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eyeangle



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16th February, 2007 at 04:00:57 -

I really want 16 million colours for my gradient backgrounds for my non-scrolling levels.

I'm willing to sacrafice it for my scrolling levels because it runs soooooo slow when I try to scroll on 16 million colour at 800x600 resolution. However, when I scroll with 256 colours it runs so nicly with no lagging what-so-ever.

Is there a way to make 256 colours for only certain levels in MMF2?
So it can switch to that mode just for the scrolling levels.

 
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DaVince

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16th February, 2007 at 05:29:39 -

No.

Btw, scrolling doesn't work well on some computers, where it works well on others. For example, scrolling is almost always smooth on my laptop...

Try turning on/off the DirectX and Vsync options to see if that makes a difference...

 
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axel

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16th February, 2007 at 05:38:53 -

The color depth of your gradient backdrops shouldn't have much (if any?) CPU impact while scrolling?

 
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cake



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16th February, 2007 at 09:22:41 -

Why not try making your own custom 256 colour palettes, and your own custom gradients using those palettes. So the gradients will look nice, and it will be in 256 colour, so it will run nicely.

 
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Silveraura

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16th February, 2007 at 14:39:42 -

Or just not use gradient backgrounds at all, make some actual backgrounds and minimize the amount of colors you use. A half decent retro looking background can be made with just 4 to 12 colors.

 
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Tiles

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17th February, 2007 at 07:50:11 -

Have you optimized your game so far? Cropped graphics in the actives for example?

 
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markno2



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17th February, 2007 at 08:26:42 -

If nothing else works take a printscreen of your gradient backdrop and paste it into a background system box.

 
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AndyUK

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17th February, 2007 at 13:47:35 -

"Or just not use gradient backgrounds at all, make some actual backgrounds and minimize the amount of colors you use. A half decent retro looking background can be made with just 4 to 12 colors.

He might not want his game to look retro.
Some Amiga games had great looking gradients.

Another option is to use dithering, although that does not look as good.

 
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eyeangle



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17th February, 2007 at 20:33:50 -

Yeah it's a tricky desicion, I still don't know which way to go.

I havn't cropped all my active graphics so far. I didn't think that made a difference??? But yeah i'll try that.

Do you think it's possible to make a graphic extension that turns on 256 colour whenever you want it?

 
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Flava



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18th February, 2007 at 05:11:00 -

The Big Box extension can change color depth from 256 to 16M colours. Hope that is what you're looking for.
You can get the extension from:

http://www.clickteam.com/epicenter/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=16581&page=3#Post16581

(This actually changes the color depth of the person's whole system, not just your game. So would probably be best to use this when in full-screen mode, and then remember to change back to the original color depth when the game ends or something - I'll try and find an extension which changes the colours of your game only though).

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Tiles

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18th February, 2007 at 06:08:59 -

"I havn't cropped all my active graphics so far. I didn't think that made a difference??? But yeah i'll try that. "

It makes a BIIIG difference. Especially when there are lots of actives to handle

Under good circumstances you get rid off of more than the half or even more of the memory size of your sprites. Smaller sprites are faster to handle because there is less to calculate. Which speeds up your game.

Another optimization is to use 65536 colours instead 16 million colours. Shrinks the game (and the graphics to handle) by 1/3. Depends of your gradients though. There may be visible steps then. But ways not this worse than with 256 colours. And maybe you can live with those steps.

 
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eyeangle



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18th February, 2007 at 20:55:45 -

Cool. Well I'll crop all my active objects.

I've decided to go with 256 colour and kill all the future gradient backgrounds. It saves the hassle and it make me put more work into the backgrounds of the game instead of the easy cool looking way out with a gradient.

Anyway hope it works out down the track but I know it's gonna run real fast on everyones computer. (that of course be only if you download it) :S

 
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eyeangle



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20th February, 2007 at 00:27:43 -

Yeah axel said that.

 
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AndyUK

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20th February, 2007 at 19:40:17 -

16 million colour mode takes up more memory, no one has said that yet have they?

 
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eyeangle



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21st February, 2007 at 01:00:15 -

"The color depth of your gradient backdrops shouldn't have much (if any?) CPU impact while scrolling?"

"it's not that you're using 16-million colours and gradients, it's that you're in 16-million colour mode."

In terms of what we're talking about that's basically the same thing.

 
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