93 replies to this topic

[geek]

Any other pilots here colorblind? Are you finding it harder and harder to see?

I have Deuteranopia. It's not that common, but it's not uncommon either.

With each update to the graphics, it's getting harder and harder to see. I've been completely disinterested lately in playing. The old graphics engine with the useless night vision, but very useful heat vision, was perfect for me. It sucked having to see everything in only blue but at least I could make out enemies.

Now, all vision modes make it difficult to see. The green/yellow filter used on everything in Caustic is getting ridiculous. The yellow haze in the lower city (7 line one) in River city is bad as well. If I knew that it wasn't on purpose, I might be offended.

The difference in the armor status hud screen is really bad as well. I have no idea from orange to green (save the nominal green) how my armor or internals are doing.

Please Devs, think of accessibility sooner rather then later.

A few good articles/blogs/links on it:

http://blahg.res0l.n...lor-blind-gamer
http://www.colourblindplay.com
http://www.rockpaper...it-in-his-eyes/
http://joshblog.net/...in-game-design/
http://www.destructo...mer-72229.phtml



(in before somebody posts an image that colorblind people can't see making fun of colorblind people)

Edited by geek, 15 November 2012 - 01:41 AM.

[_Rorschach_]

For the shader effects on certain maps I don't see a fast and easy solution. But at least the armor/internal structure damage indicator could be easily fixed. Unfortunately my english isn't quite up to snuff to describe the system I have in mind. I'll try anyway, please bear with me
Fade out the damage indicator icons or turn them to black from top to bottom relative to how much damage has been taken. If there is no damage the indicator is displayed in full, like it is now. At 75% hitpoints left the upper quarter of the indicator is semi-transparent (or black, if you want to go that route), the lower 3/4s are still 'solid'. If anyone plays Payday you should recognize this system. The armor 'outline' around your portrait goes from complete to kind of U-shaped to u-shaped to nothing and your portraits green background turns transparent for health you have lost (the remainder turns yellow/red once it gets low enough).
Well, I wouldn't know what the heck I was describing there if I didn't know what it was beforehand. So I googled for Payday pictures: http://i.ytimg.com/v...NqPR4RJKU/0.jpg It shows full armor (the white outline is complete) and about 60% health (the upper part of the green background has gone transparent).

[geek]

Yea, the HUD and 2D effects are easily changed. They could go from white to blue to black for the armor or other indicators. Hard numbers are best though.

3D effects on the other hand are the thing that makes it the hardest. On Caustic, if my targeting computer has't picked up on them yet and they are far away (especially on the 4 line) I can't see them. They might as well have chameleon camo. I can tell movement, sometimes.

[geek]

Oh, to add. the little red arrows above enemy mechs and the brackets around them are hard to see in some situations as well. This is less of an issue as it's a shape, but I thought I'd throw that out there as well.

Edited by geek, 15 November 2012 - 03:11 AM.

[Hobo42]

I wouldn't know how to go about fixing these kinda of things but I do have slight color blindness in Protanomaly, Deuteranopia, and Tritanopia and I would loveeee some kind of color-blindness mode.

[CannonFodder86]

I have deuteranomaly(most common) myself. It's not as bad as OP but i can relate. I can get by MWO without a colorblind mode, but i completely agree with him that there should be an option for it.
For colorblind gamers it can sometime by a problem when trying to process a lot of color based objects at high speeds. I encounter this most in puzzle games personally...

[Vassago Rain]

It's difficult to see with the vision modes even if you aren't colorblind.

[Redshift2k5]

geek, on 15 November 2012 - 01:37 AM, said:

Any other pilots here colorblind? Are you finding it harder and harder to see?

I have Deuteranopia. It's not that common, but it's not uncommon either.

With each update to the graphics, it's getting harder and harder to see. I've been completely disinterested lately in playing. The old graphics engine with the useless night vision, but very useful heat vision, was perfect for me. It sucked having to see everything in only blue but at least I could make out enemies.

Now, all vision modes make it difficult to see. The green/yellow filter used on everything in Caustic is getting ridiculous. The yellow haze in the lower city (7 line one) in River city is bad as well. If I knew that it wasn't on purpose, I might be offended.

The difference in the armor status hud screen is really bad as well. I have no idea from orange to green (save the nominal green) how my armor or internals are doing.

Please Devs, think of accessibility sooner rather then later.

A few good articles/blogs/links on it:

http://blahg.res0l.n...lor-blind-gamer
http://www.colourblindplay.com
http://www.rockpaper...it-in-his-eyes/
http://joshblog.net/...in-game-design/
http://www.destructo...mer-72229.phtml



(in before somebody posts an image that colorblind people can't see making fun of colorblind people)

If it's possible, I suggest using photoshop (or a similar tool) to edit actual MWO screenshots to illustrate which exact game elements you have difficulty with, along with specific solutions which would solve it. Email it to the support@mwomercs.com and PM it to Garth.

Note that HUD colour options are already being developed.

If you need some image manipulation assistance, send me a PM.

[Z0MBIE Y0SHI]

I thought if you were color blind you couldn't be a pilot

[Mishatron]

PGI, please add this to your "TODO list". In the US, about 7% of males suffer from some form of colour-blindness, which is a significant number of your potential customers. Of those, only a tiny percentage are completely (monochromatically) colour-blind, which means it is relatively easy to cater to most colour-blind users by allowing them to change the colour of HUD elements, or adding a "daltonize" post-processing effect.

[Grayzzur]

geek, on 15 November 2012 - 01:37 AM, said:

The difference in the armor status hud screen is really bad as well. I have no idea from orange to green (save the nominal green) how my armor or internals are doing.

Many people have requested the iconic HTAL vertical bar armor read outs. These would also have the advantage of being useful for colorblind players.

[Roadbuster]

Vassago Rain, on 15 November 2012 - 03:41 AM, said:

It's difficult to see with the vision modes even if you aren't colorblind.

I have to agree.
Night vision is useless on the current maps, you don't see far enough.
Heat vision is nice to see mechs in great distances but it's horrible if you want to shoot SRMs or ACs at an opponent because you don't see where your shots go, and you barely see if they hit.

As much as I did like Frozen City when I started playing, as much I do hate it now, because I don't see much with or without heat vision.

Regarding colors, it would be nice if we could at least change the colors of our HUD to our liking.

[Skyfaller]

geek, on 15 November 2012 - 01:37 AM, said:

Any other pilots here colorblind? Are you finding it harder and harder to see?

I have Deuteranopia. It's not that common, but it's not uncommon either.

With each update to the graphics, it's getting harder and harder to see. I've been completely disinterested lately in playing. The old graphics engine with the useless night vision, but very useful heat vision, was perfect for me. It sucked having to see everything in only blue but at least I could make out enemies.

Now, all vision modes make it difficult to see. The green/yellow filter used on everything in Caustic is getting ridiculous. The yellow haze in the lower city (7 line one) in River city is bad as well. If I knew that it wasn't on purpose, I might be offended.

The difference in the armor status hud screen is really bad as well. I have no idea from orange to green (save the nominal green) how my armor or internals are doing.

Please Devs, think of accessibility sooner rather then later.

A few good articles/blogs/links on it:

http://blahg.res0l.n...lor-blind-gamer
http://www.colourblindplay.com
http://www.rockpaper...it-in-his-eyes/
http://joshblog.net/...in-game-design/
http://www.destructo...mer-72229.phtml



(in before somebody posts an image that colorblind people can't see making fun of colorblind people)

I've been posting and asking for attention to this issue for months now. All we get is 'yeah we know of it, we'll get to it when we feel like it' attitude from the dev team. Considering this is a really simply color pallette change its embarrassing it has not been actioned on as of yet.

The night vision used to be useful but now it is simply horrid.

Red targetting tags...in a mostly green/brown environment/terrain. Sigh.

[unwary]

Duuude, your color range is a katana.

[Chilsung42]

I'm not colorblind, but I find this to be one of the blurriest, fuzziest, most washed out games I've ever seen. Literally nothing is sharp. The whole thing looks like they threw an instagram filter on it. Why even use such a powerful engine if you're just going to make everything fuzzy?

I've also gotta mention the vision modes. Night vision is absolutely useless. It basically blinds you, even in the dark. The screen turns green and you can see absolutely nothing. Heat vision is of course better, but it still blurs out the entire screen. I know they have to put a disadvantage in so people don't just sit in thermal vision mode all the time, but making it impossible to see anything except mechs isn't really the way to do it. Its just obnoxious.

I'm not really as concerned about the vision modes because they are situational and can be done without, but the horrendous haze on every map needs to go.

[Loc Nar]

Reposting this from reddit, in case anyone else may find it of use or have anything to add!

I have pretty sharp vision and I too have trouble seeing in-game as well. Tweaking my .cfg files may have helped, cause it seems a little better, but it's hard to quantify anything but subjectively. Apparently by default, MWO runs some pretty dumbed down settings to make it run lighter for lesser machines, and some of it can be undone. Here's a copy of my .cfg, in case any of it helps:

cl_joystick_throttle_range = 0 //forward-x-reverse
cl_joystick_invert_throttle = 1 // forward = forward
gp_mech_sound_system_disable_bitchinbetty = 0 //computer voice
r_MotionBlur = 0 //cures motion sickness
i_mouse_accel=0
i_mouse_accel_max=0
i_mouse_smooth=0
r_PostMSAA = 0 //similar to UseEdgeAA
r_UseEdgeAA = 0 //removes ENTIRE screen blurring (Fake AA)
g_skipIntro = 1
r_HDRGrainAmount = 0
r_DepthOfField = 0 //cures motion sickness
r_dofMinZ = 0
r_dofMinZBlendMult = 0
r_dofMinZScale = 0
sys_spec_postprocessing=1
r_HDRRendering = 0 //removes HDR eye-shifting
r_PostProcessEffectsFilters = 0 //off to be on the safe side
r_PostProcessEffects = 0 //off to be on the safe side
cl_fov = 75 //Field of view, in %
r_SSAO = 1 //Ambient Occlusion enhancement
r_TexturesFilteringQuality = 0 //max Texture quality
r_FSAA = 1 //Full-Screen Anti-Aliasing
d3d9_TextureFilter = trilinear

I'm about to try adding the following, but still have no idea if they're effective:

r_UsePOM = 0 //Makes textures look raised (like rocks) but has issues with Anisotropy
r_TexMaxAnisotropy = 16 //Distant terrain texture enhancement
r_TexturesStreaming = 0 //load all textures on game load, ONLY FOR HIGH END PCS!

Most of these tweaks came from here:http://www.deathinc.com.au/index.php?topic=15214.0;wap2. Unfortunately the original thread on MWO that had the goods is lodged in PGI's servers at the moment.

-Loc Nar

[Sevaradan]

IMO PGI should be focusing on issues like netcode,or the lack of map variety which negatively impact the entire player base not minor issues that impact a tiny fraction of the playerbase. Possibly support for the visially deficient can be added later but in my oppinion there are much mroe pressing issues which need to be addressed first.

[Vassago Rain]

Gingham, on 15 November 2012 - 07:17 AM, said:

I'm not colorblind, but I find this to be one of the blurriest, fuzziest, most washed out games I've ever seen. Literally nothing is sharp. The whole thing looks like they threw an instagram filter on it. Why even use such a powerful engine if you're just going to make everything fuzzy?

I've also gotta mention the vision modes. Night vision is absolutely useless. It basically blinds you, even in the dark. The screen turns green and you can see absolutely nothing. Heat vision is of course better, but it still blurs out the entire screen. I know they have to put a disadvantage in so people don't just sit in thermal vision mode all the time, but making it impossible to see anything except mechs isn't really the way to do it. Its just obnoxious.

I'm not really as concerned about the vision modes because they are situational and can be done without, but the horrendous haze on every map needs to go.

Actually, yes, they added grain and blur.

[Mishatron]

Sevaradan, on 15 November 2012 - 11:00 AM, said:

minor issues that impact a tiny fraction of the playerbase

The fraction is probably around 1/13, depending on how many MWO players are male. As for "minor", it renders the game unplayable for colourblind people.

[NovaFury]

Is there any chance we'll see an HTAL damage display? I was somewhat crushed this wasn't an option when I initially started playing, as I am colorblind and dislike the initial, color-coded paper doll damage display in comparison to the far more precise, less ambiguous bar-graph of the head/torso/arm/leg display.

Edit: Nevermind, was already mentioned. All of the pilots I've spoken to have mentioned they preferred the HTAL display anyway. This isn't exactly an uncommon problem among males (who, let's be honest, are the majority of the mechwarrior playerbase)

Of course, any degree of sharpness would also help. I know clan enhanced imaging would be cheating, but I do miss it so dearly.

Edited by NovaFury, 15 November 2012 - 11:15 AM.