I thought I had it - but it turns out it’s only a workaround that must be performed every time I start the sim. I’m attaching the good color and bad color screenshots. Whenever the sim initiates,! it’s always the bad color scheme. If I go into Options > General and change the resolution of my monitor, then save/apply, then go back into the sim - voila it’s perfect. Doesn’t really matter what I change it to - any change of resolution resets the color scheme to what I’ve set up?
