Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!motcsd!dms!morris
From: morris@dms.UUCP (Jim Morris)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: 256 colors in Windows 3.0
Message-ID: <1144@dms.UUCP>
Date: 27 Aug 90 21:26:59 GMT
References: <9115@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
Organization: Atari Games Inc., Milpitas, CA
Lines: 43

From article <9115@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>, by larned@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Paul Larned):
> ...
> make sense to me.  They also suggested that I try loading a program through
> Windows which does load the 256K palette, then switching back to Windows,
> and that maybe the palette would stay loaded (!)  This didn't work.  A 
> friend told me that the only way now to see 256 colors with Windows 3.0 is
> to watch carefully during a full installation--when Windows changes to
> graphic mode, there is a 256 color display.
> 
> If I am in error about this, I would appreciate corrections, since I, too,
> am interested in how to get 256 colors from Windows 3.0.
> 

You can load a 256-color .BMP file as wall paper, that works!!
Also you can load a 256-color .PCX file in paintbrush, that works as well!!

There are no utilities in Windows that will allow you to edit  the 256 color
palette that I can find, However I did write a program that tested out
the Logical Palette scheme that win3 introduced. It seems to work quite well.
However if you have a 256-color wallpaper loaded, and then load another app
that uses 256 colors, it "steals" the palette and the wallpaper loses its
colors.

Other Apps can detect this and adjust, but the wallpaper is not an App so
it loses its palette for good, of course this is not a bug or a problem
just an interesting side effect of the Logical Palette scheme...

I am working on a 256 color palette App, but as far as I can see the windows
desktop will not use it.

The Windows system seems to use 20 colors out of the palette
and will not even look at the rest. (Of course this is conjecture, it would
require some research to discover the facts!!)


	Still I've had fun playing with the 256 colors, and deciphering
how Logical Palettes work!!

-- 
Jim Morris.         {motcsd|weitek}!dms!morris or morris@dms.UUCP 
Voice	(408) 434-3798
Atari Games Corporation, 675 Sycamore Drive, Milpitas CA 95035 USA
(Arcade Video Game Manufacturer, NOT Atari Corp. ST manufacturer).