GZDoom and night mode

[SaveTheDoomer]

I use an utility called f.lux to lower the color temperature of the screen to reduce eyestrain, on win10; it's conceptually similar to the night mode native to the os except with way more options. GZDoom works with it unlike some other games, except for the mouse cursor which disappears if the software cursor option is enabled. The cursor works if i disable it.
There's a way to make the software cursor option to work on GZdoom? And on Raze also, since i got the same issue there? Thanks.

[SaveTheDoomer]

No suggestion, huh? Nevermind, my new monitor has a built-in blue light filter, so a specific software is not needed anymore. The topic can be closed.

[drfrag]

I use SunsetScreen 1.28, the old version without the crypto mining thing. For me f.lux didn't work well enough with games.

[Graf Zahl]

GZDoom has no software cursor. The special cursors are colored system cursors. This looks like a bug in the utility if it renders them unusable

[SaveTheDoomer]

Thank you for your reply. I noted too that f.lux doesn't get along well with games. The software cursor is itself a workaround to avoid the cursor remaining white. Guess it isn't perfect.

[Nash]

If you are on Windows 10, what's wrong with using the built-in night light support (you probably already know this but in case you don't; open the Start menu and just type 'night' and you'll see it appear)?

The built-in night light works extremely well with all kinds of games I've played it with.

Granted, it does have less (waaaaay less) customization than f.lux but as you've pointed out, f.lux has issues with games (I used to use f.lux for a few years before upgrading to Windows 10).

These days though, I just try to not use the computer when it's time for bed :P So the lack of customization for me is fine...

[drfrag]

It's not lack of customization, the included filter is terrible compared to Sunset for instance which comes with several presets for night and day. Night mode looks pink and awful for me.

[dpJudas]

I never understood the point of those night mode tools unless you have a monitor that doesn't allow you to turn down the brightness.

It seems to me that most people leave the setting at one value, usually fitting for bright daylight. If you lower the brightness the colors won't become fucked up and you can even use brighter themes this way. Use one setting for day and a different setting for night.

[drfrag]

Mine it's a cheap laptop panel, it's completely unusable without the filter due to the LED backlight. It has a strong blueish tint (there's more blue than in smurf village) and eye strain is unbearable after five minutes. My presets are 4100K for night and 5000K for day.

[SaveTheDoomer]

The windows built-in feature has ZERO options for adjusting color temperature. You're forced to choose between 6500K and say, 3000K. For the purpose of reducing eyestrain on daytime this is plain useless.

I never understood the point of those night mode tools unless you have a monitor that doesn't allow you to turn down the brightness.

It seems to me that most people leave the setting at one value, usually fitting for bright daylight. If you lower the brightness the colors won't become fucked up and you can even use brighter themes this way. Use one setting for day and a different setting for night.

Reducing brightness make things even worse, at least for me. The point is about high-frequency light. Try reading this for a summary on this topic:
https://www.healthline.com/health/what- ... what-is-it

[Nash]

Yeah, for me, what hurts my eyes more isn't so much the overall brightness but the blue light. Plus my monitor's navigation buttons are quite annoying to use, on top of being placed such that it's physically inconvenient (the monitor is placed quite far back from where I'm sitting, and there's some devices in the way to complicate things)

[dpJudas]

Reducing brightness make things even worse, at least for me. The point is about high-frequency light. Try reading this for a summary on this topic:
https://www.healthline.com/health/what- ... what-is-it

From that scaremongering article there's basically two key sentences that makes the rest of the page overly dramatic:

the natural blue light from the sun far exceeds the amount from any one device

So far, research does not appear to validate the concern about blue light eye damage

I still think that the real problem here is that people insist on using too great of a contrast between the ambient light in the room and what is emitting from the monitor. In daylight the sun adds extreme amounts of light to the room, while at night there's only the monitor and maybe a couple of lights in the room. If blue light in itself was so damaging people would also have an issue with it at daytime.

In any case, do what you guys like. All I can say is that for me personally adjusting the monitor brightness level makes all the difference for me and I just wanted more people to think about not forcing their eyes to look at the defaults that monitors come with. And of course everyone's eyes are different so what works for me might not work for you.

[SaveTheDoomer]

Scaremongering? Why? It doesn't seem to me like that... anyway, it's clearly true that during daytime sunlight is way more abundant, but the point is that we sometimes watch a screen for too much time, and reducing blue light is one of the many ways to reduce eyestrain. And maybe permament damage is unlikely, but the fatigue is not, at least for me.
Yes, anyone does its own way, on the end. Ergonomics is also important. After all, using a pc or every other device requires its own safety measures, expecially if used as a professional

[dpJudas]

Articles talking about how dangerous something is and then somewhere in the middle of it all writes a one-liner disclaimer that there's no proof that it is dangerous is what I call scaremongering. Doesn't exactly help when it then continues with scaremongering the paragraph after about "some doctors" still think it is dangerous and followed by a sample size of 1 person supposedly getting eye damage from using a completely different device than a monitor. It is a text book example of how journalists tries to push an agenda while technically not lieing.

That said, it might still irritate your eyes. I'm just not personally convinced the blue wavelengths are particular worse at that than any other wavelength. But then again, I never tried to use those blue light filters for a longer period of time to really figure that out. What they do to the colors makes it all a non-starter for me.

[Caligari87]

They're not "worse". Our brains are wired to associate whiter/bluer light with daytime and awakeness, and soft warmer light with nighttime and sleep.

To be clear, there's possibly some placebo effect involved but regardless, for many people filtering their devices to warmer tones near sunset helps with not tricking our brains into staying in "awake" mode. Just turning down the brightness doesn't do that.