Palette Texturing
Palette Texturing is using a simple texture of color to apply to an entire model. You would assign the polygons of your model onto the specific areas on the texture. In exceptionally optimised examples, the texture could be 16x16 pixels, with a small number of color options. This is great for creating relatively simple assets with a number of colors at a very small filesize.
Depending on the asset in question, you can increase the polycount (within reason) to add more color definition. The texture being used in the example below is a 16x16 pixel image which comes up to a whole 1Kb of filesize. It uses polygons in order to create the ink lines, rather than relying on textures to do so. That said, a VRM has a little more room to move on poly count than a simple asset in a space.
The evolution of this is creating a texture of number of gradients that you can use to texture your asset. This allows some extra detail in the color, but keeps the filesize quite low.
The next version would be to have the same colors, but different finishes such as polished or metallic. Allowing one model to have a large number of colors and finishes but using one texture. All assets in the room below, and the room itself, use the same material. This includes the metallic sink assets through to the matte bed spread.
Palette Texturing is a fantastic approach to asset creation, especially if you are creating a lot of assets to use in a Mona Space as Unity can combine all your resources together if they are using the same material, reducing draw calls, and therefore running the space better. As they are all using a texture that is very small, the filesize is also quite small in comparison.
For more information on Unwrapping UVs, check out the Applying Materials & Unwrapping UVs doc.
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