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Image MIME Reference
Tencent-TAP

Tencent TAP Image

image/vnd.tencent.tap
VS

Truevision TGA (Legacy MIME Alias)

image/x-tga
TGA

A complete technical comparison of Tencent TAP Image and Truevision TGA (Legacy MIME Alias) — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature Tencent-TAP TGA
Transparency (Alpha) ✕ No Yes
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading ✕ No ✕ No
HDR Support ✕ No ✕ No
EXIF Metadata ✕ No ✕ No
ICC Color Profile ✕ No ✕ No
Tencent TAP Image
image/vnd.tencent.tap
Extension
.tap
Container Proprietary Tencent Container
Compression Unknown (Proprietary)
Algorithm
Unknown
Color Depth Unknown
Developed by Tencent (Registered by Ni Hui)
Released 2014
Magic Bytes
Unknown (Proprietary)
Full Tencent-TAP reference →
Truevision TGA (Legacy MIME Alias)
image/x-tga
Extension
.tga.icb.vda.vst
Container Truevision TGA Footer/Header
Compression Uncompressed / Run-Length Encoding (RLE)
Algorithm
NoneRLE
Color Depth 8-bit (Grayscale or Indexed), 16-bit (High Color), 24-bit (True Color), 32-bit (True Color with Alpha Channel)
Developed by Truevision Inc.
Released 1984
Magic Bytes
54 52 55 45 56 49 53 49 4F 4E 2D 58 46 49 4C 45 2E 00 (At the end of the file)
Full TGA reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser Tencent-TAP TGA
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
Tencent-TAP

Tencent-TAP Strengths

  • Officially registered with IANA, ensuring a unique MIME type identifier for internal Tencent network routing and content negotiation
Limitations
  • Completely undocumented and closed-source, making it impossible to decode or parse outside of Tencent's software
  • Shares its file extension (.tap) with numerous other established legacy formats, leading to frequent automated file misidentification by Node/Python libraries
TGA

TGA Strengths

  • Incredibly simple byte layout allows developers to write custom loaders and exporters in a few dozen lines of code, bypassing the need for heavy external libraries
  • Native support for 8-bit alpha channels ensures flawless transparency masking for real-time 3D rendering
  • Fast, predictable RLE decoding requires almost no CPU overhead compared to DEFLATE (PNG) or DCT (JPEG)
Limitations
  • RLE compression is relatively weak by modern standards, resulting in large file sizes
  • Lacks a standard magic byte header at the beginning of the file, making file-sniffing unreliable for older v1.0 files
  • Zero support in web browsers; must be converted to PNG or WebP for web delivery

When to choose which format

Tencent-TAP
Use Tencent-TAP when…
  • Internal Tencent Ecosystem Applications
  • Proprietary Mobile or Gaming Assets
TGA
Use TGA when…
  • Video Game 3D Textures and Materials
  • 3D Rendering and Animation Sequences
  • Legacy Video Production Workflows

More comparisons

Tencent-TAP vs ACES → TGA vs ACES → Tencent-TAP vs APNG → TGA vs APNG → Tencent-TAP vs AVCI → TGA vs AVCI → Tencent-TAP vs AVCS → TGA vs AVCS → Tencent-TAP vs AVIF → TGA vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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