List of games with 8-bit paletted texture support

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Paletted texture effect summary

A paletted texture is defined by giving both a palette of colors and a set of image data which is composed of indices into the palette. The paletted texture cannot function properly without both pieces of information so it increases the work required to define a texture. This is offset by the fact that the overall amount of texture data can be reduced dramatically by factoring redundant information out of the logical view of the texture and placing it in the palette. This reduction in space required is particularly important for hardware accelerators where texture space is limited.

Furthermore, paletted textures allow easy reuse of texture data for images which require many similar but slightly different colored objects. Consider a driving simulation with heavy traffic on the road. Many of the cars will be similar but with different color schemes. If full-color textures are used a separate texture would be needed for each color scheme, while paletted textures allow the same basic index data to be reused for each car, with a different palette to change the final colors.

Paletted textures also allow use of all the palette tricks developed for paletted displays. Simple animation can be done, along with strobing, glowing and other palette-cycling effects. All of these techniques can enhance the visual richness of a scene with very little data.[1]

Graphics cards which support paletted textures
Graphics cards which don't support paletted textures
Paletted texture use in games

How games make use of paletted textures depends entirely on developer intent. In some cases, paletted textures are used to render additional effects, thereby increasing the graphical fidelity of such games. In other cases, paletted textures are used as a means to improve game performance, but this sometimes causes a reduction of visual quality. Additional details are presented below.

List of games which use paletted textures to increase visual quality

The games listed above use paletted textures to increase visual quality, and exhibit rendering issues on graphics cards that don't support this feature. This list is incomplete. It merely shows the currently known games for which 8-bit paletted texture use has been confirmed by testing.

Paletted texture use comparison (Final Fantasy VIII)
Using 8-bit paletted textures in FF8 increases visual quality
Not using 8-bit paletted textures in FF8 reduces visual quality
List of games which use paletted textures to reduce visual quality

The games listed above use paletted textures to improve performance, but do so at the cost of visual quality. Paletted texture use is optional in such games and is usually turned off by default. It is primarily meant for improving performance on low-end graphics cards which support this feature. This list is incomplete. It merely shows the currently known games for which 8-bit paletted texture use has been confirmed by testing.

Paletted texture use comparison (Quake II)
Using 8-bit paletted textures in Quake II reduces visual quality
Not using 8-bit paletted textures in Quake II increases visual quality
List of games which use paletted textures to improve performance

The games listed above use paletted textures to improve performance without any apparent impact on visual quality. This list is incomplete. It merely shows the currently known games for which 8-bit paletted texture use has been confirmed by testing.

Related links

References

  1. J. Kilgard, Mark, (March 24, 2004), NVIDIA Corporation, NVIDIA EXT_paletted_texture specification (link)
  2. 3DFX Voodoo 3 paletted texture support (screenshot)
  3. NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX400 paletted texture support (screenshot)
  4. S3 Savage4 graphics cards seem to support paletted textures when using older driver versions (screenshot)
  5. Trident Blade3D graphics cards seem to support paletted textures (screenshot)
  6. Permedia 2 graphics cards support paletted textures when the relevant driver setting is enabled (screenshot)
  7. Matrox Millennium II paletted texture support (screenshot)
  8. Matrox Millennium II datasheet (PDF)
  9. Matrox Mystique advertisment, PC Magazine, February of 1997 (screenshot)
  10. ATI Rage Pro has paletted texture support when older drivers are used (report)
  11. ATI Rage XL has paletted texture support when older drivers are used (screenshot)
  12. ATI Radeon 9000 Pro missing paletted texture support (screenshot)
  13. ATI Rage 128 Pro missing paletted texture support (screenshot)
  14. Matrox G400 missing paletted texture support (screenshot)
  15. NVIDIA GeForce 6200 missing paletted texture support (screenshot)
  16. S3 UniChrome Pro IGP missing paletted texture support (screenshot)
  17. Driver configuration utility (screenshot)
  18. Driver gameplay video (YouTube clip)
  19. The unpatched retail version of Final Fantasy VII will not allow Direct3D acceleration on graphics cards which don't support paletted textures (screenshot)
  20. Even the fully patched 1.02 version of Final Fantasy VII displays visual differences on graphics cards which don't support paletted textures (screenshot)
  21. Final Fantasy VIII options menu (screenshot)
  22. Final Fantasy VIII rendering differences (screenshot)
  23. Kingpin video options menu, manual and skybox (screenshots)
  24. Quake II options menu (screenshot)
  25. Quake II skybox rendering and manual excerpt (screenshot)
  26. Quake 2 and other games based on its engine use GL_EXT_shared_texture_palette (link)
  27. SiN video options menu, manual and skybox (screenshots)
  28. Tomb Raider III setup program (screenshot)
  29. Tomb Raider III rendering differences (screenshot)
  30. Forsaken options menu (screenshot)
  31. GLQuake documentation (screenshot)
  32. Heretic II in-game console output (screenshot)
  33. Heretic II Video Settings menu (screenshot)
  34. Hexen II in-game console output (screenshot)
  35. Homeworld video options menu (screenshot)
  36. Homeworld: Cataclysm video options menu and manual (screenshots)
  37. Panzer Commander uses paletted textures (screenshot)