Civilization Color Palette Challenge

[AnthonyBoscia]

After 20 years of modding, there is one area that needs desperate attention. There has been almost no work on alternate civ colors. This thread is being posted to see if any modders here want to take a chance to try something new. The base game has a fine array of beige and pink palettes, but is missing variety in blues, reds, and darker greens. Since civ palette colors can be replaced individually, there is a great possible range of new civ colors if only they were made. I think Rhye made like three in his collection. The base game palettes can be found at Civilization III (Complete)\Art\Units\Palettes. There is a one-pixel dot that has the base color, which sits at the center of a range from light to dark.

Please see attached for some possibilities in red and blue. A tutorial in how to create a palette from a single color would be a great help as well. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please feel free to post here.

 

[Quintillus]

I like this idea! I agree, this has been an under-explored area of Civ3 modding.

As far as I know, this is the authoritative thread on the subject. Rhye posted a set of his colors in post #3, and a tutorial on the process in post #14. Note that some modders posted their own colors later in that thread, such as a light red by Goldflash, and this Rome (white/green/red) color by Sloth_MD.

There is also a set by MaisseArsouye in this thread. Optional appears to have posted a now-lost set in this thread, and MeteorPunch teased but did not post about a set in progress in this thread.

Along the way someone named Quintillus added a color palette editor to his scenario editor in an attempt to encourage more custom color palettes. This can be seen on the "CIV" tab of Quintillus's editor, specifically the "Edit Civ Colors" button, and attempts to integrate what was learned from Rhye's tutorial.

I think it would be great to have better classification of the existing options - e.g. have them organized by general color, with previews, like Goldflash did with Light Red. As well as to have more colors.

I like your shades of colors that you have posted (is Current Red referencing the Current Catalog?), but they'd have to be PCX-ized using Civ's rather unique palette format to be usable in-game.

 

[Quintillus]

Here are some screenshots of Sloth_MD's white/green/red scheme:

Note how the archer alternates between white/red mottled when not fortified, and green while fortified. This shows one of the difficulties of multi-color palettes, since it doesn't make logical sense for the archer's tunic to change color when fortifying.

This is what the colors show as in Quintillus's editor:

Using the pipette tool in Paint, I see that the archer's tunic has a couple shades of green in-game, but one of them is 8, 165, 8, corresponding closely to color #11.

I think the real question to figure out in terms of knowing how to form multi-color palettes is, which colors show up on units? It may vary by unit, based on which parts of the civ-color palette the unit uses (a unit creator could likely chime in on which colors in unit creation correspond to civ colors). Once we know that, it should be possible through a bounded amount of trial and error to figure out which of the colors above correspond to which civ color on a unit. Create a unit that uses the maximum possible amount of civ colors, make note of which pixels use which civ color, and change one color at a time in the palette to something distinctive, and eventually we'll have the answer (I suspect this is how Rhye figured out the ones that are specifically labeled).

Of course the polar opposite - palettes that are solely one color, with no variation whatsoever (among the groups of colors shown above) - may also prove helpful.

 

[Quintillus]

Update: See post #9 for an improved version of Egyptian Blue.

I went ahead and converted one of your colors, Egyptian Blue, into a proper Civ3 palette. Here are the results:

I kind of like how the one-color look works.

To create it, I used Paint to grab the RGB code (17, 53, 167), and then used the "Edit Civ Colors" option in my editor to adjust each of the "Rhye's Recommendations", "Shades of main color", and "Other useful colors" to that code; to speed things up I used the "Color Code" on the "RGB" tab of the Color Chooser (accessible by clicking on the color itself) after the first couple colors.

Depending on the demand for monotone colors, it may make sense to add a way to update them all at once rather than having to update about 30 of them manually (although demand for the existing feature seems to have been rather low).

 

[Vuldacon]

Unit Palette with Civ Specific Colors:

 

[AnthonyBoscia]

Thanks for the great posts, guys. Quint, you just took it and ran. I knew of Rhye's thread but had not looked at his tutorial, which was interesting. And of course I completely forgot about your palette editor, which seems to also generate a full folder of palettes in the mod folder. For the examples in post 1, I was trying to think of some shades that stand out, but were distinct enough from the Firaxis ones. I must have misspelled "currant" for that red.

The biggest help I would need is how to make a spectrum of colors in gimp. I imagine such a thing is possible in PSP or PS, where you could pick a color and create a range automatically over a certain number of slots in the colormap. For our purposes, that would be like colors 0-15 specifically. Otherwise you would have to choose each color individually, which would be prone to a lot of error, and time consuming.

In your blue example above, which is awesome by the way, I noticed there are magenta pixels creeping there. The colormap looks fine so I wonder where they are from?

What is interesting about making civ palettes is two things. First, you can make any number of palettes you want and then plug and play them by just renaming them and putting them in the mod folder. Second, you can really change the feel of a game by choosing a color palette for the whole mod. If you want a more fun mod you could use bright colors that pop out, or you could use muted, earthy tones to make the game feel more gritty. I hope more people give it a try!

 

[Quintillus]

Unit Palette with Civ Specific Colors:

Hmm... so I am able to confirm that the 24 colors you listed as not changing (out of the first 24) match what I have listed (based on Rhye's tutorial) as "Shades of Gray" and "Shouldn't Change" in my PCX palette editor:

This is good as it is consistent.

It also hints that the way these are used for units is that the other four groups (except colors with an index above 64, which are used in areas such as the Histograph) are the ones used on units, and (in theory) if I use color 3, for example, on my unit, that will be replaced with the corresponding color 3 from the civilization's ntp##.pcx file.

I think that also means that if we want to have multi-color palettes, it's important to have consistency between which colors are used for which parts of a unit. So the same set of colors are used in each frame for the unit's clothes. And the same set are used for the color on the spearman's shield, etc. Preferably it is consistent between all units in the mod, too - the "shield accent color" is the same for the Legionary as for the Spearman, for example.

 

[Quintillus]

Thanks for the great posts, guys. Quint, you just took it and ran. I knew of Rhye's thread but had not looked at his tutorial, which was interesting. And of course I completely forgot about your palette editor, which seems to also generate a full folder of palettes in the mod folder. For the examples in post 1, I was trying to think of some shades that stand out, but were distinct enough from the Firaxis ones. I must have misspelled "currant" for that red.

The biggest help I would need is how to make a spectrum of colors in gimp. I imagine such a thing is possible in PSP or PS, where you could pick a color and create a range automatically over a certain number of slots in the colormap. For our purposes, that would be like colors 0-15 specifically. Otherwise you would have to choose each color individually, which would be prone to a lot of error, and time consuming.

I added a few tools to my palette editor to attempt to make a spectrum of colors easily. For example, starting with this color:

The "Adjust Hue" option lets me modify it:

If I drag the "Adjust" over to a nice medium purple, it adjusts everything automatically:

Similarly, adjusting the saturation makes it more colorful (higher) or washed-out (lighter); if I lower the saturation on the above shade, I can get this result:

Finally, adjusting the balance lets me make it darker (lower balance) or brighter (higher balance). Balance is probably the trickiest one to get right as lower balance tends to result in the colors becoming more similar.

I should probably update my editor's existing help on this subject with these examples!

There probably is a way to do this in GIMP or similar software as well, but I don't know what the steps for that are.

In your blue example above, which is awesome by the way, I noticed there are magenta pixels creeping there. The colormap looks fine so I wonder where they are from?

What is interesting about making civ palettes is two things. First, you can make any number of palettes you want and then plug and play them by just renaming them and putting them in the mod folder. Second, you can really change the feel of a game by choosing a color palette for the whole mod. If you want a more fun mod you could use bright colors that pop out, or you could use muted, earthy tones to make the game feel more gritty. I hope more people give it a try!

That is probably because I didn't know until Vuldacon's post that the "All Others" colors should have been modified too, so I didn't modify them. I was starting from Sloth_MD's white/green/red color scheme, and the magenta is probably actually remaining red colors that I didn't modify. I'll have to adjust those as well and see what the result is.

I agree, there could be a variety of tones depending on the mood desired for the mod.

 

[Quintillus]

The theory about Egyptian Blue having some remnant red was correct. It no longer does:

I think I'll go ahead and add a "monotone mode" to my color palette editor, which will take it down from 40 colors to modify to just 1 in order to get monotone colors. I still like the multi-color ones as well but from an easy-of-picking-a-color standpoint, it's hard to beat picking one color out of 16.7 million and having it be ready to go.

 

[Quintillus]

I added a quick monotone-setter to my editor, that updates all 40 colors at once, and have generated a couple reds from @AnthonyBoscia 's palette:

Apple Red:

Barn Red:

The PCX versions are in the attached "Reds.zip".

This can be included in the next update of my editor.

Now that the ball is rolling a bit I'm tempted to create a whole library of these monotone shades...

 

[Vuldacon]

Hmm... so I am able to confirm that the 24 colors you listed as not changing (out of the first 24) match what I have listed (based on Rhye's tutorial) as "Shades of Gray" and "Shouldn't Change" in my PCX palette editor:

Not sure why Rhye stated shades of Grey... there are other colors within the 24 that are not Grey and remain basically constant.
Those colors are not used as Civ Specific Colors but rather for other areas where needed for the Unit Colors.

 

[Quintillus]

Not sure why Rhye stated shades of Grey... there are other colors within the 24 that are not Grey and remain basically constant.
Those colors are not used as Civ Specific Colors but rather for other areas where needed for the Unit Colors.

The shades of gray are specifically colors 17, 19, 21, 25, 25, 27, 29, and 31, all in the second row, and all somewhere between almost-white (253, 251, 255 in RGB) and approaching-black (45, 45, 45 in RGB). They are also gray in your example 256-color palettes. Though you are right that the other 16 of the 24 constant(-ish?) ones in the first 64 are not gray.

I would be curious if you know more about where specifically these are used? I should probably re-read Rhye's guide and see if I can glean more from it now than I could before this thread existed, but at this point I don't really know what the 24 "non-civ-color" colors in the first 64 colors do.

 

[Vuldacon]

I would be curious if you know more about where specifically these are used? I should probably re-read Rhye's guide and see if I can glean more from it now than I could before this thread existed, but at this point I don't really know what the 24 "non-civ-color" colors in the first 64 colors do.

Those colors do not specifically go anywhere that I know of. They seem to be extra colors that basically help fill in where needed for Units. They help by adding to the limited 160 Unit colors. This also holds true for the Grey Shades.

Edit... I usually Block Out All or most of the 1st 64 colors when I do not want Civ Specific Colors in a Unit and even when I do, I Block Out many of the Non Civ Specific Colors that I do not want added to a Unit.

 

[AnthonyBoscia]

Quintillus, thanks again for the posts and pictures with some great explanations. I worked some in the editor to get a feel for the color changer. The ability to generate these new palettes so quickly is a great help.

The thing I can't quite get is how to choose a color and then make a spectrum out of it. In your editor, for example, you can use an existing palette and adjust the hue and saturation to create something new. But it is still guesswork here. You can also directly change the color using a variety of codes, but that doesn't change the spectrum. I am trying to see if there is a way to choose a custom color with an exact code, plug it into the list (say at color 6 or 7 which is kind of the base), and then generate a spectrum around that from light to dark. Believe me, I think the work you have done is awesome and appreciate very much the tools you have provided. But I'm not quite there yet with trying to make the perfect balance. The monochromatic palettes are cool but of course they lack the shading that makes the unit look more real. But regardless, you've done awesome work here and I hope this process can continue to be refined.

I'm glad to see there is some interest in this, too! There is no excuse for complaining about pink France anymore.

 

[Quintillus]

Those colors do not specifically go anywhere that I know of. They seem to be extra colors that basically help fill in where needed for Units. They help by adding to the limited 160 Unit colors. This also holds true for the Grey Shades.

Edit... I usually Block Out All or most of the 1st 64 colors when I do not want Civ Specific Colors in a Unit and even when I do, I Block Out many of the Non Civ Specific Colors that I do not want added to a Unit.

Hmmm... I guess I don't completely follow the logic of not having them adjacent to the other unit colors. Then there would be 184 unit colors instead of 160, or 160 + 24 fixed colors.

Although perhaps it's an example of what Steph liked to call Exotic Firaxis Programming.

Quintillus, thanks again for the posts and pictures with some great explanations. I worked some in the editor to get a feel for the color changer. The ability to generate these new palettes so quickly is a great help.

The thing I can't quite get is how to choose a color and then make a spectrum out of it. In your editor, for example, you can use an existing palette and adjust the hue and saturation to create something new. But it is still guesswork here. You can also directly change the color using a variety of codes, but that doesn't change the spectrum. I am trying to see if there is a way to choose a custom color with an exact code, plug it into the list (say at color 6 or 7 which is kind of the base), and then generate a spectrum around that from light to dark. Believe me, I think the work you have done is awesome and appreciate very much the tools you have provided. But I'm not quite there yet with trying to make the perfect balance. The monochromatic palettes are cool but of course they lack the shading that makes the unit look more real. But regardless, you've done awesome work here and I hope this process can continue to be refined.

I'm glad to see there is some interest in this, too! There is no excuse for complaining about pink France anymore.

I haven't yet written a tool to generate a spectrum of colors from a given color. Though you're right that it would make a certain amount of sense. One of the challenges would be figuring out how to handle the colors past 0 through 15, since they aren't part of a continuous spectrum. Although perhaps making those a spectrum around a given monotone for the rest would look okay? I suppose experimentation is the only way to find out.

I'd also like to add the ability to be more precise with the hue/saturation adjusters. But as far as I know this is the first time anyone's created colors from it other than me when I was testing it; as you say civ color palettes need more attention.

 

[Vuldacon]

Hmmm... I guess I don't completely follow the logic of not having them adjacent to the other unit colors. Then there would be 184 unit colors instead of 160, or 160 + 24 fixed colors.

Although perhaps it's an example of what Steph liked to call Exotic Firaxis Programming.

I agree... Perhaps those colors were placed due to the method that was used to obtain Unit Colors for the Units...
Sort of a filler blend or extra needed colors to basically cover what is not in the Unit Color Slots

 

[AnthonyBoscia]

I haven't yet written a tool to generate a spectrum of colors from a given color. Though you're right that it would make a certain amount of sense. One of the challenges would be figuring out how to handle the colors past 0 through 15, since they aren't part of a continuous spectrum. Although perhaps making those a spectrum around a given monotone for the rest would look okay? I suppose experimentation is the only way to find out.

I'd also like to add the ability to be more precise with the hue/saturation adjusters. But as far as I know this is the first time anyone's created colors from it other than me when I was testing it; as you say civ color palettes need more attention.

Any further work you do here would be great. In the meantime, there is a lot to experiment with in the editor. Creating color spectrums should be possible in the picture editors, too. For example, check out my Gimp-generated unit colormap vs Wyrmshadow's PS map.