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Shipping textures as PNGs is suboptimal

(gamesbymason.com)
148 points ibobev | 5 comments | 06 Sep 25 20:37 UTC | HN request time: 0.203s | source
1. smallstepforman ◴[07 Sep 25 06:24 UTC] No.45155865[source]▶
I’ve been using bc7 since 2012, and even have a video codec using bc7 keyframes (we needed alpha videos, even have a patent for it). Our emphasis is not file size, but playback speed. Bc7 renders 20-40% faster than raw rgba32, and we overlay 5-7 videos on screen simultanously, so every boost helps.

We also have custom encoders for the custom video format.

replies(3): >>45156041 #>>45156200 #>>45159790 #
2. _def ◴[07 Sep 25 07:06 UTC] No.45156041[source]▶
Is there some open equivalent of alpha in videos?
replies(1): >>45157047 #
3. kookamamie ◴[07 Sep 25 07:38 UTC] No.45156200[source]▶
You have a patent for alpha in videos? Curious to hear more about this - the application you describe sounds eerily familiar to me.
4. the8472 ◴[07 Sep 25 10:45 UTC] No.45157047[source]▶
vp9 and avif have alpha, whether it's patented I don't know.

https://pomf2.lain.la/f/kg9r139e.webm needs non-black background, change the <html> element's background-color in developer tools if necessary

5. chmod775 ◴[07 Sep 25 16:45 UTC] No.45159790[source]▶
HAP is a family of codecs for GPU accelerated decoding. HAP R uses BC7 frames.

There's support for various HAP codecs in ffmpeg, VLC, etc, but I think support for HAP R is lacking. However HAP, HAP Alpha, HAP Q and HAP Q Alpha have wide support. They use DXT1/DXT3/DXT5/RGTC afaik.

Compared to your implementation, their addition of BC7 is quite recent, yet they did have support for alpha channels for probably a decade.