Ubisoft has made its colour-blind simulation tool, Chroma, publicly available after years of internal development and use. With around 300 million people globally affected by colour blindness, Chroma aims to help developers better understand and address their accessibility needs.
The open-source tool applies a filter over the game screen to replicate how colour-blind players perceive visuals—without impacting performance. Chroma allows developers to simulate different types of colour blindness in real-time while controlling the game, offering valuable insights during the creative and testing processes, according to Ubisoft.
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“Over the past few years, Chroma has proven to be a highly efficient tool for us at Ubisoft,” said David Tisserand, Director of Accessibility.
“It has allowed us to assess the accessibility of our games for colour-blind 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."
Chroma’s development began in 2021 through Ubisoft’s Quality Control (QC) team in India. The goal was to create a responsive tool that provides real-time feedback and eliminates lag and visual inaccuracies.
The current version is powered by the Color Oracle algorithm and is compatible with both dual and single screens. It supports hotkeys and features a customisable overlay for enhanced usability.
“Chroma was created with a clear purpose—making colour blindness accessibility a natural part of the creative and testing process,” said Jawad Shakil, QC Product Manager.
“The team faced and overcame significant challenges while building it... Open-sourcing Chroma is a proud step forward, allowing everyone to benefit from this innovation."
Chroma is now available for download at — https://github.com/ubisoft/UbiChroma