When comparing Active Texture Management vs The Near Future Pack, the Slant community recommends The Near Future Pack for most people. In the question“What are the best Kerbal Space Program mods?” The Near Future Pack is ranked 3rd while Active Texture Management is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose The Near Future Pack is:
It's a pack that doesn't really change the theme of ksp but it adds some new shapes and designs. NONE OF THEM ARE OVERPOWERED
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 A great selection of stock-like near future parts that blend well with other stock parts
It's a pack that doesn't really change the theme of ksp but it adds some new shapes and designs. NONE OF THEM ARE OVERPOWERED
Pro Includes 8 subpacks
Includes 6 subpacks: Propulsion, Electrical, Construction, Solar, Spacecraft, Aeronautics, Launch Vehicles, and Exploration
Pro Not at all buggy
The mod is extremely stable, and often is not the reason the game crashes.
Pro Probably the best-looking parts made for KSP
The author, Nertea, is one of the most talented 3D artists to mod the game.
Pro Synergistic with just about everything
Since NFT is the gold standard in the KSP modding scene, most mods you will encounter play very well with NFT.
Pro Multiple play directions
Near Future can be used with a basically stock playstyle, or you can use the parts to go in a direction tangental to the rest of the game, with capabilities that allow more stuff to do.
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Con Extremely outdated and unsupported as of 2021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.