Very Large Maps, is it a problem?

[Talroth]

so that's what being "ninja'd" looks like (0:

I can understand millions of colors.. as it makes a visible difference on screen... but why would anyone want to go beyond 64-bit? If it's not visibly different to the eye... it seems the only use would be for the sake of holding a wider array of data???

PS.. @antheon and jwbjerk... FYI, i wasn't being argumentative earlier just in case it came across that way (i dont think i did?).. just trying to clarify my earlier point about pixel size.

The expanded range for storing data of the colours isn't for displaying the colours themselves, but rather it is for doing maths on them.

With 32 bit colour methods you usually only have 8 bits per channel, and 4 channels. If you run two colours through a function, each colour component doesn't really have a large scale to work on. If you keep running colours through different functions then you risk diluting the true value of the colour.


Think of it as doing math with just Integers. 1, 2, 3, etc. When you go 2/3 = 1 then you're close, but you're not right. If you keep doing this, then you get farther and farther from the real answer, even if you round it back to an integer at the end.

Going to 256 bit colour is like giving yourself a few decimal places to work with. 2/3 isn't 1, it is 0.67, which when run through the next function it is a lot closer to the real answer than 1 would be.


At the end of the day there is no scientific reason to really display more than 32bit for most humans. Even 24 bit RGB is 'close enough' from what I remember.