Skip to main content

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tomblack.ca/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Pixelate can snap every color in your sprite sheet to a fixed color palette — giving your game a consistent, hand-crafted pixel-art look. You can supply your own palette texture so output sprites match your game’s exact color scheme.

​
How palette snapping works

When you assign a custom palette, Pixelate maps each rendered pixel to the nearest color in your palette using the PalletteSnapping shader. The result is a sprite sheet where only your palette’s colors appear — no intermediate blending or extra shades.
1

Create your palette texture

A palette texture is a 1-pixel-tall PNG where each pixel on the X axis is one color. Create it in any image editor (Aseprite, Photoshop, GIMP, etc.):
  • Width = number of colors (e.g., 16 pixels wide for a 16-color palette)
  • Height = 1 pixel
  • Save as PNG
The Sampling/ folder inside your Pixelate installation includes ready-made lookup textures you can use as starting points: DefaultCellLookup.png, 2StepLookup.png, MoreStepsLookup.png, and others.
2

Import the texture into Unity

Drag your palette PNG into the Project window. Then select it and configure these Import Settings exactly — any mismatch will produce wrong colors or a Console error at capture time:
SettingRequired value
Texture TypeDefault
sRGB (Color Texture)Enabled
Non-Power of 2None (if width is not a power of 2)
Read/WriteEnabled
Generate Mip MapsDisabled
Streaming MipmapsDisabled
Virtual Texture OnlyDisabled
Wrap ModeClamp
Filter ModePoint (No Filter)
CompressionNone (RGBA 32 bit)
Click Apply after making changes.
Pixelate validates these settings at capture time and logs an error for each misconfigured option. If you see palette-related Console errors, check every row in this table.
3

Assign the palette in PixelateCaptureManager

In the PixelateCaptureManager Inspector, find the Color Options section:
  1. Select the Custom Palette radio button
  2. Drag your palette texture into the Custom Palette field
4

Capture

Click Capture as normal. Pixelate will apply palette snapping to the output, and the resulting sprite sheet will use only the colors from your palette.

​
Palette consolidation threshold

The palletteColorConsolidationThreshold setting in your PixelateSettings asset controls how similar two palette colors must be before the less-used one is removed. Range: 1–100, default: 3.8.
  • Lower value — colors must be nearly identical to be merged; keeps more distinct shades
  • Higher value — more aggressive merging; reduces the effective palette size
This setting is most relevant when using Auto Palette mode, but also affects how Pixelate handles near-duplicate colors in a custom palette.

​
Included sample palettes

The Pixelate/Sampling/ folder ships with several lookup textures you can use directly or as references:
FileDescription
DefaultCellLookup.pngDefault cell-shading gradient
2StepLookup.pngTwo-tone cell shading (hard light/shadow)
MoreStepsLookup.pngMulti-step gradient for smoother shading
MoreMoreStepsCellLookup.pngMore granular multi-step gradient
NormalMapRendererCellLookup.pngCell shading for normal map rendering
NormalMapRendererCellLookupWide.pngWider variant for normal map cell shading
Dithering/Dithering matrix textures for palette snapping
Assign these to the corresponding fields in PixelateSettings (e.g., CellShadedLookup, DitheringLookupTexture) to customize the look of your output.