Patterns or Pics as workbench backdrop?

[Ral-Clan]

I've always used tiled patterns for my workbench backdrop, and avoided using large pictures, thinking that I'm saving memory.  But is this really the case?

i.e. if I have an 800x600 workbench, and I take a small 50x50 bitmap and tile it over my Workbench, am I really saving more than with a fully sized 800x600 bitmap as a backdrop?

I guess I thought that a 50x50 bitmap is a smaller file, so maybe, some way, it will take less RAM.  But now that I think about it, if it has to repeat it and generate a full "map" in memory representing the 800x600 screen, maybe it's just taking as much RAM.

PS: I have a graphics card, so I assume it's all coming from Fast RAM, rather than Chip RAM on a machine without a graphics card.  Right?

[guru-666]

in practice you are saving ram, just look at the guage.  Also I think internaly it make an "instance" if the same memory with tiles.  You can save even more ram by just using a color.

[Linde]

With my own A1200 I balanced the background between efficient and aesthetically pleasing by putting a 1 bit background over a nice copper effect. That way it looks good, doesn't strain the CPU and only uses a few k of RAM (med-res PAL, of course).

You can't have copper effects if you use a GFX card I think, but a similar 1 bit image at 800x600 would take less than 60kb of RAM. An 8-bit image at that resolution would take something like 500kb RAM, and a true-colour pic would take a meg and a half.

I don't know how patterns work, but I'm just saying you aren't saving a lot of RAM by using them (especially since you have a GFX card, so I'll assume you have 32Mb+ RAM).

[Ral-Clan]

Thanks. I like the look of a full colour picture as a backdrop, but there's no way I'd sacrifice 1.5MB of RAM (or even 500K for an 8-bit backdrop) just for the sake of aesthetics.

Right now I'm using an 8-bit pattern (sort of a shale-like texture).

[pan1k]

Where do you get your patterns from?

[Ral-Clan]

I think the patterns I am using were originally from a MagicWB install.