This is a Palette - Specific, Technical question

[rharpe]

It does not say anything in the manual on what the size/memory consumption would be if you used 16K vs 256 colors. Obviously if the size of the image is reduced to 256 colors, in comparison, the game itself would be smaller in size, but how much smaller? Does anyone have a chart that they can show game size differences? Maybe AGS has an option that can be exported into a log file?

If anyone has done/asked this in the past, let me know. (I'm still not convinced 256 colors is worth the headaches I've been reading about.)

[Darth Mandarb]

I'm not sure what would be the difference (if any).

And I don't know of a chart anybody has made ...

But you could create two news games with only 1 graphic you add in.Ã,  In one version use an 8-bit and in the other use a 24-bit.Ã,  Compile both and compare.

Might not be VERY accurate ... but probably will give you an idea of the difference.

[Gilbert]

256 colour images use 1 byte to store a pixel, 16 bit images use 2 bytes.
So basically hicolour graphics use twice as much space for storage compared to 256 colour ones.
For sprite graphics they're not compressed so you can safely assume hicolour sprites consume twice as much space as 256 colour ones.
For room backgrounds, as they're compressed, so you can't in general compare the sizes well, how large they'll consume depends on how "complicate" the backgrounds are , according to the compression scheme. Though of course in general a photorealistic hicolour background would use more space compared to a cartoony 256 colour one.

[rharpe]

I guess size is only an issue to those that still use dial-up. I have DSL and have no problems with downloading large files, but in order for all to enjoy the games I make, I would like to know the best practices for games designed for "all users".  I realize that zipping the game will also help a great deal.

If there aren't any charts or export options, I guess it really wasn't necessary. So I'm not going to worry too much about it. Thanks for your replies, they have answered my questions.