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Image formats
This is an essay.
It contains the advice or opinions of one or more of the Valve Developer Community's contributors.
This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of the Valve Developer Community's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community.
Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.
It contains the advice or opinions of one or more of the Valve Developer Community's contributors.
This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of the Valve Developer Community's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community.
Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.
The following is a list of standard image formats, along with which engines support them, whether they are compressed, and when I recommend using them.
![Icon-Important.png](/w/images/thumb/5/5c/Icon-Important.png/10px-Icon-Important.png)
![Warning.png](/w/images/thumb/c/cb/Warning.png/10px-Warning.png)
![Strata Source](/w/images/thumb/2/2b/Strata-16px.png/16px-Strata-16px.png)
![Source 2](/w/images/thumb/5/52/Icon-Source_2.png/16px-Icon-Source_2.png)
Supported in | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Format | ![]() GoldSrc |
![]() Source |
![]() Strata |
![]() Source 2 |
Compressed? | Recommended usage |
P8 (256-color) | Yes, except for main menu backgrounds and detail textures | No (use BGR565 or BGRA8888) | No (use BC7) | No (use BC7) | Yes, 1 palette for entire image with 256 colors | ![]() |
BGR888, RGB888 (24-bit true color) | Limited; only for skyboxes, detail textures, main menu backgrounds, and VGUI elements | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (except in ![]() |
![]()
|
BGRA8888, RGBA8888 (32-bit true color with translucency) | Limited; only for VGUI elements | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ![]()
|
BGRA8888, RGBA8888 (Source 1 Compressed HDR, aka "RGBM"; sky shaders only) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes; alpha channel used as a multiplicand rather than for translucency (see Valve Texture Format#HDR compression) Can also be combined used with DXT5, but doing so is not recommended. |
![]() |
BGRA16161616F, RGBA16161616F (16 bpc Floating Point HDR with translucency) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
BGR565 (16-bit color) | No | Yes | Yes | No (use BC7) | No | ![]()
|
BGRA4444 (16-bit color with translucency) | No | Yes | Yes | No (use BC7) | No | ![]() |
I8 (8-bit greyscale) | Technically (using P8) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ![]()
|
IA88 (8-bit greyscale with translucency) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ![]() |
A8 (Translucency only) | Technically, only for sprites (using IndexAlpha) and decals | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
DXT1 (AKA BC1) | (only in ![]() |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes; two explicit BGR565 colors and two interpolated colors per 4x4 block | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
DXT3 (AKA BC2) | No | Yes | Yes | No (use DXT5) | RGB only; RGB handled like DXT1, with uncompressed 4-bit alpha | ![]() ![]() |
DXT5 (AKA BC3) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes; RGB handled like DXT1, with alpha handled like ATI1N | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
ATI1N (AKA BC4) | No | No (use I8) | Yes | Yes | Yes; four explicit I8 values and four interpolated values per 4x4 block | ![]()
|
ATI2N (AKA BC5) | No | No (use BGR565 if really necessary) | Yes | Yes | Yes; two independent ATI1N-style channels (red and green) | ![]() |
BC6H (AKA BC6) | No | No (use compressed BGRA8888) | Yes | Yes | Yes; four explicit RGB161616 or RGB161616F colors and four interpolated colors per 4x4 block | ![]() ![]() |
BC7 | No | No (use BGR565 or BGRA8888) | Yes | Yes | Yes; four explicit RGB888 or RGBA8888 colors and four interpolated colors per 4x4 block | ![]() ![]() |
![Note.png](/w/images/thumb/c/cc/Note.png/10px-Note.png)
![GoldSrc](/w/images/thumb/6/61/Gldsrc_icon.png/16px-Gldsrc_icon.png)
Not all programs can export compressed TGAs; GIMP does this when exporting to TGA by default. Make sure that the origin is set to "bottom-left".
![Note.png](/w/images/thumb/c/cc/Note.png/10px-Note.png)
![Strata Source](/w/images/thumb/2/2b/Strata-16px.png/16px-Strata-16px.png)
![Note.png](/w/images/thumb/c/cc/Note.png/10px-Note.png)
![Source](/w/images/thumb/1/10/Icon-Source.png/16px-Icon-Source.png)
![Source 2](/w/images/thumb/5/52/Icon-Source_2.png/16px-Icon-Source_2.png)
![Note.png](/w/images/thumb/c/cc/Note.png/10px-Note.png)
Formats with 1-bit alpha should be avoided anyway (except in
![GoldSrc](/w/images/thumb/6/61/Gldsrc_icon.png/16px-Gldsrc_icon.png)
![Note.png](/w/images/thumb/c/cc/Note.png/10px-Note.png)
![Source](/w/images/thumb/1/10/Icon-Source.png/16px-Icon-Source.png)
![Strata Source](/w/images/thumb/2/2b/Strata-16px.png/16px-Strata-16px.png)
![Source 2](/w/images/thumb/5/52/Icon-Source_2.png/16px-Icon-Source_2.png)
nocompress
with pfm
(see HDR Skybox Creation#Creating the Materials).