WEBGL_compressed_texture_s3tc extension

Limited availability

This feature is not Baseline because it does not work in some of the most widely-used browsers.

The WEBGL_compressed_texture_s3tc extension is part of the WebGL API and exposes four S3TC compressed texture formats.

Compressed textures reduce the amount of memory needed to store a texture on the GPU, allowing for higher resolution textures or more of the same resolution textures.

WebGL extensions are available using the WebGLRenderingContext.getExtension() method. For more information, see also Using Extensions in the WebGL tutorial.

Note: This extension is available to both, WebGL1 and WebGL2 contexts.

Constants

The compressed texture formats are exposed by four constants and can be used in two functions: compressedTexImage2D() and compressedTexSubImage2D().

ext.COMPRESSED_RGB_S3TC_DXT1_EXT

A DXT1-compressed image in an RGB image format.

ext.COMPRESSED_RGBA_S3TC_DXT1_EXT

A DXT1-compressed image in an RGB image format with a simple on/off alpha value.

ext.COMPRESSED_RGBA_S3TC_DXT3_EXT

A DXT3-compressed image in an RGBA image format. Compared to a 32-bit RGBA texture, it offers 4:1 compression.

ext.COMPRESSED_RGBA_S3TC_DXT5_EXT

A DXT5-compressed image in an RGBA image format. It also provides a 4:1 compression, but differs to the DXT3 compression in how the alpha compression is done.

Examples

js
const ext =
  gl.getExtension("WEBGL_compressed_texture_s3tc") ||
  gl.getExtension("MOZ_WEBGL_compressed_texture_s3tc") ||
  gl.getExtension("WEBKIT_WEBGL_compressed_texture_s3tc");

const texture = gl.createTexture();
gl.bindTexture(gl.TEXTURE_2D, texture);

gl.compressedTexImage2D(
  gl.TEXTURE_2D,
  0,
  ext.COMPRESSED_RGBA_S3TC_DXT5_EXT,
  512,
  512,
  0,
  textureData,
);

gl.texParameteri(gl.TEXTURE_2D, gl.TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, gl.LINEAR);
gl.texParameteri(gl.TEXTURE_2D, gl.TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, gl.LINEAR);

Specifications

Specification
WebGL WEBGL_compressed_texture_s3tc Khronos Ratified Extension Specification

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also