Re: Question, Bug in a tutorial

[Erik <br0ke@math.smsu.edu>]

On 26-Sep-99 Steve Baker wrote:
> "Philipp Gühring" wrote:
> 
>> Which graphic format is recommended to be used with GGI?
> 
> I don't know if GGI has any special needs - I doubt it.
> 
>> PCX is too small and has just the 8 Bit Color mode. I want Truecolor
>> images. Any suggestions? Any sourcecode?
> 
> The image file formats I like best are '.RGB' (also known as "SGI
> format")
> and '.PNG'.
> 

png rocks, rgb is good for gl, but the image files are fairly big and with
things like libpng I think the simplicity of parsing is neglegible?

> Both support alpha channels. Both can cope with either 8 bit or 24 bit
> colour. Both have *lossless* compression.
> 
> RGB files are really easy to parse, PNG files are understood by web
> browsers and support progressive loading.
> 
> GIF are a no-no for stoopid legal reasons - they also only support
> 8 bit colour and 1 bit alpha.
> 

I beleive gif89a can do 32b with 8b alpha (as well as animations and monkeys
come out of its butt)

> JPEG uses lossy compression - unacceptable for most applications.
> 

I think I gotta disagree with you there. JPEG has a lot of good applications I
think, like non-simple textures on models and non-simple interterface screens.
If you look at a texture for grass or dirt or an organic lifeform, something
with a lot of smoother color variance, or look at the setup screens of games
like rites of war and total annialation: kingdoms, those are places where jpg
would be a good choice. it IS lossy, but it's only noticable on very simple
graphics where png would be a smaller image file anyways...

> TIFF is too damned complicated - it's gotten out of hand and too many
> tage are not handled by too many reader/writers.
> 
> PCX deepy sucks because it's not really a standard - there are just
> too many ad-hoc additions from too many places.
> 

the pcx stuff I've seen has been very simple and low-level... but it's possable
that I just missed the extended forms of pcx :)

> BMP is Microsoft and changes with every new revision of Windoze.
> 

bmp is also ineffecient, ugly, and BACKWARDS (the file is stored from the
bottom up, that's just WEIRD :)

> Everything else is too obscure - or has other problems.
> 
> So - RGB and PNG get my vote.
> 

I say jpg and png :)

> -- 
> Steve Baker                  http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
> sjbaker1@airmail.net (home)  http://www.woodsoup.org/~sbaker
> sjbaker@hti.com      (work)
> 

        -Erik <br0ke@math.smsu.edu> [http://math.smsu.edu/~br0ke]

The opinions expressed by me are not necessarily opinions. In all
probability, they are random rambling, and to be ignored. Failure to ignore
may result in severe boredom or confusion. Shake well before opening. Keep
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