For amateur astronomy use, I needed to be able to bring down my A43's LCD brightness to a very low level. After a bit of experimenting, here is a very simple app that lets you have a darker screen than the OS normally allows:
http://code.google.com/p/superdim
It requires root.
This is my first independent Android app, so no doubt I screwed up in some way.
arpruss said:
For amateur astronomy use, I needed to be able to bring down my A43's LCD brightness to a very low level. After a bit of experimenting, here is a very simple app that lets you have a darker screen than the OS normally allows:
http://www.mediafire.com/?zwsg7aeqtcqogpm
It requires root.
This is my first independent Android app, so no doubt I screwed up in some way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, if you need it, make it. Personally, I find using Night Mode in Chainfire better than simply turning down brightness. It turns the brightness down, and renders everything in red, or whatever color you choose, but red is the correct choice to retain night sensitivity.
Obviously, I probably wouldn't watch a movie like that, but it's great for when I'm bow-fishing by full moon and want to change songs or something without wrecking my night vision.
For astronomy purposes, ChainFire3D's night mode won't be enough. At the lowest normal system backlight setting, if one is fully dark adapted under a dark sky, the amount of light leaking through the black pixels will be enormous--the screen will look grey rather than black (well, I haven't tried it, but I have experience with other devices). What one needs to do for serious night vision protection is to BOTH turn the view to red with ChainFire3D AND dim the backlight to a very low level with this app. And I am not even sure this will be fully satisfactory, because on my A43 the amount of light leakage is really big.
By the way, I posted a new version and source, and renamed the project to SuperDim. I also added a toggle for the power LED, since they made it green rather than red.
arpruss said:
For astronomy purposes, ChainFire3D's night mode won't be enough. At the lowest normal system backlight setting, if one is fully dark adapted under a dark sky, the amount of light leaking through the black pixels will be enormous--the screen will look grey rather than black (well, I haven't tried it, but I have experience with other devices). What one needs to do for serious night vision protection is to BOTH turn the view to red with ChainFire3D AND dim the backlight to a very low level with this app. And I am not even sure this will be fully satisfactory, because on my A43 the amount of light leakage is really big.
By the way, I posted a new version and source, and renamed the project to SuperDim. I also added a toggle for the power LED, since they made it green rather than red.
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Click to collapse
Hmm. That's good to know for the A43. I'd like to know what you think of the night mode in chainfire, just because there aren't many other people who worry about this topic. I live in St. Louis, a big city, so you probably have less ambient light, but I also wonder if my A101 gets darker than the A43. Even at night, I can turn it down to the point that I really can't read a damn thing.
Great idea with the Power LED. Once again, I don't think light levels drop low enough in St. Louis for it to bother me, but I hadn't even thought of disabling it.
To really be dark adapted, you need to be away from white light for about 45 minutes. (Though I find that after 15 minutes the payoff diminishes.) It's not going to happen outdoors in a big city.
I added profiles (three night, two day), and integrated SuperDim with ChainFire3D, so if you have ChainFire3D installed, you can control its night mode directly from SuperDim, and even include its night mode setting in a profile.
For my own use, I wanted a red screen dim profile for astronomy, a green screen dim profile for reading books in the dark, a dim full color profile for other night use, a bright green profile sometimes for reading books in the day, and a full color bright profile. But you can save whatever you want in the five profile slots.
I've been using figuring out the light control stuff for SuperDim as an opportunity for learning how to program for Android in preparation for writing (not from scratch--I got a donation of the AstroTools source code under the GPL to start with, and I may port some code from open2sky and AstroInfo for PalmOS) a high-end astronomy app. (I'm an experienced PalmOS developer, but quite new to Android.) I'm actually quite pleased. I was dreading java (I've usually developed in C), but I am finding Android development, especially with Eclipse, surprisingly pleasant.
arpruss said:
To really be dark adapted, you need to be away from white light for about 45 minutes. (Though I find that after 15 minutes the payoff diminishes.) It's not going to happen outdoors in a big city.
I added profiles (three night, two day), and integrated SuperDim with ChainFire3D, so if you have ChainFire3D installed, you can control its night mode directly from SuperDim, and even include its night mode setting in a profile.
For my own use, I wanted a red screen dim profile for astronomy, a green screen dim profile for reading books in the dark, a dim full color profile for other night use, a bright green profile sometimes for reading books in the day, and a full color bright profile. But you can save whatever you want in the five profile slots.
I've been using figuring out the light control stuff for SuperDim as an opportunity for learning how to program for Android in preparation for writing (not from scratch--I got a donation of the AstroTools source code under the GPL to start with, and I may port some code from open2sky and AstroInfo for PalmOS) a high-end astronomy app. (I'm an experienced PalmOS developer, but quite new to Android.) I'm actually quite pleased. I was dreading java (I've usually developed in C), but I am finding Android development, especially with Eclipse, surprisingly pleasant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, my point exactly. I'm about 15 miles away from the city when out on the river, but that's not really far enough to get out of the city's light pollution.
Great work integrating with Chainfire. I'll give it a try next time I'm out. It should be nice having everything in one place.
I'll be looking forward to the astronomy app. It's been a looong time since I've worked on one, but I still have the DOS version of CyberSky I helped develop, so I guess I still have a fondness for them.
I posted 0.23, fixing a bug that made day2 = day1.
And I posted 0.30, adding support for toggling keyboard and button backlight on devices that have them.
I use screen filter to make my screen dimmer..
its in the market..
1. As far as I can tell, Screen Filter doesn't adjust the backlight--it only lowers the LCD pixel intensity. As a result, even if you turn Screen Filter to something really low like 2%, if you take your device to a dark area, you'll see a grey glow coming from the screen, because the backlight leaks through the black pixels.
To remedy the grey glow issue, you need to turn the backlight down, but the OS only lets you turn it so far down (10/255 on my A43; some phones only allow 20/255) without directly writing to /sys/class/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness (which needs root, and is what SuperDim does).
I also suspect that in a dark area, with brightness set to a low value, lowering backlight will produce a more visually attractive image than Screen Filter, because lowering the backlight will make a black background be fairly black.
That's all for backlit LCD screens. OLED screens are a completely different kettle of fish, and SuperDim won't help you much there (though it'll still let you set themes controlling LEDs and ChainFire3D nightmode).
2. I generalized the code a little so it should let you control whatever LEDs your device has, as long as they have a /sys/class/leds/*/brightness interface.
3. By the way, ChainFire3D's nightmode is a touch imperfect: if you set it to red, I think it just turns off the green and blue channels. That means that green and blue visual elements cease to be visible. A somewhat better nightmode would convert the image from RGB to grayscale, and then turn off the green and blue channels. I don't know how easy to implement that would be--I don't know enough about GL blending (I tried to google but couldn't find an answer simple enough for me to understand).
arpruss said:
1. As far as I can tell, Screen Filter doesn't adjust the backlight--it only lowers the LCD pixel intensity. As a result, even if you turn Screen Filter to something really low like 2%, if you take your device to a dark area, you'll see a grey glow coming from the screen, because the backlight leaks through the black pixels.
To remedy the grey glow issue, you need to turn the backlight down, but the OS only lets you turn it so far down (10/255 on my A43; some phones only allow 20/255) without directly writing to /sys/class/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness (which needs root, and is what SuperDim does).
I also suspect that in a dark area, with brightness set to a low value, lowering backlight will produce a more visually attractive image than Screen Filter, because lowering the backlight will make a black background be fairly black.
That's all for backlit LCD screens. OLED screens are a completely different kettle of fish, and SuperDim won't help you much there (though it'll still let you set themes controlling LEDs and ChainFire3D nightmode).
2. I generalized the code a little so it should let you control whatever LEDs your device has, as long as they have a /sys/class/leds/*/brightness interface.
3. By the way, ChainFire3D's nightmode is a touch imperfect: if you set it to red, I think it just turns off the green and blue channels. That means that green and blue visual elements cease to be visible. A somewhat better nightmode would convert the image from RGB to grayscale, and then turn off the green and blue channels. I don't know how easy to implement that would be--I don't know enough about GL blending (I tried to google but couldn't find an answer simple enough for me to understand).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assumed it did convert to greyscale first before tinting, but you may be right. I'll have to think how to test that.
msticninja said:
I assumed it did convert to greyscale first before tinting, but you may be right. I'll have to think how to test that.
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Click to collapse
Quick test: If you set CF3D to blue, anything that's pure yellow goes black. For example, if you go to SuperDim, the left half of the brightness adjustment bar is yellow and disappears completely.
Another test: go with the browser to http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_colors.asp in red mode. Notice that the blue 0000FF and green 00FF00 samples can't be distinguished from 000000 black, while the red FF0000 can't be distinguished from white FFFFFF.
arpruss said:
Quick test: If you set CF3D to blue, anything that's pure yellow goes black. For example, if you go to SuperDim, the left half of the brightness adjustment bar is yellow and disappears completely.
Another test: go with the browser to http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_colors.asp in red mode. Notice that the blue 0000FF and green 00FF00 samples can't be distinguished from 000000 black, while the red FF0000 can't be distinguished from white FFFFFF.
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Click to collapse
Seems like pretty clear results to me. I wonder if converting to greyscale first would even be feasible, from a coding, and from a processor cycle standpoint. It would have to use extra power, but I wonder how much. It doesn't really matter for me, everything I need to do is doable, but interesting nonetheless.
msticninja said:
Seems like pretty clear results to me. I wonder if converting to greyscale first would even be feasible, from a coding, and from a processor cycle standpoint. It would have to use extra power, but I wonder how much. It doesn't really matter for me, everything I need to do is doable, but interesting nonetheless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There may be a way of hardware accelerating this.
New on the Market:
https://market.android.com/details?...mkub21lZ2FjZW50YXVyaS5TY3JlZW5EaW0uVHJpYWwiXQ..
"Is your minimum screen brightness still too bright? Dim your screen below what your device normally permits for comfortable use in darker environments, reading in bed, amateur astronomy, etc.! No root required."
I find this app indispensable for comfortable reading at night.
Thank you so much for this, I was just thinking last night that even the dimmest setting on the A100 was still to bright
Sent from my EVO Shift 4G
Brilliant find, normally use the Kindle when reading in bed but the web browser is diabolical.
Toyface
Sent from my A100
Try screen filter from market instead....its free
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
jimmyUT said:
Try screen filter from market instead....its free
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm the ScreenDim developer. Screen Filter is free and clever, but it doesn't do the same thing as ScreenDim, at least not on LCD devices. Screen Filter basically just alpha-blends a dark box over the screen, without lowering the backlight level below what the OS normally allows. The result is that Screen Filter lowers the contrast and the color resolution, and in a dark room, the blacks will be gray because of the backlight shining through them.
ScreenDim allows you to both lower the LCD backlight level below what the OS normally allows on many devices and, if that's not good enough, to control the contrast just as Screen Filter does. Furthermore, because ScreenDim allows you to lower the backlight level, it will save on batteries in a way in which Screen Filter will not, again on LCD devices. (On OLED devices, there is much less of a difference.)
Moreover, my testing on my Archos 43 indicates that Screen Filter lowers the 2D rendering performance by about 30%. ScreenDim at 100% contrast shouldn't affect the 2D rendering, and even with the contrast adjust, I couldn't measure a noticeable 2D performance loss.
For real free alternatives to ScreenDim on backlit devices, there are AdjBrightness and my RootDim, both in the Market. Both require root, however. And ScreenDim's dual brightness-contrast adjustment feature is found in neither.
+1 for root dim, I use it and it works well on this tab and my atrix
be careful not to set it to 1 because its turns off the screen but the tablet is still on. i got stuck trying to find the slider to slide it back so i can see the screen again. nice find though.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using xda premium
jahciple said:
be careful not to set it to 1 because its turns off the screen but the tablet is still on. i got stuck trying to find the slider to slide it back so i can see the screen again. nice find though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tapping random places on the screen should quickly restore the brightness.
Also, if the tablet has volume buttons, you can adjust brightness with them.
Once you figure out what the lowest you can go is, go to Options | Set minimum brightness. Then you won't have this worry any more.
screen filter
Love screen filter it works great and its free, super simple, plus pop notification bar too. Awesome app. Screen filter is
https://market.android.com/details?...ch_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5oYXhvciJd
Screeeeen filter link above!
arpruss said:
Tapping random places on the screen should quickly restore the brightness.
Also, if the tablet has volume buttons, you can adjust brightness with them.
Once you figure out what the lowest you can go is, go to Options | Set minimum brightness. Then you won't have this worry any more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ahem. I'm not sure exactly where those buttons were when I needed them to try to get the brightness restored, but I couldn't find them on two occasions. I had to hard power off.
Great idea but it won't work for me unfortunately. I want something that will turn my tablet into pure darkness except for a small, dimly illuminated, clock on the screen. No matter what I find, an app always has too much backlight on and it bothers me when I'm trying to sleep.
If only I could get this app to interact with my alarm clock app somehow!
Status bar
Is there any way to remove the status bar icon of the ScreenDim?
I thought the app was designed to reduce distraction while using a device, but the icon being in the most prominent spot (upper left corner) draws attention constantly.
Hi all. I've seen this feature in the first note and now I see it again.
Adjusting tone save the energy saver based on image analysis
Is this option really make a difference?
h t t p://imageshack.us/f/202/20130221221021.png
No 10 posts so sorry for link
I always have it set to off. I had it on but never noticed any difference. My guess is that if you are looking at a very colorful image, prolly the screen will lighten more up or over-saturate the colors to look nicer. Maybe even the brightness who knows.
According to a cnet article:
" There's another adjustment on the Note 2 to that significantly affects picture quality. Samsung applied the cryptic moniker "Auto adjust screen tone" (AAST) to a check box at the bottom of the Display menu. Uncheck it and the phone's full light output capabilities are unshackled, nearly doubling its contrast ratio and improving its ability to compete with ambient light. Turning off AAST also improves color accuracy slightly. "
Seems like changes the colour tone of brighter colours to reduce their brightness.
I keep it on since I like milder screens.
If you prefer low brightness and want to save power , keep it on.
If you find yourself using high brightness often, turn it off.
Sent from my GT-N7100
HypoDest said:
According to a cnet article:
" There's another adjustment on the Note 2 to that significantly affects picture quality. Samsung applied the cryptic moniker "Auto adjust screen tone" (AAST) to a check box at the bottom of the Display menu. Uncheck it and the phone's full light output capabilities are unshackled, nearly doubling its contrast ratio and improving its ability to compete with ambient light. Turning off AAST also improves color accuracy slightly. "
Seems like changes the colour tone of brighter colours to reduce their brightness.
I keep it on since I like milder screens.
If you prefer low brightness and want to save power , keep it on.
If you find yourself using high brightness often, turn it off.
Sent from my GT-N7100
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks you for info.
Does anyone know how to turn off the s20's adaptive display feature? (I'm not asking about adaptive brightness.) I'm on a US snapdragon, unlocked, regular S20. Thanks!
I am referring to:
"Samsung's adaptive super AMOLED screen optimizes the color range, saturation, and sharpness of the picture depending on what you're watching or doing."
https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00063051/
The vivid/natural, white balance, and advanced RGB settings mentioned in that link do NOT seem to impact the adaptive display feature. (And in fact, white balance and RGB settings don't seem to do anything at all... If anyone has thoughts about why THAT is, or how to make them actually have an effect, I'm interested.)
I have tried turning off dark mode completely, turning off the video enhancer, and turning off the dark mode on wallpaper, but the problem persists and impacts things like apps and pages in Chrome - basically everything.
If I look at my task switcher, app screens will often look the way I want them to in the preview, but when I click on one, after about a second the display adjusts and changes the image to something brighter, whiter, and less what I want. This is true whether adaptive brightness is on OR off.
I'm trying to use a screen filter to manually set the screen to the settings I need, and it feels like the screen is fighting the filter and countering it, and I think this business with the adaptive display optimizing color and saturation could be the problem. Or if you have other ideas for the source of the problem, I want to hear them.
Any help is appreciated!
Erre én is k
dovesong said:
Does anyone know how to turn off the s20's adaptive display feature? (I'm not asking about adaptive brightness.) I'm on a US snapdragon, unlocked, regular S20. Thanks!
I am referring to:
"Samsung's adaptive super AMOLED screen optimizes the color range, saturation, and sharpness of the picture depending on what you're watching or doing."
https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00063051/
The vivid/natural, white balance, and advanced RGB settings mentioned in that link do NOT seem to impact the adaptive display feature. (And in fact, white balance and RGB settings don't seem to do anything at all... If anyone has thoughts about why THAT is, or how to make them actually have an effect, I'm interested.)
I have tried turning off dark mode completely, turning off the video enhancer, and turning off the dark mode on wallpaper, but the problem persists and impacts things like apps and pages in Chrome - basically everything.
If I look at my task switcher, app screens will often look the way I want them to in the preview, but when I click on one, after about a second the display adjusts and changes the image to something brighter, whiter, and less what I want. This is true whether adaptive brightness is on OR off.
I'm trying to use a screen filter to manually set the screen to the settings I need, and it feels like the screen is fighting the filter and countering it, and I think this business with the adaptive display optimizing color and saturation could be the problem. Or if you have other ideas for the source of the problem, I want to hear them.
Any help is appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they removed the option to close adaptive display since Note 9 starting from s10 it is always on and can't be disabled
They removed the option to close adaptive display since Note 9 starting from s10 it is always on and can't be disabled
It was something like attached picture on Note 9
Ah hah! I think I figured out a solution to my problem (which was that the whites were too blue and bright and vivid as compared to everything else on the screen, no matter what settings I used on Twilight or another screen filtering app). For anyone who comes after me with a similar issue: the native blue light filter doesn't JUST turn on/off - it has an opacity setting which you can find and adjust by clicking on "blue light filter" in your display settings menu, to the left of the on/off toggle switch. Turning it all the way up (to the right) tones down the whites and blues without impacting the rest of the colors on the screen, which for me at least creates a much better color display ratio.