ANNOUNCE: new XDRIVER released!

[Markus Neteler]

Dear Agus!

> I'm trying to test the new 24 bit
> driver, which should be an important improvement 
> for us.
> 
> 2 questions:
> 
> 1. Once we have the new bins, d.mon start=x0 opens
> the graphic window along with the following message:
> 
> got a TrueColor (Read-Only!) Visual
> ncolors: 32768
> allocating memory...
> Graphics driver [x0] started
> 
> Is this number of colors what should be expected?
Yes, this is the ncolors if no further parameter is
specified. To get *more* colors use:

d.mon x0 nlev=256
got a TrueColor (Read-Only!) Visual
ncolors: 16777216
allocating memory... [takes time]
Graphics driver [x0] started

The new nlev parameter defines the number of color levels per
channel.
 
> 2. Should the output of d.rgb have 24-bit color resolution?
> (was the example in the web produced with d.rgb?)
Yes, it should. Here the composites' quality is much better
than before.
The web example was a plain d.rast output. In in recently
published GRASS 5 beta3 you find "r.in.ppm" updated to import 
true color ppm images (before colors were limited to 32768). 
Just now I have received r.in.tiff updated to 24bit as well. 
It will be published in the forthcoming GRASS 5beta4 soon.

Best regards

 Markus Neteler