answer: GL_ALPHA/GL_LUMINANCE/GL_INTENSITY

GL_ALPHA/GL_LUMINANCE/GL_INTENSITY

The difference between the three single-component texture formats, GL_ALPHA, GL_LUMINANCE and GL_INTENSITY, is in the way the four-component RGBA color vector is generated. If the value for a given texel is X, then the RGBA color vector generated is: GL_ALPHA: RGBA = (0, 0, 0, X) GL_LUMINANCE: RGBA = (X, X, X, 1) GL_INTENSITY: RGBA = (X, X, X, X)   In other words, if we interpret the alpha as transparency, GL_ALPHA would represent a completely black texture with varying transparency, GL_LUMINANCE is an opaque texture with varying color (a grayscale image), and GL_INTENSITY is a combination where both the color and alpha channel is varying.

I just want to add some information to what you've said about GL_ALPHA. Although the RGB channels of a GL_ALPHA texture are defined to be black, they don't actually get used during the "standard" tex env modes. For modulate, replace, blend, and add, the outgoing RGB values of a texture unit that uses a GL_ALPHA texture are the same as the incoming RGB values, so the GL_ALPHA texture can only affect the fragment's alpha values. Of course if you're using a fragment shader or texture combiners, then you may actually make use of the RGB values