Why 8 bit textures

[F1Bomber]

This has been a large naging problem in the back of my mind eversince I started working on textures for aces high 1 and 2.

The texture bit depth is 8 bit in aces high 1 and 2. I have done some calculations and found that if you use a 8 bit texture instead of a 32 bit texture you save yourself in size compairision about 1/4th the size.

Now the problem pops up. And i would like it if sombody could exsplain this to me. Why use a 8 bit depth texture instead of a 32 bit? I originaly thought that a artist can fit more detail into a 32 bit texture than getting held down by using 8 bit.

Would aces high 2 in the futur support 32 bit instead of 8 bit. It just seems strange that aces high 2 is supposted to be a upgrade in graphics, but the textures length and width is the only thing really to change. But the color depth of the texture doesnt?

I understand that Hitech is aiming at a small download for aces high 2, and this would be the best thing to go about it. I would really like to know, is there any real loss in qaulity choosing the color depth over each other?

[vorticon]

quick tests with paint show that

24 bit bmp = 2.55mb
256 colour bmp= 769 kb
(just random lines with different colours...honestly the difference between them colour wise is fairly minimal)

[F1Bomber]

vorticon try with larger amout of colors. Tried it today

8 bit = 256 colors index.

means that you have a limit of 256 colors, after that you start lossing the smothness of color shades to different colors.

That the only limitation i have seen, just means that if a plane texture has a large change in color or more over 256. The smothness of the color change will become more noticable.

[Dux]

Remember that within the game, there is also added lighting, and mip-mapping, and anti-aliasing... all of these things are going to make it look like there is a greater range of values than there really is.

Also, how many planes in WW2 were covered in the full spectrum of color?

It really shouldn't be an issue for you... I guarantee that a properly done 8-bit texture will look as good as any 24-bit (or even 32-bit... yikes!) texture.

If you're having problems with colors on your skins, it's probably not a problem with the format, but rather with your technique, or even a limitation of your bitmap editor.

[Kweassa]

A bit of dither helps.