The following is in response to a suggestion to add more colour shades to Equiverse via code rather than using new artwork. The benefit of this method is that it can add an extremely large amount of new colours to the game without adding much artwork (and it looks gorgeous). This interactive program is designed to demonstrate what the different shade options could look like, and give a rough idea of how it could work. It works by layering an existing horse colour image over top of another, and adjusting the transparency of the top layer to get different shades. The shade layer sits above the colour layer(s) and below the markings layers. (Note: The proposal is just to change colours, but not colour names, e.g. dark bay and light bay would both just be named Bay.)
To use it:
1. Select the breed and colour from the drop down lists below.
2. Drag the slider from 0% to 100% to see the full shade variation available for that colour.
3. Optional: you can also choose a modifier to get an idea of how these could interact with the chosen shade.
Tip: add white markings to very pale coats to see the difference between them and true white.
Some important/interesting things to note:
- Due to a few necessary art files not existing, some color/breed combinations do not vary in shade in this program. An error message will be displayed in these cases.
- This program is designed as proof-of-concept only, so the coding is quite rough. It doesn't have any fancy error handling or similar. If you try to pick a colour/breed combination that doesn't exist you'll just get a broken image. You may also be able to produce some impossible colours, like silver-chestnut. Just ignore these.
- In this version 0% = original unmodified Equiverse art and 100% = maximum shade variation possible. Sometimes a shade layer will darken the original art, sometimes it'll lighten it. It's worth noting that it's possible to instead code it so that 0% = lightest shade possible and 100% = darkest shade possible. This would be preferable if shade were breedable, that way a dark shaded horse in one colour will mostly produce offspring with a darker version of the foal colour.
- In this setup, each colour has effectively thousands of possible shade options (although the differences between some very similar ones will likely be too subtle to pick up by eye). Some colours vary a lot with shade, while others vary only slightly. I've tried to make this reflect roughly the sort of variation seen in real life.
- If this idea is added to Equiverse in a similar form, it will add thousands of new colours to the game without adding more than a handful of new art files. It has the potential to make literally every horse look unique.
Some technical details:
Note that only 9 new art images will be needed to make this work for all breeds: white Akhal-Teke adult, white Andalusian adult, white Morgan adult, white Trakehner adult, white Welsh Pony adult, flaxen Akhal-Teke adult, flaxen Thoroughbred adult, flaxen Trakehner adult, bay Friesian adult (although the existing chestnut may be able to be used instead). No new foal images will be needed at all.
The following table gives the specifics of the shade layer for each colour. The left column gives the original horse colour, and the right column tells you what horse colour was used for the shade layer, and the maximum opacity of the layer. For example, on chestnut, bay and wild bay coats, the shade layer was the black coat, and the opacity varied from 0% to 75%, depending on selected shade.
To use it:
1. Select the breed and colour from the drop down lists below.
2. Drag the slider from 0% to 100% to see the full shade variation available for that colour.
3. Optional: you can also choose a modifier to get an idea of how these could interact with the chosen shade.
Tip: add white markings to very pale coats to see the difference between them and true white.
Some important/interesting things to note:
- Due to a few necessary art files not existing, some color/breed combinations do not vary in shade in this program. An error message will be displayed in these cases.
- This program is designed as proof-of-concept only, so the coding is quite rough. It doesn't have any fancy error handling or similar. If you try to pick a colour/breed combination that doesn't exist you'll just get a broken image. You may also be able to produce some impossible colours, like silver-chestnut. Just ignore these.
- In this version 0% = original unmodified Equiverse art and 100% = maximum shade variation possible. Sometimes a shade layer will darken the original art, sometimes it'll lighten it. It's worth noting that it's possible to instead code it so that 0% = lightest shade possible and 100% = darkest shade possible. This would be preferable if shade were breedable, that way a dark shaded horse in one colour will mostly produce offspring with a darker version of the foal colour.
- In this setup, each colour has effectively thousands of possible shade options (although the differences between some very similar ones will likely be too subtle to pick up by eye). Some colours vary a lot with shade, while others vary only slightly. I've tried to make this reflect roughly the sort of variation seen in real life.
- If this idea is added to Equiverse in a similar form, it will add thousands of new colours to the game without adding more than a handful of new art files. It has the potential to make literally every horse look unique.
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Some technical details:
Note that only 9 new art images will be needed to make this work for all breeds: white Akhal-Teke adult, white Andalusian adult, white Morgan adult, white Trakehner adult, white Welsh Pony adult, flaxen Akhal-Teke adult, flaxen Thoroughbred adult, flaxen Trakehner adult, bay Friesian adult (although the existing chestnut may be able to be used instead). No new foal images will be needed at all.
The following table gives the specifics of the shade layer for each colour. The left column gives the original horse colour, and the right column tells you what horse colour was used for the shade layer, and the maximum opacity of the layer. For example, on chestnut, bay and wild bay coats, the shade layer was the black coat, and the opacity varied from 0% to 75%, depending on selected shade.
Colours | Shade image used |
---|---|
chestnut bay wild bay | Black, max transparency 75% |
smoky black | Black, max transparency 50% |
classic dun red dun grullo dunskin brown dun smoky black dun seal brown cream dun amber champagne dun classic champagne dun sable champagne dun | Black, max transparency 30% |
buckskin | Bay, max transparency 50% |
seal brown cream | Seal brown, max transparency 50% |
black seal brown | Bay, max transparency 10% |
palomino | flaxen chestnut, max transparency 50% |
dunalino | flaxen red dun, max transparency 30% |
cremello perlino brown perlino smoky cream cremello dun perlino dun brown perlino dun smoky cream dun | white, max transparency 50% |
gold champagne gold champagne dun amber champagne classic champagne sable champagne ivory gold champagne classic cream champagne amber cream champagne sable cream champagne ivory gold champagne dun classic cream champagne dun amber cream champagne dun sable cream champagne dun | white, max transparency 20% |