A few simple changes to the existing photon system would greatly improve it. First, FILT can color photons based on its deco color as well as its temperature. Paint some room-temperature FILT orange and now it colors PHOT/BRAY/CRAY orange, despite its temperature. This would (finally) allow for purple PHOT without finding some ridiculous way to alternate blue and red FILT.

Second, FILT is currently heated by PHOT traveling through it. This needs to change. I've experimented with making colored lightbulbs in TPT, and the blue FILT turned red when the bulb was producing PHOT. Why should an element designed to color light passing through it be heated by said light and change color?

boxmein:

@CubicApocalypse (View Post)
You could try combining colours with FILT the tmp of 1. That will add its colour to what PHOT already has, so red FILT turns blue PHOT to magenta PHOT.

But then there's still the problem of keeping the red and blue separate, and what if I'd rather have a more indigo color than magenta?

jacksonmj:

As for the other idea, finding the set of wavelengths (which is the thing used for photon colour) that most closely matches a given deco colour is a non-trivial problem. It may be possible, but rather tricky.

Then why not just make deco colors on FILT act exactly like on other elements? When I first tried painting a filter, it had the same darkened appearance as a legitimate FILT color, and was incredibly disappointed when I found out that it didn't affect the color produced.

There's also a problem with CRAY. PHOT created by filtered CRAY is still white, but its deco color is the same as the filter's color. I expected it to have been colored as it would had it actually passed through the FILT. Can this be fixed?

And one more thing. I'm trying to make a set of colored tubes that glow for a few frames after being sparked, and there is absolutely nothing that I can use that glows its deco color and doesn't change the color of the FILT. Am I supposed to be building these huge thermostat systems to keep the FILT at the same color? At this point I should probably just go ahead and suggest a new element in a different thread.

jacksonmj:

Deco colours on FILT do work the same way as on other elements. The problem is that photon colours do not work the same way as other colours.

 

What I meant by "act the same as on other elements" was this: When FILT is painted white, the result color is a light gray. FILT deco colors should not be darkened like legitimate FILT colors.

And about filtered CRAY producing decorated photons: It's obviously not impossible to spawn colored photons; fusion reactions do it already. Since CRAY can already create decorated elements based on FILT color, why not make it spawn colored PHOT instead of decorated PHOT?