Game Dev Cheat Sheet

Compression Test Card

A purpose-built texture for stress testing compression formats. Download the PNG, run it through your encoder, and compare results.

What Each Zone Tests

ZoneWhat it reveals
Colour barsColour accuracy and cross-channel bleeding
Skin tonesSubtle hue shifts that matter for character textures
R/G/B/Grey gradientsBanding artefacts in smooth transitions
Radial gradientBlock boundary artefacts on curved colour transitions
Concentric ringsMoiré patterns and ringing from frequency aliasing
CheckerboardsHigh-frequency detail preservation at 2px, 4px, 8px, 16px
Diagonal linesSub-block aliasing and staircase artefacts
Sharp shapesEdge preservation and block boundary bleeding
Text sizesFine detail preservation at different scales
Shadow/highlight patchesDetail in near-black and near-white values (crushed shadows, blown highlights)

How to Use

  1. Download the test card PNG above.
  2. Import it into Unity and set the compression format in the Inspector.
  3. Click Apply, then right-click the preview and save the compressed result as PNG.
  4. Or use CLI tools: astcenc -cl test-card.png test-card.astc 4x4 -exhaustive then decode back.
  5. Compare the results on the Texture Compression page.