GPU Pro 5

2

I

Reducing Texture Memory Usage

by 2-Channel Color Encoding

Krzysztof Kluczek

2.1 Introduction

In modern games, textures are the primary means of storing information about

the appearance of materials. While often a single texture is applied to an entire

3D mesh containing all materials, they equally often represent individual materi-

als, e.g., textures of walls, terrain, vegetation, debris, and simple objects. These

single-material textures often do not exhibit large color variety and contain a lim-

ited range of hues, while using a full range of brightness resulting from highlights

and dark (e.g., shadowed), regions within the material surface. These ...