color question on Microsoft Flight simulator 2.1

[oblivion]

I have a question about the color palette on this game. I'm running version 2.1 on a PC compatible with an ATI small wonder CGA card and a Tandy CM-5 CGA monitor. when I pick the option " use RGB monitor" I get what looks like CGA mode but i'm seeing more then 4 colors on screen at once. its more like 5 or 6 colors at times like blue, light blue, black, white, grey. does this game use a special CGA color feature or trick?

 

[rmay635703]

I have a question about the color palette on this game. I'm running version 2.1 on a PC compatible with an ATI small wonder CGA card and a Tandy CM-5 CGA monitor. when I pick the option " use RGB monitor" I get what looks like CGA mode but i'm seeing more then 4 colors on screen at once. its more like 5 or 6 colors at times like blue, light blue, black, white, grey. does this game use a special CGA color feature or trick?

Never played it but there are 16 color modes
And you could also change the color pallet on a specific scan line giving you a different color status bar

There were also methods of having different pallets other than cyan magenta

 

[oblivion]

Never played it but there are 16 color modes
And you could also change the color pallet on a specific scan line giving you a different color status bar

There were also methods of having different pallets other than cyan magenta

I know there were other palettes but I thought it was restricted to 4 colors on screen at one time but I'm seeing 6 here.

 

[vwestlife]

Some of the ATI CGA cards supported the Plantronics video modes which gave you 320x200 and 640x200 at 16 colors, just like the Tandy 1000 -- but I don't know in Flight Simulator supports Plantronics. The CM-5 has a rather coarse dot pitch, so maybe you're just seeing a bit of color bleed? Does it look any different in Flight Simulator's composite mode?

 

[Great Hierophant]

The answer could be something as simple as dithering making it look like more shades of color than there actually are. The Tandy CM-5 is not a sharp monitor by any standard.

 

[oblivion]

I think you guys are right. it's either the monitor dithering or my eyes. I can't find any information on the net saying otherwise. I just wanted to confirm it wasn't using Plantronics or some odd CGA mode.

 

[Trixter]

does this game use a special CGA color feature or trick?

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2.1 contains no special/odd/tweak graphics tricks. The best display you can get out of it is 160x200x16 graphics via composite CGA, or the PCjr/Tandy video mode (need 2.12 or later IIRC).

but I don't know in Flight Simulator supports Plantronics.

It does not.

The answer could be something as simple as dithering making it look like more shades of color than there actually are. The Tandy CM-5 is not a sharp monitor by any standard.

Winner winner chicken dinner! The CM-5 is the second-fuzziest monitor I've used in quite a while (the fuzziest is the PCjr monitor). Ironically, cheap/large-dot-pitch monitors like these actually make the checkerboard dithering in 320x200 games look better. Anti-aliasing for free.

 

[vwestlife]

The CM-5 is the second-fuzziest monitor I've used in quite a while (the fuzziest is the PCjr monitor).

That's odd, because the PCjr monitor has a dot pitch of 0.43 mm, so it should be noticeably sharper than the CM-5's 0.63 mm dot pitch.

 

[2icebitn]

From memory the Peanut monitor may have been a little better then Tandy's early color monitors (the CM-1 is the exception, it had a nice image). Some monitors have issues. Far and away the fuzziest monitor I ever saw was the monitor that came with my Leading Edge model M, which was a CGA monitor made by Mitsubishi and but for colors was externally identical to a CM-1. Perhaps it was faulty, had the "blooming" problem. My original NEC Multisync II would likewise lose focus after a minute or two, around year 2k. It's dp was .31mm iirc.

 

[Trixter]

That's odd, because the PCjr monitor has a dot pitch of 0.43 mm, so it should be noticeably sharper than the CM-5's 0.63 mm dot pitch.

They're both terrible. I gave the nod to the PCjr because, I now realize, I always have the monitor+system physically closer to me, because during normal usage (for me) I'm constantly adjusting the volume dial to get the 3-voice audio normalized relative to the PCjr internal speaker (ie. playing Silpheed -- I can go into detail as to why, but don't want to derail the thread). When I use a Tandy 1000, no such adjustment is necessary since the volume control on the base unit adjusts the internal speaker as a whole. Anyway, closer monitor = more critical of its faults.