Texture Format Cheat-Sheet

<cat>Material.ShaderReference</cat>
<title>Texture Format Cheat-Sheet</title>

# 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                          |
|-------------------|------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
| BC1 | RGB color (5:6:5) and alpha (1) | Diffuse Map, Roughness Map, Normal Map |
| BC2 | RGB color (5:6:5) and alpha (4) | Diffuse Map with Transparency |
| BC3 | RGB color (5:6:5) and alpha (8) | Diffuse Map with High Quality Transparency |
| BC4 | Single-channel (8) | Height Map, Displacement Map, Ambient Occlusion Map |
| BC5 | 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) | |

Texture Format Cheat-Sheet

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