A 16-color display that doesn't allow changes to the system palette.When you author movies for the Multimedia PC, you always have to consider the differences between how the Macintosh handles color palettes and how Windows handles palettes. Hardware differences also factor into this. The Multimedia PC provides two standard types of video displays:
A 16-color display that doesn't allow changes to the system palette.
A 256-color display that does let you change up to 236 colors in the system palette.
You can get the system to let you change more colors, however, the appearance of your display under Windows will be altered. If you decide this is acceptable, you can do this by using through the mmpLoadFile function, which loads a movie file for playback. (See the Programmer's Reference for more information.) When loading a movie file with mmpLoadFile, specify the MMPLOAD_NOSTATIC option. This changes the system capabilities to this:
16-color display—you can now change 14 colors in the system palette.
256-color display—you can now change up to 254 colors in the system palette.
As you author movie files, you need to consider the restrictions associated with bitmaps and palettes. For example, with 1-bit movies, all features will work across both systems. With 4-bit and 8-bit movies, some additional restrictions apply.
The following tables show how movies authored with different inks and palette effects finally appear once ported to the Multimedia PC environment. The tables cover these scenarios:
How colors appear when using inks that don't modify colors
How colors appear when using inks that do modify colors
How colors appear when using palette effects
The following table shows how colors in movies appear when using inks that do not modify colors (copy, matte, mask, and white transparent).
| Display | 8-BitMovie | 4-Bit Movie |
| 16-color display | All colors are mapped to the nearest VGA system color. | All colors are mapped to the nearest VGA system color. If the Macintosh palette has the same colors as the VGA system palette, then the movies will appear the same. |
| 16-color display with NOSTATIC option (requires VGAPAL driver) | All colors are mapped to the nearest VGA system color. | Colors will be correct. |
| 256-color display | Last 237 colors and white in the Macintosh palette will be correct. The remaining colors will map to the nearest color in the system colors. | Colors will be correct. |
| 256-color display with NOSTATIC option | Colors will be correct. | Colors will be correct. |
The following table shows how colors in movies appear when using inks that do modify colors (transparent, reverse, ghost, not copy, not transparent, not reverse, and not ghost).
| Display | 8-BitMovie | 4-Bit Movie |
| 16-color display | Random colors. | Random colors unless the Macintosh palette is the exact reverse of the VGA system palette. |
| 16-color display with NOSTATIC option (requires VGAPAL driver) | Random colors. | Colors will be correct. |
| 256-color display | Random colors. | Random colors. |
| 256-color display with NOSTATIC option | Colors will be correct. | Random colors. |
The following table shows how colors in movies appear that use palette effects (change, fade, and cycle).
| Display | 8-BitMovie | 4-Bit Movie |
| 16-color display | No color changes. | No color changes. | |
| 16-color display with NOSTATIC option (requires VGAPAL driver) | Last 15 colors except for black will work. | Will work as in Director. | |
| 256-color display | Last 237 colors except for black will work. | Will work as in Director. | |
| 256-color display with NOSTATIC option | Will work as in Director., Will work as in Director. | ||