Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a708
From: a708@mindlink.UUCP (Gord Wait)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: 24/32 Bit Color
Message-ID: <3624@mindlink.UUCP>
Date: 22 Oct 90 20:36:51 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Lines: 16

You may not be able to 'see' 16 million colors, but your eye can sure pick out
edges where the 'intensity' of one color jumps to the next one in line on
computer graphics!! I used to work for a computer graphics firm and was shown
this effect by the programmers there. This kind of artifact shows up in
graphics where you have a smooth surface gradually shaded to a darker and
darker color. This 'mock-banding' can usually be seen as bands on smooth
objects. Usually dithering (scattering randomly the pixels at the edge of color
change) was used to mask the effect. That was 24 bit video..
32 bit video usually means a 24 bit system with an extra 8 bits for tricks like
overlay, or transparency values, that are used by application software for
convenience. There is one other type of '30 bit` video defined as 4:2:2 digital
video by the broadcast world, where The image is defined by a monochrome signal
(10 bits) and two color difference signals (10 bits each), but most companies
doing 4:2:2 ignore the optional 2 bits per channel and use only 24 bits.....

Gord Wait