I disabled dithering on Apple silicon + Introducing Stillcolor macOS M1/M2/M3

Donux

Rikl Problem is really for folks that live in countries where there is no return policy for electronics.

Rikl

bpo19

Rikl Interesting because when I open BetterDisplay, the screen automatically gets really bright and then I have to turn it down. Are you using specific settings in BetterDisplay? I just open it and haven't changed anything. I do think I got a bad panel. It really seems like auto brightness is turned on even though it is off. Also at start up on the wifi screen, it wouldnt load, I had to keep pressing enter several times for it to finally go through. Maybe I will order another one and see if it's any better. Is yours usable for you now?

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

bpo19 Interesting because when I open BetterDisplay, the screen automatically gets really bright and then I have to turn it down.

in main tab of BD settings, turn off "combined brightness" and turn off "apple hardware backlight control" in the section for your internal laptop display

in keyboard tab, turn off "map brightness shortcuts to apple brightness keys"

this will prevent betterdisplay from messing with your brightness level

honestly i really personally dislike that betterdisplay changes a bunch of brightness settings for new users the moment they first open it, switching to combined brightness (which messes with your color profile) etc… it should just leave settings the same as stock IMO until they're changed, at least in regards to the internal laptop display. turning those specific settings off should prevent it from messing around with stuff like that

Rikl

bpo19 It's useable but not like the early led backlights from the 2000s. If you know of one like that, please let us know. AFAIK, BetterDisplay should not be able to make the screen any brighter than the Mac Fn keys. BTW. FontSmoothingAdjuster needs restart after changing the setting.

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

btw, just as an update, i do NOT reccomend BetterDisplay color adjustments in "Metal mode" on m1air, it definitely adds flicker that i can literally notice with my own eyes. (the moment i turned off Metal mode while in a dark room, i could visibly see the flicker vanish, LOL)

instead, just use the regular (default) "Color table mode" for color adjustments.

ignore my previous posts about trying metal mode, there's a chance that maybe that is better on other laptops, but NOT the m1air. the default color table adjustments work better (as long as Stillcolor is activated)

i am actually not using any color adjustments at all, i don't even have BetterDisplay open. i just use Stillcolor, and around 8 squares of hardware brightness, and that is working really well

Rikl

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs So did you decide that overdriveCompCutoff does not make a difference -- as you need BetterDisplay to set it. Or do you have another way. Are you using the standard ColorLCD profile. Thanks.

bpo19

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs ok thank you. I haven't even used the m1 today, I am back on my 2015 mbp. I am going to purchase another one just to see if it's any better. I also checked rtings and it says the m1 and m2 air are flicker free. That's not accurate, is it?

waydabber

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs - the simplest way is to switch to this:

The reason the app takes control over the brightness keys by default (if permissions are enabled) is that this is required in order to control external displays. But if there are no external displays it's not needed. This setting might be like this by default but that would create an inconsistency when the user connects an external display which might be annoying in an other way.

About either color table or Metal based adjustments reducing flicker or causing flicker, I honestly don't see how that would be the case as both simply remap one color to an other but does not create "new" colors that require extra dithering or introduce extra PWM or use any kind of active method thing like introducing app-induced extra temporal dithering (which could be possible, but I did not implement such a thing). So I believe the effect is more psychological (I don't want to downplay the benefit of that of course) than psychical but of course I might be wrong and might not understand all aspects of the experience. 🙂

madmozg

bpo19 m2/m3 flickers very slightly on darker gradients/colors

karut

bpo19 Wouldn't it be better to try the MBP M2 TB? Perhaps the differences between panels of the MBA M1 is smaller the difference in display technology between the MBP and the MBA?

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

madmozg m1air does the same thing too, but doesn't personally bother me on the m1 even though it totally does it on camera

bpo19

karut I was going to try the MBP M2 TB first, but @DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs findings is that M1 Air is easier on the eyes using StillColor so I tried that first.

@Rikl Haven't found one yet. M2 Air was the most tolerable apple product that I tried last year but still returned it. I wonder how it would be with StillColor. Are you keeping the M1? Does it give you eye strain and/or headaches?

Rikl

waydabber My issue with Metal was that it used around 5-6% cpu at all times. Also, when using Stage Manager it would dim/brighten the screen in full screen mode. I'm sure neither of these things have anything to do with BetterDisplay.

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

waydabber both simply remap one color to an other but does not create "new" colors that require extra dithering

So it's specifically telling Metal to remap the colors within a quantized 8-bit or 10-bit space? I would assume that Metal adjustments would be instead probably using the full floating-point 16-bit color space (which the macOS desktop has used for compositing since OS X Tiger) which definitely would introduce "new colors"

I already know that spatial dithering is still used in Metal powered apps in macOS even after disabling temporal dithering, as Preview and Quick Look will show 10-bit gradients with spatial dithering (which you can even see if you Ctrl-zoom in) at least on the m1air, implying that Metal or the WindowServer compositor has at least some form of dithering (but maybe not the moving kind) in some part of its process

All I know is that I was randomly having a REALLY hard time focusing on the screen, then I realized metal adjustments were on (which I forgot had re-enabled itself by launching at login, so I actually wasn't conciously aware for a while that my Metal adjustments had turned themselves back on in any way), then when I finally realized, I quit BetterDisplay (I was in a dark room) and I literally saw flicker stop and solid colors suddenly become a lot more "clean looking" after the adjustments disabled

FWIW this has only happened on the m1air 👀

Metal adjustments didn't cause this issue for me on M2 Touch Bar Pro, and I totally don't think it would affect anything on external monitors either (would be interesting to test with a capture card) — I remember the screen still looking totally crisp and smooth on the M2 TB Pro after switching from color table mode to Metal mode. So this is a very m1air specific issue

The regular "color table adjustments" mode works fine on m1air and doesn't introduce the type of flicker that I can see in Metal mode

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

Rikl I'm saying don't use BetterDisplay in the "Metal mode" (which is something that is not activated by default). You can still use it in regular, default "Color table adjustments mode" just fine.

Just disable "combined brightness" and "map brightness to apple brightness keys" so you retain your original native brightness keys behavior instead of it adding software dimming

So keep using BetterDisplay and just run the overdriveCompCutoff command at login

Compared to Metal mode where I actually saw flicker stop and start in a dark room, I don't actually know if overdriveCompCutoff is truly doing anything, but it seems to make the screen slightly lower contrast after setting it to 0 so I still use it

async

Did anyone find a way to reliably clear out old config stuff from com.apple.windowserver.displays.plist in Sonoma? Previously you could delete the file and reboot, but that doesn't work anymore. I would prefer a way that simply requires reconnecting the monitor.

I can wipe out the ByHost file just fine, but the main one are simply recreated whenever you remove something it needs. After a ton of experimentation my external display works with a single cable on one port, then on another it just blinks (when BetterDisplay tries to push the EDID), and on the last it ignores the timings and limits it to 1024 resolution or something.

Experimentation with EDID is made somewhat hard when you don't have a reliable way to know if

async

Also, did anyone figure out what Normal Mode is? After applying a custom EDID on my external screen with 8 bit, my ioreg watcher suddenly picked up that it changed on its own.

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

async NormalMode was described here https://ledstrain.org/d/2686-i-disabled-dithering-on-apple-silicon-introducing-stillcolor-macos-m1m2m3/291

Rikl

bpo19 I've had the M1 since 2021 and used it sparingly because of the eyestrain. So I didn't use screens as much as I'd like to. With Stillcolor, I can use the M1 much longer. At one point I bought an M2 to replace it, but side-by-side it was much worse than M1 so I returned the M2.

I haven't found a modern screen that does not give me eyestrain. That's why I asked if you knew of one.

I don't get headaches so that's something.

karut

bpo19 But he also mention a possible IF:

The 00000000 panels on M2 TB Pro are better and don't cause the same symptoms, but yeah m1air (at least my panel) is wayyyyy better in terms of more "relaxing" contrast, colors, and less glare as long as the "dips in brightness on every frame" don't affect you.

That's why I said that perhaps the MBP is worth trying 😉

bpo19

Rikl No, I wish. Still on a 2015 mbp, iphone 8, and a non-smart lg tv. Haven't been able to replace any. I also tried an hp, dell, and msi and tried to use ditherig but it didn't work. What I was going to try next is one more M1 air to see if I win the panel lottery and was also looking at an lg gram to try out but I'm not hopeful lol.

karut

Rikl You mean M1 with Stillcolor is more comfortable than M2 MBA with Stillcolor?

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