Re: FLASH: 256 colors and speed

[Troy M. Gilbert]

>I agree there's a missing factor here and I don't think the replies on this

>list have identified it.


Sounds like a challenge... I'll crack out the ole performance profilers and

try to figure out why this is happening... hopefully my graphics

programming experience will shed some light... I'll report back to the list

soon.


>>If I change the monitor

>>settings of a computer to 256 colors and then play a movie (that played OK 

>>at 16 or 32 bits color) it plays A LOT slower. �why?.

>My hunch is that the processor must dither the bitmap or gradient

>background from the original colors down to 256 colors. Since you have an


This is right, though I'm surprised it only happens in the above mentioned

cases. Flash is a true-color based graphics system (as opposed to GIF,

which is palette or indexed-color based). When you run your graphics card

at 256 colors (or 16 colors) you are using an indexed graphics mode. All of

Flash's graphics must first be generated at in a true-color buffer then

that buffer is dithered to the screen and it's palette. Dithering is not

always fast, but under Windows' it can be done rather quickly using the

Video for Windows subsystem (now ActiveMovie). It handles the dithering and

is done at a hardware level.


Well, that was probably more than you wanted to know...


Troy.





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