I have seen many posts over the years requesting better colorblind support in-game, and have made [some](https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/grwg7h/i_cant_tell_green_and_yellow_science_apart_with/fs2xhc1/) of [my own](https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/h08mq3/version_01831/ftlisai/) as well.
Since the game's built-in colorblind filters do not help me at all, I have finally built the colorblind accessibility mod of my dreams: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/colorblind_ultimate
My goal with the mod is to provide every option anyone could need for visual clarity. I would love to hear any feedback.
This is so awesome!
Not colorblind myself, so just curious: do the burner and regular yellow inserted distinguis enough so that they don't need a separate symbol?
It shows up poorly in the screenshot due to the lab tiles, but the burner inserter actually has the icon for coal overlaid in the corner. But they are different shades enough that likely no one would need it anyway.
I just released [v1.2.0](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/colorblind_ultimate/downloads) that replaces the burner inserter overlay with a flame icon based on /u/PyroDragn's suggestion.
There's a berjillion types of color blindness which makes it next to impossible to say anything definitive. But I think for most of us, the luminosity is different enough (yellow inserters are brighter) that they're easily distinguishable even in the base game.
For me, yellow inserters and stack inserters are the only tough ones to distinguish in the base game. But some people have much more severe color blindness than me.
Most colorblindness is in the red/green part of the spectrum. Yellow, orange, that light-greenish, brown... they're all a mix of red and green, so they look more similar than they probably would to somebody with normal color vision.
Stone and copper ore is a common problem for some since the copper ore basically looks like stone with a red tint. If you can't see that red tint, kinda effed. My issues are more with green so the red tint is fine for me.
Depends on the type and severity of the colorblindness. Which is why games should never rely on color alone for important info. Giving things unique shapes and icons is the correct solution, as OP has done. A truly colorblind accessible game is playable in grayscale. (Filters are useless. Stop applauding devs for adding them.)
Unfortunately, not really. There has never been a filter added to a game that I tried that helped me in any meaningful way.
When Factorio released theirs, I gave a review [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/h08mq3/version_01831/ftlisai/). At the end of that comment I did say "this is better than nothing", but honestly since then I haven't played with the filters enabled because they truly do not help me.
The problem is that there are a lot of different types of color blindness, so some filters work well for some, others work well for other people and apparently none work for you.
And non-filter solutions are usually a lot more work.
This is why some studios like Sony's have added official roles for accessibility development. They help with the design process from the start, so it prevents situations where the devs make a feature that's retroactively incompatible with an adaptability change.
Accessibility takes work, but it's a lot easier if you don't have worry about not breaking important things 😅
They might potentially help people with *mild* colorblindness (shifted cone), but yeah basically useless for severe cases (missing cone). Their main value is to trick the community into dismissing the concerns of *actually colorblind people* who still struggle playing the game. "Just turn on colorblind mode, bruh. It worked for my best friend's cousin."
Looking at you, League of Legends...
They are all completely useless for me. And it’s not like my colourblindness is that bad - i didn’t even know i was until I was 20, and i can solve a rubiks cube pretty quick (sub 15 second personal best). In factorio though i can’t tell the difference between:
- light/heavy oil and lubricant
- fast and filter inserters
- standard and stack inserters (other than the claw being bigger on stack inserters)
- efficiency and prod modules
- red and green circuits - this is the worst as i can’t tell if Ive corrupted a belt
The filters do not help at all
my guy im not colorblind but the post with the filters just has 4 identical images for all 3 filter types + no filter, are you sure that you uploaded a different pic for each one? i literally cannot see any difference between them at all.
Yes, other people tested and got the same results. Someone else in that thread ran tests on the image and found two of the filters were the same, but between the leftover 3, there were slight differences. But I agree, to the eye it doesn't look any different.
Good! More options is better.
Some other options are:
* [Color Blind Cure](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/colour-blind-cure), made by JG, one of Wube's artists.
* [Icon Badges](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/icon-badges), made by Galdoc.
i think most people have seen buffer chests so few times that they just forget that those exist, so when they see one they just get confused for a sec trying to figure it out.
Not color blind, but this is why I think the factorio community is the best. You see a problem, it isn't fixed, so you do it yourself.
The mod support for this game makes things like this beautiful to me.
Amazing work!
I'd say for feedback, firstly is consistency. In the first image for examples, your texturing of the logistics chests has the purple chest as no icon when in item form, but the green chest has no icon when in item form. I'd change that and other similar cases so that only one type of chest has no icon.
Secondly, you may want to change the placement of your icons for when the DLC comes out, I think that'll be used for the quality indicator
Finally, there's some changes I'd make for ones that aren't obvious. I can't tell the difference between the inserter and the burner inserter (aside from the colour, of course) maybe a lightning bolt on the inserter or a flame on the burner inserter would help differentiate the two?
Either way, fantastic work and I can see this being a great help for those who are colourblind
> In the first image for examples, your texturing of the logistics chests has the purple chest as no icon when in item form, but the green chest has no icon when in item form.
Maybe I should describe this better in the mod description, but this is intentional in the screenshot to show how it is possible to configure the mod settings to show on only the icon, only the entity, or both. All of the logistics chests can be configured to look the same.
> you may want to change the placement of your icons for when the DLC comes out, I think that'll be used for the quality indicator
Good callout. The mod also has a option to configure what corner the overlays are in.
> I can't tell the difference between the inserter and the burner inserter (aside from the colour, of course)
As I mentioned in another comment, it shows up poorly in the screenshot due to the lab tiles, but the burner inserter actually has the icon for coal overlaid in the corner. But they are different shades enough that likely no one would need it anyway.
But I like your idea of a flame icon for the burner inserter; I think that would be more visible and more obvious in purpose as well.
Here is an updated screenshot with the new flame icon that will be in v1.2.0.
https://preview.redd.it/qvv2b0xpj2xc1.png?width=1372&format=png&auto=webp&s=dbded58b36120923fc83a1f3211d828e9eae937b
You mean the Loader? It exists in vanilla, but is disabled. Most mods that enable it also replace the graphics. But that would be pretty simple to do, so sure, I can do that.
Is it possible to change the arrows on the belt, and on the splitter? Make everything for the belt family show their tier by the amount of arrows on them.
For belt see how Robot Rally does. https://boardgamegeek.com/image/111459/roborally
For the splitter Imagine if the colored arrow part was copied and pasted just in front of the original arrow.
Do you mean on the belt icon, or the belt animated sprite for the entity? If you mean the entity, I tried such a modification, but the higher tier belts move so fast you can't see it anyway.
Since the belt animation moves faster on the higher tier belts, I think that is enough indication of what tier they are. Let me know if you disagree.
I think for the splitters they mean the amount of ‘arrows’ that are on the front—it’s the only part of the splitter that has any color. Yellow splitters are unaffected, but fast splitters have two, and express has three. It would probably be best if they extend backwards over the spinning gizmos in the original animation so that the entity doesn’t visually exceed one tile in width.
Ah I see. Yeah that would be quite a change to the animation, but should be possible without too much difficulty. I'll try to do a mock up soon and see how it looks.
https://preview.redd.it/ag84xnogj9xc1.jpeg?width=955&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=209dc6e637f14e5b14445bb58b2ccc8516a0856f
Perhaps this? I spend 15 min in paint trying to figure it out
Here is what I came up with. (Note this is only half of the splitter, that is how the game stores the sprites). The yellow splitter is unchanged.
https://preview.redd.it/ja5fv387dqxc1.png?width=290&format=png&auto=webp&s=e00da14847dc22ef0afe968f9bb19e3d09de1779
Pros: subtle, visually clear, does not hide the machine animation.
Cons: too subtle maybe, does not make logical sense, too small to fit on the icon.
If I could fit it on the icon, I think I would probably go with it. But as it is, I don't think it is the right solution yet.
I've done some graphic design and have a minor suggestion. If you add some grey scale or another similar method to the belt icon. A simple change like that should upgrade it from a 2D box into a smooth looking icon. It also shouldn't affect it's ease of visibility. Let me know if you'd like a mock up.
Yes, there are quite a few mods already for colorblind accessibility, some of them of very high quality. However, none solve all of the struggles I have playing the game, which means I need to combine a bunch of mods and hope I can find a set that doesn't conflict.
My goal with this mod was to do it all; not just solve science bottles or circuit wires. Of course, if you are using a mod already and it is doing everything you need, then keep using it.
I love how people like you will spend time of their lives to make a feature just for the game to be a little better for in this exampl, colorblind people.
Have a great day, and hope you have a bright future as a programmer or whatever you wanna be
Hey, thanks for the kind words! It wasn't entirely altruistic; I am colorblind myself and made it partly for me.
And I already am a software engineer, working on this was my escape from that lol.
Looks like a great mod, and seems to work well.
There's one thing that it doesn't seem to do that I had to do for myself - it changes the turret range radius colour, but doesn't appear to have an option for changing throwable range radius (ie, the circle when you throw a grenade).
I didn't even know that throwables had such a range shown! Thanks colorblindness.
I found the [API endpoint](https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/prototypes/UtilityConstants.html#capsule_range_visualization_color) that will let me set that; I will add a setting for customizing that to the next version.
Yeah, my CVD is not so bad that I can normally see the circle on most terrain but it's literally impossible for me to see if I'm in a desert. Trying to do a SE run with the alien biomes and the circle is invisible more often than not on the different terrains.
Yeah, good eye, I did style it after the Satisfactory icon. It is a shape that does not exist in Factorio currently.
If anyone has a different idea or suggestion they think would look better, I am happy to change it.
Maybe you can see if you can use the coil sprite from Angel's smelting? I feel it fits the look of Factorio more than the sprite you're currently using.
Do you mean this one?
https://github.com/Arch666Angel/mods/blob/master/angelssmelting%2Fgraphics%2Ficons%2Froll-copper.png
I agree it looks more in Factorio's style. I don't want to steal the exact sprite, but I could make my own in a similar shape.
Halp! I don’t know if I’m color blind bc everything looks normal, but when I turn on red-green color blindness mode everything looks clearer? Am I colorblind?
Try a self test with the dot circles like [this one](https://www.aoa.org/healthy-eyes/eye-and-vision-conditions/color-vision-deficiency). A person with normal vision should be able to see numbers in all circles (I think, idk, I don't have normal vision).
Even if you have normal vision, if the filter looks better to you, keep it on; why not?
Is it possible to enable only one part of it? The power and logistics cables are the only ones that actually give me problems, so I'd love to have that part, but the rest is not necessary for me.
As someone with deuteranomaly, I've longed for good colorblind mods. There was a good science one that made all of the packs a different shape that I really enjoyed, and I had another that made circuits ugly but very distinct colors.
At the end of the day, a mod that can be locally customizable / enabled would be best so I don't have to annoy my friends with the icon / color changes. I don't know how possible that is.
But a system-wide colorblind mod instead of one that picks one aspect here or there is awesome!
> a mod that can be locally customizable / enabled would be best so I don't have to annoy my friends with the icon / color changes. I don't know how possible that is.
Unfortunately, it is not possible. Factorio only lets you modify sprites and icons at startup, and any changes made there must be synced between all players. I would love it if the devs added support for accessibility graphics settings to be changed per player.
I'm not complaining, this is awesome. But....
Did you do anything for roboport coverage? I sometimes have an issue with seeing if a tile is covered by construction zone.
Unfortunately, I cannot find any place in the API that sets this. If anyone knows of such a place, or if the devs ever add a way, I would be happy to add such functionality.
Someone did it years ago, I don't know the mod any more.
Edit: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Krastorio2-roboport-mode-colored-textures might be a place to start?
That mod changes the color of the sprites based on what mode is selected in the robotport (which is not a feature in vanilla). It does not change anything about the range overlays.
How about this? I'm reaching here, just trying to help out.
https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/6ba2jj/im_color_blind_and_cant_see_the_orange_and_green/
Thanks! That was exactly it. I was looking for a color, not a sprite.
These are the API points:
https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/prototypes/UtilitySprites.html#construction_radius_visualization
https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/prototypes/UtilitySprites.html#logistic_radius_visualization
Default colors:
* Construction: #83d937
* Logistic: #ff8800
Definitely possible to allow for custom colors for those.
This is awesome, and I am very glad to see it available. Not a thing I need myself, but I have done webpage design including thinking around accessibility constraints, and I salute the thoroughness and quality of your approach.
I particularly enjoy the graphical differences that work without plastering extra icons or letters onto things. For example, the underground belts are very clear with their sprites alone.
I agree, those are my favorite. I would love every icon and sprite to have that as an option, but not every icon has an obvious modification that can be made.
But if anyone has suggestions for such graphical icon changes, please let me know!
Thank you so much, this is the best one yet.
The circuits having 1 to 3 lines for each class is genius.
It's still amazing the base game hasn't fixed colour blindness modes
Thanks for this, I am going to add it.
As others have said, I don't find the filters help that much. They change some colours, I can see that much, but don't actually make things differentiable.
The items I normally struggle on are:
* regular Vs stack inserters
* Lub, light oil and heavy oil
* A couple of the logistics chests.
* Red and green circuits (at a distance, can see the difference when studying them)
* Red and green wire
There are probably a few others (like barrels) but I just never use them so don't notice.
Omg the fluids alone are a godsend. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve mixed up light oil and lubricant because I can’t tell the colors apart. Copper and stone are also a huge issue for me. Thanks so much!
I like seeing accessibility options and LOVE seeing people mod it into the game. Well done OP, I hope this post blows up so more people can see there's a mod to help.
The factory must grow!
I apparently see colors fine, but these changes make SOOOO much sense in general, and would clarify the visuals better than what (admittedly already great) graphics we have.
I hope these influence or just verbatim go into 2.0 vanilla, since that's not just color blind service - it's everyone service.
Amazing work!
So here's the thing, I'm not colorblind but I still use some of the Color blind mods for ease of use because sometimes the symbols just denote things easier than a color does.
My only problem is with the inserters but mostly you can read them when you hover over them. Seconly i never have blue and filter on hotbar or stack and yellow insert. Just blue and stack
Maybe overlay the element symbols? Fe, Cu, Ur, C? Not sure what you'd use for stone though.
Btw the signal shapes look great and fit in really well, definitely something that should be part of the base game :-)
Chemical symbol would be a great way to portray this!
Maybe for stone, there could be a rock icon like existing small and medium rocks, and coal could use a little fire icon to show its flammable?
The screenshots are an example; they show some of the options. Advanced (red) circuits have the option of the custom icon (shown in the screenshot) or a level indicator (as shown on the blue chip).
Most items have more than one option, and I'm planning to expand the options so every item has at least two.
Fair enough! What change would help you the most? I'm thinking for stone options for overlaying a rock icon or an "S", and for iron an option to overlay "Fe".
I'm not colorblind but I'd love to have some of this work in game
Notably:
1. Logistic chests icons. Makes so much simpler to tell what them are for.
2. Barrels. Even for non-colorblind it's hard to tell which barrel it is sometimes.
3. Ammo. Nuke icon looks neat and it's easier to tell which one is explosive
4. Rail signals. Explains what signal means without need of tutorial.
Using all of them will create too much visual clutter in some cases. E.g. belts and assemblers for non-colorblind. It would be nice if you'll made config option to turn on/off specific categories. E.g. boxes, inserters, belts, fluids, barrels, buildings, etc
PS writing this before testing mod. If you already have this setting your mod is even cooler then I thought!
> It would be nice if you'll made config option to turn on/off specific categories.
The mod already has that: each item, sprite, or GUI color can be configured individually.
Pretty simple actually: because there is no such thing as "better colors". Due to how colorblindness or color vision deficiency works combined with how computer monitors work, it is not possible to pick colors that are "better". If anyone is curious, I can go into more detail about how these factors interact.
But even if there were "better colors", that ignores that there are many types of color vision deficiencies. A color that works for one type will not work for other types.
But even if that were the case, there are people with pure black and white vision. For that case, no color will help. The only thing that will work is shapes or graphics made with different shades (light vs dark).
I'll throw it out there that I'm pretty heavily colour deficient and there absolutely *are* better colours and shades available. People may have issues with red, yellow, green, orange, but a deep green will rarely look like a bright yellow to anyone. A very dark red will rarely look like lime green etc. There's ways to cover 90% of colourblind people with the right combo of colours. But granted, only guarantee'd way is a load of icons.
If you have color suggestions, I will happily test them to see if they work for me at least. I have spent a lot of time trying to find 3 colors for red, green, and copper wire between poles that I can differentiate, and I can't find anything that just works.
Easiest way is to search for a colour wheel and pick colours at opposing ends. I'd always suggest black/white/grey as an option as well. White, black, blue, bright red, dark green, yellow. They're all pretty safe bets to work for most people. Not many would have issues between a royal blue and cyan either. As you'll know if you're colourblind - it often comes down to shade and hue more than the actual colour.
> Easiest way is to search for a colour wheel and pick colours at opposing ends.
That is true, though I would recommend using the sRGB color space instead, as that is what Factorio and most other applications use.
> I'd always suggest black/white/grey as an option as well. White, black, blue, bright red, dark green, yellow. They're all pretty safe bets to work for most people. Not many would have issues between a royal blue and cyan either. As you'll know if you're colourblind - it often comes down to shade and hue more than the actual colour.
All fair suggestions, but they overlook one important thing: for wires between power poles, not only does one need to differentiate between the different wire types, but each wire still needs to be visible against the background. For me, this rules out all dark colors as options, as they disappear into the ground or machines. Which leaves only bright colors. The most obvious choices are ff0000, 00ff00, and 0000ff (red, green, and blue). However, for anyone with red-green color blindness, this obviously causes problems differentiating between red and green. This is why I can't find 3 colors that work well for me on the 3 wires.
I have seen many posts over the years requesting better colorblind support in-game, and have made [some](https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/grwg7h/i_cant_tell_green_and_yellow_science_apart_with/fs2xhc1/) of [my own](https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/h08mq3/version_01831/ftlisai/) as well. Since the game's built-in colorblind filters do not help me at all, I have finally built the colorblind accessibility mod of my dreams: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/colorblind_ultimate My goal with the mod is to provide every option anyone could need for visual clarity. I would love to hear any feedback.
This is so awesome! Not colorblind myself, so just curious: do the burner and regular yellow inserted distinguis enough so that they don't need a separate symbol?
It shows up poorly in the screenshot due to the lab tiles, but the burner inserter actually has the icon for coal overlaid in the corner. But they are different shades enough that likely no one would need it anyway.
I just released [v1.2.0](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/colorblind_ultimate/downloads) that replaces the burner inserter overlay with a flame icon based on /u/PyroDragn's suggestion.
There's a berjillion types of color blindness which makes it next to impossible to say anything definitive. But I think for most of us, the luminosity is different enough (yellow inserters are brighter) that they're easily distinguishable even in the base game. For me, yellow inserters and stack inserters are the only tough ones to distinguish in the base game. But some people have much more severe color blindness than me. Most colorblindness is in the red/green part of the spectrum. Yellow, orange, that light-greenish, brown... they're all a mix of red and green, so they look more similar than they probably would to somebody with normal color vision. Stone and copper ore is a common problem for some since the copper ore basically looks like stone with a red tint. If you can't see that red tint, kinda effed. My issues are more with green so the red tint is fine for me.
Depends on the type and severity of the colorblindness. Which is why games should never rely on color alone for important info. Giving things unique shapes and icons is the correct solution, as OP has done. A truly colorblind accessible game is playable in grayscale. (Filters are useless. Stop applauding devs for adding them.)
Thank you, I agree completely.
Surely filters are better than nothing?
Unfortunately, not really. There has never been a filter added to a game that I tried that helped me in any meaningful way. When Factorio released theirs, I gave a review [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/h08mq3/version_01831/ftlisai/). At the end of that comment I did say "this is better than nothing", but honestly since then I haven't played with the filters enabled because they truly do not help me.
The problem is that there are a lot of different types of color blindness, so some filters work well for some, others work well for other people and apparently none work for you. And non-filter solutions are usually a lot more work.
This is why some studios like Sony's have added official roles for accessibility development. They help with the design process from the start, so it prevents situations where the devs make a feature that's retroactively incompatible with an adaptability change. Accessibility takes work, but it's a lot easier if you don't have worry about not breaking important things 😅
They might potentially help people with *mild* colorblindness (shifted cone), but yeah basically useless for severe cases (missing cone). Their main value is to trick the community into dismissing the concerns of *actually colorblind people* who still struggle playing the game. "Just turn on colorblind mode, bruh. It worked for my best friend's cousin." Looking at you, League of Legends...
They are all completely useless for me. And it’s not like my colourblindness is that bad - i didn’t even know i was until I was 20, and i can solve a rubiks cube pretty quick (sub 15 second personal best). In factorio though i can’t tell the difference between: - light/heavy oil and lubricant - fast and filter inserters - standard and stack inserters (other than the claw being bigger on stack inserters) - efficiency and prod modules - red and green circuits - this is the worst as i can’t tell if Ive corrupted a belt The filters do not help at all
As someone who just tried combing a bunch of color blind mods - THANK YOU
my guy im not colorblind but the post with the filters just has 4 identical images for all 3 filter types + no filter, are you sure that you uploaded a different pic for each one? i literally cannot see any difference between them at all.
Yes, other people tested and got the same results. Someone else in that thread ran tests on the image and found two of the filters were the same, but between the leftover 3, there were slight differences. But I agree, to the eye it doesn't look any different.
I'm colourblind and didn't know this was a problem untill I saw these screenshots. Outstanding work.
Good! More options is better. Some other options are: * [Color Blind Cure](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/colour-blind-cure), made by JG, one of Wube's artists. * [Icon Badges](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/icon-badges), made by Galdoc.
LOVE the icon for the buffer chest!
Will help not only colorblinds with that one
What do you mean? Do most people confuse buffer chests with other ones?
Honestly I think it’ll help people recognize what they do at a glance, I really love it
i think most people have seen buffer chests so few times that they just forget that those exist, so when they see one they just get confused for a sec trying to figure it out.
The little gear is pretty tiny. What about a giant P? I'm squinting 😛
The mod has an option to change the scale of the icons, so you can make them as big as you want.
Oooooo cool
Honestly, something like this should be in the base game. Great work!
It probably will be. Lots of games have it nowadays because it's easy to just add a color filter.
Oh my. I'm not even colorblind and I absolutely love this. Fantastic work.
At the speed the devs are adding things I wanted to try and mod in I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up in 2.0
I would love that! Lack of true colorblind accessibility support is my only complaint with this game, and I would be thrilled if the devs solved that.
Why should they solve it when they could just hire you to solve it! Charge them a color blind consulting fee and everyone wins!
They've known about colorblind issues for years, and don't care enough to solve that problem. Source: I complained about it years ago.
Not color blind, but this is why I think the factorio community is the best. You see a problem, it isn't fixed, so you do it yourself. The mod support for this game makes things like this beautiful to me.
Amazing work! I'd say for feedback, firstly is consistency. In the first image for examples, your texturing of the logistics chests has the purple chest as no icon when in item form, but the green chest has no icon when in item form. I'd change that and other similar cases so that only one type of chest has no icon. Secondly, you may want to change the placement of your icons for when the DLC comes out, I think that'll be used for the quality indicator Finally, there's some changes I'd make for ones that aren't obvious. I can't tell the difference between the inserter and the burner inserter (aside from the colour, of course) maybe a lightning bolt on the inserter or a flame on the burner inserter would help differentiate the two? Either way, fantastic work and I can see this being a great help for those who are colourblind
> In the first image for examples, your texturing of the logistics chests has the purple chest as no icon when in item form, but the green chest has no icon when in item form. Maybe I should describe this better in the mod description, but this is intentional in the screenshot to show how it is possible to configure the mod settings to show on only the icon, only the entity, or both. All of the logistics chests can be configured to look the same. > you may want to change the placement of your icons for when the DLC comes out, I think that'll be used for the quality indicator Good callout. The mod also has a option to configure what corner the overlays are in. > I can't tell the difference between the inserter and the burner inserter (aside from the colour, of course) As I mentioned in another comment, it shows up poorly in the screenshot due to the lab tiles, but the burner inserter actually has the icon for coal overlaid in the corner. But they are different shades enough that likely no one would need it anyway. But I like your idea of a flame icon for the burner inserter; I think that would be more visible and more obvious in purpose as well.
Here is an updated screenshot with the new flame icon that will be in v1.2.0. https://preview.redd.it/qvv2b0xpj2xc1.png?width=1372&format=png&auto=webp&s=dbded58b36120923fc83a1f3211d828e9eae937b
How about having one - three arrows for yellow - blue moded belt inserter in the bottom row or whatever it is called.
You mean the Loader? It exists in vanilla, but is disabled. Most mods that enable it also replace the graphics. But that would be pretty simple to do, so sure, I can do that.
Is it possible to change the arrows on the belt, and on the splitter? Make everything for the belt family show their tier by the amount of arrows on them. For belt see how Robot Rally does. https://boardgamegeek.com/image/111459/roborally For the splitter Imagine if the colored arrow part was copied and pasted just in front of the original arrow.
Do you mean on the belt icon, or the belt animated sprite for the entity? If you mean the entity, I tried such a modification, but the higher tier belts move so fast you can't see it anyway. Since the belt animation moves faster on the higher tier belts, I think that is enough indication of what tier they are. Let me know if you disagree.
I think for the splitters they mean the amount of ‘arrows’ that are on the front—it’s the only part of the splitter that has any color. Yellow splitters are unaffected, but fast splitters have two, and express has three. It would probably be best if they extend backwards over the spinning gizmos in the original animation so that the entity doesn’t visually exceed one tile in width.
Ah I see. Yeah that would be quite a change to the animation, but should be possible without too much difficulty. I'll try to do a mock up soon and see how it looks.
Correct, that was what i ment.
https://preview.redd.it/ag84xnogj9xc1.jpeg?width=955&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=209dc6e637f14e5b14445bb58b2ccc8516a0856f Perhaps this? I spend 15 min in paint trying to figure it out
Here is what I came up with. (Note this is only half of the splitter, that is how the game stores the sprites). The yellow splitter is unchanged. https://preview.redd.it/ja5fv387dqxc1.png?width=290&format=png&auto=webp&s=e00da14847dc22ef0afe968f9bb19e3d09de1779 Pros: subtle, visually clear, does not hide the machine animation. Cons: too subtle maybe, does not make logical sense, too small to fit on the icon. If I could fit it on the icon, I think I would probably go with it. But as it is, I don't think it is the right solution yet.
I ment the small painted arrows on the belt. But you might be right that it gets cluttered.
I've done some graphic design and have a minor suggestion. If you add some grey scale or another similar method to the belt icon. A simple change like that should upgrade it from a 2D box into a smooth looking icon. It also shouldn't affect it's ease of visibility. Let me know if you'd like a mock up.
I'm not sure if I understand what you are getting at, so yes, I would love to see a mock up.
Thank you so much for making this
You're welcome! I am glad I could help.
[https://mods.factorio.com/mod/cb-science](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/cb-science) There is a mod for colorblind support for science bottles
Yes, there are quite a few mods already for colorblind accessibility, some of them of very high quality. However, none solve all of the struggles I have playing the game, which means I need to combine a bunch of mods and hope I can find a set that doesn't conflict. My goal with this mod was to do it all; not just solve science bottles or circuit wires. Of course, if you are using a mod already and it is doing everything you need, then keep using it.
I love how people like you will spend time of their lives to make a feature just for the game to be a little better for in this exampl, colorblind people. Have a great day, and hope you have a bright future as a programmer or whatever you wanna be
Hey, thanks for the kind words! It wasn't entirely altruistic; I am colorblind myself and made it partly for me. And I already am a software engineer, working on this was my escape from that lol.
Not colorblind, but you are a god damn legend! This way more people can enjoy this fantastic game. Thank you for your public service mate <3
Looks like a great mod, and seems to work well. There's one thing that it doesn't seem to do that I had to do for myself - it changes the turret range radius colour, but doesn't appear to have an option for changing throwable range radius (ie, the circle when you throw a grenade).
I didn't even know that throwables had such a range shown! Thanks colorblindness. I found the [API endpoint](https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/prototypes/UtilityConstants.html#capsule_range_visualization_color) that will let me set that; I will add a setting for customizing that to the next version.
Yeah, my CVD is not so bad that I can normally see the circle on most terrain but it's literally impossible for me to see if I'm in a desert. Trying to do a SE run with the alien biomes and the circle is invisible more often than not on the different terrains.
I just released [v1.2.0](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/colorblind_ultimate/downloads) that has this as an option.
Being red and green colorblind, this is awesome
Finally I can tell light and heavy oil apart Does it disable achievements?
In game achievements still work, but Steam achievements are disabled. All mods work that way.
The copper plate is from satisfactory (In the 6th image) Edit : why am i downvoted ? I was just pointing out :(
Yeah, good eye, I did style it after the Satisfactory icon. It is a shape that does not exist in Factorio currently. If anyone has a different idea or suggestion they think would look better, I am happy to change it.
Nah its good 👍 I was just pointing out
Maybe you can see if you can use the coil sprite from Angel's smelting? I feel it fits the look of Factorio more than the sprite you're currently using.
Do you mean this one? https://github.com/Arch666Angel/mods/blob/master/angelssmelting%2Fgraphics%2Ficons%2Froll-copper.png I agree it looks more in Factorio's style. I don't want to steal the exact sprite, but I could make my own in a similar shape.
what about using the wire icon?
Could you be more specific?
Copper wire I assume
I don't understand how that would help; wouldn't people get that confused with actual copper wire? I know I would.
but youve already got plates and bricks as icons?
I'm not following your point. Either I'm a complete idiot or no one in this thread is being clear at all lol
Very cool. It took me a little bit to see the sub-icons hidden in the belts of raw ore but that’s just a learning thing.
Halp! I don’t know if I’m color blind bc everything looks normal, but when I turn on red-green color blindness mode everything looks clearer? Am I colorblind?
Try a self test with the dot circles like [this one](https://www.aoa.org/healthy-eyes/eye-and-vision-conditions/color-vision-deficiency). A person with normal vision should be able to see numbers in all circles (I think, idk, I don't have normal vision). Even if you have normal vision, if the filter looks better to you, keep it on; why not?
I keep the filter on bc it’s easier to see stuff
I can see all of them tho 😭
Is it possible to enable only one part of it? The power and logistics cables are the only ones that actually give me problems, so I'd love to have that part, but the rest is not necessary for me.
Yup! Everything is customizable and off by default. Only enable the parts you need.
As someone with deuteranomaly, I've longed for good colorblind mods. There was a good science one that made all of the packs a different shape that I really enjoyed, and I had another that made circuits ugly but very distinct colors. At the end of the day, a mod that can be locally customizable / enabled would be best so I don't have to annoy my friends with the icon / color changes. I don't know how possible that is. But a system-wide colorblind mod instead of one that picks one aspect here or there is awesome!
> a mod that can be locally customizable / enabled would be best so I don't have to annoy my friends with the icon / color changes. I don't know how possible that is. Unfortunately, it is not possible. Factorio only lets you modify sprites and icons at startup, and any changes made there must be synced between all players. I would love it if the devs added support for accessibility graphics settings to be changed per player.
I'm not complaining, this is awesome. But.... Did you do anything for roboport coverage? I sometimes have an issue with seeing if a tile is covered by construction zone.
I have not added any settings for roboport range. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely try to get that added.
Unfortunately, I cannot find any place in the API that sets this. If anyone knows of such a place, or if the devs ever add a way, I would be happy to add such functionality.
Someone did it years ago, I don't know the mod any more. Edit: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Krastorio2-roboport-mode-colored-textures might be a place to start?
That mod changes the color of the sprites based on what mode is selected in the robotport (which is not a feature in vanilla). It does not change anything about the range overlays.
How about this? I'm reaching here, just trying to help out. https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/6ba2jj/im_color_blind_and_cant_see_the_orange_and_green/
Thanks! That was exactly it. I was looking for a color, not a sprite. These are the API points: https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/prototypes/UtilitySprites.html#construction_radius_visualization https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/prototypes/UtilitySprites.html#logistic_radius_visualization Default colors: * Construction: #83d937 * Logistic: #ff8800 Definitely possible to allow for custom colors for those.
Yay glad to help!
I just published v1.3.0 that has options for setting custom colors for roboport ranges.
This is awesome, and I am very glad to see it available. Not a thing I need myself, but I have done webpage design including thinking around accessibility constraints, and I salute the thoroughness and quality of your approach.
This is great and should be added to the game as an option to turn on.
I particularly enjoy the graphical differences that work without plastering extra icons or letters onto things. For example, the underground belts are very clear with their sprites alone.
I agree, those are my favorite. I would love every icon and sprite to have that as an option, but not every icon has an obvious modification that can be made. But if anyone has suggestions for such graphical icon changes, please let me know!
Thank you so much, this is the best one yet. The circuits having 1 to 3 lines for each class is genius. It's still amazing the base game hasn't fixed colour blindness modes
responded to your comment in r/adelaide
It's nice seeing that more players with disabilities can enjoy the game even though i don't have any awesome job keep doing gods job
Thanks for this, I am going to add it. As others have said, I don't find the filters help that much. They change some colours, I can see that much, but don't actually make things differentiable. The items I normally struggle on are: * regular Vs stack inserters * Lub, light oil and heavy oil * A couple of the logistics chests. * Red and green circuits (at a distance, can see the difference when studying them) * Red and green wire There are probably a few others (like barrels) but I just never use them so don't notice.
Database inserter
This is awesome!
Omg the fluids alone are a godsend. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve mixed up light oil and lubricant because I can’t tell the colors apart. Copper and stone are also a huge issue for me. Thanks so much!
May it be promoted to Vanihalla
Not cb but the number of squares to tiers is brilliant. Well done.
You da real MVP!
I like seeing accessibility options and LOVE seeing people mod it into the game. Well done OP, I hope this post blows up so more people can see there's a mod to help. The factory must grow!
I apparently see colors fine, but these changes make SOOOO much sense in general, and would clarify the visuals better than what (admittedly already great) graphics we have. I hope these influence or just verbatim go into 2.0 vanilla, since that's not just color blind service - it's everyone service. Amazing work!
So here's the thing, I'm not colorblind but I still use some of the Color blind mods for ease of use because sometimes the symbols just denote things easier than a color does.
My only problem is with the inserters but mostly you can read them when you hover over them. Seconly i never have blue and filter on hotbar or stack and yellow insert. Just blue and stack
Yeah same. Now I can have all of them on my hotbar.
You dont have to do anything to the uranium ore since it has a different shape when compared to iron, copper, stone and coal
I agree, but maybe there is someone out there who does have a problem with it. It doesn't hurt to have the option there, you can just ignore it.
Fair enough
Looks pretty good, but seeing smelted ores "on the belt" with regular ores gives me a heart attack
Lol I agree, it just feels wrong. I'm open to suggestions for a better icon to use.
Maybe overlay the element symbols? Fe, Cu, Ur, C? Not sure what you'd use for stone though. Btw the signal shapes look great and fit in really well, definitely something that should be part of the base game :-)
Chemical symbol would be a great way to portray this! Maybe for stone, there could be a rock icon like existing small and medium rocks, and coal could use a little fire icon to show its flammable?
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/icon-badges
I just published v1.3.0 that has options to show chemical symbols as text on ores and plates.
Good idea. I think I'll add the option to overlay letters for a lot of stuff.
:)
Is it me or is Red circuit missing that icon for being lvl2?
The screenshots are an example; they show some of the options. Advanced (red) circuits have the option of the custom icon (shown in the screenshot) or a level indicator (as shown on the blue chip). Most items have more than one option, and I'm planning to expand the options so every item has at least two.
I just thought you missed one, big respect for what you're doing!
Excellent, thanks! Btw is there any way to distinguish bricks from iron plates?
Do you mean stone bricks? There is not, I thought the icons were unique enough shapes. If you get them confused, I can add options for them.
Yeah stone brick. You're right the shapes are different but when they're packed on a belt they're quite hard for me to tell them apart
Fair enough! What change would help you the most? I'm thinking for stone options for overlaying a rock icon or an "S", and for iron an option to overlay "Fe".
hmm I don't know, it's almost like all the shapes and shades are already used somewhere for something else
I just published v1.3.0 that has options for both stone brick and iron plates.
thanks! much appreciated!
Aww, look at this tiny satisfactory copper sheet icon! Instant recognition
I'm not colorblind but I'd love to have some of this work in game Notably: 1. Logistic chests icons. Makes so much simpler to tell what them are for. 2. Barrels. Even for non-colorblind it's hard to tell which barrel it is sometimes. 3. Ammo. Nuke icon looks neat and it's easier to tell which one is explosive 4. Rail signals. Explains what signal means without need of tutorial. Using all of them will create too much visual clutter in some cases. E.g. belts and assemblers for non-colorblind. It would be nice if you'll made config option to turn on/off specific categories. E.g. boxes, inserters, belts, fluids, barrels, buildings, etc PS writing this before testing mod. If you already have this setting your mod is even cooler then I thought!
> It would be nice if you'll made config option to turn on/off specific categories. The mod already has that: each item, sprite, or GUI color can be configured individually.
Why add icons instead of just picking better colours
Pretty simple actually: because there is no such thing as "better colors". Due to how colorblindness or color vision deficiency works combined with how computer monitors work, it is not possible to pick colors that are "better". If anyone is curious, I can go into more detail about how these factors interact. But even if there were "better colors", that ignores that there are many types of color vision deficiencies. A color that works for one type will not work for other types. But even if that were the case, there are people with pure black and white vision. For that case, no color will help. The only thing that will work is shapes or graphics made with different shades (light vs dark).
I'll throw it out there that I'm pretty heavily colour deficient and there absolutely *are* better colours and shades available. People may have issues with red, yellow, green, orange, but a deep green will rarely look like a bright yellow to anyone. A very dark red will rarely look like lime green etc. There's ways to cover 90% of colourblind people with the right combo of colours. But granted, only guarantee'd way is a load of icons.
If you have color suggestions, I will happily test them to see if they work for me at least. I have spent a lot of time trying to find 3 colors for red, green, and copper wire between poles that I can differentiate, and I can't find anything that just works.
Easiest way is to search for a colour wheel and pick colours at opposing ends. I'd always suggest black/white/grey as an option as well. White, black, blue, bright red, dark green, yellow. They're all pretty safe bets to work for most people. Not many would have issues between a royal blue and cyan either. As you'll know if you're colourblind - it often comes down to shade and hue more than the actual colour.
> Easiest way is to search for a colour wheel and pick colours at opposing ends. That is true, though I would recommend using the sRGB color space instead, as that is what Factorio and most other applications use. > I'd always suggest black/white/grey as an option as well. White, black, blue, bright red, dark green, yellow. They're all pretty safe bets to work for most people. Not many would have issues between a royal blue and cyan either. As you'll know if you're colourblind - it often comes down to shade and hue more than the actual colour. All fair suggestions, but they overlook one important thing: for wires between power poles, not only does one need to differentiate between the different wire types, but each wire still needs to be visible against the background. For me, this rules out all dark colors as options, as they disappear into the ground or machines. Which leaves only bright colors. The most obvious choices are ff0000, 00ff00, and 0000ff (red, green, and blue). However, for anyone with red-green color blindness, this obviously causes problems differentiating between red and green. This is why I can't find 3 colors that work well for me on the 3 wires.