PS1 and saturn colors

[2008 IQ is unacceptable]

The ps1 has 16.777216M colors in its palette as does the saturn; the saturn is said to only be able to display 15 bit (i.e., 32,768) of those colors.

How many colors does sotn on the ps1 run in? I would assume 15 or 16 bit, but not really sure at all.

Are there any ps1 games that actually run in 24 bit simultaneous colors?

Also, is the reason the saturn's colors are darker dac-related, or is it because it can't display as many on-screen colors at once as the ps1 can?

IMO, the saturn has better color quality than the ps1 does at times, but it also is apparent that it doesn't use as many onscreen colors as the ps1 does, b/c saturn games with digitized backgrounds/photos/actors are kind of grainy.

From the screenshots of Nocturne in the Moonlight (i.e., the saturn's japan-only version of SotN) the saturn version's colors look better, IMO, but then the shitty/fake transparencies kind of make the ps1 version look better overall.

 

[Nesh]

The saturn version also suffered from too much slowdown

 

[2008 IQ is unacceptable]

The saturn version also suffered from too much slowdown

True, but does anyone know the answers to my questions?

 

[Nesh]

I have no idea

I personally thought that multiplatform games looked better always everywhere including colors. Tomb Raider on the PS1 looked slightly more colorful I think but a bit darker on the Saturn.

There are a few exclusives on the Saturn though that showed a very impressive variety of colors such as Sonic R and Panzer Dragoon. But since there are not available on the PS1 to compare it is hard to judge.

A friend of mine has the japanese version of SoTN on the Saturn and I have it on my PS3 as a downloadable PS1 game. If we ever find the time to compare I will tell you if there is any difference in colors

We did though compare Resi1 which was supposed to look better on the Saturn. The resolution of the prerendered backdrops looked a bit better on the Saturn with better defined colors. But there was a striking difference on the characters. Characters not only looked a bit more pixelated, they lacked detail comparatively and colors seemed to be less varied I think due to the lack of lighting. On the PS1 I could spot different shades of lighting from the environment whereas on the saturn there was a constant type of "lighting" that gave a kind of "shiny" look on model surfaces. For example on the PS1 some reddish or greenish lighting would be reflected on the character with smooth transition. On the Saturn the lighting was always a standard shade of dark to white (giving the impression of shiny surfaces) and you could spot if you looked close squares that transitioned the darker parts from the whiter parts

 

[Silanda]

IIRC one weekness the PS1 had was lack of video RAM, which is why a lot of games, SOTN included, used a lower colour depth and dithering. The Gran Turismo games were quite badly affected by this I believe, although they still looked good on TVs at the time.

 

[2008 IQ is unacceptable]

IIRC one weekness the PS1 had was lack of video RAM, which is why a lot of games, SOTN included, used a lower colour depth and dithering. The Gran Turismo games were quite badly affected by this I believe, although they still looked good on TVs at the time.

Do you know if sotn runs in 16 bit or 15 bit color?

 

[Silanda]

Do you know if sotn runs in 16 bit or 15 bit color?

This isn't really my area of expertise, so not off the top of my head.

I can't swear to the accuracy of this, but the way I understand it is that textures on the PS1 could be in three formats: 4-bit or 8-bit using CLUTs (I believe these were used a lot), or simply 15-bit.

AFAIK the PS1 cannot use 16 or 24-bit textures for 3D, but can use those colour modes for things like video. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.