Re: [Algorithms] 256 colour palette

[Jason Z. <zi...@n-...>]

Very cool.  :)  What we did for a previous game was let the artists make all
the artwork in 24bit then use Debabilizer to create a 64-shade
"superpalette" and map them all to it.  It worked out nicely because this
game had very little artwork overall (probably not even 100 textures, and
most were similiar in color because of the theme).  The rest of the palette
entries were just shades of those 64.  Things that were not going to be
shaded could use the full palette for quantization.  And seperate levels
could use entirely different palettes and we'd swap them in.

Obviously using less base colors gets you more shades but we found 4 shades
of each color to be enough for our purposes.

- Jason Zisk
- nFusion Interactive LLC


----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew Davies" <MD...@ac...>
To: <gda...@li...>
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 7:28 AM
Subject: RE: [Algorithms] 256 colour palette


> Doing a ray-casting engine for the Gameboy Advance in my spare time.  I'm
> using its 256 colour bitmap mode.
>
> Matt.
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Martin Fuller [mailto:mf...@ac...]
> > Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 11:50
> > To: 'gda...@li...'
> > Subject: RE: [Algorithms] 256 colour palette
> >
> >
> > Doom used 16 shades of 16 colours if I remember correctly.
> > IMO this was a
> > good balance. You could see each shade but it was a payoff
> > for the number of
> > colours. I'd be tempted to do some sort of dynamic palette
> > changing. For
> > example given a PVS:
> >
> > ROOM A can see ROOM B <> ROOM B can see ROOM A
> > ROOM B can see ROOM C <> ROOM C can see ROOM B
> >
> > (Note ROOM A and C cannot see eachother and you cannot be
> > stood in ROOM B
> > and see both ROOM A and ROOM C)
> >
> > ROOM B referenced 208 pallete entries
> > ROOM A has a different remaining 48 pallete entires to ROOM C.
> >
> > So while the number of colours you need to reference never
> > exceeds 256 you
> > can have more colours than that on the map. You have to have
> > low colour
> > 'insulating' Rooms / corridors. It also means that agents /
> > fx can only
> > reference the bottom 208 pallete entires. Makes building your
> > maps a little
> > more tricky but might be worth it.
> >
> > What platform is this for?
> > Cheers,
> > Martin
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Matthew Davies [mailto:MD...@ac...]
> > Sent: 30 August 2000 03:12
> > To: 'gda...@li...'
> > Subject: RE: [Algorithms] 256 colour palette
> >
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > Sorry, I may have not been clear.
> >
> > I don't need to convert a 24-bit image to 256 colours using
> > quantisation.  I
> > need to have a consistent single palette which doesn't
> > restrict me too much
> > to the colours I can have in my textures.  For example, DOOM
> > used a 256
> > colour palette to display all its graphics.
> >
> > One idea is to have 32 different colours and 8 shades of
> > them.  I could
> > design my textures in those 32 colours and 32 of a darker shade.
> >
> > But I just wondered if anyone had a generic palette that they
> > knew worked
> > well.
> >
> > Best regards,
> > Matt.
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Tom Nettleship [mailto:to...@ar...]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 10:47
> > > To: 'gda...@li...'
> > > Subject: RE: [Algorithms] 256 colour palette
> > >
> > >
> > > The problem you're referring to is commonly called
> > quantization. Doing
> > > a web search on that might glean some results.
> > >
> > > The two main algorithms people often use are called 'Median Cut' and
> > > 'Octree Quantization'. Both of these are efficient, and produce good
> > > results.
> > >
> > > Get hold of a copy of Graphics Gems 1... this has a paper describing
> > > how to implement Octree Quantization, and also (i think)
> > source code,
> > > though there may be some bugs in it.
> > >
> > > Tom Nettleship
> > >
> > > P.S. I turned this mail into plain text from the HTML you
> > > sent... please
> > > don't
> > > send HTML posts to mailing lists; people using some mail
> > readers can't
> > > decipher
> > > them.
> > >
> > > > From: Matthew Davies [mailto:MD...@ac...]
> > > >
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > Can any of you guys give me some hints on choosing a decent
> > > 256 colour
> > > > palette so that I can get a nice > spread of colours.  I
> > > need it for a
> > > simple
> > > > 3d game so basically I need to cover common colours and
> > > shades thereof.
> > > >
> > > > Do any of you have experience in this area.  I've had it so
> > > easy with
> > > 24-bit graphics up until now!  :-)
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