Texture

Textures are 2D graphics that are either displayed directly on screen, such as in the HUD, mapped onto 3D models, for example to give a character eyes, or used as billboard graphics, such as for trees or coins.

Texture cache

The texture cache of the Nintendo 64 is 4 KiB (4096 bytes).

Texture formats

The Nintendo 64 has many different texture formats. When rendering, any format is converted to 32-bit RGBA as the output format.

The identifier in the following table is used in the filename's extension, such as hmc_textures.00000.rgba16.png.

Format	Identifier	Max resolution	Red	Green	Blue	Alpha	Description
32-bit RGBA	rgba32	32x32	256	256	256	256	This is the most versatile format. It contains the same amount of data you might alreay be used to from PNG files on your PC.
16-bit RGBA	rgba16	64x32 or 32x64	32	32	32	2	This format uses less memory than 32-bit RGBA and also has less levels of color intensity. Alpha is binary, i.e. a pixel is either fully visible or transparent.
8-bit color index	ci8
4-bit color index	ci4
16-bit IA (intensity alpha)	ia16	64x32 or 32x64	256			256
8-bit IA (intensity alpha)	ia8	64x64	16			16
4-bit IA (intensity alpha)	ia4	128x64 or 64x128	8			2
8-bit I (intensity)	i8	64x64	256			0
4-bit I (intensity)	i4	128x64 or 64x128	16			0

See also

• Color and image format types for the N64 on n64squid.com