Colour Gradients in 16-bit - Am I Retarded?

[Necro]

OK heres a 300x200 , 256 colour background , Hi-res pallette



and here it is in game



Now why have the colours decided to do that??


[edit]
"OK heres a 300x200 , 256 colour background , Hi-res pallette"

I mean Hi-colour pallette in game instead of Hi-res pallette

[/edit]

[SSH]

What do you mean by "hi-res palette" by the way?

Not all colours in the palette are allocated to backgrounds: some are used for characters that need to be in multiple rooms (i.e. the main character). You can change how many by setting the "room dependent" switch on the palette entry. So you need to decide on the balance between backgrounds and characters and draw them accordingly.

by the way, the window makes the walls look paper-thin, and you can see the colour gradient from the lightbulb affecting the sky outside, too (which it wouldn't)

[Necro]

I'm Sorry I meant to say Hi-Colour pallete , the backrounds 256 colour but the Game isnt , so that should show my background and sprites properly shouldn't it?

[edited fist image in detail but not colour depth]

[Ben]

Those weird colors are from converting a true-color image to high-color. Try converting the image to high-color in your graphics program using dithering.

[TerranRich]

What Ben said. Also, I hope you didn't intend for US to C&C that image? You know better.

It might look messy, but believe me, using dithering when converting down to 32K colors is the only way. I have to do it too with my game.

[scotch]

Hmm, I do high res high colour.. and I've never noticed the effect.. It's showing up because you have large areas of smooth subtle gradients.. and I don't ._.

You'll have to do that dithering I suppose.

[Necro]

NO NO NO ! !  :o

It is not a true colour image, It has already been dithered down from that to 256 colours!! Its exactly the same as that gif which of course cannot be higher than 256 colours anyway!!

[SSH]

But those 256 colours are still 8 bits per RGB value. 16 bit colour has 5 bits per RGB value, and so the values will be quantised and you get this effect. Does anyone know how to get PSP or Photoshop to have 5 bits per colour, or a better converter? I suppose you could try reloading the screenshot after AGS has nessed it up a bit and using a smudge tool on the nasty edges.

[Necro]

Well that sounds about right, Im using photoshop and I must say I cant see how to convert bit depth lower than 8! I shall have a look , If anyone finds it or know of a good program for this let me know.

[Mennuz]

Humz *looks interesting, to pimp chicks*
Why does the first picture have a mousehole?
Maybe the imported picture isn't converted back
It's just a hunch

[Gilbert]

SSH under 256 colour modes, the base VGA palette can use 6 bit per RGB channel, bot 8. But right, in some sense 256 colour pictures can have smoother gradient than hicolour does.

[Necro]

the 1st piccy has amouse hole because the image is also being used in another forum thread, but still 256 colour and would still look like the picture below if loaded into AGS.

I still havn't found anything to help :'(

[SSH]

If you try rubbing the smudge tool around those places where you have colour gradients, it softens the edges and makes this kind of effect less visible. I use it all the time, because it also hides the rubbishness of my drawing.

Ahah! Found a program to do the trick: it has two kinds of colour quantization: median cut and population. Try both and see which you prefer. Set the RGB depth to 555 (which colour has the 6 bits in AGS btw?).

http://www.t3i.nl/t3i/imgart.html

Actually, boyd's comment below is also probably true: 16-bit colour backrounds work best when the haven't had their colour count reduced.

[BOYD1981]

if the game itself isn't 256 colours then try not using a 256 colour background, see if it helps any...

[Necro]

Wow thanks SSH , that seems to do the job , although I suppose its all to do with smoother gradients anyway. I'll add another reply to this thread with a screenie once I've fiddled with it a bit...

[Scummbuddy]

Am I Retarded?


Hmm, yes, you didn't use a correct subject title for your thread.

[Necro]

now look , using one of igors Lurrrvly pics as an example as he probably has the same set up, here is another 256 colour image with lots of nice dithered shading like I want...



Does he use magic? well maybe, but when that pic is imported in ags it looks EXACTLY the same, how it should  ..... however my images come out all blood gay! no matter what filter, colour reducer, bit-reducing tool i find!

(p.s. I know that pic is 640x400 while mine is 320x200 but regardless of this I get same problems.)

[Hollister Man]

I use photoshop too, and it doesn't use the same "bits per pixel" setup like PSP7.  Save the file as a BMP, and click the "settings" button.  Choose "16 bit color (a1 r5 g5 b5)" and save.  That should dither right.  I'll double check when I'm on my other PC.

[Necro]

ok thanks, also out of interest which version of Photoshop you use.

[scotch]

I use 7, and it's like that in that version.. and earlier if I remember correctly.
If people don't have 7 they should get it anyway  I love the brush engine.