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Author Topic: Colours in DF  (Read 832 times)

Caz

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Colours in DF
« on: May 22, 2008, 07:37:00 pm »
I think it'd be a nice addition if DF had more than about 8 base colours. All the ones in descriptor_color_standard.txt actually being coloured into the game would be great. It would be easier to tell the materials of items. Just now orthoclase and gold is the same colour, and there is no difference between brown stone and wood. The colours are already in the init files...

code:
[COLOR:CHOCOLATE]
   [NAME:chocolate]
   [RGB:210:105:30]
[COLOR:CINNAMON]
   [NAME:cinnamon]
   [RGB:123:63:0]
[COLOR:COBALT]
   [NAME:cobalt]
   [RGB:0:71:171]
[COLOR:COPPER]
   [NAME:copper]
   [WORD:COPPER]
   [RGB:184:115:51]

There could be an init option for people who just wanted the normal colours too. It'd give the game a fresher look imo. :P

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Caz

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Re: Colours in DF
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2008, 07:39:00 pm »
graaaagghhhhhh wrong subforum *impales self with a =small iron pick=*
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Kagus

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Re: Colours in DF
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2008, 08:16:00 pm »
The game currently runs on the standard ASCII 4-bit RGBI color scheme.  In order to get any colors above and beyond that, it would need to have a different palette to work from, which may take a bit of deep-down tweaking.

In order to get all the colors listed in the color file, it would need the 24-bit RGB "truecolor" palette, something that is quite a bit more advanced than ye olde 4-bit RGBI.

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Caz

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Re: Colours in DF
« Reply #3 on: May 22, 2008, 09:17:00 pm »
Edit: So I guess it's possible then?

[ May 24, 2008: Message edited by: Caz ]

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Dr. Melon

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Re: Colours in DF
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2008, 10:03:00 am »
Unless Toady is using curses, this would be hard to do. If he does use Curses, no problem; you can redefine colours there. He'd just have to put in a "define this colour as another for a short while then change it back after I printed it" loop for each colour in each frame.

The obvious downfall of this is the fact you'd get VERY poor FPS.

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Keldor

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Re: Colours in DF
« Reply #5 on: May 23, 2008, 11:48:00 am »
Toady is using OpenGL for rendering.  As such, all colors are actually specified in true color, so there's no reason they can't be used.  4-bit palette modes haven't been used except for legacy programs for 15 years, and at this point, I would be very surprised if you could find one that wasn't simply emulated in a higher color space.
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Basilisk

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Re: Colours in DF
« Reply #6 on: May 23, 2008, 01:24:00 pm »
quote:
Originally posted by Kagus:
<STRONG>The game currently runs on the standard ASCII 4-bit RGBI color scheme.</STRONG>

The renderer is already using truecolor (or higher), as evidenced by the graphical tiles you can use for the units, and by how the color processing works for the font sets you can install.

I really doubt Toady is using a system that is tightly restricted to a color palette for the font rendering.

[ May 23, 2008: Message edited by: Basilisk ]

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