#VGA vs. AMIGA gfx
12 messages in this thread
Hi All, I have been arguing lately with a friend about VGA graphics verses
Amiga graphics and I need some good things I can throw his way when we are
arguing about it. He is telling me that VGA is just as good as anything the
AMiga can do. Any help would be appreciated!
Russ Niklos
Russ,
VGA graphic quality is quite good, and in a number of ways is better than
the Amiga graphic capabilities, as long as one is talking strictly in terms of
a static display of a graphic image. Once we get into the area of changing
images, then there really is no contest. Because of the abilities of the
custom chips in the Amiga, graphics data can be manipulated much faster, and at
the same time that other processing is occurring. On a VGA equipped machine,
then the CPU has to perform all of the memory moving operations required for
changing the display image. With the amount of memory involved to create the
full-screen display (or even a partial screen display), that's an awful lot of
CPU cycles being spent for display support.
The Amiga software is able to use the blitter to allow most of the memory
manipulation processes to occur with practically no work (other than setting up
the blitter calls) required of the CPU.
Consequently, as soon as you start talking about animation-type displays
(and/or games) where the displayed images need to be modified quickly, the VGA
must plead "no contest" or at least beg for a '386 to provide the needed CPU
horsepower.
Hope this helps….BobR
Bob,
Thanks alot for the VGA vs. Amiga Grafics info, it helped alot.
R. Niklos
Tell your friend to put 4096 colors on the screen at once…in any
resolution. Your Amiga can do it…he can't.
Don
yEAH, but then his friend will say that he can get 256 shades for grey scale.
Which I dearly wish we could do… oh well… –jp–
John,
So can we if you want to use a monochrome monitor.
Don
One other thing about Amiga vs. VGA. Assuming the super-VGA cards, it has
256 out of 16.7 million colors. The Amiga has 4096 out of 4096. VGA gets better
shading within the same color but if you want shading AND several different
colors the Amiga wins out.
— Ethan
Most VGA and super VGA cards have 262,000 colors and 64 grayscales none of the
VGA software I've seen has supported a pallete of 16.7 mill
Ben
Plus:
256 colors on the screen is nice, but, for some images, it can't tough the
ability to handle 4,096 on the screen at once.
OTOH – the VGA pallete has finer gradations of color, and the capacity of
higher resolution.
So, it depends on what you want to do.
Ray Lewis
But of course one can do the Sliced scan line technique and get the high res
and the 4096 colors, right? Since the color palette can be changed at scan
lines, high-res images (640×400 incl overscan) can contain a separate 16 colors
per line. (ala Broadcast Titler) What I wonder is why paint programs haven;t
discovered this yet? or GIF converters? Maybe we will need to wait for the
next generation of paint software?
ttfn –jp–
Yeah, and then there's the issue of price. You have to pay over $650 for a
decent VGA/Multisync combo — could get a 500 for that amount!
–Gabe