When comparing Active Texture Management vs Mechjeb, the Slant community recommends Mechjeb for most people. In the question“What are the best Kerbal Space Program mods?” Mechjeb is ranked 8th while Active Texture Management is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose Mechjeb is:
Real rockets use autopilot, so this is more realistic and not cheating.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Reduces texture memory use, including mod textures
All textures can be compressed & resized to save RAM. There are two modes of compression - basic and aggressive. Both compress to DXT and generate minimaps for all non-normal map textures, with aggressive mode having a max of 256x256 and basic mode having a max of 512x512 size for normal maps that it resizes to half the size.
Pro Can save vast amounts of space
In some cases up to 50% of space is saved.
Pro Aggressive mode eliminates the need for texture reduction packs for mods
Active Texture Management will optimize all textures to use less memory so there's no need to use separate texture reduction packs for each mod. It you choose to use texture reduction packs regardless, you might need to edit the config file at:
BoulderCo/textureCompressorConfigs/textureCompressor.tcfg
Pro Realistic
Real rockets use autopilot, so this is more realistic and not cheating.
Pro Automates some tasks, while still keeping you in charge
Even if you scoff at the idea of having the computer do maneuvers for you, there are still numerous other useful tools for manual flight.
Pro Very nice for simulations and beginners
Pro Has autopilot features
Cons
Con Extremely outdated and unsupported as of 2021
Most mods use .dds texture format which ATM doesn't work for, and the plugin hasn't been updated to recent versions of Unity.