We need to talk about the color choices in the appearance modifier

[Amras]

I'm not very vain or have any fashion sense in real life. But in games, I can literally spend hours in character customization. Doesn't matter if no one ever sees me and my outfit.

However, in NMS I play in third-person which gets me to the issue I want to point out: The color palette in the appearance modifier. You see, I love green. It's my favorite color. Very pretty color, indeed. But the green that we can chose from in the appearance modifer is anything but pretty. Same goes for the dark orange, red and the yellow. (I think yellow is the worst. That is NOT yellow, devs.) The green has way too much blue in it. The dark green too much yellow. I really really really need the dark green to be a beautiful dark forest green.

Instead, every color lacks intensity. They are dull. Boring. Pastel. And most importantly, the color you see in the color palette will look completely different on your character's armor. No wonder most people run around in black and white armor....

take a look at this:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2916145099
Belt and chest are the same dark green. But they aren't - Belt looks way darker and better than this green-yellowish chest.

That's it. Just a little rant about the importance of color . And we all know they can make colors pop in NMS! Do it also it the appearance modifier! Give me my green, please

[Guyver8]

...except the vanilla black ain't black...
Lol...well mine is via a mod 'True Black' (link below) with a little bit of work the lua could be amended to give you 'your Green'

downside other players won't see the palette changes unless they are also running the same mod

https://www.nexusmods.com/nomanssky/mods/2400

[cswiger]

Yes, the colors chosen are pastels so players show up more clearly against the typical monochromatic lighting and planet coloration backgrounds.

Yes, the color scheme involves varying opacity so that different parts of the spacesuit continue to look different. Presumably, you don't want your guy to be all green as if you'd just swum in a pool of green paint...?

The yellow is #eedc64, close to "unmellow yellow" which lies between "lemon yellow" and "safety yellow". Pure yellow is #ffff00, of course, which is anti-blue.

[Amras]

Publicado originalmente por Guyver8:

...except the vanilla black ain't black...
Lol...well mine is via a mod 'True Black' (link below) with a little bit of work the lua could be amended to give you 'your Green'

downside other players won't see the palette changes unless they are also running the same mod

https://www.nexusmods.com/nomanssky/mods/2400

That's looks so much better already. I hope the devs will fix the colors...

@csiger this has nothing to do with opacity or lighting. NMS is not the only space game. Maybe check your graphics settings. The base color in the color palette of the appearance modifier is too dull, also it's not the one you see on your amor, check the screenshot.

the color scheme involves varying opacity so that different parts of the spacesuit continue to look different. Presumably, you don't want your guy to be all green as if you'd just swum in a pool of green paint...?

If I pick the same green for the chest and belt, I expect it to be the same color. Sure the sun and whatnot will affect it, but if I'm in the Anomaly or a space station, I expect it to be the same color. Period. Heck, they did a pretty green with the green jetpack trail! If the devs intent to do it differently, then they should maybe give an "highlight" or color slide option, where the color is slightly different. Anything else is bad programming.

[cswiger]

Publicado originalmente por Amras:

@csiger this has nothing to do with opacity or lighting.

The belt being darker than the armor means some variant of Porter-Duff compositing of the chosen color is alpha-blended via source_atop over the base suit.

NMS is not the only space game. Maybe check your graphics settings.

NMS is not the only space game. My display settings and my monitor are well calibrated.

If I pick the same green for the chest and belt, I expect it to be the same color. Period.

Hello Games doesn't agree with your opinion. (Period, to borrow a phrase.)

If the devs intent to do it differently, then they should maybe give an "highlight" or color slide option, where the color is slightly different. Anything else is bad programming.

Where can I find the games you've programmed?

[Amras]

@cswiger

take a look at this mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/nomanssky/mods/2435

It's possible. Of course it is. It's color, not quantum science. So again, bad programming on NMS side.

with mod:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2916176656

no issues on planets whatsoever.

[cswiger]

I don't play multiplayer and I run NMS in 1st person view. You're welcome to mod the game if you like, but I'm simply not interested in modding the appearance of my spacesuit.

Hmm. You failed to identify which games you've written code for.
Am I correct in therefore assuming that you haven't actually programmed any games?

[Amras]

Cswiger, you don't need to programm games to SEE when a color palette is off. This is also a user experience. Additionally, I'm comparing it to other games where the color is much more vibrant. For example, Mass Effect is 10+ year old game and you totally can walk around as a pink N7 soldier in the very depths of the galaxy and its planets.

[cswiger]

You don't need to program to have an opinion about color choices.
However, your opinion isn't more important than anyone else's opinion.

It is not a coincidence that almost all of the colors NMS has for spacesuits are close to colors from the W3 CSS recommended color list, which were carefully chosen for better visibility and contrast even for folks with deuteranomaly or other forms of color blindness.

[Amras]

cswiger, let agree that we disagree.

[Johnny in the Clouds]

Publicado originalmente por Amras:

....bad programming on NMS side....

The base colours are affected by the colours of planet atmospheres and system chroma and constantly changing lighting in this game including unnatural and natural lighting of interiors.

It's unfair to suggest the colour interpretation is 'bad programming on NMS side'.

Colour balancing is not an easy thing to program when there are infinite possibilities affecting colour in the game. I suspect the majority of colour palettes for character models, materials and textures, are limited as they are for technical reasons and to contain some sense of familiar graphic style to the game.

Every game object colour and texture looks different under varying settings and not exclusive to charactet models. These are the greens on my favourite suit and my ship (usually blue and white).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2916225861
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2916226558
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2532897916

Appearance Modifer outside on a planet surface:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2916281487

[PeaceMaker]

Publicado originalmente por Amras:

I'm not very vain or have any fashion sense in real life. But in games, I can literally spend hours in character customization. Doesn't matter if no one ever sees me and my outfit.

I am exactly the same.

However, we differ on colors. I do not think nor like colors 'popping' in fact I think colors in NMS are quite garish, over-the-top which I noticed that games seem to be doing a LOT in the past few years. But I know this is a stylistic choice of the game Devs.

I prefer realistic duller colors, few things 'pop' colors in reality, except Kingfishers.

I am also an artist so know all about how colors work. But then space in this game isn't even black so whatever.

Of course it's all subjective what you love is not what everyone else might love.

[Zak]

Yeah, I couldn't wear a helmet in Skyrim because I customized my character so I missed out on full matching armor bonus. But then again, I played in first person most of the time... NMS too, spent time on customization only to play in first person all the time, go figure...

[Guyver8]

@OP: just remembered another mod, a bit wider in scope than the 'true black' mod i previously mentioned

True Color
https://www.nexusmods.com/nomanssky/mods/2435?tab=description

NB. colour perception is always gonna be a subjective thing based on the individual and coloured (Lol...i could resist) by their colour preferences...so maybe 'fix' isn't the right word...an update to the colour palette(s) to provide more colour choices would pretty much do it for me

[PeaceMaker]

Publicado originalmente por Zak:

Yeah, I couldn't wear a helmet in Skyrim because I customized my character so I missed out on full matching armor bonus. But then again, I played in first person most of the time... NMS too, spent time on customization only to play in first person all the time, go figure...

I do this all the time. I like to know how I look even if I won't ever see it in game. Some people don't understand this.

It would be nice though if some customisation games had a mirror like Cyberpunk and GTA V has. Mirrors should exist in Skyrim.

[PeaceMaker]

Publicado originalmente por Guyver8:

@OP: just remembered another mod, a bit wider in scope than the 'true black' mod i previously mentioned

True Color
https://www.nexusmods.com/nomanssky/mods/2435?tab=description

NB. colour perception is always gonna be a subjective thing based on the individual and coloured (Lol...i could resist) by their colour preferences...so maybe 'fix' isn't the right word...an update to the colour palette(s) to provide more colour choices would pretty much do it for me

Ooh. that's quite nice actually. Thankyou.