jBasisUniversalDecoder

Standalone Java decoder/transcoder port for Basis Universal, and Gradle plugin for build-time texture conversion.

Note

The original code was ported primarily by GPT-5.5, with minimal human intervention limited to testing and patching.

Modules

• decoder: pure Java runtime API and implementation. This is the artifact to embed in applications and engine integrations.
• parity-tests: end-to-end parity harness. It builds the official basisu tool from the tracked basis_universal submodule in build/, encodes test PNGs, unpacks them with the official tool, decodes the same payload with Java, and compares RGBA pixels plus packed RGB565/BGR565/RGBA4444 output derived from the official unpack.
• basis-gradle-plugin: Gradle plugin for build-time texture conversion. It scans resources, writes generated .basis files under build/generated, and wires them into the runtime classpath without modifying developer source resources.
• basis_universal: Git submodule pinned to the official Basis Universal reference repository.

Build

./gradlew :decoder:test
./gradlew :parity-tests:test
./gradlew parityTest
./gradlew check

Tip

Running parityTest requires a native C++ toolchain with CMake.

Publishing

The decoder library and the basis-gradle-plugin are published with the org.ngengine.basis Maven group. Local development defaults to 1.0.0-SNAPSHOT; release automation supplies the version from the GitHub release tag.

GitHub Actions publishes 1.0.0-SNAPSHOT to the Central Portal snapshot repository after every successful commit on master. A Maven Central release is published when a GitHub Release is published, using a tag such as v1.0.0.

The Central Portal namespace org.ngengine.basis must be verified and have snapshot publishing enabled before the workflows can deploy. Configure these repository secrets:

• GPG_PRIVATE_KEY
• GPG_PASSPHRASE
• SONATYPE_USERNAME
• SONATYPE_PASSWORD

For local snapshot publication, run:

./gradlew publishSnapshots -PprojectVersion=1.0.0-SNAPSHOT

Supported formats

The runtime decoder is platform and rendering-engine agnostic. Callers must choose a BasisTranscodeTarget explicitly; the decoder never inspects GPU capabilities, identifies a runtime platform, or selects a fallback format. Platform-specific target ordering belongs in the consuming engine or application.

• .basis ETC1S to RGBA8, RGB565/BGR565/RGBA4444, ETC1/ETC2, ETC2 EAC R11/RG11, BC1/BC3/BC4/BC5/BC7
• .basis UASTC LDR 4x4 to RGBA8, RGB565/BGR565/RGBA4444, ETC1/ETC2, ETC2 EAC R11/RG11, BC1/BC3/BC4/BC5/BC7, and ASTC 4x4
• KTX2 ETC1S to RGBA8, RGB565/BGR565/RGBA4444, ETC1/ETC2, ETC2 EAC R11/RG11, BC1/BC3/BC4/BC5/BC7
• KTX2 UASTC LDR 4x4 to RGBA8, RGB565/BGR565/RGBA4444, ETC1/ETC2, ETC2 EAC R11/RG11, BC1/BC3/BC4/BC5/BC7, and ASTC 4x4, including selected array images
• KTX2 XUASTC LDR to RGBA8, RGB565/BGR565/RGBA4444, ETC1/ETC2, ETC2 EAC R11/RG11, BC1/BC3/BC4/BC5, matching ASTC LDR block sizes covered by the native-gold fixture suite, default BC7 for validated 4x4, 5x4, 5x5, 6x5, 6x6, 8x5, and 8x6 streams, including the dedicated 4x4, 6x6, and 8x6 fast paths, plus the same validated block sizes on the cDecodeFlagXUASTCLDRDisableFastBC7Transcoding generic path, BC7 no-deblock parity for 8x8, 10x5, 10x6, 10x8, 10x10, 12x10, and 12x12 streams when cDecodeFlagsNoDeblockFiltering is requested, and reference parity for BC7 high-quality and whole-image deblocked transcoding paths covered by the parity fixture suite
• .basis UASTC HDR 4x4, ASTC HDR 6x6, and UASTC HDR 6x6 intermediate to matching ASTC HDR GPU payloads (ASTC_HDR_4X4/ASTC_HDR_6X6) and CPU HDR payloads (RGB_HALF/RGBA_HALF/RGB_9E5), plus HDR to BC6H, with parity against the official Basis Universal transcoder for default and high-quality 6x6 BC6H paths
• KTX2 UASTC HDR 4x4, ASTC HDR 6x6, and UASTC HDR 6x6 intermediate (KTX2_SS_UASTC_HDR_6x6I, plus legacy v1.6/v2.0 BASISLZ-marked 6x6I containers) to matching ASTC HDR GPU payloads and CPU HDR payloads (RGB_HALF/RGBA_HALF/RGB_9E5), plus HDR to BC6H, including the standard KTX2 Zstandard-compressed level payloads emitted by basisu, with parity against the official Basis Universal transcoder for default and high-quality 6x6 BC6H paths
• plain uncompressed KTX2 RGBA payload pass-through, plus Java materialization of KTX2 NONE, Zstandard, and Deflate/Zlib level payloads for direct Java-supported formats
• KTX2 Basis Universal supercompression schemes used by supported texture payloads: BASISLZ, XUASTC_LDR, and UASTC_HDR_6x6I

Unsupported formats

Format family	Basis Universal targets	Java status	Reason
PVRTC1	cTFPVRTC1_4_RGB, cTFPVRTC1_4_RGBA	Not implemented	Legacy PowerVR/mobile path; not a target for the standalone runtime.
PVRTC2	cTFPVRTC2_4_RGB, cTFPVRTC2_4_RGBA	Not implemented	Narrow hardware support and low integration value for the planned loader.
ATC	cTFATC_RGB, cTFATC_RGBA	Not implemented	Obsolete vendor-specific mobile format.
FXT1	cTFFXT1_RGB	Not implemented	Obsolete desktop/vendor-specific format.

Gradle Plugin

The repository includes a plugin for converting textures at build time using the native basisu tool (for macOS, Linux, and Windows on aarch64 and x86_64).

Apply the org.ngengine.basis.texture-encoder plugin to your Java project. By default, the plugin scans src/main/resources for common image formats and generates corresponding .basis files in the build directory.

The plugin can be configured in your build.gradle file as follows:

basisTextures {
    imageExtensions.addAll('png', 'jpg', 'jpeg')
    resourceDirectories.add('src/main/resources')
    excludeOriginalsWhenEncoded = false
}