16 bit Color

Hi,

I'm creating outer space backgrounds for an upcoming downloadable game. The images are being created in PS7 in 32bit color. When these images are viewed in the game engine, I get severe color banding because it runs in 16 bit color mode.

How do I go about reducing the colors to 32,767 in PS? Seems like all of the color options want to bring me down to 256. Also, is there a way to control the amount of dither when I do this?

Your help is appreciated

Jim

James,

How do I go about reducing the colors to 32,767 in PS? <<

You can't, but running your monitor in 16-bit will at least allow you to see the results. Adding noise (say at 2px) to gradients will reduce the banding considerably

Thanks for the info.

It's hard to belive Photoshop cannot selectivly reduce color. I know that Paint Shot Pro has this capability.

That's ok Adobe, I still love ya.

Photoshop can - when saving files, or using the posterize command.

I'm saving these images as Targas. Bitmaps would be acceptable too. I don't see any options for color depth when saving in either format.

The posterize command works but then I'd need to hand-dither. I was hoping for better automation in doing this.

If the image is in 5-6-5 15 bit format, I recently wrote a filter which does both the reduction and dithering.

You can download it from my site for Mac <http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/files/5_6_5-1.0b2-Mac.sit> and Windows <http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/files/5_6_5-1.0b2-Win.zip>.
If the format is different from 5-6-5, please let me know and I can modify the filter.

I hope you mean BMP (because bitmap is not the same as BMP, and bitmap is 1 bit / pixel).

5-6-5 15 bit format

Of course, I meant 5-6-5 16-bit format (5 bits red, 6 bits green, 5 bits blue). But the filter can be modified to accommodate any layout.