I was wondering this as well. I reckon it should be a configurable option in the 1.1 update. Ironclad, make it happen!

You have to redo the particle file, and remove the GSExhaust rendering effects. This should make it a blank slate, and then you can put in whatever color you want.

Hope this helps!

DANMAN

The color0 seems to have the colour before it gets to the that file I think. I removed all the changes and it was just a solid colour but the colour was still the team colour.

I believe the exhaust coloring is currently hardcoded, since the engine does not respond to the change of pipeline effects. This also voids any need to try and modify the GS_Exhaust.fx file itself.
And yes, I do not think you can write your own custom shaders and pipeline effects. That would be seriously cool to be able to do, since I know other games which allow modders to do this kind of work (often with very interesting results), but alas here this isn't the case it seems.

The thing is, I don't believe you can change the exhaust shader to remove the team coloring, since changing the shader itself in the Particle Forge yields no effect. That means the coloring is done outside of the shader system (as far as I understand how the engine works).

Yeah, I fixed it (hopefully).

You have to disable the first render pass in the GS_Exhaust.fx file:

shared float4x4 g_ViewProjection : ViewProjection;

texture g_TextureDiffuse0 : Diffuse;
texture g_TextureDiffuse1 : Diffuse;
float colorMultiplier = 1.f;

void RenderSceneFirstPassVS(
float3 iPosition : POSITION,
float4 iColor0 : COLOR0,
float2 iTexCoord0 : TEXCOORD0,
out float4 oPosition : POSITION,
out float4 oColor0 : COLOR0,
out float2 oTexCoord0 : TEXCOORD0)
{
oPosition = mul(float4(iPosition, 1), g_ViewProjection);
oColor0 = float4(iColor0.rgb * colorMultiplier, iColor0.a);
oTexCoord0 = iTexCoord0;
}
void RenderSceneSecondPassVS( -->CHANGE TO void RenderSceneVS
float3 iPosition : POSITION,
float4 iColor0 : COLOR0,
float2 iTexCoord0 : TEXCOORD0,
out float4 oPosition : POSITION,
out float4 oColor0 : COLOR0,
out float2 oTexCoord0 : TEXCOORD0)
{
oPosition = mul(float4(iPosition, 1), g_ViewProjection);
float c = colorMultiplier;
oColor0 = float4(c, c, c, iColor0[3]);
oTexCoord0 = iTexCoord0;
}

technique RenderWithoutPixelShader
{
pass Pass0
{
VertexShader = compile vs_1_1 RenderSceneFirstPassVS();-->CHANGE TO RenderSceneVS()
PixelShader = NULL;
ZWriteEnable = false;
AlphaTestEnable = false;
AlphaBlendEnable = true;
SrcBlend = SRCALPHA;
DestBlend = ONE;
Texture[0] = ;
}

pass Pass1
{
VertexShader = compile vs_1_1 RenderSceneSecondPassVS();
PixelShader = NULL;
ZWriteEnable = false;
AlphaTestEnable = false;
AlphaBlendEnable = true;
SrcBlend = SRCALPHA;
DestBlend = ONE;
Texture[0] = ;
}

}

Delete or comment the red sections, and make the necessary syntax changes. I got mine to drop all coloring and display a black-and-white original texture used in the particle file. Try it with something coloured, should work. Don't have time myself as I have an exam in an hour.
Hope it works!

**edit**
something is messed up with the forum, it cuts off some of my comments. Make sure you change the Texture[0]=[g_TextureDiffuse1]; to Texture[0]=[g_TextureDiffuse0]; if necessary!

Bugger. I was afraid of that. Ah well, that's what testing is for.

I played with the shaders today some more, but to no effect. If its possible to make the shader pick up the color of the particle texture, I don't know how to do it.

Yeah this is what I discovered when trying to mod the shaders too, you can change them sure but you can't change how the game engine uses them outside of the particle system -entity files and thats the real killer.

I can see why IC and SD did it, they had a game to get out and limited resources it shouldn't be too hard to revisit for the expansion if its on their radar.