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What is your favorite, lossless image format for games (namely 2d games)? And why?

Some things to take into consideration are size on disk, overhead for converting to a usable format, and features of the format (ie alpha support).

There is no best answer, but be sure to back yours up the best you can!

ConroyP
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Spodi
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4 Answers4

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I'd suggest PNG. Most software supports writing it, most libraries support reading it, it's lossless and supports alpha transparency. And it's a standard format.

And, maybe important for hobbyist 2D games, very small images also result in very small files (i.e. a 16x16 icon can be 1KB or less).

Community
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OregonGhost
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There is a best answer, and it's clearly PNG.

Good compression, supports paletted alpha, extensible (in that you can attach arbitrary blobs to a PNG), what's not to like?

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I like png a lot. It has a good compression, supports alpha channels, and supports color pallets, so file sizes can be smaller. And it is pattent free, so everybody can use it.

Ikke
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PNG does NOT support alpha transparency, it has a translucency channel, which is different. This can lead to problems depending on how you are rendering sprites to the screen. TGA, hands down.

sean
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