Reduced load on video memory - removed the extra RGB where you need only 1 channel (grayscale), and cut oversized dimensions. - Radiation darts VRAM: 42.7MB → 2.17MB - Weapons (AO texts) VRAM: 114.8MB → 28.6MB - Deploybles (AO texts) VRAM: 186.6MB → 92.6MB - Objects (props) VRAM: 146.3MB → 96.3MB Why no loss of quality: AO card is sampled only from the green channel - storage in RGB has never been useful, only wasted space in memory. Developers continue to look for other textures that can be optimized in the same way.