BASIS File

What are BASIS files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening a BASIS file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your BASIS files.

What is a BASIS file?

A .BASIS file is a Basis Universal Supercompressed GPU Texture file.

Basis Universal Supercompressed GPU Texture files store portable texture data in a compact form that is designed to compress much smaller for storage or transmission, yet to be converted (or transcoded) quickly at runtime into GPU-native compressed texture formats. The format is created by the Basis Universal system from Binomial LLC, which in version 2.1 provides this format along with optional companion formats. These files are meant as an intermediate form produced by a compressor tool; they are read by a transcoder tool or library that outputs textures in formats like ASTC, BCn, ETC1/2, PVRTC, FXT1, or even uncompressed raster images.

The format supports both low dynamic range (LDR) and high dynamic range (HDR) textures, with multiple codecs optimized for speed, quality, and compression rate. Its features include support for texture arrays, mipmaps, cubemaps, volume textures, and short texture video sequences. Compressors may select between modes such as ETC1S for smallest size, UASTC for higher quality, ASTC HDR modes, and XUASTC for scalable, very high-quality supercompression. At runtime or build time, the .basis format is decoded to GPU-suitable compressed texture formats using the transcoder.

Files in this format begin with a fixed byte signature: the ASCII sequence "sB..M" where the bytes are 0x73 0x42 0x00 0x4D 0x00 at offset zero.

How to open BASIS files

Important: Different programs may use files with the BASIS file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your BASIS file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

We have not yet verified any programs for Windows that work with this specific file format. If you know one, please use the 'Suggest a program' link below. Thanks!

Last updated: August 23, 2026

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