In the manual it says Poser renders avi and quicktime in 32bit and with alpha channels. Does this mean it renders a"single" image in 24bit? When I save a png image it seems to be in 24 bit.
I am confused. Please enlighten me a bit.

RGB graphic files are commonly refered to as 24 bits or 32 bits. You have three channels for color: the Red, Blue and Green channels of 8 bit each hence 3*8=24 bits. 32 bit pictures simply add an extra 8 bit channel commonly known as the alpha channel which is a greyscale channel commonly used in graphics apps to isolate the subject from the background for compositing purposes. When rendering in Poser I always save as a TIF because it supports the alpha channel.

Thank you very much!

Can I add another question to this?

My WinXP Home, HP with the dreaded 810e on-board graphics card does not show a 32 bit option to chose from Display settings. Yet Photoshop etc definately use an alpha.

BUT while trying to initiate the trial of Second Life Universe it tells me I have to tick the nonexistent 32 bit.

Any clues please?

Cheers,
Masha

Photoshop can probably still manipulate 32-bit image files, whether your display is set to 24- or 32-bits.

The 810e does not support a 32-bit colour display. Time to upgrade your motherboard, or disable the integrated graphics and invest in a new graphics card if you have a free expansion slot. Personally, I'd recommend the former, if you can afford it.

32 bit display is other thing that rendering/saving as 32 bit. Rendering and saving as 32 bit(tiff,psd) as said above uses 24bit for RGB and 8 bit for the alpha channel. 32 bit display is the same as 24 bit display, the 8 bits remaining are not used, so which is the advantage of 32 bits? Answer: speed, is very much faster transfering 32 bits than 24 bits, maybe it look not very logic that transfering more memory is faster than less memory, but this happens due the architecture of the CPU and memory/video bus, for 32 bit CPU the optimum transfer is by 32 or 64 bits chunks. For Poser there is no difference in speed using 32 bit or old 24 bit cards (16 million colors).

Yep, getting a new motherboard would be the ticket but I might content myself with a used graphics card for now as the hard drive might just be dying on me anyway. I should get away from HP and it's proprietory stuff too - so a new system altogether will have to happen soonish. Thanks for explaining :) Cheers, Masha

BTW - anybody has a discarded Geoforce 4 pci card they want to sell? :) Mind you I'm in Oz. :) Cheers, Masha