IMAGE_FORMAT

Description

Enumerations used by GetRenderTargetEx to determine the byte format of each pixel in the Render Target.

Values

IMAGE_FORMAT_DEFAULT	-1
IMAGE_FORMAT_RGBA8888	0	Red, Green, Blue, Alpha, 8 bit per pixel.
IMAGE_FORMAT_ABGR8888	1	Probably legacy format. Alpha, Red, Green, Blue, 8 bit per pixel.
IMAGE_FORMAT_RGB888	2	Legacy format. Red, Green, Blue, 8 bit per pixel. `D3DFMT_R8G8B8` is invalid for most modern video cards. Thats why `IMAGE_FORMAT_RGB888` and `IMAGE_FORMAT_BGR888` is legacy formats. It have fallback to `IMAGE_FORMAT_BGRX8888`. `X` means «any».
IMAGE_FORMAT_BGR888	3	Legacy format. Blue, Green, Red order, 8 bit per pixel.
IMAGE_FORMAT_RGB565	4	Red, Green, Blue, 5 bit per pixel for Red and Blue channels, 6 bits for Green. Effectively uses less video memory.
IMAGE_FORMAT_ARGB8888	11	`IMAGE_FORMAT_RGBA8888` with different byte order. Legacy format.
IMAGE_FORMAT_BGRA8888	12	`IMAGE_FORMAT_RGBA8888` with different byte order. Legacy format.
IMAGE_FORMAT_RGBA16161616	25	RGBA, but 16 bits per pixel. Was meant to be used for "Integer mode" for HDR.
IMAGE_FORMAT_RGBA16161616F	24	RGBA, but floating point 16 bits per pixel. Is used for "Float mode" HDR.

Additional Values

In addition to the enum values listed above, there are several additional image formats that can be used to create Render Targets but do not have Lua variables defined for them.

To use these additional enums, use the numerical value directly.
(E.g. use 5 instead of IMAGE_FORMAT_I8)

The values below may not be an completely exhaustive list.
For more information on these formats, see VTF Enumerations.

General

The following enum values are from the base Source Engine and do not have Lua variables defined for them simply because they are used less frequently than other formats.

Enum Name	Value	Description
IMAGE_FORMAT_I8	5	Grayscale format (black and white), 8 bits per pixel. Not working on Proton as of 2026/01/11.
IMAGE_FORMAT_IA88	6	Grayscale format (black and white) with alpha support, 8 bits per pixel/channel. Not working on Proton.
IMAGE_FORMAT_A8	8	8 bit alpha.
IMAGE_FORMAT_BGRX8888	16	Same as `BGRA8888`, but 4th `X` channel is empty.
IMAGE_FORMAT_BGR565	17	`RGB565`, but reverse color order.
IMAGE_FORMAT_BGRX5551	18	5 bits per RGB, 4th bit is empty.
IMAGE_FORMAT_BGRA4444	19	4 bits per pixel.
IMAGE_FORMAT_BGRA5551	21	5 bits per RGB, 1 bit alpha.
IMAGE_FORMAT_R32F	27	Single color channel, 32bit float per pixel.
IMAGE_FORMAT_RGBA32323232F	29	32bit floating point RGBA.
IMAGE_FORMAT_DXT1	13	Compressed texture format. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S3_Texture_Compression.
IMAGE_FORMAT_DXT3	14	Compressed texture format. Do not use. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S3_Texture_Compression.
IMAGE_FORMAT_DXT5	15	Compressed texture format. Better quality than DXT1, supports alpha. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S3_Texture_Compression.

Team Fortress 2

The following enum values are available on the main and dev branches and are originally from Team Fortress 2's engine branch.

Enum Name	Value	Description
IMAGE_FORMAT_NV_DST16	30	Hardware 16 bit Depth texture format for shadow depth mapping. Used in ProjectedTexture.
IMAGE_FORMAT_NV_DST24	31	Hardware 24 bit Depth texture format for shadow depth mapping.
IMAGE_FORMAT_NV_INTZ	32	Hardware depth format. Allow to read depth as color texture. See D3D9 GPU Hacks.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

The following enum values are available on the x86-64 branch and are originally from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's engine branch

Enum Name	Value	Description
IMAGE_FORMAT_D16	39	Hardware 16 bit Depth texture format for shadow depth mapping.
IMAGE_FORMAT_D16_SHADOW	47	Hardware 16 bit Depth texture format for shadow depth mapping. Used in ProjectedTexture.
IMAGE_FORMAT_D24X8_SHADOW	48	Hardware Depth-stencil texture format for shadow depth mapping. 24 bit depth + 8 bit stencil.
IMAGE_FORMAT_INTZ	67	Hardware depth format. Allow to read depth as color texture. See D3D9 GPU Hacks.