is alpha fixed to 8bit unsigned

[Casper Boemann]

On Friday 10 June 2005 00:14, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
> On Fri, 10 Jun 2005, Casper Boemann wrote:
> > Have we  decided to fix alpha at Q_UINT8
> >
> > I don't think we should, but have no hard arguments, except it's never a
> > good a idea to hardcode to much.
> >
> > On the other hand it may be very difficult to get rid of the assumption.
>
> It's a hard decision indeed. I don't want to pull a Gates and say "8 bits
> of alpha should be enough, nobody will ever need more", but on the other
> hand I do have a hard time imaging why we'd need more. Alpha doesn't have
> the same quantizing problems as colors have: alpha is not profiled, isn't
> subject to lighting conditions like wide-range exr images.
wow I didn't think it so much through, but you have almost convinced me. Those 
are powerful arguments.

> But on the other hand, having a hard limit will hurt us some day. Maybe
> some research is needed. Let's ask Thorsten whether he knows whether
> higher resolution alpha is used today, or would be useful.
yes better safe than sorry

-- 
best regards / venlig hilsen
Casper Boemann