- Mark Callow @MarkCallow
- Rich Geldreich, Binomial, @richgel999
- Gary Hsu, Microsoft, @bghgary
- Arseny Kapoulkine, Roblox, @zeuxcg
- Alexey Knyazev @lexaknyazev
- Don McCurdy, Google, @donrmccurdy
Copyright 2020 The Khronos Group Inc. All Rights Reserved. glTF is a trademark of The Khronos Group Inc. See Appendix for full Khronos Copyright Statement.
Complete, Ratified by the Khronos Group
Written against the glTF 2.0 spec.
This extension adds the ability to specify textures using KTX v2 images with Basis Universal supercompression. An implementation of this extension can use such images as an alternative to the PNG or JPEG images available in glTF 2.0 for more efficient asset transmission and reducing GPU memory footprint. Furthermore, specifying mip map levels is possible.
When the extension is used, it's allowed to use value image/ktx2
for the mimeType
property of images that are referenced by the source
property of KHR_texture_basisu
texture extension object.
At runtime, engines are expected to transcode a universal texture format into some block-compressed texture format supported by the platform.
The KHR_texture_basisu
extension is added to the textures
object and specifies a source
property that points to the index of the image
which defines a reference to the KTX v2 image with Basis Universal supercompression.
The following glTF will load image.ktx2
in clients that support this extension, and otherwise fall back to image.png
.
{
"asset": {
"version": "2.0"
},
"extensionsUsed": [
"KHR_texture_basisu"
],
"textures": [
{
"source": 0,
"extensions": {
"KHR_texture_basisu": {
"source": 1
}
}
}
],
"images": [
{
"uri": "image.png"
},
{
"uri": "image.ktx2"
}
]
}
When used in the glTF Binary (GLB) format the image
that points to the KTX v2 resource uses the mimeType
value of image/ktx2
.
{
"asset": {
"version": "2.0"
},
"extensionsUsed": [
"KHR_texture_basisu"
],
"textures": [
{
"source": 0,
"extensions": {
"KHR_texture_basisu": {
"source": 1
}
}
}
],
"images": [
{
"mimeType": "image/png",
"bufferView": 1
},
{
"mimeType": "image/ktx2",
"bufferView": 2
}
]
}
To use KTX v2 image with Basis Universal supercompression without a fallback, define KHR_texture_basisu
in both extensionsUsed
and extensionsRequired
. The texture
object will then have its source
property omitted as shown below.
{
"asset": {
"version": "2.0"
},
"extensionsUsed": [
"KHR_texture_basisu"
],
"extensionsRequired": [
"KHR_texture_basisu"
],
"textures": [
{
"extensions": {
"KHR_texture_basisu": {
"source": 0
}
}
}
],
"images": [
{
"uri": "image.ktx2"
}
]
}
texture.KHR_texture_basisu.schema.json
To cover a broad range of use cases, this extension allows two Basis Universal formats: ETC1S with BasisLZ and UASTC with optional Zstandard compression.
For the purposes of this extension, the following texture types are defined:
-
RGB: A texture that uses red, green, and blue channels. Alpha channel is either assumed to be always equal to
1.0
(255
) or unused and not sampled at runtime. Such textures MAY be encoded with the sRGB transfer function.Note: RGB textures from the core glTF 2.0 specification include:
baseColorTexture
(opaque case)normalTexture
emissiveTexture
metallicRoughnessTexture
(when be combined withocclusionTexture
, otherwise red channel is ignored)
-
RGBA: A texture that uses all four channels. Such textures MAY be encoded with the sRGB transfer function (not applied to Alpha).
Note: RGBA textures from the core glTF 2.0 specification include:
baseColorTexture
(non-opaque case)
-
Red: A texture that uses only red channel. All other channels are unused and their values are not sampled at runtime. Such textures MUST NOT be encoded with the sRGB transfer function.
Note: Red textures from the core glTF 2.0 specification include:
occlusionTexture
(standalone)
-
Red-Green: A texture that uses only red and green channels. Blue and Alpha channels are unused and their values are not sampled at runtime. Such textures MUST NOT be encoded with sRGB transfer function.
Note: The core glTF 2.0 specification has no examples of red-green textures.
supercompressionScheme
MUST be1
(BasisLZ).- DFD
colorModel
MUST beKHR_DF_MODEL_ETC1S
. - RGB textures MUST use a single
KHR_DF_CHANNEL_ETC1S_RGB
DFD channel. - RGBA textures MUST use two DFD channels:
KHR_DF_CHANNEL_ETC1S_RGB
andKHR_DF_CHANNEL_ETC1S_AAA
. - Red textures MUST use a single
KHR_DF_CHANNEL_ETC1S_RRR
DFD channel. - Red-Green textures MUST use two DFD channels:
KHR_DF_CHANNEL_ETC1S_RRR
andKHR_DF_CHANNEL_ETC1S_GGG
.
supercompressionScheme
MUST be0
(None) or2
(Zstandard).- DFD
colorModel
MUST beKHR_DF_MODEL_UASTC
. - RGB textures MUST use a single
KHR_DF_CHANNEL_UASTC_RGB
DFD channel. - RGBA textures MUST use a single
KHR_DF_CHANNEL_UASTC_RGBA
DFD channel. - Red textures MUST use a single
KHR_DF_CHANNEL_UASTC_RRR
DFD channel. - Red-Green textures MUST use a single
KHR_DF_CHANNEL_UASTC_RG
DFD channel.
Regardless of the format used, these additional restrictions apply for compatibility reasons:
- Swizzling metadata (
KTXswizzle
) MUST bergba
or omitted. - Orientation metadata (
KTXorientation
) MUST berd
or omitted. - Color space information in the DFD MUST match the expected usage, namely:
- For textures with color data (e.g., base color maps),
colorPrimaries
MUST beKHR_DF_PRIMARIES_BT709
;transferFunction
MUST beKHR_DF_TRANSFER_SRGB
.
- For textures with non-color data (e.g., normal maps),
colorPrimaries
MUST beKHR_DF_PRIMARIES_UNSPECIFIED
;transferFunction
MUST beKHR_DF_TRANSFER_LINEAR
.
- For textures with color data (e.g., base color maps),
- When a texture refers to a sampler with mipmap minification or when the sampler is undefined, the KTX image SHOULD contain a full mip pyramid.
Implementation Note: Depending on the platform features available, engines may need to decompress the texture and generate missing mipmaps at runtime when a full mip pyramid is not available.
pixelWidth
andpixelHeight
MUST be multiples of 4.Implementation Note: Exporters may opt to make the dimensions powers of 2. Combined with all mip levels present this would ensure maximum compatibility.
When a texture referencing a KTX v2 image with Basis Universal supercompression is used for glTF 2.0 material maps (both color and non-color), the KTX v2 image MUST be of 2D type as defined in the KTX v2 Specification, Section 4.1.
KHR_DF_FLAG_ALPHA_PREMULTIPLIED
flag MUST NOT be set unless the material's specification requires premultiplied alpha.
Exporters SHOULD choose the most appropriate universal texture format based on the texture's usage and content.
Implementation Note: As a general rule, textures with color data should use ETC1S while textures with non-color data (such as roughness-metallic or normal maps) should use UASTC.
When the high-quality GPU formats (i.e., ASTC or BC7) are not available at runtime, engines SHOULD transcode UASTC textures with non-color data to uncompressed RGBA to avoid artifacts.
Authoring:
Viewing:
KTX File Format Specification, version 2
Copyright 2020 The Khronos Group Inc.
Some parts of this Specification are purely informative and do not define requirements necessary for compliance and so are outside the Scope of this Specification. These parts of the Specification are marked as being non-normative, or identified as Implementation Notes.
Where this Specification includes normative references to external documents, only the specifically identified sections and functionality of those external documents are in Scope. Requirements defined by external documents not created by Khronos may contain contributions from non-members of Khronos not covered by the Khronos Intellectual Property Rights Policy.
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