes to setting up the tool, there isn't much to be done other than unpacking the archive, then starting it up. The executable bears the .jar extension and works on its own, without requiring any additional config files or anything of the sort. To test it out, we loaded in the sample textures from the test-me! folder that came in the archive, and started modifying the pack's settings.

A bunch of the textures' properties can be changed in the Settings menu: for one, you can start by changing their encoding, where plenty of formats are available. RGBA8888 and 4444, LuminanceAlpha, and more such encoders are among the options. You can also change the min and mag filter, as well as the minimum and maximum page dimensions.

You can add padding to your textures to smoothen them out, and you can also increase or decrease their quality to save space. Duplicate padding and edge padding functions are also usable, as well as aliases, which work to get rid of jagged texture edges.

When all is done, you may choose to export in .png or .jpg, and elect to have the program pack your files.

GDX Texture Packer can be of aid when you're looking to manage your libGDX textures: if you need a GUI for that, you have it here.