Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit

[Avago Earo]

I find the official HUD colour jarring, and I don't mean in a marmalade way.

I've tried setting HUD colours in the files, and whilst it felt better to begin with, the compromise with friend/foe colours and station portraits looking even more like playstation 1 graphics made me more annoyed.

Do people change the HUD colours just for a change, or do they find the Orange really grating (pun definitely intended, even though I just realised it) like I do?

Was there someone at FD who really likes orange, and thought it was such a nice colour that they should code it into the game in such a way that eliminates choice?

I know it's a juicy subject and you may want to quash my opinion.

 

[Conch]

Seeing as "the market" puts RGB on everything.. frontier is behind on this.. still have that 90s dashboard color.

 

[GraXXoR]

I like orange... Also, since all the third party sites are in orange, too, I tend to go with it.

I prefer green in VR because of its pentile arrangement of pixels, there are twice as many green as other colour pixels, so green has twice the resolution and is much clearer.

I do wish we could change the HUD without wrecking the pictures, though.

Elite's NPC generator already routinely pumps out extras for In The Flesh and that's even without assigning everything a ghastly green tinge.

 

[babelfisch]

If it would be any other colour people would complain about that one instead. I don't have issues with the orange HUD.

I believe they made a mistake when they allowed us to change HUD colours via game files, that somehow made people feel like they are entitled to it although HUD colours are fixed in almost all other games.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

If it would be any other colour people would complain about that one instead. I don't have issues with the orange HUD.

I believe they made a mistake when they allowed us to change HUD colours via game files, that somehow made people feel like they are entitled to it although HUD colours are fixed in almost all other games.

Although it has to be said, I feel that allowing us to properly customise the HUD colours would be a QOL improvement of the same sort of magnitude as being able to name our ships. IMHO, obviously.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

The hate for Orange mainly only comes from FD putting it as default and offering no in-game way to change it.

If the default had been green, we would have people complaining about the green instead.

We are all different, and all have our preferences for colours.

 

[babelfisch]

Although it has to be said, I feel that allowing us to properly customise the HUD colours would be a QOL improvement of the same sort of magnitude as being able to name our ships. IMHO, obviously.

I would like to see HUD customisation options too, but it's not like we could demand it.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

I would like to see HUD customisation options too, but it's not like we could demand it.

Oh granted. The orange HUD does what it needs to do. But choice is always nice.

 

[verminstar]

I would love neon pink...with silver tassles and little sparkly things ^

Its worse on console because at least with pc, ye can change it if ye know how...not possible at all on xbone ^

 

[DoppelGanger]

The HUD color customization would be great.
As a first solution there could be an option in the Options menu to choose few basic color schemes: Orange, blue, green.
Also, orange is too harsh on the eyes, dim blue is the way to go

 

[CMDR Carbo]

Believe me, if it was easy to change the HUD color (without messing up the rest of the interface like the current color changers do) we would have had HUD color packs in the store since a long time.

My feeling is they hardcoded the HUD color into the game in such a messy way it's impossible to properly change it without completely rewriting the HUD/station interface code.

 

[Shiro Akai]

From the practical POV orange provides the best contrast and visibility in dark environment. Any other color (aside from personal preference) does not provide such utility. White gives too much contrast, green can be tiresome, blue range may be blurry. Other, more vibrant colors would tire your eyes quickly. Orange is best compromise - highly visible, giving sharp edges while not tiresome. Probably it's because this particualr color was picked, and as stated above, hard coded.

Personally I'm using teal/blue-ish variant. More eye pleasing, UI brightness set to 0. But compared to original orange it's not as sharp. Not by a large margin, but noticeable.

 

[ITZC0ATL]

Believe me, if it was easy to change the HUD color (without messing up the rest of the interface like the current color changers do) we would have had HUD color packs in the store since a long time.

My feeling is they hardcoded the HUD color into the game in such a messy way it's impossible to properly change it without completely rewriting the HUD/station interface code.

* Amateur programmer time *

Whatever way they have it done now, the HUD and visible elements must reference some files which contains the colour codes. This reference file (we'll call it HUD1) is then modified by the graphicsoverride file, allowing us to change HUD colours.

What if they could separate colour controls into two reference files? To minimise work, most elements (portraits, etc.) will remain unchanged and will get their colour from HUD1. Then, specifally the ship HUD elements that we want to change will be told to reference HUD2 instead of HUD1 ... thus allowing us or FDev to customise HUD2 without screwing up any other files or requiring extensive re-coding.

...

Profit?

 

[Balkore]

I used to use custom hud colors all the time, but in the end, I decided to go back to the default colors due to the clarity of radar signatures and the human-colored npc portraits.

I have, however, turned the brightness WAY down.

 

[Renown]

I tried blue but as mentioned you lose the red colouring for warnings and enemy ships and the other odd colours for faces on the ship crew screen. So reluctantly gone back to orange.

But if only the orange can be changed I would go back to a cool blue today.

 

[Harley Quinn]

As somebody with dyslexia I like orange. It’s a good combination on what is mainly black to help reading.

Now the blue and red pad numbers are a different issue. If not for the golf ball I wouldn’t see them.

 

[StonedThoughts]

If it would be any other colour people would complain about that one instead.

Haha, yup most likely.

I believe they made a mistake when they allowed us to change HUD colours via game files, that somehow made people feel like they are entitled to it although HUD colours are fixed in almost all other games.

Kinda disagree here, personally im quite happy about the abbility to change the HUD colours, i have even different HUDs for different Ships, especially the IMP ships realy benefit from a blue-ish HUD (IMHO!)
Wouldnt complain about some problems though (Bountyhunting with light-blue hud at icy rings for example) since its my problem that i get a subpar result when messing around with gamefiles.

 

[Avago Earo]

Thanks for responding. I actually didn't expect any, as I find my humour gets lost in translation (as many a copper could tell you) and I thought I may get an answer in a year or so after it gets dug up by someone's random search. Every post here I have read and I get all the points made.

I don't think I worded my post well enough. I just don't like the orange HUD personally. If I am in a massive minority (does that work; massive minority?) then, I have to put up with it, I guess. I was wondering if it was just me and maybe a couple of others that don't like it, or whether there is a wider number of players that have the same view.

It could also be psychological. There could be something wrong with me, and that my mood is not affected by the HUD colour, but I'm feeling that way anyway and associating my mood with the HUD colour.

I found a rock to hide under, but I can't afford it as they've all been privatised.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit.

there are other fruits of course but a lime isn't called a green, neither a lemon is called a yellow.

that's why our Huds are Orange... Fact

 

[Pville_Piper]

No, you're not in a massive minority... It's the most requested feature, bar none.