How to PROPERLY Change Your HUD Panel Colors (Colours) in Windows for All Versions of the Game

[AndySpwn]

What about those of us who have their "AppData" and "EliteDangerous64"/installation folders in different places/drives?

My GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml is located in C:\Users\AndySpawn\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Graphics, but my actual Install data is in F:\Program Files (x86)\Frontier\EDLaunch\Products\elite-dangerous-64. The GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml has no affect on the GraphicsConfiguration.xml in my game install.

 

[WR3ND]

What about those of us who have their "AppData" and "EliteDangerous64"/installation folders in different places/drives?

My GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml is located in C:\Users\AndySpawn\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Graphics, but my actual Install data is in F:\Program Files (x86)\Frontier\EDLaunch\Products\elite-dangerous-64. The GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml has no affect on the GraphicsConfiguration.xml in my game install.

The override file works for all versions of the game, 32 bit, 64 bit/Horizons, and Steam installs as tested by me. It just comes down to where the programs look for this file data when loading, and they all look to the override file.

I haven't tested installs to other drives, but since the data is intentionally set up and used as part of "app space" within "user space," I would imagine that it still works the same. You'll most likely still want to use the override file in the Windows install drive and user folder and subfolders. Feel free to test it out and report back your findings though, for greater benefit.

 

[Cdr Voorheez]

Thank you for explaining this.

 

[Ashnak]

I don't know why FD hasn't made this option official so that it can be done in game and keeps your radar contacts the same colour.

Because, like with any other HMI development, there are more things to the HMI than simply getting some colours to match your personal desktop preferences. If you want to do it right.

As you might have noticed if you played around with it for a little bit, actually finding a colour set that just works well for a majority of users isn't that easy. If I look at the some of the 'cool blue' efforts, I get a headache just from the picture and don't even want to think about having to use that for a couple of hours in one go. And neon pink just isn't me ;-). Add to that the ego of _some_ HMI developers (I don't know anyone of the FD bunch personally, so I can't comment on them), and you're lucky to be permitted even what little leeway ED is offering you. Which is actually quite a lot.

Sure, there are a few things I'd like to have changed in the ED HMI (for example, a visual indicator when you're in AI focus mode - waggling the right thumbstick just to check whether it's your head or your ship that's moving isn't that effective, especially not immediately after cruising away from scooping while the canopy is still dark), and I'd prefer a different colour set - but then again, I don't want to spend the time trying to get an HMI experience that matches what is already there.

What would be nice, though, would be if the FD designer(s) permitted different colour sets for different ships (or ship manufacturers). Drawing the parallel between spaceships in 3301 and cars in 2015, it's like all cars had a BMW HMI. FD, if you're listening, I could imagine for exampe the Gutamaya ships to adopt a Mercedes HMI aspect, while the Lakons could copy a page from VW. Blatantly copy^w^w.. Letting yourself being inspired by a proven design might reduce the time you need to arrive at a useable solution.

No, I'm not an HMI designer myself in RL - I count myself lucky that all I have to do is to provide them with the data they need to make their pretty pictures

 

[WR3ND]

Thank you for explaining this.

You're welcome. Glad to help.

 

[Calaban]

While I would dearly like to have a HUD and targeting reticle that is not an exact shade of 90% of the stars out there, and of the common shade of dirt on planetary surfaces (rendering them difficult to make out easily)... changing the HUD colors this way has a major drawback for me:

It turns the radar contacts into a monochrome display- making Green, Yellow, and Red contacts indistinguishable (and in a bounty hunters life, those colors are very important in situational awareness in anarchy systems)

And that is a deal breaker for me. Until such time as FD decouples the radar scope from the HUD holographics... I guess I'm stuck with the star and dirt colored HUD :/

 

[AndySpwn]

The override file works for all versions of the game, 32 bit, 64 bit/Horizons, and Steam installs as tested by me. It just comes down to where the programs look for this file data when loading, and they all look to the override file.

I haven't tested installs to other drives, but since the data is intentionally set up and used as part of "app space" within "user space," I would imagine that it still works the same. You'll most likely still want to use the override file in the Windows install drive and user folder and subfolders. Feel free to test it out and report back your findings though, for greater benefit.

As I stated, it doesn't work. I change the colour variables in the GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml and nothing happens to the GraphicsConfiguration.xml file or the game itself.

When I manually change the variables in the GraphicsConfiguration.xml, it works in game (as you'd expect), but this resets on update of course.

Tested in both Elite Dangerous 32bit and Horizons 64bit (non-Steam).

 

[Sixteen-String Jack]

I have always had to restore my edits manually after every update- which takes very little time if you have saved the values.
--
Those struggling with scanner issues could make sure to check their colours for the combat, trade and exploration badges in the right panel when using the colour theme editor. The scanner colours are obscured, but if the badges are distinct then you might avoid hostiles/friendlies confusion.

 

[general_zod]

I tried this, hut gave up after spending more time than the age of the universe trying to find a blue HUD that also showed hostiles,friendlies and neutrals as different colours.

Any hints?

Here's the blue HUD I use. Friends are green, neutrals light blue, hostiles purple on radar.

http://arkku.com/elite/hud_editor/#theme_0.13_0.25_2_-2_0.98_0.33_2_0.61_-1.02

 

[WR3ND]

As I stated, it doesn't work. I change the colour variables in the GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml and nothing happens to the GraphicsConfiguration.xml file or the game itself.

When I manually change the variables in the GraphicsConfiguration.xml, it works in game (as you'd expect), but this resets on update of course.

Tested in both Elite Dangerous 32bit and Horizons 64bit (non-Steam).

Seems a bit strange then. Maybe related to you having modified your other files, but of course maybe not. I'll try installing the non Steam version to a different drive as well and see how it goes on my end.

Just to note though (while the new install is downloading), the GraphicsConficurationOverride.xml file does not change my GraphicsConficuration.xml file either, so it not changing is to be expected and isn't indicative of the color changes not working in the game.

 

[WR3ND]

As was to be expected in this situation, installing the 32 bit game to a different drive using the Frontier provided installer and launcher has no change in effect. The file referenced in the OP still governs the HUD panel colors, regardless of the installed game version and the location where it is installed.

I even tried changing the colors in the newly installed D:\Program Files (x86)\Frontier\EDLaunch\Products\FORC-FDEV-D-1010\GraphicsConfiguration.xml file. The C:\Users\[My User Name]\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Graphics\GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml file still overrides these changes. I then temporarily renamed the Override file and the new GraphicsConfiguration file changes worked as expected as well. Returning the Override file to its correct name once again determined what the HUD panel colors are.

At this time I can only reasonably presume that the two people who reported having issues getting this working were having some kind of syntax issues or file formatting issues.

 

[AndySpwn]

As was to be expected in this situation, installing the 32 bit game to a different drive using the Frontier provided installer and launcher has no change in effect. The file referenced in the OP still governs the HUD panel colors, regardless of the installed game version and the location where it is installed.

I even tried changing the colors in the newly installed D:\Program Files (x86)\Frontier\EDLaunch\Products\FORC-FDEV-D-1010\GraphicsConfiguration.xml file. The C:\Users\[My User Name]\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Graphics\GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml file still overrides these changes. I then temporarily renamed the Override file and the new GraphicsConfiguration file changes worked as expected as well. Returning the Override file to its correct name once again determined what the HUD panel colors are.

At this time I can only reasonably presume that the two people who reported having issues getting this working were having some kind of syntax issues or file formatting issues.

I can reasonably denounce file formatting as an issue, as my GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml file was created by the game, not by me. Also, I copied the code from the afore mentioned website (only changing the numbers themselves) and saving the file as it was.

My game will only take the HUD colours from the GraphicsConfiguration.xml file, not the override file.

It's not really a big deal as I always check my files after updates, but seeing if anyone else had this anomaly or had found the cause might help myself and others.

As a side note, this is on both computers that I have installed ED to. So it's not something random.

 

[WR3ND]

I can reasonably denounce file formatting as an issue, as my GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml file was created by the game, not by me. Also, I copied the code from the afore mentioned website (only changing the numbers themselves) and saving the file as it was.

My game will only take the HUD colours from the GraphicsConfiguration.xml file, not the override file.

It's not really a big deal as I always check my files after updates, but seeing if anyone else had this anomaly or had found the cause might help myself and others.

As a side note, this is on both computers that I have installed ED to. So it's not something random.

Well, if you're game, I'm all for getting to the bottom of this. Are you willing and able to uninstall the game, delete its corresponding files and folders, and then downloading and reinstall it? Offhand, the only other thing I can think of is that you might be running an older installed version of the game that doesn't look for data values in the Override file first, which doesn't make all that much sense, as you say you've tested the 64 bit version. It may be a bit of a wild goose chase. I've tested out all that I can really on my end of things though.

All the same, if it's working well enough for you one way or another, that's what matters.

 

[atomic7431]

Hello all

i have just used this colour scheme from here.

The only thing i dont like is the pink in the right panel on the elite rank, can anyone change it to something else while keeping the rest of the colour scheme?

<MatrixRed> 0.35, 0.15, 3.5 </MatrixRed>
<MatrixGreen> -0.5, 2, -1.25 </MatrixGreen>
<MatrixBlue> 1.75, -1, -0.4 </MatrixBlue>

Made by Arkku

 

[Soothsayer]

Strange. I have the file, but it doesn't appear to be associated with anything (according to Windows, at least). Whenever I open it with Notepad or Wordpad, the only thing that shows up is this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<GraphicsConfig />

Do I have to move the Graphics Override file to my Elite: Dangerous folder or something?

 

[Muad'Dib [POZ]]

Followed this thread and was able to set up the color scheme shown by atomic7431 without difficulty so WR3ND's instructions are good and not sure why some are having issues...

Just a thought... the file GraphicsConfigurationOverride only has the 2 lines in it...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
</GraphicsConfig>

but requires these also to work correctly

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
[B]<GraphicsConfig>
    <GUIColour>
        <Default>
            <LocalisationName>Standard</LocalisationName>
[COLOR=#00ff00]                [FONT=arial black][insert color settings here][/FONT][/COLOR]
        </Default>
    </GUIColour>
[/B]</GraphicsConfig>

NOTE: Running 64 bit ED Horizons thru Steam at 5760 x 1080 with the FOV bumped up just a bit...

 

[Night Hawk]

I tried modifying the Graphics Override file as well, but it would not work for me.

Then I noticed that the second line in the default file was different to the one posted by the OP: <GraphicsConfig>

The text mine had for the second line was <GraphicsConfig />

I also noted that the post from Soothsayer had the same default text as mine

So I removed the forward slash and space to match the OP's version and then added my preferred hud text and now the override works correctly

 

[WR3ND]

Strange. I have the file, but it doesn't appear to be associated with anything (according to Windows, at least). Whenever I open it with Notepad or Wordpad, the only thing that shows up is this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<GraphicsConfig />

Do I have to move the Graphics Override file to my Elite: Dangerous folder or something?

No, you shouldn't have to move anything. Just look at the example in the OP for the syntax and how you want the content of the file set up.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

I tried modifying the Graphics Override file as well, but it would not work for me.

Then I noticed that the second line in the default file was different to the one posted by the OP: <GraphicsConfig>

The text mine had for the second line was <GraphicsConfig />

I also noted that the post from Soothsayer had the same default text as mine

So I removed the forward slash and space to match the OP's version and then added my preferred hud text and now the override works correctly

Cool. Glad you got it working.

 

[Llewelyn Morgan]

aha, a thread.

I knew from some searching how to mess with the matrix colours. My problem is it's more or less impossible to get what I want: the basic theme to be sorta muted yellow-green but the red/green to still be red and green, or, failing that, some other distinctive colours. I want red contacts to be red, ideally, and other red stuff like PROX warning or similar. And the basic problem seems to be that matrix green dominates most everything.

What I use currently is this:

<MatrixRed> 0.85, 0.07, 0.1 </MatrixRed>
<MatrixGreen> 0, 0.85, 0 </MatrixGreen>
<MatrixBlue> 0, 0.5, 0.8 </MatrixBlue>

which is a subtle variation on the standard colours, less in your face orange but the red, green and blue indicators are still more or less red, green and blue.

I've seen others using values above 1 and negative values, do we have any confirmation that these work? Seems to me that they're RGB values and probably map to 0-255 range of colour in R, G and B in a typical 24-bit 3-colour system. I'd expect out-of-range values to be ignored, myself.

what's really needed is for Frontier to implement either different GUI theme options, or better yet a way of editing the elements rather than horsing around with the base colours.

 

[TheSyntox]

aha, a thread.

I knew from some searching how to mess with the matrix colours. My problem is it's more or less impossible to get what I want: the basic theme to be sorta muted yellow-green but the red/green to still be red and green, or, failing that, some other distinctive colours. I want red contacts to be red, ideally, and other red stuff like PROX warning or similar. And the basic problem seems to be that matrix green dominates most everything.

What I use currently is this:

<MatrixRed> 0.85, 0.07, 0.1 </MatrixRed>
<MatrixGreen> 0, 0.85, 0 </MatrixGreen>
<MatrixBlue> 0, 0.5, 0.8 </MatrixBlue>

which is a subtle variation on the standard colours, less in your face orange but the red, green and blue indicators are still more or less red, green and blue.

I've seen others using values above 1 and negative values, do we have any confirmation that these work? Seems to me that they're RGB values and probably map to 0-255 range of colour in R, G and B in a typical 24-bit 3-colour system. I'd expect out-of-range values to be ignored, myself.

what's really needed is for Frontier to implement either different GUI theme options, or better yet a way of editing the elements rather than horsing around with the base colours.

Totally agree. Also want to change orange to some light blue but the rest is perfect for me and would like to have it as it is. Especially red and green elements.