Show Color Tool questions

[Simerion]

** edited due to showing up in Google search

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

Never used the tool, but according to the wiki it should show the RGB colours. It does however say this:

> Show Color Under Cursor - Show the RGB color values of the object the cursor is on.

It mentions object, not pixel, maybe that's a pointer.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Show color under cursor shows the RGB value, ignore the fourth and last number.  Actually mine is always zero.  Please note two things thought

1. The color values it is showing is the color of the pixel directly under the pixel.  Something like a skin has many different colors in it, so choose the mid range color in the skin for best match.  Some skin creators give you the recommended color to use with each tone of their skin.  You may want to check at the skin shop and see if this available or IM the creator and ask.

2. If  you are writing a script and you try to put the Color Under Cursor numbers directly into a script, you will get the error you mentioned.  That is because scripts use color vectors, which look like this: <1.0, 1.0, 1.0>.  One is the highest number and is white, 0.0 is the lowest number and is black..  What you need to do is convert the numbers you get with" color under cursor" into vectors.  The script below will do this.  You rez a prim, put this script into it and color it with the "color under cursor" numbers using the edit box, then touch the prim and it will say the vector color..

Some shoe HUDS allow you to enter the RGB values and then automatically convert them to the color vector, a few don't. If you are doing this with a HUD, try entering the color as a vector.

 

init() {     llSetColor(<1,1,1>, ALL_SIDES); } colorize() {     integer s;     vector color = llGetColor(1);     llWhisper(0, "Current Color Vector: [ "+(string)color+" ]"); } default {     state_entry()     {     init();     }     on_rez(integer a)     {         init();     }     touch_start(integer total_number)     {         colorize();     }     changed(integer change)     {         if (change & CHANGED_COLOR)         {             colorize();         }     } }

 

[Chosen Few]

I never even noticed that tool was there.  Cool.

After having just played with it for a few seconds now, the functionality is quite clear.  The first three numbers are most definitely RGB values.  You can see this easily enough, simply by applying a solid color pattern to a prim, fullbrighting it, and hovering over each color.

The fourth number is the opacity value for UI elements, and for post processsing effects.  For example, if my build floater is open, but doesn't have focus, that fourth number reads it reads 63 when I hover over the the main gray areas of the floater.  If I click the floater to give it focus, it becomes more opaque, and the reading jumps up to 143.  In either state, if I hover over the arrow icon on the Edit button, it reads a solid 255, since that particular area of the floater is never see-thru.

If I apply any amount of glow to a prim, the fourth number will read 255 when I hover over the prim.  If I hover over a selection outline, the number fluctuates up and down as the outline pulsates.

You can safely ignore the fourth for what you're trying to do.  It should remain at zero whenever you hover over your avatar's skin, and should be at 255 whenever you hover over a texture in the prview floater.

 

By the way, just so you know, if you have Photoshop, there's no need to even bother with this tool.  Photoshop's eyedropper can sample any pixel on the screen, whether it hapens to be occupied by a Photoshop document or not.  Just click from anywhere within a Photoshop document, drag to whatever else you want to sample, and release.

 

Whatever tool you use, be careful of one thing when sampling screen pixels to try to match coloring.  In-world lighting conditions will affect your readings.  If you're saming the top of your avatar's head, it's going to yield a different value than if you're sampling underneath the chin, even if the skin is a totally solid color.  If the top of the head has sunlight shining down on it, the area under the chin will be in shadow, and vice versa. 

The only way to get an accurate color reading is to open up the skin texture in the previewer, and sample directly from there.  But even then, a one-pixel sample could be misleading.  Well made skins textures tend to be full of deliberate impperfections.  If you sample a freckle, for example, it's going to be darker than the apparent overall skin tone. 

This is where the Photoshop eyedropper may be preferable to the in-world tool. You can set it to give you the average color within a several-pixel radius of the cursor, rather than just giving you the exact color of the one pixel under the cursor.

 

Also, so you're aware, there was zero chance it could have been CMYK.  That particular color space only exists for inkjet printers.  It's a subtractive color model, which simply couldn't be applicable in an addtive lighting environment like SL.  3D applications tend to use RGB and/or HSV.

 

@Kwak:  It would appear the wording in the wiki is wrong.  (Not the first time.)  It definitely works per pixel, not per object.  I've edited the wiki to correct it.  Of course, the whole thing is out of date anyway, since it still lists it as being under the Advanced menu instead of the Develop menu.  Correcting that is more than I care to tackle right now.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

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Chosen Few wrote:

 

@Kwak:  It would appear the wording in the wiki is wrong.  (Not the first time.)  It definitely works per pixel, not per object.  I've edited the wiki to correct it.  Of course, the whole thing is out of date anyway, since it still lists it as being under the Advanced menu instead of the Develop menu.  Correcting that is more than I care to tackle right now.

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Hence the "maybe".. I thought it didn't make sense..anyway glad you fixed that...