Colour Depth

[nigelb]

I was just wondering what colour depth everyone uses for FS. The reason I ask is I have a Samsung wide screen monitor and the specs indicate it is capable of 16 bit depth. I read on another board that you should leave the colour depth at 32 bit because most graphics cards with native 3D rendering actually have to do more work to render in 16 bit. I know changing the resolution to 32 bit won't give me that depth because of the monitor capability, but does anyone know if it actually helps the graphics card workload as per above?

Oh, for the Colonists: colour = color. ;-)

Nigel²

[SkippyBing]

I 'think' you're correct in that running at less than 32 bit causes the graphics card to actually do more work. I can't remember why but it's something I've 'known' for a while that running a graphics card at sub-optimal settings actually gets you lower frame rates. However I've never done any tests to prove or disprove this and I'm not sure of the actual mechanism involved, although I could make a few guesses, so I'd be interested to hear from someone who knows what they're talking about!

[DaveB]

Hello Mate

As far as I'm aware, you should have FS setup as close as possible to your desktop. That is.. if you use (eg) 1024x756 at 32bit for your desktop.. FS should be setup the same Not sure about TFT's mind you as these are a law unto themselves

I'm on 1152x864 32-bit on both btw ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[nigelb]

Thanks for the replies!

Dave - do you have a wide flat screen monitor? If you do I think most of them are 16 bit, of course I could be wrong: it has happened a few times in the past. ;-) I found the .pdf manual for mine and checked and it is 16 bit colour depth.

Skip - Yea, I haven't noticed any difference in FPS either way. Of course I am no expert. I suppose I would need to do a flight and test both colour depths with the exact same flight conditions but I can't be bothered with that at the moment. :lazy:

[DaveB]

Hiya nige

No mate.. I'm on a 19" Hansol CRT with a 17" Neovo tft plugged on for FSNavigator. Having just had a looksee at my settings, the tft is setup for 1280x1024 32-bit though what it's actually giving me I couldn't say. It's markedly sharper than the CRT but I don't use it to actually fly with.. only for FSN as mentioned. It's not widescreen either which may have some bearing on it being able to produce 32-bit.. or not as the case may be :think:
TBH.. I'm not a fan of widescreen anything but trying to buy a tft thats not these days is becoming increasingly difficult :roll:

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[petermcleland]

My Desktop is running at 1280x960x32 and FS9 is at 1600x1200x32 and I run exclusively in "Full Screen Mode" to get the 1600x1200...Windowed Mode would only give the 1280x960 resolution. Main Monitor is CRT Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2070SB. There is no need to have desktop and FS at the same resolutions as long as you are aware that the FS9 resolution will only occur in "Full Screen Mode" which FS is designed for. :flying:

[nigelb]

Dave, yes I know how hard it is to find a tft that is not widescreen because I tried. I found one with a brand I had never heard of and ended up returning it because it would not switch resolutions (bad out of the box), so I brought the widescreen Samsung and have been happy with that.

Peter, thanks for the info. I run my deskttop at 1440x900 and FS9 at 1024x768 so your message was comforting that I am ok doing so. My monitor is very modest compared with yours, of course.

Nigel²

[DaveB]

Hi Nigel

Well.. you seem to be running FS9 at a lower res than you need to (and the opposite way round to Peter.. quote.. My Desktop is running at 1280x960x32 and FS9 is at 1600x1200x32 unquote).. but if you're happy with it, then don't worry ;-) As an aside.. I can't recall hearing about anyone running FS9 NOT fullscreen which as Peter points out is how it is designed to run.. that is fullscreen. FSX has been @rse about face in that I have seen better performance windowed and to get an outside prog to run alongside it on a separate monitor, the only way I've found to do this is by using windowed mode :roll:
Anyway.. by having my desktop and FS9 (fullscreen) at the same res, the change from desktop to FS is seemless. If I had a 21" monitor.. I'd go for a higer res but 1152x864 on the 19 gives me the same visual effect as the next higer res (as is Peters) on a 21" (CRT). I'd not be able to see the icons if it were any higher on the 19

BTW.. all the Samsung tft's I've seen have been crackers so I can understand why you're happy with the one you have ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[SkippyBing]

Out of interest why are people running at anything other than the TFT's native resolution? Whenever I've done it certain pixels are spread out over more than one screen pixel and others aren't so it looks a mess.

[TSR2]

Correct Skip, the native resolution of a TFT is its optimal, after that it uses electronics to run at a larger resolution eventhough technicly it can't display more pixels than it actually has.