Several months ago, our engineers added a new feature to our game engine that gives the artists complete control over the final color output of our renderer. The technology is very similar to digital color grading – which is a technique that directors in the motion picture industry use to add style and emotional impact to each shot in their films. You’ve all seen this effect in action in all of the most recent summer block-buster films. In our game, this new feature allows us to apply unique color effects to each area for each Planet, Flashpoint, Warzone, Operation, etc.

 

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This change has appealed to many, but many don't even notice a change and many more still absolutely hate it. The change also looks very different under different systems and setups. On my system, the feature doesn't look like the official screenshots but looks oversaturated with painfully high contrast.

 

Fortunately, you guys had the wisdom to put an option in to enable/disable this feature at will, but it is not well advertised. Simply edit your client_settings file (go to your SWTOR settings folder by pressing the Windows Key and clicking run, and entering: %localappdata%/swtor/swtor/settings ). Add the following line under [Renderer] if it doesn't already exist:

 

AllowColorRemapping = false

 

If it's there already, simply edit the existing line.

I like the changes.

 

Is it possible to apply the filters or effects that you showed us in the article (black/white, sepia etc.) in the game?

Changes look great to me. I noticed the changes right away and love the bright colors. Keep up the good work.

Looks A LOT better and makes the game really pop more. Everything seems more detailed and it's the way it should be without the nasty gray "fog" look and the old drab colors.

 

I love it! Keep up the little changes like this. Every person I have talked to in game absolutely loves it. So just a minority it seems on the forums don't like it. If you don't like it, don't complain to have the new shiny change reverted, simply just revert it yourself.

 

Be aware though, your game won't look all spic and span. I'm sure you are just used to the old way and got used to that. Anyway, looks a TON BETTER!

http://cdn-www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/cb/2013_thumbs/CLUTs/color_variations.jpg

 

So basically this is just Instagram for SWTOR.

I'd tell you the technology we used for colors in 2.3, but you've probably never heard of it.

Well actually I prefer the original. Looks like you just cranked up saturation. When I look out of my window I don't see blinding primary colors everywhere.

I think it looks spiffy. Great work.

Greetings,

 

Changes are incredible it looks really stunning and it is a great addition to already great game!...

 

Best regards!.

I notice the color change too. Looks nicer, thx. Reading this article makes me feel Bioware is also struggling with Gamma color space as many other film studios do.

I'm a fan.

 

For those people who run on different systems / graphics settings, perhaps it would be ideal to allow this feature to be turned on/off like other graphics settings? Then again if you plan on doing grayscale phases in certain missions, that may become a problem.

 

Either way, looks great.

Every time I go into the game now, every place I am just in awe. It really makes the things stand out everywhere. You WANT to look at them. I keep supporting this because it's the best thing they could have done to the game Looks always goes good.

Good job. Looks great. Don't worry about the naysayers and instant graphics experts. They don't like anything you do ever.

I just recently upgraded my computer to be able to play this game at the highest settings and they're stunning with these new changes, kudos to you guys.

Whether you like it, hate it, or it's just meh, is based on your individual perception of the the changes or lack there of. That perception is based on many factors, primarily equipment used to run the game, and your individual vision provided by mother nature.

 

Thanks for the ability to turn it on or off.

Great changes IMO.

 

A few suggestions however....you have the script in place to disable the changes, I would suggest you create a toggle in the graphics options to actuate this script to disable the changes if folks desire to.

 

Also...now that you have done this I think it is time to revisit the idea of giving us various UI colors. I think Pub should be blue, Imperial red...you can offer different colors as an option.

 

It would be great to have some subdued and bright colors...I would suggest dark and light versions of all main colors allowed.

 

Thanks guys.

I like how the changes brighten up and accentuate detail in environments. However, I dislike how oversaturated character skintones now look on the character selection screen.

 

This could be partly due to the fact I am accustomed to how my characters have looked for the 1.5 years I've been playing them. Any change will look weird. But it also looks cartoony and not how I originally designed my characters. The news article states Republic areas have been made to look "warmer" and vice versa for Imperial ones. Yet I find my Imperial characters look extremely ruddy, particularly the ones on the Sith ship.

 

I would like it if this feature could be made more subtle on the character selection page.

Edited August 8, 2013 by Ilith

I like how the changes brighten up and accentuate detail in environments. However, I dislike how oversaturated character skintones now look on the character selection screen.

 

This could be partly due to the fact I am accustomed to how my characters have looked for the 1.5 years I've been playing them. Any change will look weird. But it also looks cartoony and not how I originally designed my characters. The news article states Republic areas have been made to look "warmer" and vice versa for Imperial ones. Yet I find my Imperial characters look extremely ruddy, particularly the ones on the Sith ship.

 

I would like it if this feature could be made more subtle on the character selection page.

 

Before: http://postimg.org/image/4tgjvg9gb/

 

After: http://postimg.org/image/xqikk3uo7/

Interesting article, thanks. And I also love the changes. The games looks better than ever.

Didn't really notice the changes in-game. Honestly, I still wish TOR went away from the 80s cartoon feel.

Ugly ugly ugly. Waste of time and resources. Actually add content next time. Kthxbai. Oh and your customer support still sucks.

If it looked in-game like your screen shots I'd be thrilled with the changes. They look amazing! Unfortunately it looked horrible on my system and I had to use the workaround to disable it. I"m not going to adjust my monitor settings every time I log in and out of the game, since the settings I have have been great since launch and are great for every other game I play and video I watch. Is there any hope for in-game toggles or sliders so we can adjust the brightness, contrast and saturation in the future?

 

Before and after on my system. http://www.flickr.com/photos/99983040@N07/9462478130/

Love it! Excellent work!

I applaud your efforts. It does some really nice things to a lot of areas. However, you REALLY need to make another pass at Hoth. It's almost unplayable now.

This would look nice if I wasn't playing on low settings and getting even worse fps now since Tuesdays change. The new Czerka area I'm lucky to get more then 5 fps in the daily area. Load times have increased dramatically, and wish I could just afford a new system that might be able to play the game like it's ment to be.