Coms menu color

[AvgWhiteGuy]

Anybody know a way to change the Coms menu text color in the upper right hand part of screen? 

With sh#tty eyesight I can't read it during daylight with no background contrast. If there was a way to change text colors OR reduce the transparency of it's background that would be great. It's not like it would hinder overall view if it's background was less transparent.

Thanks,

[adamant365]

This is definitely possible, but I don't know which .lua files to edit. I was able to successfully change the heading color to green (where it says ARC-210) and some of the menu headers, but I wasn't able to change the actual contact list (Flight... ATC... etc.) or actions fully. I was able to change the "background" (shadow) to green, but the "foreground" main text color is still white. I probably changed 15 different 0xffffffff (white) values to 0x00ff00ff but the color is still basically a very light green because the main text is still white.

Anyone know how to change the text color of the actual options within the radio submenus??

[adamant365]

Okay, I figured it out. These changes will change all radio menus and submenus, the actual communication text between you and ATC, your wingman, etc., and the tutorial text. It's straight green which I think is a good compromise and is highly visible even against white clouds. Haven't tested much but it's a start. This is the end result:

BACK UP ALL FILES YOU ARE GOING TO MODIFY BEFORE CHANGING THEM. I take no responsibility for breaking your game and this certainly wouldn't be supported by ED. I haven't done much testing as I just figured this out. 

I modified the following files:

<DCS Install>\Scripts\Common:

'utils.lua' - added a line in the COLOR { section "GREEN = makeColor (0,255,0)":

COLOR = {
    WHITE         = makeColor(255, 255, 255),
    LIGHT_GRAY     = makeColor(200, 200, 200),
    DARK_GRAY     = makeColor(74, 74, 74),
    RED         = makeColor(125, 75, 0),
    BLUE         = makeColor(0, 75, 125),
    BLACK         = makeColor(0, 0, 0),
    GREEN        = makeColor(0, 255, 0)
}

*Make sure you insert a comma at the end of the BLACK line

<DCS Install>\Scripts\UI

'GameMessages.dlg' - changed every line that was 0xffffffff -or- 0xf5f5f4ff -or- 0x000000ff to: 0x00ff00ff

<DCS Install>\Scripts\UI\RadioCommandDialogPanel:

'CommandMenu.lua' - changed every line with WHITE to GREEN. Also changed every line that was 0xffffffff or 0x000000ff to: 0x00ff00ff
'RadioCommandDialogsPanel.lua' - changed every line with WHITE to: GREEN. 
'CommandDialogsPanel.dlg' - changed every line with 0xffffffff or 0x000000ff to: 0x00ff00ff
'CommandDialog.lua' - changed every line with 0xffffffff or 0x000000ff to: 0x00ff00ff

Finally, I saved copies of the modified files to a separate folder on my PC so I can potentially restore them after any updates. This works now but may not in the future.

If you want a color other than straight green, you can find the hex code for that color on the web. Search for HTML CSS Color Online Color library. The 'ff' at the end appears to be constant in DCS. Only the first six digits after 0x need changing. And if you want a different text color for the ATC text, you can substitute all of my "GREEN" entries with whatever. The x,x,x number (0, 255, 0 for GREEN) is the RGB value, also available on the HTML color library. 

I know there's a way to include a background around the ATC menus because one of my tests I had accidentally made the whole thing a big green box. I don't remember which change though...

Edited March 21, 2023 by adamant365