I am using D3DXCreateTextureFromFileEx to load my textures. I saved the textures as 8 bit color indexed TGAs and then specified the loading format as D3DFMT_UNKNOWN so the function would auto detect and set the appropriate format. According to the D3DSURFACE_DESC returned by the texture though, everything was loaded with the D3DFMT_A8R8G8B8 format. I tried forcing the D3DFMT_P8 and at least got the textures to load as D3DFMT_R5G6B5. So what am I doing wrong? What I want is 8 bit paletized data, or any other form of 8 bit data. How do I get it?

Make sure you are not passing in NULL for the pPalette parameter. Without it, D3DXCreateTextureFromFileEx will always depaletteize your image, since it has no way to return the palette.

xyzzy