Disable Color Dither method collection

reaganry
Is this for windows only? Or there is some kind of AMD control-panel for macos?

Gleb could be windows only

Gleb After a bit of searching online it appears that from Catalina onwards kexts have to be signed by Apple in order to work, also I think the file system changes mean system files are permanently read-only regardless of SIP being switched off.

I downgraded to Mojave and installed Xcode - I made a slight mistake editing the plist and couldn't see a way to undo changes (doh) so will start over tomorrow and try again. Presumably I right-click FeatureControl and 'Add Row'? Then enter the details like you mentioned 'Dither' value '0'.

Do the changes happen immediately after adding the line or does the system need to be restarted first?

diop

diop Do the changes happen immediately after adding the line or does the system need to be restarted first?

I presume the later, I believe the kext plist is only loaded into memory when the kext is loaded, which a reboot would do.

I tried to recap what changed in past year, and at some point (6-8 month ago) I changed display brigthness contrast to
Brightness = 100
Contrast = 30

That was because I was doing some web-design and couldn't distinguish between shades of gray. So I worked with MAX brightness for more than half of the year.

Reading about CVS (Computer vision syndrome) I realized that 100% brightness is too much - eyes are exposed to w-led which causes eye strain (?). Maybe it is the same as looking at the sun or a bright lamp

So I dropped my Brightness to 20, and raised contrast to 70:

Now, letter edges are sharper, and the overall perception of the screen is more relaxed. Also, I no longer notice visual snow.

Hope this advise will help.

Gleb I did a fresh Mojave install / installed Xcode and then performed the steps as above. Added a row with Dither > 0 and restarted. I don't think it has made any difference to be honest.

Are there any other kexts that need changing or any other way you know of that OS X enables dithering?

Also AFAIK the Intel linux driver is open-source. I'm sure others here would also be interested to know if a Linux dither-disable is something that could be implemented.

Basically our aim (or certainly mine) is to 100% disable dithering (be it Windows/Linux/or Mac) to rule out the negative effects that may be caused by it. We can't rule it out as the root cause of our problems as we can't knowingly disable it or know if/how it is currently in use.

diop

So you put this setting inside your AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext? What I think about this: even if there is a notion of the setting, it doesn't mean driver code uses it. So maybe it is hardcoded, for example, to always dither.

It also happens for me on 10.15, I can't tell for sure that putting DitherDisable changes something (previously on 10.14 there was a definite shift of font crispness/color when switching to AMD).

I want some proof that dithering is on, but couldn't find any. I even did recording of what I see via remote desktop (VNC):
https://youtu.be/f1RiOukuKDg

Even there nothing changes when a picture is static. (There must be pixel dancing if dithering was on)

I might be getting a 50x Analog Zoom Camera to record individual pixels on video over this weekend. I no longer believe they are really jumping/morphing. It might be electricity AC that not static 220v, but varies from 200v to 240v in my apartment.

Maybe we are pursuing a wrong goal here, and the issue is in something different than dithering.

Can you share your experience? I guess it is Mac Mini connected to the external screen? If so, do you have issues when connecting this screen to a different computer? Is it easier on the eyes? Do you use the same cable between experiments?

Gleb "Maybe we are pursuing a wrong goal here, and the issue is in something different than dithering"

Not wishing to derail, but after doing a lot of testing on myself, and confirming with my own capture card - I am sensitive to dithering. But I am also sensitive to horizontally polarised light, dithering or no, a horizontally polarised LCD screen gets me every time. The common link between these two issues? as best I can tell its that both require extra visual processing by my brain to build a stable image.

Seagull

Do you have a sample video from your capture card? Will it be possible to notice anomalies using a regular screen?

Gleb Also I wonder if @JTL is able to connect the capture card to one of DP output? And record video of signal from mac.

I still need a spare desktop to run the capture card. I'll see if I can get something myself within a month else post again...

Gleb I want some proof that dithering is on, but couldn't find any. I even did recording of what I see via remote desktop (VNC):

VNC with what device as a client, and what device as the "server"?

JTL MacBook as server, iPhone as a client

Gleb Hmm. I think the dithering only happens at the GPU output stage so VNC probably wouldn't show anything.

martin Its really easy, buy yourself a replacement polarizer for an Iphone 7 or other IPS LCD using device. Hold it against the LCD you are testing and rotate till it goes dark. The polarisation angle of the device you are testing is +/-90degrees from the portrait orientation of the polarizer you are holding.

Gleb I'm fairly sure I still have the recordings and the software I wrote to analyse them, but I can't check or send you them at the moment as they are several hours away in my office and I won't be back there for a few weeks now. Also the files are huge. But yes, I was able to determine which cards were dithering and which weren't. see this thread https://ledstrain.org/d/703-i-have-bought-a-capture-card . I can't see the dithering introduced by graphics cards, I can only feel the pain it induces.

Gleb Can you share your experience? I guess it is Mac Mini connected to the external screen?

Yes it is - a Dell U2419H. I'm swapping the same HDMI cable between the good PC and Mac Mini for testing.

Also the point about AC not being static > smartphones run on a battery and cause strain so I'm pointing the finger at software.

Paid solutions such as VMWare utilise PCoIP which transmits the exact pixel-information instead of pre-rendering. If you sign up for a paid service (such as Shadow PC), I found symptoms even on a good PC. Which in my experience says it is definately something to do with pixels/rendering.

Hi,
I got curious why it is advised to leave "Automatically adjust brightness" on.
I have an iMac and I got some relief when I switched off automatic brightness and set brightness to 50% at night and to about 55-60% during the day. Lower brightness is uncomfortable to me, maybe because of more reflections from the screen, maybe because of some technologies used at lower brightness. I can only guess.

Without automatic brightness the image seems more stable to me. However, I understand that everything is very subjective in this field and depends on many factors, including even the physical condition at a specific moment.

I'd like to add to the recent discussion about Catalina. I have upgraded and I have a feeling that the drivers have changed (I have Radeon graphics). I still have a strain after some time of working with the text (I only have strain from the text), but it is different. No more dizziness, but there is some burning in the eyes after some time at the iMac. And after maybe 2 to 3 hours the eyes become very tired, like sleepy.

I have experimented a bit and what works best for me: brightness no less than 50%, native resolution 2560x1440, millions of colors in SwitchResX, "Best for external displays" setting in Parallels Desktop and no Coherence mode, 300% scaling in Windows, monospaced fonts like Consolas or Monaco in my work apps, automatic brightness off. I'm still trying different color profiles. Also, some programs are less straining than the others. Safari is the best in this respect, so now I use it instead of Chrome.

But this has not solved my issues, it just gives me more time to work at the computer. So it would really be great to have an app capable of switching off dithering or whatever is straining the eyes on Mac.

annv I got curious why it is advised to leave "Automatically adjust brightness" on.

No clue.