NEW m1 air finding @aiaf

IOMFBBrightnessCompensationEnable is true by default. setting it to false fixes "greenish" tint, the screen will now appear more red and more natural colors. this is a pretty big discovery as it even affects pure white meaning that with it on by default the white used to not actually be "true" white.

interesting thing is that toggling this doesn't seem to affect banding at all, which means it was probably using some additional temporal dithering-like method to achieve the "brightness compensation". so setting it to false probably reduces flicker even further. i feel noticeably more comfortable looking at a white background with it off while testing it toggling back and forth

Edit: Yeah this definitely improves things, before when I looked at light gray it almost felt like "looking at both bluish gray and reddish gray at the same time", almost as if both of my eyes were getting a different color each, which was really uncomfortable to look at. after turning brightness compesnation off it looks like the gray is purely made out of only a red tint instead which feels so much more natural to me

finally, also reporting that i was wrong saying before that turning off uniformity2D """doesn't do anything""" on m1 air, just tested it again and it actually does change things, so reccomended that m1 air users turn it off as well!

    DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

    Been a while since I've followed developments with StillColor. A few days ago, I've discovered that my m2 mbp tb is showing significant pixel flicker on blooey's test chart. In a previous post I showed it has almost no flicker which you said looked simply like camera noise. Now it is clearly showing flicker just like the a pc running windows 11. StillColor is activated, sonoma 14.4.1. Testing done with same 240fps camera as last time.

    I think people should continue testing on a periodic basis even after they think they finally found a "safe" setup.

    Previous post: https://ledstrain.org/d/2686-i-disabled-dithering-on-apple-silicon-introducing-stillcolor-macos-m1m2m3/750

        DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

        No. Still the same sonoma 14.4.1. Perhaps while using it, I got some hidden update? How do I see hidden updates if any? I have a similar but not quite same problem with a T480s running linux mint but that laptop only shows flickering after it has been running continuously after a certain amount of time (30 minutes at least) but stops after a day of being turned off. That lead to me briefly research and find a Texas Instruments article on display panel temperature dependent pixel artifacts.

            Rikl did you make sure framebufferBoolProperty in the BetterDisplayCLI command is "off", not "false"? i thought it didn't work at first because i was typing false but you actually need to type off

              photon78s That lead to me briefly research and find a Texas Instruments article on display panel temperature dependent pixel artifacts.

              Have you tried messing with temperature compensation as well?

              /Applications/BetterDisplay.app/Contents/MacOS/BetterDisplay set -namelike=built -framebufferBoolProperty=off -specifier=IOMFBTemperatureCompensationEnable

              It's also on by default, unlike backlight compensation I can't immediately see a difference but I wonder if it will affect that time you see pixel flicker on the test chart

              Also, are you also using the while loop script to force disable ambient light sensor contrast enhancenment?

                  DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs Yep. I was doing this: -framebufferNumericProperty=0x0 should have been this: framebufferBoolProperty=off.

                  Thank you.

                  Also, IOMFBContrastEnhancerStrength is always 0 for me. I'll mess with the IOMFBTemperatureCompensationEnable and see!

                      Rikl It seems like it's "always" 0 until using the laptop outside or it sometimes gets stuck after going back indoors, then it shoots up to really high numbers and you start to see "moving blotches" across certain colors that change in response to moving the mouse (which become obvious because dithering is also disabled, which means the OS can't "hide" these artifacts). Sometimes I also catch it moving very slightly in some brighter indoor locations but around lower numbers

                        DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

                        Still pixel flickering under the scope with both these scripts. The while loop script is immediately noticeable by naked eye. I let it run and re-test.

                            photon78s For MBP try with 60 hz. ProMotion has its own flicker issues.

                            This is still my setup on mbp m1. Didn't mess around with it for weeks. Along with blocked light sensor and 60 hz.

                            "enableDither": false,
"uniformity2D": false, // true
"overdriveCompCutoff": 0,
"enable2DTemperatureCorrection": false,
"AmbientBrightness": 0,
"DisableTempComp": true,

"IOMFBContrastEnhancerStrength": 0, // important to avoid text glow
"IOMFBTemperatureCompensationEnable": false, // has some effect
"IOMFBBrightnessCompensationEnable": false,
"IOMFBSupports2DBL": false, // no idea what this does

"VUCEnable": false, // true, visible effect, but not sure what, supposedly affects blotching
"enableDarkEnhancer": false, // true

"BLMAHMode": NSNumber(1), // 2 default. 1 seems better
"BLMPowergateEnable": false, // can't see any difference
"enableBLMSloper": false, // true

"enableDBMMode": false, // true on m1 max, not there on touchbar

"DisableDisplayOptimize": NSNumber(1), // 0, not sure if stable
"IdleCachingMethod": NSNumber(1), // 2, disables a flag that switches back and forth on activity. prevents colored cursor from switching color profile upon software/hardware cursor.

"APTEnableDefaultGray" : false, // no idea what it does
"APTEnablePRC": false,
"APTEnableCA": false,
"APTEnableCDFD" : false,
"APTPDCEnable": false,

"CMDegammaMethod": 0, // 1, sends colors directly or something, glowing

"APTFixedRR" : NSNumber(0),
"APTLimitRefreshRate" : false,

                                DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

                                @aiaf is it maybe an idea to add an option to StillColor to disable IOMFBContrastEnhancerStrength ?

                                It looks like IOMFBContrastEnhancerStrength is also messing with the screen

                                  Rikl

                                  So far none of these options seem to remove the pixel flicker under the microscope. I don't use this laptop as my daily driver so it is not urgent but strange to see this change in panel behavior.

                                      photon78s Maybe try DFU restore to earlier macOS version? Not just a reinstall but a full DFU restore - requires connecting to another Mac (or unofficially a Linux device) with USB-C - which is how you downgrade not only the OS but also the bootloader/firmware version

                                          DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

                                          Too bad I returned the other mac mini. Will look into this. In the meantime, if I'm going to use it for long periods of time, I would remote in or the lossy capture card approach from a PC.

                                              DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

                                              Yes, that's one. I would not say 100% not usable thought I've had more eyestrain lately but out of precaution I will not try finding out even more.

                                                dev