Screen is DARK - Both OS X and Diablo 3

[Sean Dempsey]

So I am rocking this new RMBP. It looks great, but the screen is just DARK. I am running it on max brightness and have calibrated, but it's just dark.

Where it is most visible is in Diablo 3, the game is just really dark, like I can barely see the mini map. I have turned the gamma up in the game, but that doesn't really help.

Anyone else experiencing this? It's not that the screen is dim, it's that the bottom end of the gamma curve is just really black, like it's crushing blacks.

I will take a side-by-side pic when I get home.

 

[hfm57]

I've noticed this on my mbp 13. Gaming is definitely better on my old Asus n61jq with a crap 16" 1366x768 panel. Even though it's a little "washed out" compared to the Mac, seeing details is way easier and looks more like what is intended. Maybe there is a way to calibrate it to actually not make everything look too dark? It's almost like anything that's dark just ends up looking black.

I even notice it just visiting diablo3 forums on battle.net. There's a texture there on the forum post lists that just gets lost.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

Everything is very dark on the low end. It's startling compared to my 2011 MBA 11". It's just all black and washed out on the low end.

 

[Dangerous Theory]

Please screenshot?

 

[Sean Dempsey]

Please screenshot?

A screenshot won't show this, it will have to be a photograph.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

This is an accurate depiction of the screen. See how there are NO details in the dark parts, how you can't really see where the game box edges are. On my imac/mba, these are clearly distinct and have proper brightness and contrast.

This is MAX brightness on a calibrated display - this launcher screen isn't impacted by the game brightness, this is an OS X and screen thing. I can NOT get it to go any brighter.

The game itself is even worse.

 

[Eriksrocks]

Interesting, on will test this on my own RMBP when I get home.

 

[Dangerous Theory]

Ah yeah that's definitely too dark :/. Presumably you tried several colour profiles? Does D3 have in-game control of display settings?

 

[Sean Dempsey]

Ah yeah that's definitely too dark :/. Presumably you tried several colour profiles? Does D3 have in-game control of display settings?

This isn't in-game. And this isn't a problem with Diablo, it's all of OS X, I just happened to notice when loading Diablo since it relies so much on dark and light contrast. Also - even inside the game at max brightness, it is extremely dark and you can't see any "dark" ui elements like the mini map.

The calibration of the monitor is correct, I use a Spyder3. It's just that the low end contrast of this is all crushed down to black. Can't really decide if this is software, or hardware. Feels like hardware. A big bummer.

 

[Dangerous Theory]

This isn't in-game. And this isn't a problem with Diablo, it's all of OS X, I just happened to notice when loading Diablo since it relies so much on dark and light contrast. Also - even inside the game at max brightness, it is extremely dark and you can't see any "dark" ui elements like the mini map.

The calibration of the monitor is correct, I use a Spyder3. It's just that the low end contrast of this is all crushed down to black. Can't really decide if this is software, or hardware. Feels like hardware. A big bummer.

I know it's not a game issue, but I thought there may be gamma/contrast settings to decrease the problem. It maybe worth messing around with profiles in system prefs anyway?

 

[Eriksrocks]

Mine is definitely not like that (at least what I see in the image). The blacks are a very deep black but the details are still discernible.

When I get down to about half brightness things to start to get a little crushed for my taste, though.

It's one of the downsides of these new LED-backlit screens. The blacks are so dark that as you decrease screen brightness, the contrast really starts to take a hit, too.

 

[Vctr]

I've read that the Retina Display on these new Macbook Pros is approximately 20% less bright than their older 15" counterparts, so I'm not surprised that you find that your screen is dark (Retina Display measured 339 nits while last year's 15" MBP was 401 nits) .

This is of course at the expense of better contrast levels and better blacks.

 

[spdntrxi]

can you turn off the calibration and compare ? Still dark ?

I dont have my rMBP yet.. I dont game, but I will be calibrating with a X-Rite I1 Pro... dont want crushed blacks for photoshop and lightroom work.

 

[endash2]

This looks like your contrast might be "enhanced." It's an option under the accessibility control panel.