[+][SUG][PL] Clear Physics: Abolish color cycling, pick good non-clashing colors

[Simon]

CE 1.0.1
NL 12.14

Clear Physics Mode shows the silhouettes of all gadgets in rotating colors. There is a global timer, and the color of the silhouettes is that timer modulo N in the circle of fully-saturated colors (red, orange, yellow, ..., cyan, pink, red).

Enough with that! I use Clear Physics Mode when details matter, and I don't want this distracting color clashing.

In 1.0.1 Clear Physics Mode, lemmings are dark-blue (0, 0, FF). Instead, make lemmings medium-blue (80, 80, FF). That's easier to see than dark blue (this alone will be an improvement!) and it will remain sufficiently different from the cyan athletes (0, FF, FF).

Now you can make gadgets dark green (0, 80, 0) and you won't step on any toes.

Pick other colors than what I propose, I'm happy to try other choices.

-- Simon

[WillLem]

I personally like the colour cycling, but can see why it may be annoying or counterintuitive to some users. Making it optional is probably the best way to go.

[Simon]

This is still annoying. We are in Clear physics Mode often enough, and we zoom into the levels because we are interested in finnicky details. The glaring cycling colors cover huge parts of the screen. So hard on the eyes. All while it's hard to see lemmings.

For the record, Proxima agrees that this is annoying and distracting.

I still recommend dark green (0, 0x80, 0) for the shapes of the gadgets and a medium blue (0x80, 0x80, 0xFF) for lemmings without permanent abilities.

I don't know what you like about the color cycling. If it weren't for you, I'd recommend to rip the entire color-cycling code from the codebase. Good riddance. Are you sure that you like it and why you like it? E.g., I understand {your preference for the never-deleting insert mode} more than I can get behind {your like of this color-cycling in light of all these visibility problems}.

-- Simon

[WillLem]

I still recommend dark green (0, 0x80, 0) for the shapes of the gadgets and a medium blue (0x80, 0x80, 0xFF) for lemmings without permanent abilities.

What about lemmings with permanent abilities? Keep it the same as it is now?

I don't know what you like about the color cycling ... Are you sure that you like it and why you like it?

3 reasons:

1) It guarantees visibility at some point in the cycle, regardless of any other factors (40%)
2) It's already there. I don't have to do anything (30%)
3) It looks kinda cool IMHO  (30%)

But OK, let's make it optional in 1.1.2, with your suggested colours as the static alternatives.

[Simon]

What about lemmings with permanent abilities? Keep it the same as it is now?

Yes, I think you can keep permanent-ability lemmings as they are, light cyan (0, 0xFF, 0xFF). The idea behind the medium blue for plain lemmings was: Medium blue is noticeabley darker than light cyan, but both colors still contrast well with anything really dark for the gadget silhouettes.

If you happen to release CE with static physics colors by Sunday morning, I'll playtest it on the planned livestream (Sunday, June 21, 13:00 UTC) and I'll prompt the chatters for opinions. But you do you. If you ship other bugfixes, I'll playtest those fixes instead. And I'll have a few more topics to post anyway, based on handwritten notes. These topics will trickle in at a slow rate. When I write a topic, I want to present an argument and be able to react to your questions.

3 reasons:

Thanks for the reasons, at least I don't have to write long essays about human perception then. At most, I might eventually argue to make the static setting the default. But that's for after the user testing.

-- Simon

[WillLem]

@Simon

How's this?


L->R: Normal, Selected (cursor is overlaid to show this), Climber

The blue you suggested was a tad too close to the purple for selected lemmings, so I made it a shade darker. The green entrance hatch is static (non-cycling), with the option to toggle on colour cycling for those that still want it.

[Simon]

The blue you suggested was a tad too close to the purple

My medium blue was also too close to the grey of the earth (diggable terrain), hmm.

How's this?

You chose (0x44, 0x44, 0xFF) for the nonpermanent blue.

Now the medium green from the hatch will clash with your nonpermanent blue. Lemmings overlapping gadgets will be hard on the eyes.

An immediate fix is to darken the gadget green from (0, 0x80, 0) to (0, 0x40, 0). Even 0x50 would be too light. At first glance, I don't mind the pretty dark gadgets at 0x40. I can playtest and report.

A more elaborate fix is to move the blues/cyans/purples/... around to allow 0x50 or 0x60 on the gadgets, but I don't have time today to investigate. It's not obvious what's best.

The main guideline is: The most common colors will be background black, earth grey, steel grey, nonpermanent blue, gadget green, and trigger area pink. Those should be clearly different from each other. It's more important to {distinguish lemmings from gadget silhouettes} than it is to {distinguish gadget silhouettes from the black background}. Reason: The silhouette becomes less important after you know that it's some exit, or some trap, ... The trigger area is more important than the silhouette.

-- Simon