16 or 32???????

SSXeon5

Senior member
Mar 4, 2002
542
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What the fu*k is the difference between 16bit color on your desktop and 32bit? I keep trying to see a difference but cant .... or am I just not high enough LOL

SSXeon
 

Czar

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
28,510
0
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16bit = 2^16 = around 64.000 colors
32bit, which is actually 24bit = 2^24 = around 16.700.000 colors
 

Viper GTS

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
38,107
433
136
If you're looking at 16-bit pictures, you won't see a bit of difference.

Take a nice 32-bit TIFF file & view it at 16-bit & then at 32-bit, then you should see the difference.

Viper GTS
 

SSXeon5

Senior member
Mar 4, 2002
542
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Yea .... can u show me where i can get a good 32-bit TIFF pic, never heard of TIFF .... lol thanx

SSXeon
 

Magicthyse

Golden Member
Aug 15, 2001
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JPEG data is stored within a 24-bit colour space, you should be able to see the difference between 16 & 32-bit. If you can't, you have a crappy monitor.
 

SSXeon5

Senior member
Mar 4, 2002
542
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did the JPEG and all the 16-bit was alittle lighter then the 32-bit rez. And My moniter is a Samsung 955DF .... so its no POS. I wana see a big difference .... same in games ... i can kinda see the difference in quake 3 between 16/32bit but what does it improve ....

SSXeon
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
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The difference isn't always huge.Peronsally if if I was playing 32 bit and you stuck me down to 16 bit and I reloaded I probably couldn't tell unless I was looking for it.
 

Cerebus451

Golden Member
Nov 30, 2000
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With 16-bit color, you can display 65535 distinct colors. With 24-bit color, the number jumps to 16.7 million. The problem is, if you are looking at a plain blue background on your desktop, you will not be able to see any differences. To see the difference, you need a picture with lots of vibrant colors (if you can find a desktop sized picture of a flower garden, that should do the trick). Then, when you switch to 16 bits, the picture will seem to lose some of it's clarity because as some of the colors are eliminated to reduce the color map, you lose some of the detail of the picture. The difference between 16-bit and 24-bit is not as stark as the difference between 8-bit and 16-bit, but there is a difference.
 

spyordie007

Diamond Member
May 28, 2001
6,229
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Here is a sample jpg image that contains 2 images, the top half is 16bit color, the bottom half is 32bit color. I made it from a gradient in photoshop.
the differance in colors doesnt come out tons on games, the places you see it is photographs or images with a color that has subtle changes over a field (like a gradient), it is much less apparent in images with high contrast.

-Spy
 

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
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The human eye can just barely see the difference in colors that you gain when going from 16 bit to 32 bit. I've seen many studies where the human eye can see about 1 million colors (meaning that 20 bit is perfect for us). But, it really isn't important if you see an image that is just barely off hue - there is another important factor: When a computer converts a higher than 16 bit image to a 16 bit image, the computer creates artifacts that the eye CAN see. These often appear as color bands which are highly annoying. The color bands have nothing to do with the number of colors used in 16 bit mode - it has to do with poor computer selection of the possible colors.
 

spyordie007

Diamond Member
May 28, 2001
6,229
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<< The human eye can just barely see the difference in colors that you gain when going from 16 bit to 32 bit. I've seen many studies where the human eye can see about 1 million colors (meaning that 20 bit is perfect for us). But, it really isn't important if you see an image that is just barely off hue - there is another important factor: When a computer converts a higher than 16 bit image to a 16 bit image, the computer creates artifacts that the eye CAN see. These often appear as color bands which are highly annoying. The color bands have nothing to do with the number of colors used in 16 bit mode - it has to do with poor computer selection of the possible colors. >>


The sample image that I have above shows the color banding, thanks for the explination dullard

-Spy
 

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
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<< The sample image that I have above shows the color banding, thanks for the explination dullard. >>



Thanks for the great banding sample. Now to prove the rest of my point, create that gradient in 16-bit and copy it into your 32-bit picture. I bet the difference is really negligible; this shows that 16 bit can display just fine, but it is the poor color selection the computer makes when converting.

Edit: make sure you look at his image while in 32 bit mode (otherwise they will look identical). :) When I first clicked on the image I was in 16-bit mode.