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- Path: nntp-trd.UNINETT.no!lolsen
- From: lolsen@hsr.no (Lasse Olsen)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
- Subject: Re: Hombre history - RISC selection
- Date: 10 Jan 1996 11:50:05 GMT
- Organization: UNINETT news service
- Distribution: world
- Message-ID: <4d095d$5at@dole.uninett.no>
- References: <john.hendrikx.44pj@grafix.xs4all.nl>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: gorina7.hsr.no
- X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
-
- John Hendrikx (john.hendrikx@grafix.xs4all.nl) wrote:
- : In a message of 06 Jan 96 Michael Van Elst wrote to All:
-
- : >> No really? I'm glad you brought this to my attention. Next you'll be
- : >> telling me that HAM8 is also better than '23-bit' screens as it is
- : >> -possible- to use the full 24-bit palette with HAM8 (if the picture was
- : >> large enough).
-
- : MVE> I am telling you that it is better than 16bit. Nothing more. With HAM
- : MVE> you get some degree of fringing, with 16bit you get larger visible
- : MVE> quantization errors. Both deficiencies cause about the same amount of
- : MVE> image degradation.
-
- : Fringing is much worse than a simple quantization error.
-
- For some types of graphics, true, but my experience have
- shown me that ham8 is, for the most part, more suited to
- typical truecolor work.
- This is especially evident in animation.
-
- : HAM8 actually causes
- : pixels which have wrong colors (wrong HUE) and wrong brightness.
-
- : An example of wrong HUE and brightness:
-
- : TrueColor data: $ff ff ff $e9 e9 e9
-
- : HAM displays: $ff ff ff $ff e9 ff
-
- : Not only is the color too bright, it also isn't gray anymore as it should be.
- : This kind of errors happen all the time with HAM. With 16-bit the result will
- : atleast be consistent (no ugly pixels in places messing up the whole pic) and
- : the errors will never exceed a certain limit (the error will never be more than
- : $04 02 04 -- try getting that with HAM8)
-
- But, this isn't much of a problem and can even be simulated by
- ham to a degree. The viewer will not notice the difference at
- all on a normal screen.
- Banding with 16-bit really looks much worse.
- And, in a worst-case scenario you'd have maybe one or two pixles
- with the wrong settings, only to be corrected and surrounded by
- correct samples.
-
- Ex: $255 000 000 changes to $000 000 255 in maximum two steps.
-
- : >> giving better results. Try dithering HAM from right to left for example
- : >> -- next to impossible, but with 'normal' displays this can make quite a
- : >> difference.
-
- : MVE> Does it ? :)
-
- : Yes, if you dither all odd lines from left to right and even lines right to
- : left the dithering will be better. If you only draw the lines from left to
- : right (in HAM you're forced to do this) then the quantization errors will
- : slowly shift to the right of the picture.
-
- In theory, yes - in practise, hardly.
- By having the 24-bit palette as an initial referance the
- shifting will be minimal and again this depends on what type
- of graphics you are looking at.
- The point is moot anyway as you wont attempt to dither with Ham8.
-
- : >> (just think of it; if we had 16-bit screens for 4 years now instead of
- : >> HAM8, it would have meant that v39 graphics library would already have
- : >> support for true color screens (which is basicly one of the biggest things
- : >> missing in the current graphics library...))
-
- : MVE> Which is a completely different issue. graphics doesn't support HAM8
- : MVE> rendering either. So what ?
-
- : HAM8 is simply not supported as it is impossible to use a display mode
- : like HAM for graphics rendering.
-
- Ham8 is well suited for displaying, only not very well suited
- for rendering. If you do a render in 24-bit and display it in
- Ham8 however, the results are fine.
-
- : Even doing a simple thing like drawing a line gives
- : enormous problems. C= surely would have made graphics use 16-bit if it was
- : available instead of HAM.
-
- Probably both. This was, and is, a bandwidth issue.
- C= even had a Ham10 mode ready in AAA even though it already
- had full 24-bit support.
-
- : >> HAM (Hold And Modify):
- : >> a hack to display more colors because the OS and Hardware are
- : >> unable to handle the real thing.
-
- : MVE> The real thing is a 24bit display, not a 16bit one.
-
- : The real thing for me is a Chunky True Color screen, and 16-bit fits that
- : description.
-
- So, you prefer 16-bit (high-color) to 24-bit (true-color)? ;)
- Cheers...
-