PRINS@HLERUL5.BITNET (R. Prins - Network Mgr. [DEC Sites] RU Leiden) (11/17/87)
I just saw an ad for a new drawing program, called Quantum Paintbox by
Eidersoft. It makes it possible for the ST to display 4096 colours
simultanously. The list price is #19.95 in the UK. Software houses
can get a special licence to use the display technique in their own
software.
How they do it? I do'nt have the slightest idea. But as I allready have
bougt several product from this firm, I don't think it is an advertising
trick or vapourware.
By te way, I am not in any way connected with etc. etc.
Greetings,
Ryko Prinswheels@mks.UUCP (11/18/87)
In article <8711171046.AA09562@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, > PRINS@HLERUL5.BITNET (R. Prins - Network Mgr. [DEC Sites] RU Leiden) writes: > I just saw an ad for a new drawing program, called Quantum Paintbox by > Eidersoft. It makes it possible for the ST to display 4096 colours > simultanously. > How they do it? I do'nt have the slightest idea. > > Ryko Prins Yes, how do they do that? I'm quite sure the ST can really only display 512 colours, maximum, as that is directly related to the number of bits from the shifter feeding the D/A converters which feed the RGB outputs. (3 bits for each colour = 8 levels of each colour. 8 x 8 x 8 gives 512 colours. Period.) I wonder if this program, and another I saw with similar claims, are trying to claim that a region of the screen with mixed pixel colours is really a new colour. If so, Spectrum 512 could make similar claims. Any program that can use all 512 colours in a single picture could claim that, right? But, I'd rather they didn't. Let's just talk about the number of colours any one pixel can be, and keep these claims reasonable. -- Gerry Wheeler Phone: (519)884-2251 Mortice Kern Systems Inc. UUCP: uunet!watmath!mks!wheels 43 Bridgeport Rd. E. BIX: mks Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2J4 CompuServe: 73260,1043
c60a-2ae@web4e.berkeley.edu.UUCP (11/20/87)
In article <317@mks.UUCP> wheels@mks.UUCP (Gerry Wheeler) writes: >In article <8711171046.AA09562@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, >> PRINS@HLERUL5.BITNET (R. Prins - Network Mgr. [DEC Sites] RU Leiden) writes: >> I just saw an ad for a new drawing program, called Quantum Paintbox by >> Eidersoft. It makes it possible for the ST to display 4096 colours >> simultanously. >> How they do it? I do'nt have the slightest idea. >> >> Ryko Prins > >Yes, how do they do that? I'm quite sure the ST can really only display >512 colours, maximum, as that is directly related to the number of I think that if if can be done, It would be tough on the processor. One possibility is that it was a typo and they were referring to the Amiga version. Or it can actually display more than the maximum number of possible colors. How? I read of a demo in an old Antic of how two pages of graphics were switched between screen refreshes so that one location on the screen would be forced to display two pixels with different colors, producing a third color (albeit with flicker ala Amiga interlace mode). So showing a red and blue pixel in one spot would produce purple. I know of two games which do this. On the Atari XE/Ls, a game called _Tail_of_the_Beta_Lyrae_ by Datamost had a title screen that had the top 1/5 of the screen done this way. The title, which appeared translucent, scrolled over the background; and get this, It loaded the game as it did this! On a 1.79MHZ machine that has slooowwww drives. Wow! (price, $7 at kaybee) Some arcade games also do this. I know that on "Bermuda Triangle", "Gondomania" and others like it from Taito, this is done to produce shadows of flying objects. (because you can "see through" them.) I suspect that Eidersoft is using this, or a similar method, in combination with the method used for spectrum 512. Alone the screen switching method can get you 256 colors (16x16). With some spectrum like method in combination, more should be possible. The screen switching method is not nice to look at after a while because of the flicker. It should look nicer on a high persistence monitor, and even better on a photo. So see the product "live" before you buy it to see how it looks. Me, I have a mono monitor and I'm waiting for an rf converter box. Still waiting for color prices to drop a little. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | JoHn KaWaKaMi alias spectacle -O^O- alias c60a-2ae@widow.berkley.edu | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
wayneck@tekig5.TEK.COM (Wayne Knapp) (11/25/87)
> In article <8711171046.AA09562@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, > > Yes, how do they do that? I'm quite sure the ST can really only display > 512 colours, maximum, as that is directly related to the number of > bits from the shifter feeding the D/A converters which feed the RGB > outputs. (3 bits for each colour = 8 levels of each colour. 8 x 8 x 8 > gives 512 colours. Period.) I wonder if this program, and another I saw Yes and no. One thing that can be done is to use two pictures and page flip between them. Two different color will merge to a new color. One has to be careful though to keep the intensity of the two different colors close together or else it flickers. Wayne Knapp