OpenWindowedScreen - Bit depth

[dracflamloc]

Is there a way to specify to load sprite3d textures as 16 bit, and/or open the screen in 16 bit. The reason I ask is because my mmorpg after loading the tile sheet and sprite sheet, etc, takes up 40mb of video ram.

For a 2d rpg, thats pretty crazy. I could create a loader/unloader for unused tiles on a map, etc, but it'd still be nice to specify the bit depth, and maybe even some kind of in-memory texture compression for sprite3d.

Thanks.

[Trond]

Result = OpenScreen(Width, Height, Depth, Title$)

[traumatic]

It's about OpenWindowedScreen...
...and AFAIK you can't have 2 different depths at the same time
(gamescreen vs. desktop). How should that work?

[Trond]

I missed the Window thing.

[Fluid Byte]

Is there a way to specify to load sprite3d textures as 16 bit, and/or open the screen in 16 bit. The reason I ask is because my mmorpg after loading the tile sheet and sprite sheet, etc, takes up 40mb of video ram.

For a 2d rpg, thats pretty crazy. I could create a loader/unloader for unused tiles on a map, etc, but it'd still be nice to specify the bit depth, and maybe even some kind of in-memory texture compression for sprite3d.

Absolutely not because the depth of a windowed screen is always the depth of your current desktop setting. E.g. you can't set your desktop to 32Bit and your windowed screen to 16Bit because the both share the same graphical environment.

[dracflamloc]

Actually it can be rendered in 16 bits and the surface itself drawn to the 32 bit screen. I've seen it done, however I have more than just that request. I want to be able to tell LoadSprite what quality and bitdepth a texture is loaded in. This should have nothing to do with what depth the screen itself is.

[Fluid Byte]

Actually it can be rendered in 16 bits and the surface itself drawn to the 32 bit screen.

Well, not nativley in PB.

[Trond]

Actually it can be rendered in 16 bits and the surface itself drawn to the 32 bit screen.

Well, not nativley in PB.

Which is why he's requesting it...

[Fluid Byte]

Actually it can be rendered in 16 bits and the surface itself drawn to the 32 bit screen.

Well, not nativley in PB.

Which is why he's requesting it...

Not, quite:

I want to be able to tell LoadSprite what quality and bitdepth a texture is loaded in. This should have nothing to do with what depth the screen itself is.

[dracflamloc]

this was kind of a 2-for-1 request, I want both to be possible =)

[Trond]

Actually it can be rendered in 16 bits and the surface itself drawn to the 32 bit screen.

Well, not nativley in PB.

Which is why he's requesting it...

Not, quite:

I want to be able to tell LoadSprite what quality and bitdepth a texture is loaded in. This should have nothing to do with what depth the screen itself is.

I don't think he said exactly what he meant. Sort of.

[dracflamloc]

haha... ok heres a breakdown to avoid any confusion:

1. OpenWindowedScreen should be able to force a bit depth one way or another.

2. LoadSprite, Catch, etc should have an option to specify the bit depth it is loaded in as. If I want to load a 32bit PNG as 16-bit or 8-bit texture it should be possible, and would help reduce video memory usage with large tile/sprite sheets.

[netmaestro]

I asked for a selectable bitdepth for OpenWindowedScreen somewhere and Fred replied that he thought it was an interesting idea and worth doing but I can't for the life of me find the post again. It was about six months ago.

[Fluid Byte]

Yo dracflamloc! Do me a favor, no more 2-for-1 request!

One more thing. If you want a custom depth for your windowed screen you may ask/force the user to switch the depth temporary while your program is running (at least until we have another solution). Not uncommon for emulators or some older games.

[dracflamloc]

I'm wondering if that'd save on the video memory, which is my primary concern with all this. Might try and see =)