16 or 32 colour wallpaper

Sad Nation · 20 April 2020, 23:03

Are there any good 16 or 32 colour wallpapers that don't kill your chip mem? If they were 720p that would be a bonus!

ma693541 · 21 April 2020, 00:53

Have you tried Amiga-Look
They have over 100 Backgrounds for your Amiga, and use Workbench own program to load the background in FAST Mem instead of CHIP Mem. You find the program in Prefs named Workbench.
16bit or 32bit backgrounds needs P96 too look well. Full HD 1920x1080 needs a huge amount of memory. better go for 1280x720 or 1366x768.

Daedalus · 21 April 2020, 15:11

I think the OP meant 16 or 32 colours, rather than 16 or 32 bits

Amiga-Look has lots of background, but they tend to be full colour (24-bit) and intended for high end Classic users or users with NG systems. You can find some minimalist retro-styled wallpapers around that suit Workbench better, because they only use a few colours to begin with, so reducing to 16 colours isn't a problem. Also, scaling and cropping of wallpapers to suit is trivial.

For example, this image from a quick Google search for minimalist desktop wallpaper is for a smartphone but only uses 3 colours. It has some JPEG artefacts, but it could easily be cropped and scaled to suit and reduced to a 4-colour image. I find that the cropping of large images is best done on the PC, but Personal Paint is best for the colour reduction and format conversion on the Amiga side.

Glen M · 22 April 2020, 11:47

I recommend taking a screen shot from your favourite Amiga demo or animation and use that for the background. For example on one of my 1200s I have this Amy The Squirrel picture reduced to 16 colours and it looks identical, even reducing to 8 colours doesn't make it that much different.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=...AAAAAdAAAAABAJ

In workbench I set the colour depth to 64, it uses a bit more memory but gives you enough colours for the palettes.

Can anyone explain palette matching? It one things about this that always goes over my head and if done properly can apparently improve the image quality.

Lord Aga · 22 April 2020, 16:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glen M

Can anyone explain palette matching? It one things about this that always goes over my head and if done properly can apparently improve the image quality.

^This

I tend to search for 80s movies or cartoons posters, and they make really nice WB backdrops. You can scale them down to 64 or even 32 and 16 colors, but there is always some shenanigans with the palette, and it never looks optimal.

Daedalus · 22 April 2020, 16:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glen M

Can anyone explain palette matching? It one things about this that always goes over my head and if done properly can apparently improve the image quality.

Not exactly sure what you mean by palette matching, but I'm guessing it's to make the most of the colours already used on the Workbench screen... The first 4 colours, and if using MagicWB, the first 8 colours are more or less fixed on the Workbench screen, so if you import that palette into whatever paint program you use for converting the image, shuffle the rest of the palette if needed, and then remap the image to use the palette, you should use a minimum of pens and therefore have the most colours available for your image. If you're using colourful icons like GlowIcons, it would be an idea to include their colours in the Workbench palette too (e.g. from a screengrab with a plain background, then reduce the colours as much as is reasonable and use those colours to remap your image to. I usually do something along those lines when I'm converting a backdrop image for Amiga use, and tend to aim for a 32-colour screen with maybe 25 colours used for the main icons and backdrop, and the rest spare for other uses.

Sad Nation · 22 April 2020, 18:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by ma693541

Have you tried Amiga-Look
They have over 100 Backgrounds for your Amiga, and use Workbench own program to load the background in FAST Mem instead of CHIP Mem. You find the program in Prefs named Workbench.
16bit or 32bit backgrounds needs P96 too look well. Full HD 1920x1080 needs a huge amount of memory. better go for 1280x720 or 1366x768.

Hmm not sure my Workbench has that option OS 3.1.4. And yes I did mean 16 or 32 colours not bit!

ma693541 · 23 April 2020, 16:06

You was thinking on a standard PAL or NTSC setup with only 16 or 32 colours, right? Hm, this Blog can maybe be helpful. Just download the backgrounds file first and test them out and see what happens.

Nobby_UK · 23 April 2020, 17:21

I like the Turrican Pic

Sad Nation · 23 April 2020, 22:32

Thanks guys I'll have a look!

Retro1234 · 23 April 2020, 23:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by ma693541

You was thinking on a standard PAL or NTSC setup with only 16 or 32 colours, right? Hm, this Blog can maybe be helpful. Just download the backgrounds file first and test them out and see what happens.

Rebel and Cammy palette is very good there was a large number of users using it, there are threads somewhere in the void of people basically converting all kinds of images to this palette with surprisingly very good result and I also found it very good.

ma693541 · 24 April 2020, 07:55

Yes, Cammy was a great female user here at EAB, she was very kind and I wish she was back here. I don't know so much about Rebel.

20 April 2020, 23:03	#1
Sad Nation Registered User Join Date: Apr 2020 Location: St Austell Posts: 17	16 or 32 colour wallpaper Are there any good 16 or 32 colour wallpapers that don't kill your chip mem? If they were 720p that would be a bonus!

21 April 2020, 00:53	#2
ma693541 Computer Wizard Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Ramberg/Norway Posts: 928	Have you tried Amiga-Look They have over 100 Backgrounds for your Amiga, and use Workbench own program to load the background in FAST Mem instead of CHIP Mem. You find the program in Prefs named Workbench. 16bit or 32bit backgrounds needs P96 too look well. Full HD 1920x1080 needs a huge amount of memory. better go for 1280x720 or 1366x768. Last edited by ma693541; 21 April 2020 at 01:06. Reason: More info

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21 April 2020, 15:11	#3
Daedalus Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Dublin, then Glasgow Posts: 6,398	I think the OP meant 16 or 32 colours, rather than 16 or 32 bits Amiga-Look has lots of background, but they tend to be full colour (24-bit) and intended for high end Classic users or users with NG systems. You can find some minimalist retro-styled wallpapers around that suit Workbench better, because they only use a few colours to begin with, so reducing to 16 colours isn't a problem. Also, scaling and cropping of wallpapers to suit is trivial. For example, this image from a quick Google search for minimalist desktop wallpaper is for a smartphone but only uses 3 colours. It has some JPEG artefacts, but it could easily be cropped and scaled to suit and reduced to a 4-colour image. I find that the cropping of large images is best done on the PC, but Personal Paint is best for the colour reduction and format conversion on the Amiga side.

22 April 2020, 11:47	#4
Glen M Registered User Join Date: May 2017 Location: Belfast Posts: 750	I recommend taking a screen shot from your favourite Amiga demo or animation and use that for the background. For example on one of my 1200s I have this Amy The Squirrel picture reduced to 16 colours and it looks identical, even reducing to 8 colours doesn't make it that much different. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=...AAAAAdAAAAABAJ In workbench I set the colour depth to 64, it uses a bit more memory but gives you enough colours for the palettes. Can anyone explain palette matching? It one things about this that always goes over my head and if done properly can apparently improve the image quality.

23 April 2020, 16:06	#8
ma693541 Computer Wizard Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Ramberg/Norway Posts: 928	You was thinking on a standard PAL or NTSC setup with only 16 or 32 colours, right? Hm, this Blog can maybe be helpful. Just download the backgrounds file first and test them out and see what happens.

23 April 2020, 17:21	#9
Nobby_UK Registered User Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Liverpool Posts: 2,602	I like the Turrican Pic

23 April 2020, 22:32	#10
Sad Nation Registered User Join Date: Apr 2020 Location: St Austell Posts: 17	Thanks guys I'll have a look!

24 April 2020, 07:55	#12
ma693541 Computer Wizard Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Ramberg/Norway Posts: 928	Yes, Cammy was a great female user here at EAB, she was very kind and I wish she was back here. I don't know so much about Rebel.

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