bevy_image

Image and texture asset types, plus loaders for the standard formats. The bridge between bytes on disk and wgpu::Texture on the GPU.

Purpose

bevy_image provides:

• Image — the asset that wraps texture data and metadata.
• Format loaders — PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, TGA, TIFF, WebP, EXR, HDR, KTX2, BasisUniversal — each gated by a cargo feature.
• Sampler descriptors — how the texture is sampled (nearest/linear, repeat/clamp, anisotropy).
• Compressed-format support — BCn, ASTC, ETC2 via KTX2 + Basis.

The crate is GPU-format-aware: an Image knows its TextureFormat, mip levels, and intended sampler.

Directory layout

crates/bevy_image/src/
├── lib.rs                 # ImagePlugin, Image, ImageSampler
├── image.rs               # Image asset
├── image_loader.rs        # Generic loader (PNG, JPEG, etc.)
├── ktx2.rs                # KTX2 format
├── basis.rs               # Basis Universal
├── dds.rs                 # DDS
├── exr_texture_loader.rs
├── hdr_texture_loader.rs
├── prelude.rs
└── …

Key abstractions

Type	File	Description
Image	crates/bevy_image/src/image.rs	Asset; texture data + metadata.
ImageSampler	crates/bevy_image/src/image.rs	Sampler config.
ImagePlugin	crates/bevy_image/src/lib.rs	Registers loaders, default sampler.
ImageType, CompressedImageFormats	crates/bevy_image/src/image.rs	Format hints used during decoding.
Per-format loaders	crates/bevy_image/src/{ktx2,basis,dds,…}.rs	One per compressed/HDR format.

How it works

A loader reads bytes, decodes to either raw pixel data or a GPU-ready compressed format, and produces an Image asset. Renderers (bevy_pbr, bevy_sprite_render, bevy_ui_render) consume Handle<Image> and upload to the GPU on first use.

Image::new, Image::new_fill, and Image::from_dynamic are the common constructors when generating images programmatically (e.g. procedural textures, render-to-texture targets).

Integration points

• Depends on: image (the crate), wgpu-types, ktx2, basis-universal, bevy_asset, bevy_color, bevy_math, bevy_reflect.
• Depended on by: Every renderer crate, bevy_pbr, bevy_text (font atlas), bevy_gltf, …

Entry points for modification

• New format: add a loader file modeled after ktx2.rs and gate behind a cargo feature.
• Default sampler change: ImagePlugin::default_sampler is the resource consumers read.
• Color-space handling: check Image::texture_descriptor.format and the is_srgb plumbing.

See also

• bevy_asset — asset infrastructure.
• bevy_render — uploads Image to GPU.