Hello! Wat'a 'bout ye? Coming in with a simple accessibility feature request for TSW7 (& future versions). Disclaimer: I haven't purchased TSW7 yet, but am planning on it. (as awaiting for the separate release of the Class 333 to buy standard edition & it separately).... However, I've seen screenshots & watched the fabulous Matt live streams on the youtubes. The menus are very bright. I, myself am neurodivergent & have a condition called Sensory Processing Disorder, or SPD for short. It makes certain senses heightened & others less so. Hello fellow neurospicy & SPD people of the train world.... Unfortunately, brightness is one of the ones which are heightened, to the point that some indoor lights in buildings require me to wear sunglasses inside or days you'd not think about wearing sunglasses, I'll have them on. All my devices that have dark mode, have dark mode enabled. The only expectation to the rule is on programs like Affinity, Canva, MS Word, Excel & PowerPoint as i need to see what the export / print version will look like in real time. When I'm on here, which I can't find the dark mode for, i have to turn down my screen brightness by a bunch. So, my suggestion is three variations of Dark Mode. • Dark Mode • Dark Mode: Semi High Contrast / Custom • Dark Mode: High Contrast Maybe, alike on Android devices, allow some customised options for dark mode? Whilst my phone & tablet are set to dark mode without high contrast, the keyboards on both are set to high contrast with black on yellow - it's just easier on the eyes. Also, whilst I'm here, I don't know if it's been fixed, but the selection tool in Livery Designer in previous TSWs was very difficult to see, maybe instead of a flickering white box, a semi bold yellow outline on the box you're on would be more ideal? Anyway, enjoy the screenshot of my phones keyboard & thank you for your time.
Couldn't agree more with this suggestion. I really hope DTG does listen to the feedback given by all of us, for a dark mode UI in game. accessibility should be at the highest priority with this game, no matter what conditions people may be facing for certain things. even myself, who has no major issues with light/bright screens find the TSW7 menu to be extremely bright. I cant imagine what itll be like for those who do have real conditions with brightness/bright lights, I feel sorry for people like you who have to go through this on a daily basis. DTG has had a ton of requests on things that should happen in this game, but this is a very real, and a very important suggestion to 100% consider.
As many have already explained in their criticism of the UI, yellow should never under any circumstances be used anywhere within the game's UI that is not directly linked to hazard warnings. There are plenty other perfectly good options for soft highlights. But yes, there have been plenty criticisms of how bright they keep making elements of the UI as far back as TSW3. Yellow on white or blue on white for certain things all the way back to then is a pretty egregious example.
I would go as far as having a couple customization options for main UI... like I wouldnt mind more orange ... aaaand a bit off topic, but when I press T during a service, it still shows only a tick, not action points - for that I have to go to pause menu and schedule
I never said yellow on white, that wouldn't be accessible nor would it pass basic accessible contrast tests. Black on white is a good accessible contrast, unless you're me. White on black is a rather poor accessible contrast, whilst yes it maybe good contrast, alot of people find that white blurs slightly & is difficult for some (not all) who are Dyslexic, Autistic, ADHD, amoungst other ND conditions or have some sort visual difficulties. This probably explains why i find the UI of Livery Designer a bit complicated to use - not that it'll stop me, for now.... I'll just suffer strains. Red on Black or Black on Red is a no. It's not accessible & is extremely difficult to make out at the best of times (the amount of arguments i've had on this one is unbelievable). In some cases of certain types of colour blindness, the red & black blend together & practically becomes invisible. Yellow on Black or Black on Yellow is known as one the best accessible contrasts there is, next to black on white. It's clear, it's easy to read, it doesn't cause sensory overload & it has the least amount of problems relating to it. It doesn't blur as easily, & being high contrast makes it easier for people with some sort visual difficulties to navigate. Blue on white, or white on blue depends on tone of the blue used. Too high of blue, you get the same issue as black on white, along with the white becoming difficult to read as it's not contrasting well with the blue. Too dark of a blue, the blue blends in with the dark background of dark mode, essentially making it difficult to highlight. What high contrast colours would you suggest as a stand in for yellow on black for a UI design for people who can't really use light mode & find white on black difficult? - asking out of genuine interest. Orange would actually wouldn't be a bad stand in for yellow for general use, since we now know yellow isn't allowed to be used. Again, as above, would have to depend on the tone of orange used. ...looking at my phones keyboard, orange is used for the numerals.
Thank you, I appreciate this message alot Don't feel sorry, we've learnt the world isn't accessible, especially [todays] society, isn't built for disabled people & accessibility & just simple accommodations are a big ask, despite it probably helping more than you'll think - Like the cut-curb effect or the elevator effect. We do learn accommodations & coping mechanisms - In my case, I have sunglasses. I keep two in my car, one at home & one in a coat pocket. For noise sensitivity, I carry ANC headphones with me if I know I'm going to a loud place or I just avoid loud places, if possible, when I don't have them. Best thing to do is not feel sorry, but to advocate & help, loudly or quietly, both makes a difference.
Speaking with someone highly sensitive to brighter colours like yellow, white, and blue, which just kind of explode into a blur of illegibility, I tend to find purples and darker greys can be a good background colour. The Teal and Purple of TSW5 I thought was a pretty good contrast that they were on to a winner with that didn't overly strain my eyes while making everything easy to distinguish.
Ah, so we both have the same, but different problem then! Whilst I love the idea of purple, on a personal note, it gives me a headache - has done since child hood. Tried drawing purple buses when in primary school, got really bad headaches. Same problem today, just not as intense. Teal, however, I can get behind! You mentioned grey too? How about cream on dark grey? Some National Trust properties used to have that as their sinage before moving to the their new standard of black on white (it used to be cream on maroon) & cream on grey worked really well on both contrast, readability & looks. Cream being not nearly as intense as yellow & dark grey not being, well, as dark as black - obviously. Thoughts?
Starting to think custom might be the most ideal in this case? Similarly to how Win 11 has it, dark mode, light mode, what colour you want boxes & outlines to be, etc. As we're all aware, what works for one group, might not work for another & again, another. Having the ability to set your own custom theme to suit your own accessibility needs might be the answer? - or just set to a ready made selection of pre-sets which you could potential alter? Especially in a game alike TSW where you're interacting with menus & UI quite a bit, considering you have.... • Photo Mode • Livery Designer (usually hours at a time) • Scenario Planner • Consists Designer • Creators Club Plus the time you spend setting up on the main menu, selecting routes, trains, scenarios, the weather & the livery you're using. Oh, & the end of scenairo card that flashes up. It's alot. again, my area of expertise isn't in this field, nor in game development, just going by lived experiences & learnt knowledge from basic work & research into accessibility over the last 'few' years.
Off-white colours are a lot softer, but YMMV depending on the individual monitor displaying it. My displays all whites end up off-white for example, because I always have the low blue mode activated. Some true whites can still be far too intense. And not everyone has spent their PIP on fancy expensive monitors like mine in order to be able to look at them for extended periods.
Perhaps they should give us an option to customise the screens to what we like, rather than what some flunkey in the design department decides to impose upon the customers.
Ah, understood! This is where custom colours for accessibility would really help then - as what suits one, may not suit another. For my PC, I use a hand me down 15 - 20 year old Sony television (HDMI) And my laptop either uses its default screen or shares the Sony. Maybe someday I'll get a fancier monitor - which would be very beneficial to the design work i do. Can't even get PIP
I would love to be able to set light, dark, and automatic with system. Hopefully, we at least get a dark mode implemented.
