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Texture Format Cheat-Sheet

Texture Format Cheat-Sheet

Different textures need different compression formats for efficient storage and rendering.

The tables below outline a few formats suitable for specific data types. Please note that example texture lists are non-exhaustive, you should choose the best format that suits your needs based on the data type and resolution.

Compressed Formats

Block compression is a texture compression technique for reducing texture size.

We recommend that you use these formats for most purposes, as a block-compressed texture can be up to 75% smaller than a texture with 32-bits per color.

For most purposes, if you want a color texture, use BC7. If you want a HDR texture, use BC6H.

Format Source Data Type & Resolution (bits) Example Textures
DXT1 RGB color (5:6:5) and alpha (1) Diffuse Map, Roughness Map, Normal Map
DXT3 RGB color (5:6:5) and alpha (4) Diffuse Map with Transparency
DXT5 RGB color (5:6:5) and alpha (8) Diffuse Map with High Quality Transparency
ATI1N Single-channel (8) Height Map, Displacement Map, Ambient Occlusion Map
ATI2N Two-channel color (8:8)
BC6H Three-channel HDR color (16:16:16) Skyboxes
BC7 RGB (4-7 bits per channel) and alpha (0-8 bits) Diffuse Map, Roughness Map, Normal Map

Raw Formats

Raw formats are also usable. You should only really use these in situations where block compression causes artifacting - because they have higher storage requirements.

Format Source Data Type & Resolution (bits) Example Textures
RGBA8888 RGB color and alpha (8 bits each)
RGBA16161616F Three-channel HDR color and alpha (16 bits each)

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