What's the difference betwen 16 & 32 bit color (besides 16 bits!)

[rpowers 5]

I have p4,2.4 with 64 mb video card.I keep switching back and forth between 16 & 32 bit but don't see any noticeable difference.Is there and if so what where should I see it?Thanks for answering probably a silly question.Ron

[Guest]

16 bit is something like 30,000 colors, while 32 bit is millions of colors. 32 bit is more or less the same number of colors visible in real life. Most people can't see a difference between 16 bit and 32 bit.

[Guest RonB49]

There are two differences that I notice right away:1. 16-bit shadows are solid black but 32-bit shadows are translucent shades of gray.2. Mountain peaks showing above an undercast are rendered as regular shaped interconnected triangles in 16-bit but more pleasing sculptured shapes in 32-bit (again the undercast clouds seem to be more translucent). R-

[JimmiG 244]

Generally 32-bit provides smoother gradients and better precision when rendering such things as clouds and haze. Also, there's usually what's known as "dithering", spots of colors that appear in 16bit.I have never even used 16-bit in FS2002. If you have a reasonably powerful computer, there shouldn't be much of a performance difference between the modes.

[rpowers 5]

Greetings from USA-Illinois (central-corn and bean country)thanks for the responses.So I am running p4 2.4 ghz with 64 mb video that I am upgrading to 128 shortly.I will set video to 32 bit 1280/1024.Is this right?Thanks,Ron

[Guest RonB49]

For the reasons that I mentioned above, I'd suggest that 32-bit rendering is better. As far as resolution is concerned, I've heard some people say that they get better frame rates at higher resolutions. Certainly anything less than 1024 X 768 makes it hard to read some panels. I would mention, however, that 1280 X 960 is a better choice than 1280 X 1024. Your monitor screen is a 4 units (wide) by 3 units (high) ratio. 1280 X 960 maintains that ratio but 1280 X 1024 does not. R-EDIT -- Where in Illinois? I grew up in Springfield. R- KSAT

[rpowers 5]

Ottawa by Starved Rock State Park.

[Guest outtatimeiii]

Depends on your video card. Some can dither better at 16-bit than others. Since 16-bit color is only 65,536 colors, the palette can run out pretty quick. A lot of video cards can dither it good, where you can't even notice it.32-bit color isn't actually 32-bit color. It is actually 24-bit color (16,777,216 colors, 2^24) with a 8-bit alpha channel. The alpha channel can be used for translucent or other cool effects. That means that a lot of effects used in FS2002 will look a lot better in 32-bit mode (For example, engine smoke or contrails).For the most part, if your card offers 32-bit color, your better off leaving it on 32-bit, because of the massive color palette and better looking effects.

[rpowers 5]

My video card doesn't list 1280 by 960.Only 1280 by 1024 and 1280 X 768.Ron