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- Newsgroups: comp.graphics
- Subject: Re: Millions! of colors...YEA!
- Message-ID: <1993Jan21.201324.1@ualr.edu>
- From: djlewis@ualr.edu
- Date: 21 Jan 93 20:13:24 GMT
- References: <1993Jan20.180052.133265@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu>
- Organization: University of Arkansas at Little Rock
- Nntp-Posting-Host: spider.ualr.edu
- Lines: 49
-
- In article <1993Jan20.180052.133265@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu>, cre1@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (CHRISTOPHER R. EMERSON) writes:
- > Hope this question isn't in the faq (couldn't find one) so I'll ask it here
- > anyway (please no flames).
- >
- > If you have a video card capable of displaying 16.7M colors, how can you
- > actually use this many? If you consider a SVGA screen at 1024x768, that
- > gives you 786,432 pixels, for a possible maximum of 786,432 colors on the
- > screen at one time. My guess would be that you would have a much larger
- > palette to choose from, perhaps many more shades of vermillion than a regular
- > 8 bit card.
- You are on the right track, it would require a screen resolution of
- 4096x4096 to display 16,777,xxx colors. It would also have to be an IDEAL
- monitor. The video card sends three color signals to the monitor, r,g,b. Each
- of these signals varies from 0Vdc to 0.7xxVdc (don't remember the exact voltage)
- The monitor electronics and picture tube would have to be capable of resolving
- each voltage step from (0 to 255 units --> voltage) and displaying these minute
- differences. I am not aware of a monitor that can produce 256 levels per
- primary color in any resolution. Or the device that can see it to prove it was
- done.
- >
- > Would having a non-Local-bus configuration with a 24bit video card slow down
- > your graphics at all? Considering that it takes more bits for each pixel on
- > an already slow data bus? Plus, when you are using regular 8 bit
- > applications (any windows stuff or video game) does the card default to 8 bit
- > mode or pad the colors up to 24 bits?
- Yes it does slow down proportionally. I have used windows 3.1 in 64k and 16.7
- million color mode and the 16 or 256 color apps use the nearest color
- principle I believe. WinFract does'nt like hicolor modes on my system. It
- shows a black window when the startup mandlebrot is generated.
- >
- > Also, is there any software out there that allows you to display all these
- > wonderful colors?
- There are some pricey paint programs. . . CorelDraw, Imagein, Tempra Pro etc..
- that let you play in 15, 16 or 24bit modes.
- I have done some modifications to Randy Bucklands vesanew.zip alias
- vesatest.zip program that let you play with 15, 16 and 24bit color VESA modes.
- This is a VESA only program. It allows linedraw, fill, drawpixel etc. .. The net
- is welcome to take it and help develop the routines further.
- Also CSHOW850.zip works quite well with my 24bit card in VESA mode.
- >
- > Thanks for any replies.
- >
- You are welcome.
- >
- > Chris cre1@lehigh.edu
- Don Lewis
- <djlewis@ualr.edu>
- <djlewis@spider.ualr.edu>
-
-