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Author Topic: Graphics: full 16-bit grayscale support  (Read 4363 times)

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Strobe

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Graphics: full 16-bit grayscale support
« on: September 17, 2011, 01:09:35 am »
Hi!

I would eventually like to develop some height_field utilities with SFML, but as you may already know, height maps produce the best results when they are in a 16-bit format; 8-bit just really doesn't cut it.

My goal is to use the height maps in POV-Ray, though there are plenty of other programs supporting 16-bit grayscale images. I know how to produce 16-bit values using the red/green channels of an 8-bit image, but that format can be difficult to manipulate in POV. I'd like to avoid unnecessary conversions, especially if I make my utility publicly available.

sf::Image seems to be the only way to save images, and it appears to only accept 8-bit values.

16-bit grayscale support would include:
    * loading 16-bit data directly into images and textures
    * floating point textures (and, consequently, GLSL shaders)
    * drawing 16-bit data to render textures, using sprites
    * saving 16-bit grayscale PNG images


Since SFML is a multimedia library--and not only used for authoring games--this feature request doesn't seem entirely unreasonable :D

~Strobe
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Laurent

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Graphics: full 16-bit grayscale support
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2011, 09:37:43 am »
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loading 16-bit data directly into images and textures

From which file format?

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floating point textures (and, consequently, GLSL shaders)

This is out of scope for SFML. It's only supported by recent graphics card, so it's a bad candidate for integration in SFML.
Moreover, it would be used for very specific use cases.

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Since SFML is a multimedia library--and not only used for authoring games--this feature request doesn't seem entirely unreasonable

Support for 16-bits pixel components requires support for different formats (I mean, from the public API point of view), which I'm still not sure about.
And before 16-bits floating-point formats, there are other formats that are more important to support : 8 bits luminance, YUV, ARGB, ... ;)
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Laurent Gomila - SFML developer

Silvah

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Graphics: full 16-bit grayscale support
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2011, 07:39:34 pm »
Quote from: "Laurent"
And before 16-bits floating-point formats, there are other formats that are more important to support : 8 bits luminance, YUV, ARGB, ... ;)
Wait. Does it mean SFML doesn't support alpha channel? Or it's just the ARGB vs RGBA issue?
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Laurent

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Graphics: full 16-bit grayscale support
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2011, 08:45:55 pm »
No no, don't worry, it's just ARGB vs RGBA ;)
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Laurent Gomila - SFML developer

Strobe

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Graphics: full 16-bit grayscale support
« Reply #4 on: September 18, 2011, 07:35:06 pm »
Quote from: "Laurent"
Quote
loading 16-bit data directly into images and textures

From which file format?


From 16-bit grayscale PNGs, since they are generally the easiest format to work with.

Quote
Support for 16-bits pixel components requires support for different formats (I mean, from the public API point of view), which I'm still not sure about.
And before 16-bits floating-point formats, there are other formats that are more important to support : 8 bits luminance, YUV, ARGB, ... ;)


Ah, OK. That's all right  8) I'll probably check out the Visualization Library before I make an HF utility.

BTW Laurent, I'm very happy with SFML; it's a real joy to use! Thanks for all your hard work  :)
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