Using CCSpriteFrameCache without CCSpriteBatchNode

Question

I want to know if there is any benefiting caching a sprite sheet and accessing the sprite by frame without using the CCSpriteBatchNode?

In some parts of my game the sprite batch node is useful because there is a lot on the screen, however on another part its not, because there are just a few things, and there are requirements for layers so CCSpriteBatchNode wouldn't be useful. However, for the sake of consistency I would like to use Sprite Sheets for all my sprites, and so was beginning to wonder if I would still receive any benefit from it? (Or worse that it could some how be slower...)

Answer 1

There is defiantly a benefit to putting all your sprites into a texture atlas or sprite sheet as you called it. Textures are stored in memory in power of 2 dimensions. So if you have a sprite that is 129px by 132px it is stored in memory as 256px by 256px which is the nearest power of 2 size. If you have many sprites that is quite a lot of extra memory used up.

By using a texture atlas you only have one texture in memory and then it pulls the pieces out of it that it needs for your sprites. These sprites can be whatever size you want without having to worry about power of 2 sizes.

You can read more details about it on this tutorial http://www.raywenderlich.com/2361/how-to-create-and-optimize-sprite-sheets-in-cocos2d-with-texture-packer-and-pixel-formats