Coping with Colorblindness

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Ralph
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Coping with Colorblindness

Post 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.
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L4m3r
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Post 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. ;)
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Post 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". :-)
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Post 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...
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Post 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.
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Post 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". :p

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

Code: Select all

set redradar "1 0 0"
to your config would set the default red blip color.
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Post 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).
Last edited by Ralph on Tue Jun 19, 2007 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post 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).
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Post 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?
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Post 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
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Post 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. :wink:

*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.
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Post 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.

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Post 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.
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Post 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
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Post 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
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Post 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? :wink:

And of course get away with it. :twisted:
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Post 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. :)
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Post by raiderhater »

can someone explain the code to change tank colors more thoroughly....I have much trouble with red/green colors.Thanks! :lol-old:
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Post by Winny »

raiderhater wrote:can someone explain the code to change tank colors more thoroughly....I have much trouble with red/green colors.Thanks! :lol-old:
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.
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Post by raiderhater »

ok thank you
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traffic lights

Post 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. :wink:

*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) :wink:


Good answer car. Ralph deserves to be banned for running those poor red tanks over. :twisted:
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Post 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! :lol-old:
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!
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