Exact and Error-bounded Approximate Color Buffer Compression and Decompression

Abstract

In this paper, we first present a survey of existing color buffer compression algorithms. After that, we introduce a new scheme based on an exactly reversible color transform, simple prediction, and Golomb-Rice encoding. In addition to this, we introduce an error control mechanism, which can be used for approximate (lossy) color buffer compression. In this way, the introduced error is kept under strict control. To the best of our knowledge, this has not been explored before in the literature. Our results indicate superior compression ratios compared to existing algorithms, and we believe that approximate compression can be important for mobile GPUs.