On Thu, 29 Apr 1999 09:51:25 GMT, Glen Berry <7no### [at] ezwvcom> wrote:
>On 28 Apr 1999 15:57:06 -0500, par### [at] my-dejanewscom (Ron Parker)
>wrote:
>>If the goal is to provide more dynamic range, might I suggest Daren Scot 
>>Wilson's unlimited light patch?
>
>Correct me if I'm wrong, but Daren Scot's patch only serves to
>compress the dynamic range of scenes to fit better into an 8
>bit-per-pixel image. I wasn't aware that it would allow for higher bit
>depths in the final image.

It is probably true that it doesn't do anything to bit depth, but the
official POV already supports higher bit depths.  Quoting from the POV 
manual:

  Most of these formats output 24 bits per pixel with 8 bits for each of 
  red, green and blue data. PNG allows you to optionally specify the 
  output bit depth from 5 to 16 bits for each of the red, green, and blue 
  colors, giving from 15 to 48 bits of color information per pixel. The 
  default output depth for all formats is 8 bits/color (16 million possible 
  colors), but this may be changed for PNG format files by setting 
  Bits_Per_Color=n or by specifying +FNn, where n is the desired bit depth.

In combination with the unlimited light patch, this seems to provide the
desired functionality without the need for a custom file format.  While 
support for 16-bpp PNG files may not be universal, it is certainly more
widespread than that for RGBE or for any custom format.

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