Encoded HDR textures are described. In one aspect, a HDR image comprised is preprocessed such that HDR information is represented in a single color channel. The preprocessed image is quantized in view of two luminance ranges to retain HDR in the single color channel. Each block of quantized channel information is then encoded across two textures (encoded HDR textures). Specifically, when encoding a block of the quantized information, pixels in a first range of the two luminance ranges are put into a color channel associated with a first texture. Additionally, pixels in a second range of the two luminance ranges are stored into a color channel associated with a second texture.