About darkest Atari luminances...

[José Pereira]

This is something I would like to know from someone(s) with real Machines (PAL and NTSC):

-> Wich of the A8 other darkest luminances seems more (fool our Eyes) with Black one (00)?

-> At what distance you can see (or not see) that the darkest luminance it's another one and not the real Black (00)?

 

This screen file if anyone can try:

A8 Hi-Resolution darkest luminance.xex

 

This could be usefull with our A8 problem regarding Hi-Resolution...

Thanks.

Edited January 11, 2012 by José Pereira

[José Pereira]

And if the screen it's full of gfxs/pixels?

It would, probably, be almost not seen that it isn't Black?

A8 Hi-Resolution darkest luminance_screen with gfxs.xex

( Doesn't necessarily have to be these kind of pictures, that certainly would distract your Eyes !...

Edited January 11, 2012 by José Pereira

[Rybags]

It would probably vary among TVs and depending on what bright/contrast setting is used.

 

The actual luma signal shouldn't change from the Atari among different colours since it starts as a digital signal and the circuit converts to analog independant of what colour is active.

 

The eye is better at seeing certain colours than others, e.g. we're better at greens than others.

 

But on the other hand, some dark colours have better contrast against black than others.

 

If the screen is full of pixels, especially small areas of swings between light/dark then it can be hard to distinguish the darks, e.g. luma 4 might look near identical to luma 0.

Rescue on Fractalus uses such characteristics to affect - lighten some colours and darken others temporarily to give more contrast and dramatic effects.

 

 

All this aside - a TV should always show a colour in luma 0 brighter than black luma 0 - reason being a CRT has to light up the pixels to show any colour, and an LCD has to use less black to hide the backlight and show some colour.

 

That's a clue in itself. Due to how TVs work, a dark colour that's a mix of R,G,B components is probably more visible than one which is dominant in only one of the components.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Rybags

[José Pereira]

^{Let's imagine a kind of Saboteur and that you would have some Underlays on the Walls, like that Yellow Wall and then the furniture other colour, then, sometimes a Pillar that has other colour and the Black guys would have the body crossing these different darkest luminances...}

^{Would this type be too noticeable in the darkest guys Body?}

Edited January 11, 2012 by José Pereira

[Rybags]

Would be noticable with some colours. On a TV you can just turn the brightness down anyway.

[José Pereira]

Just see this:

C64 and A8:

(just about Playing area, no need to pay waste time on the Status area)

 

The left one, the C64 version using Hardware sprite in Hi-Resolution would be Black always but get the gfxs colour on it's transparency (that light blue)

The right one, on A8 with underlays would have Ninja and all guys exactly like spectrum and amstrad versions as soft sprites only but would use PMs for the underlays.

In that exactly place where's the Ninja you have three colours and then he is with three darkest luminances: Black/Darkest Blue c.9/darkest Pale Green (Yellow Wall bricks)...

SABOTEUR2.xex

Would this be very noticeable?

(The light Blue, light Yellow,... is also on all the other 8bit versions on the transparent guys pixels)

Edited January 11, 2012 by José Pereira

[José Pereira]

Yes, it's just a question of choosing the right colours and luminances on the PF2.

If you get them a little bit more darker and here, for example, I have 8,4 (or 9,4) and 10,4 on the closet it looks even better than the C64 version, I think...:

SABOTEUR2.xex

Edited January 11, 2012 by José Pereira