Good explanation why half-brite is too slow for game engines?

[TCD]

Less talking, more finding a screenshot with more than 32 colors please

Here's a very simple (but accurate) color counter: https://townsean.github.io/canvas-pixel-color-counter/

[Amigajay]

Just because it uses EHB doesn’t mean you will find a screenshot with more than 32 colours at any one time, some devs used palette switching or whatever, EHB is a quick and easy mode to enable the 32 shades of the colours they already used to cast shadows etc

One screenshot will be 32 colours, another screenshot will be 32 colours with different colours being used depending on what the helicopter is flying over, it’s not like they went out to use as many colours of the 64 possible because they could, it’s just used for a good reason.

As i mentioned above, the full screen flash explosion makes good use of the extra colours, lighting every object up in various shades before returning to normal.

[TCD]

You mentioned the manual and I want to know if it is accurate or not.

[ross]

Premise: I have absolutely not checked how the game you are talking about behaves, so what I am about to say is exclusively a general technical digression.

EHB is a bitmap mode, which does not affect the colors of the sprites.
So if for any reason the programmer had built the game to have 16 colors for the bitmap and 16 different colors for the sprites and then wanted to add shadow effects, he could easily have done it anyway by 'zeroing' the 5th bitplane, therefore without ever using the blitter on it to speed up rendering (a wasted 'empty' fetch for the bitplanes DMA, but which frees up the sprites color bank).
The final result is a maximum of 48 (47..) possible colors on the screen (excluding Copper tricks).

It's true, a big waste, but if the graphics set in 16 colors is already available and you don't have time and resolve to redraw everything, it's a 'low cost' effect made by the hardware.

[malko]

EHB games' list (Desert Strike is not in this list - omission?)
[ Show youtube player ]

EHB small demo :
[ Show youtube player ]

[TCD]

Originally Posted by malko

EHB games' list (Desert Strike is not in this list - omission?)

I mean EVERY is written in capital letters, so it has to be true

[TCD]

Originally Posted by ross

Premise: I have absolutely not checked how the game you are talking about behaves, so what I am about to say is exclusively a general technical digression.

EHB is a bitmap mode, which does not affect the colors of the sprites.
So if for any reason the programmer had built the game to have 16 colors for the bitmap and 16 different colors for the sprites and then wanted to add shadow effects, he could easily have done it anyway by 'zeroing' the 5th bitplane, therefore without ever using the blitter on it to speed up rendering (a wasted 'empty' fetch for the bitplanes DMA, but which frees up the sprites color bank).
The final result is a maximum of 48 (47..) possible colors on the screen (excluding Copper tricks).

It's true, a big waste, but if the graphics set in 16 colors is already available and you don't have time and resolve to redraw everything, it's a 'low cost' effect made by the hardware.

Thank you for the explanation

[TCD]

After looking at more screenshots it is safe to assume that the '64 on-screen colours' statement from the manual isn't true. Even with EHB the game never uses more than 32 on-screen colors.

[Daedalus]

Yeah, that's marketing speak alright. It's a potential 64 colours. Anything you can cast a shadow on will have a second set of colours in the palette that are half as bright as the colours used. So unless you cast a shadow over every colour in every object in the map, you're not going to see all 64 colours at once. That's a game design thing though, rather than any technical limitation. It's a nice way of getting a realistic shadow effect for very little cost, and means you don't need to worry about dynamically changing the palette or making sure multiple items that share pens but use different colours aren't clashing.

[abu_the_monkey]

that's the way it goes.

AB3D2 TKG usually has less that 100 unique colour on screen at any one time but has the potential to have up to 256 from a set pallet.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

that's the way it goes.

AB3D2 TKG usually has less that 100 unique colour on screen at any one time but has the potential to have up to 256 from a set pallet.

Some of that is down to the monotony of the texturing, I bet.

[abu_the_monkey]

Originally Posted by Karlos

Some of that is down to the monotony of the texturing, I bet.

that's true enough, but I doubt there is ever a frame (even in your mod) that would have all 256 colours on screen at the same time.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

that's true enough, but I doubt there is ever a frame (even in your mod) that would have all 256 colours on screen at the same time.

Challenge accepted.

[abu_the_monkey]

Originally Posted by Karlos

Challenge accepted.

Psychedelic level loading...

[abu_the_monkey]

sorry to everyone, didn't intend to hijack the thread.

just thought I would bring it up as a comparison.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

Psychedelic level loading...

"You got shroomz"

[abu_the_monkey]

Originally Posted by Karlos

"You got shroomz"