Color

Color scheme for a projectile, house, or Tiberium type; the multiplayer setting holds the index of the player's preferred color.

Voxel projectile remap

Specification — Voxel projectile remap

Applies to: BulletType
File: rules.ini
Section: [<ObjectType ID>]
Value: color scheme
When omitted: ComputedThe first color scheme declared in [Colors].

The value names a color scheme declared in [Colors], in any letter case. A name that [Colors] does not declare leaves the projectile on the scheme it already had.

Only a projectile drawn as a voxel model uses the scheme. The model is drawn through it, so the scheme sets the model’s remap colors. A projectile drawn from a shape, or one marked Inviso=yes, takes no color from this setting.

[ChemMissile]
Image=MISLCHEM ; an art section marked Voxel=yes
Color=DarkGreen

The scheme belongs to the projectile type. It does not follow the house that fired the projectile, as a unit’s colors do.

Country color

Specification — Country color

Applies to: HouseType
File: rules.ini
Section: [<ObjectType ID>]
Value: color scheme
When omitted: ComputedThe first color scheme in the loaded list.

The value names an entry in [Colors], in any letter case. A name that matches no entry leaves the country on the scheme it already had. The Color overview describes [Colors] and the other Color= settings.

[GDI]
Color=Gold

Every house of this country starts with this scheme and draws everything it owns in it. The setting has a visible effect only in a campaign game, and there a house record in the scenario map can override it for that one house with Color=.

In a skirmish or multiplayer game, each human player’s house takes the color picked in the lobby, and each computer player gets an unused color at random or the one a launch file names. The Neutral and Special houses are drawn in LightGrey. The country’s Color= is not used.

Lobby setup also changes the country’s scheme, and the alliance, declaration-of-war and connection messages about a player take their color from the country, not the house. In a lobby game these messages therefore show one of the first four schemes declared in [Colors], chosen by the lobby color of the last house of that country to be set up. They do not show the player’s color.

Tiberium remap

Specification — Tiberium remap

Applies to: Tiberium
File: rules.ini
Section: [<ObjectType ID>]
Value: color scheme
When omitted: 0The scheme of the first entry in `[Colors]`.

The value names a color scheme declared in the rules’ [Colors] section, in any letter case. A name that [Colors] does not declare leaves the type on the scheme it already had.

The scheme recolors three things:

the type’s overlays on the battlefield, though not on the radar minimap;
the CellAnim animation a Tiberium overlay of this type starts when it is placed;
the Debris animation left when a TiberiumChainReaction=yes animation clears a cell of this type.

Scenario house color

Specification — Scenario house color

Applies to: House (per-scenario)
File: map file
Section: [<House ID>]
Value: color scheme
When omitted: InheritedThe color scheme the house's country sets, from its Color= in the rules.

Parse behavior

a per-scenario override of the house's color, read from the house's own section in the map file

The value names a color scheme declared in [Colors], in any letter case. A name that [Colors] does not declare leaves the house on its country’s color.

[Nod] ; a house record in the scenario's house list
Color=DarkRed

The scheme colors everything the house owns: its infantry, vehicles, aircraft and structures, and their dots on the radar. Messages shown in the house’s color, such as its low-power warning, use it too.

The setting overrides the country’s Color= for this scenario only. The country’s setting is unchanged.

Only a campaign mission reads its house records, so the setting has no effect in skirmish or multiplayer. There, each house takes the color its player picked in the lobby.

Preferred multiplayer color

Specification — Preferred multiplayer color

Applies to: multiplayer settings
File: SUN.INI
Section: [MultiPlayer]
Value: integer
When omitted: 0

The value is a position in the lobby’s eight-color list, counted from 0: gold, red, blue, green, orange, sky blue, purple, pink. It preselects the color box in the skirmish and network game dialogs. The color picked there is written back to [MultiPlayer] in SUN.INI when you leave the dialog.

In a network game, the host can move a player to another color, for example when the chosen one is already taken. The player then sees a color-in-use message, and the new color becomes the saved preference.

Each position picks an entry of the rules’ [Colors] section by its place in that section, not by name. The table counts the entries from 1 and gives the name the stock rules have at that place.

Position	Lobby color	`[Colors]` entry	Stock name
`0`	gold	2nd	`Gold`
`1`	red	11th	`DarkRed`
`2`	blue	24th	`DarkBlue`
`3`	green	37th	`DarkGreen`
`4`	orange	14th	`Orange`
`5`	sky blue	28th	`DarkSky`
`6`	purple	20th	`Purple`
`7`	pink	17th	`Magenta`

Reordering [Colors] therefore changes the color each lobby position gives. Keep at least 37 entries in [Colors], or the green position names an entry that does not exist.

A value outside 0 to 7 shows gold in the color box. In skirmish, gold is used and saved. In a network game, pick a color in the lobby; otherwise the out-of-range value is kept, and the house does not get one of the eight lobby colors.

This page covers five Color= settings. Four take a color scheme name and one takes a number, so the file you are writing decides what a valid value looks like.

The four scheme names, each written in the section of the type or house it colors:

Voxel projectile remap: a projectile’s section in the rules. It colors the projectile’s voxel model in flight.
Country color: a country’s section in the rules. It is the color every house of that country starts with.
Scenario house color: a house record in a campaign map. It recolors that one house for that one mission.
Tiberium remap: a Tiberium type’s section in the rules. It colors the Tiberium overlay and the animations it creates.

Each name is looked up, in any letter case, among the schemes the rules declare in [Colors]. Each entry there names a color scheme and gives the hue, saturation and value its colors are built from.

The number is the preferred multiplayer color. It lives in [MultiPlayer] of the player’s settings file, SUN.INI, and is a position in the lobby’s eight-color list, not a name the rules know.

A spawned game reads one more Color=, in each person’s section of the spawn file. It gives the lobby color that person plays.

See also — Inviso, Voxel, PlayerControl, Credits, Edge, Multiplay, Side, Handle, tiberium, Debris