Color matching baby steps implemented, now do it for real

[gtriplet]

So we can match items to chest. yay! And I mean that, it was overdue but at least it's in. Now let's see the system fully impletemented.

 

#1: companion gear color matching! This is just a duh.

 

#2: preview color matching. Why wasn't that thought of?

 

#3: reverse primary and secondary colors on chest. Empire has sooo very few color choices. Can double options just by letting us swap the black and maroon robes to be maroon and black.

 

#4: chest color editing. This might be harder, but I'm sure each piece has a primary and secondary color pattern. Let us edit those (maybe even with just a limited color palette consistent with Imp/Rep fashion trends--even just 16 colors would be huge,) then color match items to it. Don't need to add bunches of new models to the game, just yet, there's a plethora of items we could play with if you would just let us.

[AislingKerrigan]

I agree they could expand it further. My companions always look like clowns. Oh and currently headpieces don't color match. Other than that it's a great feature and I don't think it should be that difficult to add it to the companion sheet

[terminova]

So we can match items to chest. yay! And I mean that, it was overdue but at least it's in. Now let's see the system fully impletemented.

 

#3: reverse primary and secondary colors on chest. Empire has sooo very few color choices. Can double options just by letting us swap the black and maroon robes to be maroon and black.

 

#4: chest color editing. This might be harder, but I'm sure each piece has a primary and secondary color pattern. Let us edit those (maybe even with just a limited color palette consistent with Imp/Rep fashion trends--even just 16 colors would be huge,) then color match items to it. Don't need to add bunches of new models to the game, just yet, there's a plethora of items we could play with if you would just let us.

 

3: If they add the ability to reverse colors which would, in theory, double the number of choices, that would also double the number of textures required which would require more time and effort to implement.

 

4: Same thing there: they'd have to create the armor skins for each possible color combination which would take a lot of time and effort on their part.

 

Because of that, I don't see those happening anytime soon, that's not to say it'll never happen, just not something I see in the foreseeable future.

[gtriplet]

3: If they add the ability to reverse colors which would, in theory, double the number of choices, that would also double the number of textures required which would require more time and effort to implement.

 

4: Same thing there: they'd have to create the armor skins for each possible color combination which would take a lot of time and effort on their part.

 

Because of that, I don't see those happening anytime soon, that's not to say it'll never happen, just not something I see in the foreseeable future.

 

Err... that would be a very very poor implementation of objects. I'm sure each object has color parameters sent to it when it's rendered. For example, the imp-side Elder Exemplar, Elder Battlemind and Elder Seeker uses the same model, colored red, white or blueish respectively. Allowing us to toggle color reversal or even choose our own would have zero impact on the model or its texture, just its parameters.

[Keta]

I agree they could expand it further. My companions always look like clowns. Oh and currently headpieces don't color match. Other than that it's a great feature and I don't think it should be that difficult to add it to the companion sheet

 

back in the oldem days when I played DAOC, I made it a point to dress up my characters in the loudest most obnoxious colour combinations I could find. I was just ahead of my time. Now only the companions have to look like that.

[BenjaminminU]

All i need is for it to be implimented for companions as well.

[kodrac]

The companion matching for sure should be next. I'm really pleased with the unify option.

[Biggrich]

back in the oldem days when I played DAOC, I made it a point to dress up my characters in the loudest most obnoxious colour combinations I could find. I was just ahead of my time. Now only the companions have to look like that.

 

DAoC had armor dye that you could buy from vendors though, I believe it was in at launch back in 2001. It amazes me that they can't get the same type of functionality into a $20million dollar game in 2012...

[Achromatis]

I must be one of the few people who enjoyed putting a little effort into making a cool looking outfit... but if theyre going to do it, they may as well do it properly. Which can be said about EVERY feature in 1.2, since theyre all half-features.

[terminova]

Err... that would be a very very poor implementation of objects. I'm sure each object has color parameters sent to it when it's rendered. For example, the imp-side Elder Exemplar, Elder Battlemind and Elder Seeker uses the same model, colored red, white or blueish respectively. Allowing us to toggle color reversal or even choose our own would have zero impact on the model or its texture, just its parameters.

 

Each color variation has a specific texture the game uses. This is done so that the item colors render the way the devs want them to meaning that in order to be able to reverse the color scheme, the game would have to have double the number of textures. This is most obvious in armor pieces that do not have the same color schemes as the chest, so the game looks for the closest match.

 

In short, in order to do what you want, the devs would have to recode hundreds of items and how the match-to-chest system works.

 

I'm not saying it's impossible or cannot be done, just saying that it's not going to happen anytime soon.

Edited April 14, 2012 by terminova

[gtriplet]

Each color variation has a specific texture the game uses. This is done so that the item colors render the way the devs want them to meaning that in order to be able to reverse the color scheme, the game would have to have double the number of textures. This is most obvious in armor pieces that do not have the same color schemes as the chest, so the game looks for the closest match.

 

In short, in order to do what you want, the devs would have to recode hundreds of items and how the match-to-chest system works.

 

I'm not saying it's impossible or cannot be done, just saying that it's not going to happen anytime soon.

 

You sound like you're talking for the devs, and again, if this is in fact how they did things, it would be very very poor coding. Far as I remember from when I actually dabbled in 3D object rendering, and I may be outdated, but texture maps are greyscale images, usually low rez (256 colors most often) that simply shows the pattern. There may be one, two or more color maps, which are often just monocolor (black and white) maps of what regions of the texture map they affect. These are tiny generic files. When an item is rendered, each pixel is tested against the color map(s) for on/off value, given a saturation based on the texture map, and a color based on the hex code for the base color.

 

If I understand what you're saying, you seem to think they have individual full-color (large file size) texture maps for each item and each color variation of that item in the game? If so, how are they accomplishing the match-to-chest currently? Have they pre-textured all possible color combos of all skirts, pants, gloves, wrists, belts (and presumably helmets eventually) for when we color match? Wouldn't make any sense.

 

Far easier to be checking the chest for their color codes and passing those as parameters to the greyscale saturation maps for the other items. In which case, as I was suggesting, swapping the primary and secondary color codes, or allowing us to chose our own, would be very simple coding and not require the attention of graphic artists or new textures at all.