Glossary Entry: Palette Cycling
Definition
Many programs store their image's color information in a palette. Palette cycling refers to several ways programmers can manipulate the image's palette to change the image.
A common variation used in older games was to have specific palette slots exchange positions every few frames, as this made it easy to display moving water or glowing effects.
A common variation used in older games was to have specific palette slots exchange positions every few frames, as this made it easy to display moving water or glowing effects.
Additional Information
In this animation, the water is animated using palette cycling. The image's palette is shown on the right, so you can see the four colors rapidly being reordered.
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