What is S3TC?
S3TC, which is hardwired into the graphics chip provides a 6:1 ratio for compressing textures. Which means if a developer wants to cram 50MB of textures into GameCube, it will only cost them about 8MB of memory space, and because the technology is part of the graphics chip it won’t affect the system resources. What all this means is that GameCube features exquisitely detailed textures with great variance instead of ones that are monotonous and blurry. If you haven’t come to an understanding by now, simply know that S3TC is a very important part of GameCube’s graphical abilities; in fact, one of the most important. By employing S3TC in every game from the systems launch forward, developers will achieve stunning graphics. In the end, texture performance is the perfect marriage for GameCube’s high polygon pushing performance. As clich as it sounds, S3TC is the icing on this graphical cake.
