Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Default color of lamp should be changed back to pure white (RGB 255/255/255).

What?

I suggest the default color of the lamp should be changed back to pure white. Apparently the color was originally intended to be beige, but a bug made lamps appear in pure white, and this was fixed recently in 2.0.33.

Why?

Frankly pure white lamps is what people were used to for at least the past 8 years, regardless if it was a bug. The beige color affects (changes) the colors of surrounding enteties and terrain, where as pure white does not. Pure white light preserves the original colors of the surroundings, hence the entities and terrain in the game appear in the color they were designed in. The majority of lamps placed by players are likely to be left in their default color (currently beige) and hence the majority of the area illuminated by them appear in altered colors. It should be the case that the majority of the illuminated area should retain their intended color, as would be the case if the lamp's default color were reverted to pure white. The new ablity to configure any color for lamps is a nice feauture, but these colors change the surrounding and are likely to be used more sparingly by players.

Another reason is that white lamps play a significant part in displays and there is now a difference in beige lamps mixing with older blueprints that contains lamps fed with a white signal (which still makes the lamp pure white).

Another reason is that when loading an older base, lamps built before the bug fix still display in pure white, and subsequently placed lamps are beige, which leads to an inhomogenous mix of those two colors.

Another reason is that the color nuances within the lamp glass cover are visible in the pure white version, whereas they blend away in the beige version (see screenshot).

Another reason is that the lamp icon and technology thumbnail depicts the lamp in pure white.


Please revert to pure white, thank you!

Why not just click the color picker and set it to what ever you want?

Usul wrote: Sun Apr 20, 2025 1:26 pm

I got confused by this initially - I thought you had to use a circuit condition to set the colour. But yes, you can just click the colour picker and change it.

Usul wrote: Sun Apr 20, 2025 1:26 pmAnother reason is that when loading an older base, lamps built before the bug fix still display in pure white, and subsequently placed lamps are beige, which leads to an inhomogenous mix of those two colors.

Factorio has unintentionally replicated the real world phenomenon of Floodlight color mismatches! Sodium Vapor Lamps have a characteristic color that is not shared by modern LED lamps, which creates a similar effect.

I like it - monochrome factory is boring, the Beige gives a bit of Flavor. I almost wish lamps had a slight Variance for the Default.

Rseding91 wrote: Sun Apr 20, 2025 1:30 pm Why not just click the color picker and set it to what ever you want?

The topic concerns the default color of newly placed lamps. Are you going to revert it to pure white, considering the provided reasoning?

Usul wrote: Wed Apr 23, 2025 5:57 pm

Rseding91 wrote: Sun Apr 20, 2025 1:30 pm Why not just click the color picker and set it to what ever you want?

The topic concerns the default color of newly placed lamps. Are you going to revert it to pure white, considering the provided reasoning?

Me personally? no. It was changed by the GFX department years ago so I doubt they want to change it either.

Well, considering that no one noticed it in those several years, and everyone's used to the white...

I'd have to look at the new default in a game.

Rseding91 wrote: Wed Apr 23, 2025 6:40 pm Me personally? no. It was changed by the GFX department years ago so I doubt they want to change it either.

By "you" I did not mean you personally, but Wube in general. Please kindly forward this thread with my suggestion and arguments to the GFX department, so they can consider it.

Jap2.0 wrote: Wed Apr 23, 2025 9:49 pm Well, considering that no one noticed it in those several years, and everyone's used to the white...

Exactly. There was nothing *to* notice in several years because lamps have appeared in pure white since the beginning of factorio. Due to a recent a bugfix in 2.0.33, lamps now appear in beige. This color change *has* been noticed and I argue that the default color should be reverted to what players have been used to for many years: pure white.

i am here to support changing it back to the default bright white. i spent hours trying to troubleshoot what i thought was a bug, deleting my saves, configs, re-downloading the game. it has been an awful experience trying to fix something that i now understand is an intentional game-change. i must respectfully voice my dislike for this default beige-yellow-white color and kindly ask for it to be reverted back to the previous; old default - bright white with no yellow tint.

or as a compromise, allow players to set their own default. currently changing the color does not change the default. this forces players that want the old default white back to have to edit the color on every lamp they place.

There is a mod that does just that in case it helps : Changes the default light color of the small lamp to the original 255/255/255 value when placed.

mmmPI wrote: Wed Apr 30, 2025 11:17 pm There is a mod that does just that in case it helps : Changes the default light color of the small lamp to the original 255/255/255 value when placed.

Thanks, but I play vanilla. The pure white color has been the vanilla default for the past ~10 years. Good to notice I am not alone with this desire, @Losers.

Usul wrote: Thu May 01, 2025 8:12 am Thanks, but I play vanilla. The pure white color has been the vanilla default for the past ~10 years. Good to notice I am not alone with this desire, @Losers.

You're welcome, i thought you may not be the only one who wants that, maybe other players also wants it too and they are fine using the mod that does what they want.

There are a few more new mods to avoid the beige color:

Quezler wrote:In 2.0.33 a bug got fixed that resulted in newly placed lamps being a weird yellow instead of white.

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/lamps-are ... by-default
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/lamp-override

I still wish a "fix for the fix" would revert the color back to white in Vanilla without needing mods!

simplest solution to this problem is adding some sort of global way to change the lamp colors. Piggybacking off of the logistics groups might work. Brings the lamps up to par with the rest of the circuit network also. Or if you really feel like being funny, just add a setting in the interface that sets the default lamp color lol.

Though i guess you could probably force all existing lamps to change color via scripting or something. Regardless, i prefer my lamps dont magically change colors on a whim without my direction.

KillingTimeItself wrote: Wed Jul 23, 2025 2:36 amsimplest solution to this problem is adding some sort of global way to change the lamp colors.

Nah, I believe the simplest solution would be for Wube to simply change an integer value of 191 to 255, at the single location in the game's code where the lamp's default color origiantes from. It can't be that hard to "fix this fix", so that lamps regain the default color they have had for like 10 years?

Even at the risk of being labeled a fanboy (somehow I always find myself approving of all the changes), the slightly beige color is better than just plain white. It supports the worn and slightly dirty look of the game's machines. I don't care how long the previous color was being used and why: the current color simply has a better look. If you have old blueprints with the old look: update them. Don't ask to fit the game to your old blueprints. Instead fit the blueprints to the new game. From the screenshot, the new color even appears brighter than pure white, although it actually isn't.

Are you afraid of updates? You guys remind me of the people who didn't want to update from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and now don't want to update from Windows 10 to Windows 11, just because it is some unfamiliar change.

Are you afraid of updates? You guys remind me of the people who didn't want to update from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and now don't want to update from Windows 10 to Windows 11, just because it is some unfamiliar change.

There are also reasons that people don't want to upgrade from windows 10 to 11 such as increases hardware requirements, just an overall heavier OS, unwanted apps in the start menu, trying for force microsoft accounts, etc

My point is to go with the changes. Everywhere. Not just Factorio but everywhere. Don't resist. This is a general mindset. The world will change ruthlessly, no matter what you do. If you don't change with it and always stay up to date, you will be left behind and you will find yourself in a world getting smaller and smaller surrounded by people you don't understand any more, and in the end you will be alone.
I looked at the abyss of staying behind, and I was truly horrified, so I stepped back. Don't want to end up like the old men who disconnected from the world. Youth is what you should follow if you can no longer lead yourself. Not the old men.

Since i got pinged here i'll give my two cents: when i place lamps i want to light up an area, the yellow tint just feels less bright, and with how long we had white lamps it just feels weird to go with this new color just because it got fixes after god knows how many years, since i always play modded anyways i can kinda understand how annoyed the vanilla players are because they cannot really fix it without creating a white blueprint or editing each placed lamp by hand, this also introduces extra steps when you need to set a lamp to a certain color (e.g. full r, g or b) since you'd have to reset one of the sliders to full again, am curious to see if this ends up being changed or not, in either case there are plenty of mods on the portal for this by now.