From: "Damian Yerrick" <NOSP AT Musenet@pineight.8m.com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
References: <F77915E7F086D31197F4009027CC81C90DC428 AT probe-2 DOT as-london DOT acclaim DOT com> <_NE04.962$NW1 DOT 33049 AT dfiatx1-snr1 DOT gtei DOT net> <38433C78 DOT 4FE6255D AT snetch DOT cpg DOT com DOT au>
Subject: Re: Newbie tries to plot a pixel and fails :)
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Organization: Pin Eight Software <http://pineight.8m.com/>
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NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 01 Dec 1999 04:49:26 GMT
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Date: Wed, 01 Dec 1999 04:49:26 GMT
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

frEk <20014670 AT snetch DOT cpg DOT com DOT au> wrote:
> I wrote:
> > "Shawn Hargreaves" wrote:
> > > James Migel writes:
> > > > Is it possible that I have to load a color palette
> > > > before it knows any colors?
> > >
> > > It's possible (otherwise you are just relying on your BIOS to have
> > > set the colors, and I wouldn't trust that to always give you the same
> > > colors on every different machine).
> >
> > Doesn't the VGA spec give a default 256-color palette?
> > (EGA palette, gray ramp, NES-ish palette...)
>
> Yep, in that order... The "NES-ish" palette is a set of colours
> reramped at slightly darker colours... I think they attempted
> to get a combination of colours that could support all images
> but I think it's horrible anyway ;)

That's how the NES makes colors. Bits 5-4 represent
lightness, and 3-0 represent hue (0, 13 = grays; 1-12 colors).
Darn good system for the time. The VGA designers tried to
extend this paradigm to 256 colors, but...

In FreePuzzleArena, I used this palette:
0: border color (palette animated); transparency
(I use 16 for black.)
1-15: EGA palette, with color 6 changed from (42, 21, 0)
to (42, 42, 0) to make dithering easier
16-31: 16-level gray ramp
32-39: Eight free spaces for palette animation
40-255: 6x6x6 color cube, a.k.a. web-safe palette

Get this palette where you get DOSArena.
http://yerricde.tripod.com/binaries/


Damian Yerrick