Thankyou this was the reply I wanted.
Elia
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kerry Thompson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'Flash Coders List'" <flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com>
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2008 12:11 AM
Subject: RE: [Flashcoders] Framerate performance
Steven Sacks wrote:
Common sense dictates that a 32 bit pixel takes more rendering
computation than a 16 bit pixel or an 8 bit pixel.
The 32-bit pixel includes an 8-bit alpha channel, and that in itself takes
more rendering time.
Your graphics card actually has more impact on rendering time than the
color
depth. All modern graphics cards do the rendering in hardware, of course,
though that wasn't always the case.
I did some benchmarking while I was working at Disney, and we found that
24-bit graphics actually rendered faster than 16-bit. The underlying
reason
is simple--with 24 bits, each byte represents a color (red, green, or
blue),
and it's easy for the firmware on the graphics card to work with a
straightforward 3 bytes.
16-bit graphics are another story. You still have to represent red, green,
and blue. Basic math tells you that each color gets 5 bits--but what do
you
do with the other bit? A 1-bit alpha channel? Ignore it? Do 6-5-5, or
5-6-5?
Different manufacturers, and different systems, treat it differently.
Down on the hardware level, the 16-bit graphic presents other challenges.
You have to take the 16-bit word and peel off the relevant bits, and pop
them into the byte-size registers. If you're familiar with Assembly
language, you know that involves a lot of ROR, SHL, and the like. It
happens
in hardware (actually firmware), so it's pretty fast, but the 24-bit
graphics are still easier to handle.
As far as 8-bit graphics, they are really just 24-bit graphics with a
limited range of colors (the palette). Instead of representing an actual
color, each byte is an index into a palette, so there's an additional step
there that must be performed during rendering.
It's not so simple after all.
Cordially,
Kerry Thompson
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