Ramp Performance Tips

Applications should use the following techniques to achieve the best possible performance when using the monochromatic (ramp) driver:

• Share the same palette among all textures.
• Keep the number of colors in the palette as low as possible—64 or fewer is best.
• Keep the ramp size in materials at 16 or less.
• Make all materials the same (except the texture handle)—allow the textures to specify the coloring. For example, make all the materials white and keep their specular power the same. Many applications do not need more than two materials in a scene: one with a specular power for shiny objects, and one without for matte objects.
• Keep textures as small as possible.
• Fit multiple small textures into a single texture that is 256×256 pixels.
• Render small triangles by using the Gouraud shade mode, and render large triangles by using the flat shade mode.

Developers who must use more than one palette can optimize their code by using one palette as a master palette and ensuring that the other palettes contain a subset of the colors in the master palette.