Colors of Sprites In Pro-Commercial Version ?

[bnh]

In the Pro-Commercial version of GForce, do the sprite images (.jpg/.mov/avi) that pass through GForce retain the x. million colors found in a normal jpg, or is the sprite's color pallet filtered to 256 colors which are then affected using the current CM in GForce?

Can anyone post a sample of a full-color .jpg passing through GForce with the advanced version?

I understand that in the Platinum version, a full color sprite image is filtered to 256 shades of gray, which are then colorized by the current pallet of 256 colors. At least, that is my understanding. If this is true, how does GForce allocate which shade of gray to which color in the Color Map?

In the Pro-Commercial version, when text is superimposed via the OverlayText command, is the color of that text also limited to the 256 color pallet?

Or, in the Pro-Commercial version, is the full-collor sprite, in all its X.million colors, passed through GForce unaffected by the pallete of 256 colors in use by GForce?

[jerohm]

where did you read that the professional version displays full color Sprites? THAT (which CERTAINLY MAY BE true) was news to me. When I created 'PRIMARY.map' (See 'Photos' thread), I originally divided the map into 4 - 64 entry segment definitions: Green, Blue, Red, and Yellow. When testing, it was obvious, that the Sprite was displayed as shades of Green ... THAT IS WHEN, I decided (right or wrong) that Sprite presentation MUST be dependant on those lower order entries ... Create yourself a PNG with those attributes, and I THINK you will convince yourself ... I sincerely doubt 256 gray shades, but only 64.

Your hardware is vastly superior to mine, but using FRAPS as a diagnostic tool, it is obvious the even displaying a static (non-movie) Sprite has an enormous resource penalty ... which confuses me a bit... Flowfields I can understand. Optimizing Waveshapes seems to be a bit of wasted effort ... NOT that I am against the practice .

[bnh]

where did you read that the professional version displays full color Sprites? THAT (which CERTAINLY MAY BE true) was news to me.

Thanks for the info on the 64 shades of gray. I had assumed incorrectly it was 256.

So how are those 64 shades of gray allocated to the selection of 256 CM colors? We know that the upper and lower values of the 64 shades are assigned to black and white. But what about the rest? Is it just a straight linear assignment along that chain of 256 colors?

It seems that if one could predict the allocation of those shades of gray to specific areas along the 256 chain of colors, one could layout a CM that would render a full-color photo in fairly realistic terms of black and white.... assuming one could predict the color reduction of the X Million possible colors to this 64 shades of gray. Sounds like a lot of work to test out.

I think Jaypro tried to test this out once.

As to my assumption about full color handling in the Pro- Commercial version:

1. In GForce Documentation, Script Command Reference.txt, Common Vis Commands, there are commands that refer to the Professional version that seem to indicate full-color, e.g. StartImageOverlay, OverLayCopyMode, etc. There's never been any counter-indication that the Pro-Commercial version is also limited to b&w sprites. Everything I've read seems to indicate otherwise.

2. The Wonderland program SoundSpectrum offers each Christmas season shows sprite images (not WaveShapes or Flowfields) in full color, or at least 256 color. These images are abundant on the home page demo. The Trial Version of the Wonderland folder contains colored sprites.

While I've never been able to get the Trial Version of Wonderland to load, I assume the snowflakes and spiraling candy are moving and responding to sound stimuli.

3. Even the front page demo of SoftSkyies shows a full-color image (maybe a 256-color image) mixed into the demo.

4. I believe I read somewhere on the forum that a particular player, maybe it was WinAmp, used to show the Album Cover in full color ... but I think it no longer does so. I've used only the StandAlone playback program so I have no actual experience with this oddity.

5. With regard to several inquiries about this "full-color photo" feature on the forum, the response has always been that the Platinum versions are limited to black and white renderings of sprites, and that you have to move the Pro Commercial version for "graphics."

These items are what led me to belive that GForce could handle full-color, or at least 256 color sprite images.

Was I wrong again?

[jerohm]

If you think about the Splash (startup) screen, that is obviously colormap independent, and overlays the screen activity... as opposed to Sprites that exist as the lowest background layer ... right? Even though the Sprites distributed with GF are all(?) B&W ... they certainly don't have to be ... color ones work just fine, but are reduced to grey scale during display. As for creating a colormap to simulate full (i.e., 64/256) color, grey scale translation would be sketchy at best (Not that it hasn't been tried) ... unless you are Ted Turner... maybe (Color -> greyscale, YES; greyscale -> Color, SHOW ME!). Even if you could come up with something that worked (kinda?) for a specific Sprite, I can't see how it could possibly translate in a generic fashion. A colorization process requires computer horsepower... not simple translation.

As for the album art, I don't know the bit depth of the color, but I suspect it works just like the Splash presentation; Black is interpreted as transparent, and displays in the foreground.

October.png [Windowites: right click, Save Target As ...]

[bnh]

Here's an sample of the b&w and sepia CM I use. I don't have my original notes to recall the EPen settings I used, but in this rendering I have EPen set at .90.

I used the October CM attached above for the logo.
I've attached the b&w and sepia CM's referenced above.

I've rendered this .mov at 15 ips to keep the file small, so be prepared from a lot of jerkiness. I'm using some placed waveshapes to link the photos. The first image of the pond with the waving cat tails is a full-color .avi. The second image with the windmill is a pan on a full-color jpg. The logo is just a black and white jpg shot to scale and position. The final image is a black and white jpg.

http://www.bnh.net/gforce/b&wtest1.mov

B&W CM
http://www.bnh.net/gforce/gray4.png


Sepia CM
http://www.bnh.net/gforce/brown3.png

[jerohm]

Random Thoughts ... trials (and tribulations )

- If this color thing is gonna work, I ASSUME it would be done with indexed color (256 or less). REF: Indexed Color

Many formats SUPPORT indexed color - JPG is NOT one of them.

GF really HATES Indexed Color PNG files - Standard PNGs are FINE
GF REFUSES To Display GIF files (but are acknowledged)