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Old 05-17-2020, 12:46 AM   #1
mabian
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Default Aren't the new color controls currently half useless?

Hello all,

I'd like to discuss and compare opinions about this new color control feature and why I think I (and I guess other people) won't be able to use it at full extent:

1) All track and item colors aren't affected; this is huge for me because when I'm using REAPER with daylight from the window I have to use strong colors for all the components of the UI to see them comfortably; when evening comes the ability to tweak the gamma slider is very useful BUT... it leaves the items and tracks custom colors unaffected, so with the same strong colors - quite not optimal imho.

2) Until all GUI components aren't converted to the theme standard colors (FX list in the FX chains panel, to say one, still has a full white background in the FX list) the feature won't be really effective - think about everything correctly dark except some strong white rectangles - not nice.

3) Presets are badly needed, to accommodate for a fast switch between different lighting conditions.

As a side note, what's the point of the tint slider? Why should someone need to have the record arm button blue or purple instead of red (I can maybe think this is related to color blindness, but I'm not sure...)?

What are your thoughts?
I strongly hope that the above-mentioned subjects are taken into proper consideration by the devs and White Tie.

Thanks,
Mario
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Old 05-17-2020, 01:02 AM   #2
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I agree mabian. I have eyesight issues and cannot get on with very dark backgrounds or very bright colours. So, I do the best I can with the autocolour extension, changing some backgrounds and I use amalgama's colour thing and also this:

https://justgetflux.com/

It is all a bit fiddly to get it all how you want it and I just use the flux slider to adjust brightness now. You can also get it to be disabled when you use chosen other programs, like VLC.

I think this is one of those things that will always be contentious but getting it as flexible and option-full as it can be can go a way to please most of the people most of the time.

Might be worth a go
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Old 05-17-2020, 01:15 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertP View Post
I agree mabian. I have eyesight issues and cannot get on with very dark backgrounds or very bright colours. So, I do the best I can with the autocolour extension, changing some backgrounds and I use amalgama's colour thing and also this:

https://justgetflux.com/

It is all a bit fiddly to get it all how you want it and I just use the flux slider to adjust brightness now. You can also get it to be disabled when you use chosen other programs, like VLC.

I think this is one of those things that will always be contentious but getting it as flexible and option-full as it can be can go a way to please most of the people most of the time.

Might be worth a go
Thank you Robert. I'm already using Flux mainly to reduce the blue light after sunset, and it's great; what I'm trying to do in this thread is expressing my opinion on why REAPER current color control implementation is incomplete, and, at some extent, a bit out of focus (tint slider for example ).

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Old 05-17-2020, 01:48 AM   #4
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This should not be seen as a means of adjusting your screen relative to changing lighting conditions, though I commend you for doing that. Much better than the more common "I'll just blast my eyeballs 24/7" approach That is something that absolutely should be done at OS level. Or on your monitor, were that not such a pain in the arse these days.

This is a user-facing means of adjusting the theme to balance with the users' eyesight / screen settings / ambient lighting conditions, which these days can vary to a staggering degree, and also a bit of overall subjective preference tweakage. As you note, this does limit its effectiveness to only the things Reaper draws, rather than the things it passes on for the OS to draw. Can't be helped, still very well worth having IMO.

Not changing custom colours is crucial. The user chose those colours, they're not a part of the theme. Don't forget that a lot of users, for a very long time, have been asking for give me the exact colour I chose. Its great that they now have that, the downside is that the user can choose the wrong colours, but if you now do so (rather than loading an old project with extreme colouring) ...that's on you!

The important controls are the gamma and saturation. I could have left all the other controls out of my theme adjuster implementation, for increased simplicity. I might still do that on the docked version. But shrug ...its more Reaper-y to say "here's all the controls, go nuts".
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Old 05-17-2020, 02:53 AM   #5
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I'm also glad that item and track custom colours are not affected. I thought there is a separate page for adjusting those though anyway which you can use?

I've found the adjuster great for tweaking overall clarity and if we didn't have this we would have to do a lot more digging to get the same results.
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Old 05-17-2020, 03:26 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by White Tie View Post
This should not be seen as a means of adjusting your screen relative to changing lighting conditions, though I commend you for doing that. Much better than the more common "I'll just blast my eyeballs 24/7" approach That is something that absolutely should be done at OS level. Or on your monitor, were that not such a pain in the arse these days.

This is a user-facing means of adjusting the theme to balance with the users' eyesight/screen settings / ambient lighting conditions, which these days can vary by to a staggering degree, and also a bit of overall subjective preference tweakage. As you note, this does limit its effectiveness to only the things Reaper draws, rather than the things it passes on for the OS to draw. Can't be helped, still very well worth having IMO.

Not changing custom colours is crucial. The user chose those colours, they're not a part of the theme. Don't forget that a lot of users, for a very long time, have been asking for give me the exact colour I chose. Its great that they now have that, the downside is that the user can choose the wrong colours, but if you now do so (rather than loading an old project with extreme colouring) ...that's on you!

The important controls are the gamma and saturation. I could have left all the other controls out of my theme adjuster implementation, for increased simplicity. I might still do that on the docked version. But shrug ...its more Reaper-y to say "here's all the controls, go nuts".
Hello White Tie,

I appreciate a lot your reply.
I'd like to buy and push the "here's all the control, go nuts" principle to suggest adding the relevant option in the theme adjuster window, off by default "Also affect tracks and items colors"
Of course, then somebody (maybe even me) will ask if it's possible also to extend the changes to the plugins GUI.
But I see it much harder right now ...

- Mario
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Old 05-17-2020, 03:28 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by musicbynumbers View Post
I'm also glad that item and track custom colours are not affected. I thought there is a separate page for adjusting those though anyway which you can use?
Yes but as far as I can see you cannot comfortably switch or tweak with sliders as conditions change, you have to reapply colors... but I could be wrong and happy to be told how to do it.

Thanks,
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Old 05-17-2020, 12:52 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mabian View Post
Yes but as far as I can see you cannot comfortably switch or tweak with sliders as conditions change, you have to reapply colors... but I could be wrong and happy to be told how to do it.

Thanks,
Mario
I've only seen that bit of the theme adjust but not tried it yet so not sure how it works sorry

Hopefully it does what you want it to do!
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Old 05-23-2020, 02:30 PM   #9
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Is there a thread on this new theme stuff anywhere for me to read ?
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Old 05-24-2020, 12:59 AM   #10
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I think that it is all spread and buried in the various pre-release threads...

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Old 05-24-2020, 03:17 PM   #11
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OK I will look in to the changelog and see if i can track down some info.
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Old 05-24-2020, 04:26 PM   #12
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adjuster for default 6 based themes on left, for other themes on right.

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Old 05-25-2020, 08:46 AM   #13
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I don't like V6 theme, too dark and less TCP and MCP options than V5.
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Old 05-25-2020, 08:51 AM   #14
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And a version with presets.
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