Post by F1Fan07 on Feb 20, 2012 10:37:56 GMT -8
I remember at Bathurst that some of the drivers were turning on their headlights. There was more than enough light to see so I'm assuming some of you need to tweak your monitors. I use colour-calibration hardware (ColorMunki or Spyder2) on all my PCs so I have confidence I'm set properly.
Monitor calibration is a complex subject but lets at least get the brightness right so you're not in the dark (heh, heh). As an added benefit you'll be seeing more accurate representations of photos and better shadow details in all games you play.
This is really oversimplifying this process. It's similar to what I do when setting up a new monitor for family.
Step 1: Every monitor is different but look for a Colour preset menu and pick sRGB 6500 K if you can. 6500 K is the standard white point for photo viewing. You really need to get the monitor out of its default mode which is typically oversaturated.
Step 2: Look through your monitor options for Gamma. It should be at 2.2 (PC standard)
Step 3: Set the contrast quite high (80-100). The old method was to have it at 100 but that seems to overdrive modern LCDs which run a little hot.
Step 4: Set the brightness so that you don't lose detail in the shadows. Usually it sits around 30-50 on my monitors.
Contrast and Brightness are highly variable depending on monitor quality and technology. Also, these two adjustments have really lost their original meanings. Think of contrast as highlight adjustnment and brightness as shadow adjustment.
Verify Steps 3 and 4 with this greyscale bar and tweak until you see as many distinct squares as possible.
On my work monitor which I adjusted quickly I can distinguish every square except Y and Z. Some monitors may never separate the last 2 or 3 squares at either end... the $199 24" no-name LCD will struggle but you may still be able to improve things over your current settings.
Lastly, when you're done you might think everything looks like shit. I encourage you to live with it for a few days and let your brain adjust. Typically people have the colour temperature too blue and switching to 6500 K makes everything too yellow and that's just because their brains are used to the "wrong" colour. Usually, after a week it'll look normal.
Epilogue: Here's a funny story relating to monitor calibration. In a previous life I was a database developer. I got a shiny new ThinkPad and was programming away and got stumped. The report I was generating wouldn't display records with alternating grey and white bars. After half a day I laserprinted the screen to add to my to-do pile. Lo and behold, the printout had grey bars. I finally discovered that the uncalibrated screen on the laptop was so wrong that it couldn't separate the 5% grey bars from white. I adjusted the screen and there were the bars.
Monitor calibration is a complex subject but lets at least get the brightness right so you're not in the dark (heh, heh). As an added benefit you'll be seeing more accurate representations of photos and better shadow details in all games you play.
This is really oversimplifying this process. It's similar to what I do when setting up a new monitor for family.
Step 1: Every monitor is different but look for a Colour preset menu and pick sRGB 6500 K if you can. 6500 K is the standard white point for photo viewing. You really need to get the monitor out of its default mode which is typically oversaturated.
Step 2: Look through your monitor options for Gamma. It should be at 2.2 (PC standard)
Step 3: Set the contrast quite high (80-100). The old method was to have it at 100 but that seems to overdrive modern LCDs which run a little hot.
Step 4: Set the brightness so that you don't lose detail in the shadows. Usually it sits around 30-50 on my monitors.
Contrast and Brightness are highly variable depending on monitor quality and technology. Also, these two adjustments have really lost their original meanings. Think of contrast as highlight adjustnment and brightness as shadow adjustment.
Verify Steps 3 and 4 with this greyscale bar and tweak until you see as many distinct squares as possible.
On my work monitor which I adjusted quickly I can distinguish every square except Y and Z. Some monitors may never separate the last 2 or 3 squares at either end... the $199 24" no-name LCD will struggle but you may still be able to improve things over your current settings.
Lastly, when you're done you might think everything looks like shit. I encourage you to live with it for a few days and let your brain adjust. Typically people have the colour temperature too blue and switching to 6500 K makes everything too yellow and that's just because their brains are used to the "wrong" colour. Usually, after a week it'll look normal.
Epilogue: Here's a funny story relating to monitor calibration. In a previous life I was a database developer. I got a shiny new ThinkPad and was programming away and got stumped. The report I was generating wouldn't display records with alternating grey and white bars. After half a day I laserprinted the screen to add to my to-do pile. Lo and behold, the printout had grey bars. I finally discovered that the uncalibrated screen on the laptop was so wrong that it couldn't separate the 5% grey bars from white. I adjusted the screen and there were the bars.
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