Friday Facts #320 - Color correction

[ratchetfreak]

will the LUT allow for things like emissive (glow in the dark) patches?

That would be nice to add to the vehicles and the warning concrete.

[Yehn]

For my $.02, I think the new colors look 'just right' without going overboard.

But I'm also using a professional display that doesn't do weird tricks to boost its contrast rating on a store's specs page, so, IDK.

[IronCartographer]

I like most of the changes side-by-side, and I've definitely heard complaints about the game being too dark.

That said, the map could do with slightly less saturation on its terrain colors, focusing on functionality so the colors take a backseat to displaying other important features (resources, buildings, map labels) prominently by comparison. Something halfway in between the old and new would probably be good.

I agree with those saying the new nighttime blue shading is far too strong, at least with default settings on my factory-calibrated display. In the display's "game mode" the blue is much softer, but that makes everything outside of the game low-contrast/washed out, so I see it as a distortion--not an actual solution to target.

[Deadlock989]

Replace the current enemy with tribal people throwing feces with slings and it would be entirely indistinguishable from earth.

We have these opinion threads for that.

[Zaflis]

I'm a bit torn with opinion. The new map colors look much better, but for objects it propably won't make a difference for me for either way. What i can say is that i use dark themes on websites and apps whenever it is an option. But i know visual clarity can be a good thing too, up to a point.

[GluAp]

Short an painless:

I don't like the new saturation changes. In general it's a good idea to brighten the overall look of the game, especially during the night. But there has to be a better way.
The saturation changes lessen the effect of the games' overall art style a litte to much. I think about it this way: You land on a nice planet and build a big and complex heavy industry to pave your way to working rocketry.
Industry isn't supposed to be clean. It's a huge working thing we create. There's supposed to be signs of wear and usage.
You know: Where you cut wood there will be shavings. And where pollution can be found, there should be a look of pollution.

In my opinion most everything now looks like it's all made of freshly fabricated plastic and want's to catch the attention of the younger ones.
Maybe my point of view is exaggerated, but just take a look at the fast/filter inserters. They stand out very much.

I don't use a professional display but imo a properly color tuned one with standard color temperature.

[bobby45800]

I love the terrain colour changes on the map. I remember the colours used to look quite vibrant and uniform before 0.13 was released, and then it became a bit of a mess (in my mind). Now it looks great again. I think one icon that should be updated is the biter base - the red squares are great, but they look old fashioned and don't fit in well with the rest of the map style anymore.

There are also something about the walls that make them look a bit too saturated. Almost shiny. I'm not a graphics guy so I have no idea what the term is for it exactly. In fact, I think everything looks a bit too saturated. The sprites look rusty and worn but when the colours are that vibrant, it looks like they have been confused about what their actual purposes are. On the other hand, once people get settled in with the changes, I think we will get used to the new colours anyways and won't be able to tell, unless we suddenly see these comparisons again (and think "oh my, those were dark times")

[MiniHerc]

Not a fan. The new green circuits almost look yellow, rather than green.

Yet another unnecessary change in a sea of them. Any way to give an option to use the original style, rather than the ~new and improved~ (lol)? Not everything needs to be changed, perhaps in fear of getting left behind.

[torham]

I really don't like it. It seems happy and colourful and rainbows and saturated green. Factorio is a dark game. Sut everywhere, pollution spewing on the fields. I prefer the right hand side of the pictures.

I guess I can always desaturate the monitor.

Edit: Is there a poll we can vote in? Just to see how the numbers go...

[Reika]

I am ambivalent on the style change overall, but I do like the map changes, which I generally like because of the improved contrast, and the more tree variety.

I also like the idea of a more dynamic night, though I do hope the LUT is moddable there, so you can change how the night looks if you please.


Also, even with a released texture update tool, this is going to be a complete nightmare for modders as they have to update 600 textures, some of which probably will strongly enough depart from their "base" sprite that the tool will be useless for them.

[Godmave]

Greetings from Diablo 3. They did that mistake back then too with the comic look for a supposedly dark world
I can live with it, but not a big fan either.

On the constructive side. If you can alter the look/colors on-the-fly for day/night you might also add another modifier for pollution, so the stuff gets more foggy the higher the pollution

[Cadde]

Maybe they should just re-work the sprites so there a "hue/saturation/brightness" mask put over them and then let users define what they think look best.
If i want grayscale for some reason i could then just turn down saturation all the way.
Or, if i like my eyes bleeding i could pull saturation to eleven and have all colors basically go CGA video mode on me.

And if i want the game to be pink i could adjust the hue towards that end.

[conn11]

I do like the new colors, making the game more vibrant and pleasing to the eye, without loosing the pollution aspect. The bluish glow in the night is magnificant. I wonder how that’s going to interact with the glowing pipes.
The only complaint, at least judging from the juxtaposed images, some items on the belts (e.g. Green circuits, yellow belts) are quite bright and somewhat displeasing to watch. Curious how they will look actually in game.

Besides you, the devs, are really the best, any other developer would released ages ago and not implement such massive polishing this late in the development process.

[Antyradek]

I like that. Everything is more visible now.

Since you are touching colours, you could also modify nightvision module so that the view at night is monochromatic instead of just desaturated. This would invite players to put more lamps all over the factory. I like lamps and honestly public servers are always so dark. Let's not make the game too easy, right?

Also the pollution could modify the colours in some ways. Now it's often nothing more than a red cloud on a map if you build strong borders.
Maybe darkening ground or desaturating colours. So that for example all grass would turn into brownish wasteland. And most dirty factories would get nice dirty outlines.

[fur_and_whiskers]

Hey guys, looks like a lot of work went into this
The new day time colours are a lot clearer and easier for my tired eyes, especially the map.
However, I find the blue nighttime is making it way harder to see.

[Philip017]

as for adjusting the brightness of the game, and tring to make the entities and background "pop" more, i will reserve my final judgement till after i have played with the change...

But i think the idea of being able to adjust the amount of "pop" (aka brightness and contrast) in game via sliders, is a good idea for those that would prefer the background to be more flat (the orange deserts really mess with my eyes too, and so i usually play with no desert/sand if i can)

another wish list is to allow for a visual tweek that has no 'night time' visuals, but keeps the functionality of the solar power system, otherwise i use the 'always day' setting to keep from having to squint at my screen every 10 mins or so, the night is very straining on my eyes.

[conn11]

Hey guys, looks like a lot of work went into this
The new day time colours are a lot clearer and easier for my tired eyes, especially the map.
However, I find the blue nighttime is making it way harder to see.

Even before this update you couldn’t see anything at nighttimes, at least in plain Vanilla.
The solution should be the same as before, just use nightvision or illuminate the factory.

[Bocmo]

my opinion is that the saturation is too high, making the all famous 5+ hour gaming sessions tiresome and in a desperate need of eye drops. It would be nice to give an option to customize the saturation or just a toggle option(new/old color profile).

[fur_and_whiskers]

I beg to differ. In the FFF slider the new nighttime is a lot darker.

[Ringkeeper]

i like the new map colours, look great.

The ingame, hmmm... a bit too much i think. Then again, my monitor is not set correct as it is the secondary.


Maybe you should post a link to a good calibration tool as well, so everyone can set up their monitors correct? Otherwise you never know if the complains come from "too much" or "crap monitor"