[Coco] The myth of the Coco3 256 color mode :)

[jmlaw at iprimus.com.au]

Robert,

>Jason,
>I think this mode would be difficult to use for drawing images but have not
>tried to do that.

Actually RG, it’s very simple. You just load the 256 color artifacts palette 
file and select the paint color you want from this as you draw. Same as you 
would for any 256 indexed color palette, it's no different there. Then just 
paint in 2 pixel blocks always starting at an even pixel and finishing at an 
odd pixel for any solid block of color (when 0 is the first pixel). There is 
another way but that's the fundamental of it. The very first artifacts image 
I created I drew in Paint Shop Pro using this method. The xmas trees one 
with the footprints in the snow if you remember? Far from the most artistic 
image to be sure, but it was only intended to be a very simple test, to test 
that very thing. That was before I worked out how simple it was to convert 
an existing image to the artifacts palette for the other xmas images, but 
hey, had to start somewhere :)

>I'm more interested in the "static images" you referred to. :)

Don’t get me wrong, I do like the static images and I think they look great 
and they were a good starting point. I just meant perhaps there would be 
more interest if people could see the 256 artifact colors in active use, to 
show their potential isn't just a neat trick limited to static images. But 
it does take a lot more time and testing to develop that. Once it's been all 
worked out though, it's quite simple to use. So while it may have appeared a 
dead project, soon to be a "myth", that hasn't been the case. It's going to 
be a project in itself just writing it all up properly.

Re other comments on this topic: I really liked your slideshow Joel, I think 
you did a great job with your demo. I for one can appreciate the work 
involved to create and share it with us. I think it was obvious that the 
purpose was to demonstrate the CoCo 3 artifact colors across a variety of 
images and you achieved that nicely. You’ll never please everybody and 
unfortunately there will always be those who just have to criticise no 
matter your best efforts and intentions ;) Thanks for giving credit too.

Off topic: Just re the 3D printing website, yeah it was Shapeways. I checked 
my bookmarks after that post but didn't have a link for it so thanks :) I 
thought there was a sandstone like material option, but could only see the 
gypsum one, perhaps that was it or I saw it elsewhere, not sure.

>To that end, I've written a program to load 256-color .bmp files and 
>display
>them. The results are surprisingly good.

Yeah I remember it well and as I wrote in the posts way back then, I thought 
you did a great job with that. I've continued to use palette files as my 
preferred method though. You have to open the image in a paint program to 
reduce the color depth to 256 indexed color anyway, so I it's just easier to 
adjust the color indices to the artifacts palette while you have it open. 
You just load the image then load the palette file, select a few options and 
the paint program does the rest. While you have it open you can increase the 
sharpness, brightness/contrast etc too. For my intended use, this frees up 
the CoCo from having to do any processing of the image. But a really neat 
demo either way :) Have you done any more on it since?

>Robert

Re GrafExpress (mentioned in other list post), it was written by Sundog 
Systems. Still haven't tried it though.

Jason