Ubisoft is a well-known video game publisher that has been in the news these days for their slip-ups and the bifurcation of their most popular titles like Assassin's Creed, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, and Far Cry into a separate subsidiary.
Many in the video gaming industry have been wondering whether Ubisoft knows what they are doing or are just winging it on a daily basis. But that's a topic we won't go into.
However, we will go into their latest move that took me by surprise.
Ubisoft Open Sources Chroma: What to Expect?
Chroma overlay on Hogwarts Legacy.
Chroma is a tool that simulates color vision deficiencies, also known as color blindness. It helps game developers create a more accessible gaming experience for gamers who are affected by this vision impairment.
Open sourced under the Apache 2.0 License, Chroma works by adding a filter over the game window, letting developers simulate how the game would appear to players with different types of color blindness. This gives the developers pointers on how they can better tweak the visuals to suit these players.
Chroma supports filters for Protanopia, Deuteranopia, and Tritanopia, with useful features like support for multiple monitors, being game engine agnostic, and having an intuitive user interface.
On the occasion, David Tisserand, Director of Accessibility at Ubisoft, added that:
Over the past few years, Chroma has proven to be a highly efficient tool for us at Ubisoft. It has allowed us to assess the accessibility of our games for colorblind players much faster and more comprehensively than ever before.
Because we believe accessibility is a journey, not a race, we're thrilled to share Chroma with the entire industry. We invite everyone to benefit from it, provide feedback, and contribute to its future development.
Closing Thoughts
It's not every day one hears Ubisoft and open source being mentioned in the same sentence—so when I saw it, I had to pause and read the announcement a second time. 😆
I tested the Chroma .exe on a Windows desktop, pairing it with Hogwarts Legacy, and the tool worked as intended (at least I think it did). I was able to apply the Deuteranopia filter without any issues, as shown above.
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