7 replies to this topic

[cazidin]

Greetings MechWarriors. Today I have a simple question. If PGI cannot offer color blind support could we the players add it in via mod or would that be strictly against the ToS? If the latter, please keep in mind that I am not suggesting nor would condone such an action, even for a noble cause, I am simply curious.

[RestosIII]

Sadly I have a feeling that such a major change would either 1) Not be possible without the server detecting it and having a hissy fit, and 2) Be against the ToS. I'd love it if I was wrong.

[vibrant]

It depends what you're looking for. There are popular post-processing injectors that are allowed in many multiplayer games, e.g. SweetFX and ReShade. They allow the use of various shaders and post-processing effects to, for example, enhance colour vibrancy. I do know for sure that the Daltonize algorithm, an algorithm designed to make colours visible to colourblind people, has been ported over to SweetFX on at least one occasion (EDIT and it's been ported to ReShade too, and has a more recent port here), and could be potentially be used on MWO as well (I've never tried SweetFX on MWO, and certainly have tried Daltonize since I don't have colourblindness).

Even if this doesn't work the way you want it to, if SweetFX/ReShade works on MWO and it's given the blessing from PGI, someone with a knowledge of shaders should be able to replace the colours used in the HUD with more colourblind-friendly ones.

Edited by vibrant, 15 December 2016 - 01:49 AM.

[RestosIII]

I thought SweetFX was brought up a long time ago and confirmed against ToS? I could just be remembering wrong.

[vibrant]

RestosIII, on 15 December 2016 - 01:38 AM, said:

I thought SweetFX was brought up a long time ago and confirmed against ToS? I could just be remembering wrong.

I found a forum post from Alexander Garden saying SweetFX is OK to use, on 28 May 2015.

[vibrant]

It appears functionality to 'replace' colours already exists in ReShade, using LUT textures (which many photoshop aficionados may be familiar with). It's really not my area of expertise, but I might be able to play around and see if I can get this working in MWO, to replace HUD colours with something configurable -- assuming it would be very much appreciated by some of you, and that there's no one with more knowledge or experience who would be happy to try it instead.

Edited by vibrant, 15 December 2016 - 02:04 AM.

[cazidin]

RestosIII, on 14 December 2016 - 09:22 PM, said:

Sadly I have a feeling that such a major change would either 1) Not be possible without the server detecting it and having a hissy fit, and 2) Be against the ToS. I'd love it if I was wrong.

Yeah, I noticed you mentioned it a few times and started thinking. Just how many players suffer from color blindness, or some other vision problem that make the game unenjoyable, or worse, unplayable? I'd certainly hope that PGI wouldn't penalize players for wanting a fair playing field, BUT the ToS *must* be followed.

[Suko]

I feel that the hud color changes (color blind support) are PGI lostech. I suspect the original engineer who wrote the code is gone and it will be very difficult for PGI to retrofit it in at this point.

I said, I am curious because way back before even closed beta they were asking people about colors and color blind options. You would think that they would have planned for it in the core development of the game way back then.

Edited by Suko, 15 December 2016 - 11:22 AM.