Ubisoft has open-sourced its inner shade blindness simulation software, Chroma, to permit builders to fulfill the accessibility wants of individuals with the situation.
Chroma works by overlaying filters on gameplay with out hindering efficiency to simulate three main kinds of color blindness: Protanopia, Deuteranopia and Tritanopia.
Ubisoft stated the software is able to simulating stay gameplay as much as 60fps and is not depending on a selected engine. The corporate started growing Chroma in 2021 to allow its inner groups to raised tackle the accessibility wants of gamers.
Ubisoft director of accessibility, David Tisserand, stated Chroma has change into a “extremely environment friendly software” after a number of years of inner use and growth.
“It has allowed us to evaluate the accessibility of our video games for shade blind gamers a lot quicker and extra comprehensively than ever earlier than,” added Tisserand in a weblog submit.
“As a result of we imagine accessibility is a journey, not a race, we’re thrilled to share Chroma with the whole business. We invite everybody to learn from it, present suggestions, and contribute to its future growth.”
Ubisoft labored intently with accessibility consultants to develop Chroma
QC product supervisor Jawad Shakil defined Ubisoft confronted “important challenges” when growing the expertise however labored in tandem with accessibility consultants to refine Chroma earlier than releasing it for public use by way of GitHub.
“Chroma was created with a transparent objective—making shade blindness accessibility a pure a part of the artistic and testing course of,” stated Shakil. “The staff confronted and overcame important challenges whereas constructing it, however by means of shut collaboration with accessibility consultants and by refining the software based mostly on suggestions, they created an answer that eradicated lag and inaccuracies, making accessibility testing environment friendly and clean.
“Chroma is a testomony to the staff’s innovation and dedication; their work is already making a distinction in how we design video games with accessibility in thoughts. Open-sourcing Chroma is a proud step ahead, permitting everybody to learn from this innovation.”
Plenty of main studios have expanded their accessibility efforts lately. Microsoft established a complete division to create accessible {hardware} for Xbox, whereas Sony continues to bake sturdy accessibility choices into its {hardware} and software program.
Extra just lately, Nintendo, Microsoft, EA, and others united at GDC 2025 to launch the Accessible Video games Initiative to enhance the accessibility messaging on their merchandise.
