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Is there an application I can download (or some configuration of Windows, or something) that will let me see how my game will appear to users with different color-blindnesses?

There are already good questions about how to avoid badly-designing your game for colour blindness. There's also a Photoshop filter from VisCheck is a nice idea, except their image-processing upload service is down.

Is there, therefore, a tool I can use to simulate colour blindness and see how things look? Ideally, I would like to try different types (red/green, blue/yellow, mild/severe).

If not, how do other game developers test/avoid this problem, other than ignoring it, or having access to a color-blind person (which I don't)?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I do not think so, color blindness is not entirely physical and it varies from individual to individual. For instance, you cannot simply mask off a certain color and say that that is the image someone who suffers from the condition will perceive. Ishihara color test patterns illustrate the brain's ability to recognize patterns factors in. \$\endgroup\$
    – Andon M. Coleman
    Commented Jun 13, 2014 at 16:54
  • \$\begingroup\$ @AndonM.Coleman "color blindness is not entirely physical" Source on that? My understanding was that it is a physical phenomenon. \$\endgroup\$
    – ClassicThunder
    Commented Jun 13, 2014 at 17:22
  • \$\begingroup\$ @AndonM.Coleman while your point is good, unfortunately, I don't have access to testers of varied levels of colour blindness. I have to go with whatever (poor) approximation I can get. \$\endgroup\$
    – ashes999
    Commented Jun 13, 2014 at 18:18
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ClassicThunder: It is definitely caused by a physical defect in the eye, but its effect is entirely perceptual. That is to say, the brain can compensate much the same way that it already flips the image received on the retina; it can be re-trained to compensate for radical changes as demonstrated here (see "Experimental Support"). \$\endgroup\$
    – Andon M. Coleman
    Commented Jun 13, 2014 at 18:27
  • \$\begingroup\$ Personally, the best way to handle color blindness is to not rely on color for an indicator at all. If you must do so have a floaty-text-option-alternative (or similar) that names the color or unique object and is toggle-able. \$\endgroup\$
    – Casey
    Commented Oct 30, 2015 at 6:15

3 Answers 3

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There's a list of software to simulate color blindless here, on Daltonize.org. The shame is that most of the links are dead.

One listed entry is Visolve, which seems to be relatively serious commercial software. If it really transforms the entire computer display colors, then that would be a perfect fit, if you're OK with paying the price.

Side note: if I understand correctly, color blindness can be simulated using simple color lookup tables. Example taken from Daltonize.org:

Protanopia:Simulate missing red-cone

Color LUTs are also used for HDR tone mapping in (relatively) modern graphics engines. If your engine supports that, then it might be quite easy to plug those LUTs directly in your post-process chain.

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Windows 10 Settings

In Settings app, there is a section of "Ease of Access".It's near the end.In this section, in the "Color filters" tab on the left, you can "Turn on color filters". This can simulate vision of people who cannot see any color.

Intel UHD Graphics Control Panel

For users with Intel graphics card, in the "Color Enhancement" section of "Color Settings", by lowering the saturation of each color, the filter can simluate all kinds of color blind. Refer to this StackOverflow question for detailed adjustments. Multiple profiles can be created for fast-switching.

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Check out the Coblis color blindness simulator. Its a web app and you can jut upload an image.

Also there are color blind communities such as http://www.reddit.com/r/colorblind. If you put some effort into it I'm sure you can find a real color blind person to help out.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ +1 for your first link and last suggestion, which is awesome. The github repo you linked is empty, though. \$\endgroup\$
    – ashes999
    Commented Jun 13, 2014 at 18:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ashes999 Erps. I'll add that bit back in when I can find it the one I remember seeing. \$\endgroup\$
    – ClassicThunder
    Commented Jun 13, 2014 at 18:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ Downvoters, care to comment? \$\endgroup\$
    – ashes999
    Commented Jun 16, 2014 at 22:50

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