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Author Topic: Diamond Launcher Express Font Wizard colors decoded...maybe; YMMV  (Read 2754 times)
ktulu1347
Knight Lieutenant
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Force Alignment: 87
Posts: 201


Nerd for 3 decades plus and darn proud of it


« on: February 06, 2018, 08:27:24 AM »

Headline: I think I've successfully identified which named color each of the 16 color swatches/buttons in the Diamond Express Wizard palette represents.  If you just want the data, scroll down to the line across the post and start there.  If you want to know the background and my methodology, please read the way too detailed story starting here.

I'm very much a newcomer to the saber world, but I tend to jump into interests with both feet and learn as much as I can as quickly as I can.  I recently ordered two Diamond sabers and I was also lucky enough to win an Emerald equipped prize in the recent raffle, so I've been understandably interested in the various blade colors available.  Since many of the reference photos on the board are now broken due to PhotoBucket shenanigans, I've searched out the several threads where folks have tried to collect and/or provide suggested settings for the standard and forum colors so that I can try them out on my sabers and get an idea of whether I might want to use one or order a single color saber in a given color.

Of course each author has their own opinion on the settings (which is a feature not a bug according to Deep) and that's cool, but as a nerd and an engineer I like to have defined values for things that I feel have adequate basis in data.  I had been guessing at matching colors up with the previous "easy mode" palette (the one still used on the Emerald tab) by comparing values from the threads with values for the various color swatches, but when I tried applying the chosen swatches to my Emerald saber they were way off.  I had my Diamond sabers' presets for comparison and I wasn't even close.  As I was puzzling over causes and solutions, the recent launcher update happened and changed everything.

Since the new Diamond Express mode palette only had 16 swatches/buttons the probability of picking a match was greatly increased, provided one assumed that the swatches corresponded to named colors.  I had also finally thought to look at the color settings from the Diamond default fonts which gave fairly definitive values for a number of colors.  Using that information, data from the existing threads, the process of elimination and a little experimentation, I think I've successfully identified which of the 16 color swatches corresponds to which standard or forum color.  I think UltraSabers may have changed LED suppliers or the driver circuitry as the mix percentages are sometimes very different from what was listed in the threads of only a few years ago, but the colors seem to look right to the best of my (limited) knowledge using the following correlation.  As the RGB sliders are instantly visible in the launcher I've included the values below for the convenience of Emerald owners.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diamond Express Wizard Blade Color palette

Row 1 (These are obvious)
Blazing Red-Guardian Blue-Consular Green-Adegan Silver
R255         | B255            | G255              | W255

Row 2 (Red-Blue combinations)
Bane's Heart-Violet Amethyst-Dark Violet Amethyst-Hot Pink
R255 B25     |   R75 B255     |       R50 B255          | R255 B255

Row 3 (Blue-Green combinations)
Arctic Blue-Sunrider's Destiny-Emerald Green-unnamed color(Sky Blue?)
G255 B255 |    G255 B20      |   G255 B10     |   G55 B255

Row 4 (Red-Green combinations)
Sentinel Yellow-Fire Orange-Pyrestone Orange-unnamed color(Lime/Toxic Green?)
R175 G255     | R255 G150 |    R255 G30       |   R50 G255

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I learned a couple of things while doing this.  First, the Blue LED US uses is really powerful!  Just 20/255 intensity added to full power Green creates the lovely SRD and only 25/255 added to Red gets the striking Bane's Heart.  Wow!  Second, holy cow some of the forum colors are amazing.  I wish more of the photos still existed and/or did them justice, as I was caught off guard by how very nifty some of them looked.  Bane's Heart and Pyrestone Orange in particular stood out as extra awesome to me.  I'm also a big fan of the unnamed "Sky Blue" of Row 3 Column 4; if it is in fact named and orderable I hope someone enlightens me as I would definitely choose it for a saber or two.

Anyway, I'm glad I tinkered around with this as it opened my eyes as to why many folks love the forum colors and it got me experimenting with my neat new sabers which is an absolute blast.  If I got something wrong please let me know, I'd like to get this nailed down for myself at least.  If I got it right, I hope others may find it useful.  These are my best guesses, your mileage may vary and of course all of the colors can and should be tweaked to your personal preference.  Sorry for the long post, I know I tend to ramble but I wanted to explain my methodology so it can be critiqued if necessary.  Thanks for reading and happy sabering!
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"The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."

ktulu1347
Knight Lieutenant
*

Force Alignment: 87
Posts: 201


Nerd for 3 decades plus and darn proud of it


« Reply #1 on: February 06, 2018, 11:20:47 PM »

Update: I dug into the base color presets packages available for download and was able to "verify" a number of my conclusions as much as such a word can be applied, but I found some differences as well.  A light bulb went on when I looked at the idle effect for a pulse preset and realized that a "standard" RGB setting had been available to me and named as such this whole time.  After I called myself a dummy for not noticing this before, I started going through fonts and checking the pulse and/or clash settings for various colors against the previous values I'd tabulated.

Long story short, most of the RGB settings and color identifications agree with what I had surmised from the Easy palette with only a few exceptions.  In two cases they are minor differences in the setting, pretty much confirming that there really isn't a carved in stone formula for the colors and whoever's setting things up eyeballs it to a degree.  In the download packages Bane's Heart is R255 B16 instead of R255 B25 and DVA is R40 B255 instead of R50 B255.  Both are within a range where I'm still confident I properly named the corresponding swatch in the palette.

There is one major divergence from the palette, but I don't have the knowledge required to determine with absolute certainty which is the correct named color.  As described in my previous post, the pinkish swatch I had guessed was Hot Pink by inference has a setting of R255 B255 which gives a definitely pink but somewhat "thin" color.  The setting called Pink in the download packages is set at a very different level of R255 B75 which gives a much deeper pink that is quite close to Bane's Heart.  Based on comments I've read from much more experienced folks who know a lot more than me about the forum colors I'm inclined to guess the deeper R255 B75 is the actual Hot Pink, which would mean that's the lone standard or forum color without an "Easy" swatch in the launcher.  As I don't own a Hot Pink single color saber I can't say that for sure, but personally I'm going with it as it would mean that the final color in each of the "mix" rows is a non-named color and that consistent pattern makes sense to me.

Anyway, I just wanted to share more information that many of you have probably already worked out on your own but which I enjoyed investigating and documenting for myself if no one else.  As always, the overarching moral of the story is that your mileage may vary.
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"The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."

Edon Bluewolf
Knight Commander
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Force Alignment: 1271
Posts: 2505


Light side points please


« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2018, 04:27:05 AM »

Interesting ktulu, with wanting to properly fill gaps in the hilt/blade color reference thread, this is a timely topic.  Wanting to use my diamond saber to contribute but at the same time getting the settings as accurate as possible for the color needed, it is important in my opinion that repeatable values be documented like this and there be a basis for the metric such as the by using the express mode palette, good work.  I will definitely try these settings out.
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“Your focus determines your reality.” – Qui-Gon Jinn

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