Ever noticed how heavily diluted colors on different bases tend to look the same? This is usually because they are. As demonstrated by these two gray (homozygous cream) Lusitano mares, 4558345 and 2779175, both horses are using the exact same images (body layer 5d3ac4fc1) for two different colors.

To avoid making new art or uploading duplicate images with different names, Horse Reality simply uses the same images for colors where the horse is so diluted, you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference anyway. However, this presents some challenges when trying to automatically name a color solely through its art. Realvision cannot tell the difference between a gray smoky cream or a gray perlino or cremello horse because it relies completely on the images used on the page, and never scans in-game gene tests.

Say you knew your horse was black-based and wanted the correct color name to appear on your prediction. You would use the base color selection boxes to choose E/e and a/a, making Realvision use the base appropriate name for that color: Gray on Smoky Cream. As a quick how-to, E_ aa is black-based, E_ A_ is bay-based, and ee __ is chestnut-based, where _ is any allele.

Please note that these selections are only taken into account when the tool finds duplicate entries for the same foal layers. Meaning most predictions with few or no dilutes will be predicted the same way as they would if you hadn't selected a base color - so no, in most cases, you do not need to use them. But feel free to go ahead and specify base color just in case you find a duplicate; it is up to you.

To preface this section, all white pattern selections are overridden if the tool can successfully find and match your foal's white layer. This is because we want to show you the accurate prediction as frequently as possible.

The white pattern selections are there for two situations: your foal has no white layers OR your foal has white layers, but they are disappearing in the prediction (untracked layers). If your foal has no white layers, but has roan, the "Roan" box must be used to show roan on your prediction. If your foal has no white layers, but has two rabicano parents, the "Rabicano" box must be used to show rabicano on your prediction. Due to the many questions asked about how rabicano works in RV, we have prepared another FAQ section for it.

In both situations, there is no possible way for us to check that it is "correct" that roan and rabicano should be added to the image. If Realvision does not detect or cannot match a white layer, it is free rein as far as addable white patterns go. For both roan and rabicano, the image applied will be the same per breed and per gender.

Here is how we designed these boxes to be used for different purposes using some examples:

1. A foal has rabicano, but it is not showing in the prediction because the layer has not been added to the database OR the foal has no white layers. Instead, you can add rabicano using the "Rabicano" box to see how the horse will or could look if it had rabicano. One of several variants will be applied if the foal is an Arabian, Finnhorse, Akhal-Teke, or Thoroughbred (usually the loudest variant). Other breeds with rabicano have no levels of expression.
2. A foal has roan, but it is not showing in the prediction because the layer has not been added to the database OR the foal has no white layers. Instead, you can add roan using the "Roan'' box to see how the horse will or could look if it had roan.

"Some or all of this foal's layers are not able to be predicted right now"

"No data is available for this horse, sorry"

Three things could be happening:

1. If its only white pattern is roan and/or rabicano without any white layers as a foal, read this section.
2. The white layer is not in the database or has not been matched to equivalent layers for a mare or stallion. Realvision has no white layer images to give you, so it returns just the base color.
3. The white patterns you selected do not exist in the breed. Read this section of the FAQ to see when the white pattern selection boxes are actually used.

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: It depends on your foal and/or breed. We will try to simplify this as much as possible, as many users have gotten very confused about this system, even though it is fundamentally no different from showing any other white patterns. As each foal layer is linked to a specific adult layer, we are able to see that a unique foal white layer will lead to the rabicano pattern in adulthood.

A good way to look at rabicano and roan predictions is that, like any other white pattern or marking, they require an existing white layer on the foal to function. Unfortunately, the only workarounds for this problem are too unreliable or are not worth the development time solely to avoid manual user input.

There is no way to know if your foal is rabicano if they have no white layers and have not been produced from a rabicano x rabicano.

This is a plus-minus sign, meaning "with or without" in this context. You will see this symbol when your foal's layers are shared with a slightly different genotype, but with the same phenotypical result.

Some instances that you will see this symbol include: certain QH white patterns (some W10 layers and OLW layers can be used for a horse with or without SW1 or other genes), a certain bugged Mustang color (bay champagne with or without cream), and CR/CR Brumbies that may or may not have silver.

The presence of a ± symbol does not mean that the image result is inaccurate.

OK, this is not a frequently asked question, but we decided to include it in the FAQ anyway to pay homage to all of the wonderful people who have volunteered to help us.

There are more than 9,000 individual art layers in this game. Understandably, it has taken a lot of time to find them all. We started Realvision in August of 2021 and are still working on it today. Everyone who has created breed color guides or helped collect layers is credited on the site. We couldn't have tackled this huge project without your help - thank you.

We would like to give special thanks to Jessa, who came up with this idea in the first place and jump-started the entire process, and Foam, who greatly contributed to the layer collections of most breeds.