How to change the colour of your ship's HUD in Elite: Dangerous

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Image source: Kirisute

Whatever the colour of your Elite: Dangerous ship, one seemingly immutable constant has been the colour of the on-board computer. It's orange. Very orange. The pop-up HUD forms the basis for every action in the game, from using space station services to plotting your next jump. And while the existing palette is quite fetching, a little variety wouldn't go amiss.

To change HUD colour, first you'll need to find a file called GraphicsConfiguration.xml. It should be in the EDLaunch root directory, in the folder "Products\FORC-FDEV-D-1000".

Once found, open the file in a text editor like Notepad++. You're looking for the following section:



Standard
1, 0, 0
0, 1, 0
0, 0, 1

One more thing. We're editing a file the game uses to do stuff, so it's always a good idea to save an unaltered back up copy before you make any changes.

Once you've done that, though, it's time to go to town. By editing the values of MatrixRed, MatrixGreen and MatrixBlue, you'll change the HUD's colour. But which numbers to use? Anything between 0 and 1 is fine—0.5, for example, or 0.27. Go wild, and try things out. Or, use this tool, which lets you play with sliders to find the right look and then tells you the values to use.

Can't be bothered with sliders? Reddit user Megazen has some suggested styles, and pictures to go along with them.

Once you've entered your own custom numbers, save the file and open Elite: Dangerous. That's it, you're done. And if you want to see just how well such a simple tweak works in game, here's a video of a nice blue hue.

Phil Savage
Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.