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Coping with Colorblindness
Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 6:47 am
by Ralph
A request to all map designers: Please remember that 5% of all males have problems with red-green color discrimination. Therefore, always choosing Red-versus-Green for CTF is actually a pretty dumb idea.
Go for Red-versus-Blue instead (like The Two Tanks) and you'll have a fair bit less accidental TK-ing from the likes of me.
This has been a public service announcement.
Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:15 am
by L4m3r
people with that issue have modified their client to better differentiate between the two teams.
First, it's a snap to change out the textures, if that's even a problem, so that they're easy to distinguish from one another when looking out the window.
Then, people have tweaked the source (Or was it just the config?) so that radar blips and such show in more distinctive colors.
I think that in this case, the ~2.5% of the population for whom this is an issue are just fine accommodating themselves.
Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 8:56 am
by Ralph
I think that in this case, the ~2.5% of the population for whom this is an issue are just fine accommodating themselves.
So, you appear to think 50% of BZflaggers are female, and 100% of colorblind male BZflaggers are running modified clients.
You're somewhere between "very wrong" and "totally deluded".
Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:10 am
by joevano
and 87.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot...
What he is saying is you have options for changing things so that this is not a problem. Don't get snappy...
Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:20 am
by Ralph
Don't get snappy...
I didn't - I even smiled.
Seriously though, if the distinction between red and green can be improved by client config alone - and not by running a modified source client - I'd very much like to hear about how. Thanks.
Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:09 am
by L4m3r
Ralph wrote:So, you appear to think 50% of BZflaggers are female, and 100% of colorblind male BZflaggers are running modified clients.
No, I said "of the population", not "of the BZFlag community".
And I also was not saying that 100% of affected users were using modified clients, just that they are capable of solving the problem themselves with relative ease.
From a quick forum search, it seems that adding set <color>radar "x y z" will change the blip color for the <color> team to the color specified by x y and z (RGB values, respectively, from 0 to 1).
For instance, adding
to your config would set the default red blip color.
Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 12:13 pm
by Ralph
set <color>radar "x y z"
Thanks, that will be very useful.
Is there maybe an equivalent for out-of-the-window coloring? (Yes, I know the gurus use just radar, but I'm not there yet).
[quick google]
OK, found it on
http://www.bzflag.org/help/customization.php:
set redcolor
This BZFlag software is actually pretty good.
(Unfortunately it leaves me a couple less excuses for my incompetence).
Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 12:16 pm
by joevano
You can modify the tank texture files to your liking... possibly polka dots for green and stripes for red
The textures are in the data folder of your BZFlag application, specifically red_tank.png and green_tank.png. You can use The Gimp or the graphics editor of your choice to mess with them.
PS you may want to change the bullet and case colors also (ie. green_basetop, green_bolt.png, green_super_bolt.png, and green_laser.png).
Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 1:53 pm
by CannonBallGuy
Excuse my ignorance, but these 5% of males, what exactly is the problem?
I assume that red and green are not just switched - do they appear the same colour?
Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 2:24 pm
by joevano
Here is a good article on Wikipedia, with images that show what it looks like to be colorblind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness
Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 6:35 pm
by The Vet
Out of curiosity, what do you colorblind people do when you are at a Stop sign or a traffic light? And what do you tell the police if something happens?
Police: Why did you run that red light?
You: sry
Police: np <- We wish.
*10 runs later*
You: *puts key in ignition*
Car: Ralph, you have been banned from this server for running red lights, stop signs and running poor red tanks over.
Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 6:55 pm
by Hannibal
Out of curiosity, what do you colorblind people do when you are at a Stop sign or a traffic light? And what do you tell the police if something happens?
I'm not colorblind but...
All the greens at traffic lights in the US are at the bottom. Yellow in the middle, red on top. Stop signs are Octagonal, and have the word STOP written on them.
Elementary, my dear Watson.
Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:46 pm
by ts
Colour is a very difficult topic. Displays can't even show all colours until someone is able to create anti-colour emitters in displays.
Traffic lights and stop signs are important, therefore the design of those has been done carefully. In de the traffic lights are not pure green, yellow and red. The colours have been chosen slightly off; green has a lot blue mixed in for example. One possible explanation: People with red blindless would think all lights are off and don't stop. Green-blind people could confuse red with green.
It sounds odd to be able to confuse red and green because they are the opposite in colour-theory but think of what happens when the "green cones" are not working correct. It's true even though it sounds so strange.
People with red-problems confuse green and yellow (called rogue in-game) as well as purple and blue.
What could be done in BZFlag to reduce such impact? I can only think of choosing the colours slightly off like it has been done with traffic lights.
Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 3:33 am
by Macrosoft
adding to that...horizontal traffic lights have red on the left, yellow in middle, and green and/or turn arrow to the right
Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 6:58 pm
by the obvious trap
I'm right up there with you, ralph
I get totally lost on red vs. green ctfs sometimes, and it leads to accidental tks. (It's better sometimes to take the risk of it being a teammate)
also, I have trouble seeing purple whenever i'm on a box
If the colors on the radar and on the tanks were a bit brighter, It would eb better
ok, theres my word
Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 8:36 pm
by The Vet
All the greens at traffic lights in the US are at the bottom. Yellow in the middle, red on top. Stop signs are Octagonal, and have the word STOP written on them.
Elementary, my dear Watson.
Okay, but can you tell the court that you ran the stop sign because it looked green and just so happened to be on a green bg?
And of course get away with it.
Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:12 pm
by CannonBallGuy
the obvious trap wrote:I'm right up there with you, ralph
I get totally lost on red vs. green ctfs sometimes, and it leads to accidental tks. (It's better sometimes to take the risk of it being a teammate)
also, I have trouble seeing purple whenever i'm on a box
If the colors on the radar and on the tanks were a bit brighter, It would eb better
ok, theres my word
Use the fixes suggested above to change the tank textures are the colors on radar.
Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 4:02 pm
by raiderhater
can someone explain the code to change tank colors more thoroughly....I have much trouble with red/green colors.Thanks!
Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 4:05 pm
by Winny
raiderhater wrote:can someone explain the code to change tank colors more thoroughly....I have much trouble with red/green colors.Thanks!
No code is required.
Go to where you installed BZFlag to (C:\Program Files\BZFlag2.0.x\
Go into the "data" folder
Look for the different textures you need to replace...
IE: "green_tank.png" "green_laser.png" "green_basewall.png"
There are more, but following that pattern you can find all the textures you need to replace.
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 12:53 am
by raiderhater
ok thank you
traffic lights
Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 12:15 am
by slon02
The Vet wrote:Out of curiosity, what do you colorblind people do when you are at a Stop sign or a traffic light? And what do you tell the police if something happens?
Police: Why did you run that red light?
You: sry
Police: np <- We wish.
*10 runs later*
You: *puts key in ignition*
Car: Ralph, you have been banned from this server for running red lights, stop signs and running poor red tanks over.
Kind of adding to the topic. In some places traffic lights have shapes that light up for the colorblind. Even though green is on the bottom, red at the top, ect. People can also tell the color from the shape. (different shape per color)
Good answer car. Ralph deserves to be banned for running those poor red tanks over.
Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 4:45 am
by BadAnimal
Winny wrote:raiderhater wrote:can someone explain the code to change tank colors more thoroughly....I have much trouble with red/green colors.Thanks!
No code is required.
Go to where you installed BZFlag to (C:\Program Files\BZFlag2.0.x\
Go into the "data" folder
Look for the different textures you need to replace...
IE: "green_tank.png" "green_laser.png" "green_basewall.png"
There are more, but following that pattern you can find all the textures you need to replace.
Thanks for the info. I have trouble with TK'ing when I am on the Purple team, thinking they are rogue. Changed the rogue png to yellow and black. Works great!