High-compression texture mapping

A processing unit for generating a texture map for use with a graphics processing unit (GPU), the processing unit configured to:

• partition a raw texture map file into raw texel blocks;
• reduce a number of raw texel blocks until a predefined compression metric is satisfied to generate a set of reduced texel blocks;
• save the set of reduced texel blocks to a codebook;
• generate an index array comprising a set of indices, each index designating a location of a respective raw texel block and a respective one of the set of reduced texel blocks in the codebook identified as being a closest match to the respective raw texel block;
• and
• generate a compressed codebook by compressing the codebook into a format compatible with the GPU, such that the compressed codebook comprises a compressed texel block associated with each reduced texel block.

A texture map compression system, comprising:

• a means for codebook generation, configured to:
• partition a raw texture map file into raw texel blocks;
• reduce a number of raw texel blocks until a predefined compression metric is satisfied to generate a set of reduced texel blocks;
• and
• save the set of reduced texel blocks to a codebook;
• a means for index generation, communicatively coupled with the means for codebook generation, and configured to generate an index array comprising a set of indices, each index designating a location of a respective raw texel block and a respective one of the set of reduced texel blocks in the codebook identified as being a closest match to the respective raw texel block;
• and
• a means for codebook compression, communicatively coupled with the means for codebook generation, and configured to generate a compressed codebook by compressing the codebook into a format compatible with a graphics processing unit, such that the compressed codebook comprises a compressed texel block associated with each reduced texel block.

A graphics processing system, comprising:

• a central processing unit (CPU) configured to:
• receive an index array and a compressed codebook, the compressed codebook generated by compressing a raw codebook into a format compatible with a graphics processing unit (GPU), such that the compressed codebook comprises a set of compressed texel blocks, each compressed texel block being associated with a block of the raw codebook and with at least one location of a raw texel block of a raw texture map identified by an index of the index array as closely matching the block of the raw codebook associated with a set of reduced texel blocks;
• and
• generate an inflated texture map that is compatible with the GPU by, for each index of the index array, copying the compressed texel block associated with the respective reduced texel block from the compressed codebook to the at least one location of the raw texel block of the raw texture map identified by the index.