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32-bit Texture Support

By default, ZenGin supports compressed DXT1 and DXT3 textures well, but often struggles with high-quality raw formats, leading to visual artifacts or lack of proper alpha channel support in some contexts.

To use high-quality textures with full alpha channels (gradients) without artifacts, a patch is often required.

The zSurface32 Patch​

The zSurface32 patch (often included in SystemPack/Union or available as a separate plugin) improves texture quality by adding proper support for:

  • RGBA8888
  • BGRA8888
  • ARGB8888
  • ABGR8888

It allows for smooth gradients and high-quality UI elements that DXT compression would otherwise distort with banding artifacts.

Why use 32-bit textures?​

  1. Quality: No compression artifacts (blockiness).
  2. Alpha Channel: Smooth transitions in transparency (gradients), which DXT3 handles poorly (4-bit alpha means only 16 levels of transparency) and DXT5 handles better but still with compression. Raw 32-bit allows 256 levels of transparency with no loss.

Drawback: File size. A 32-bit texture is significantly larger than a DXT compressed one (often 4x-8x larger). Use them primarily for UI elements or hero skins/faces where quality is paramount.

Compilation​

ZenGin does not natively compile textures to these formats easily from TGA without specific tools or flags often failing.

Recommended Workflow:

  1. Use zTEXiPy.

  2. Open your texture.

  3. Choose Save TEX as....

  4. Uncheck Generate Mipmaps (if it's for UI).

  5. Set Colorspace to BGRA8888 (zEnum: 3).

  6. Save.

Performance

It is advised to use BGRA8888 for performance reasons, as other color spaces might require additional conversion at runtime by the engine.