Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!munnari.oz.au!metro!ipso!fawlty!johnmac
From: johnmac@fawlty.towers.oz (John MacLean)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: 3200 graphics
Message-ID: <438@fawlty.towers.oz>
Date: 13 Aug 90 02:28:47 GMT
Organization: Tower Technology, Lane Cove, NSW
Lines: 36

OK, I did some real tests with GIFs and 3200 graphics.
As I said before GIFs are limited to 256 colors, so 3200 is not that
great an advantage over 16 palettes (with optimization).

Some scanlines in GIFs will have > 16 colors in them - so you still have
to do some palette optimizations to get good results.
The quality of this optimization is what makes a good picture.
This can take a LONG time, especially if the number of colors in a scanline
is really large (it can theoretically be up to 320).

Anyway, a typical GIF picture: "NYMPH"
(This is the woman lying in the water with a deer - quite clean - it was
just a picture I knew actually used exactly 256 colors)

Original (320 x 200):		256 colors.
Optimized for 200 palettes:	219 colors.
Optimized for 16 palettes:	82 colors.
Optimized for 1 palette:	16 colors (of course).

Most 3200 graphics I have seen really only use approximately 150 colors.
The 16 palette version looks REALLY good (and uses no CPU cycles).
The 200 palette version is not distinguishable from the original (by my eyes).
I want to emphasise that these two graphics are VERY compareable - you
do not need to use CPU cycles to get a good result.
The single palette version looks terrible (changing standards!).
I am working on an IFF reader which will give me a source of > 256 color
graphics.
I am still looking for a good source of IFFs (of various sizes) - do not
E-mail them to me.

John MacLean.
-- 
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