Colors: 16-bit vs 8-bit
I''ve recently started learning Windows programming and DirectX programming. I''ve coded pretty much in DOS before, and since 16-bit color modes is hard as hell in DOS, I''m used to the plain old 256 colors.
What I wanna know is: Is 16-bit modes a lot slower than 8-bit modes in DirectX, or is the only difference that 16-bit demands better graphic hardware than 8-bit?
That really depends on what you are doing and what gfx card you are targeting. 8bit takes up less memory so is fast for software, but modern hardware, generally, is much faster on 16bit in hardware rendering.
In my experience, no. 16 bit color modes are very fast. Individual pixels are a bit harder to work with but with some imaginative bit-shifting aren''t too bad. Besides, the immense improvement in color quality and quantity more than makes up for any small performance loss.
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"Two wrongs do not make a right; it usually takes 3 or more."
Yeah, I was being very general. What you are doing, and on what makes a big difference. I think you''d have to specify these two factors somewhat before coming up with a more definate answer.
btw...
8bits have nore nuances (hue) then 16 bits....
there are 32 levels for each RGB on 16 bit (well 64 levels on green if model is 565)
there are 64 levels for each RGB on 8 bit indexed modes
problem is u only have 256 colors on screen at a time while on 16bit u have 65536 ... (nobody needs so much...but what can we do? we are told to think bigger is better)
on speed: 8 bit is at least 2x faster then 16 bit... usually much faster because of tediouse bits manipulations in 16 bits and hard color matching techniques
However modern video boards use for 3D render deak with this stuff in hardware so 8 bit vs 16 bit speed differences are not anymore so big...if u also consider that some modern cards dont like 8bits indexed mode because of extra hardware req ...
so in modern 3D games it dosent matter...better use 16 bits...
32 bits...hardware will do it for you...use 8 bits only if u do something reallyyyyy hard...and u know what u are doing
in 2D games it matters a lot use 8 bits if u can or optimize hardly if u wanna use 16 bits dont even try 32 bits it will be so slow
Bogdan
8bits have nore nuances (hue) then 16 bits....
there are 32 levels for each RGB on 16 bit (well 64 levels on green if model is 565)
there are 64 levels for each RGB on 8 bit indexed modes
problem is u only have 256 colors on screen at a time while on 16bit u have 65536 ... (nobody needs so much...but what can we do? we are told to think bigger is better)
on speed: 8 bit is at least 2x faster then 16 bit... usually much faster because of tediouse bits manipulations in 16 bits and hard color matching techniques
However modern video boards use for 3D render deak with this stuff in hardware so 8 bit vs 16 bit speed differences are not anymore so big...if u also consider that some modern cards dont like 8bits indexed mode because of extra hardware req ...
so in modern 3D games it dosent matter...better use 16 bits...
32 bits...hardware will do it for you...use 8 bits only if u do something reallyyyyy hard...and u know what u are doing
in 2D games it matters a lot use 8 bits if u can or optimize hardly if u wanna use 16 bits dont even try 32 bits it will be so slow
Bogdan
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