Topic: Screen Brightness

The last handful of games I played asked my to adjust my screen brightness (doing this for Detroit now). You have to turn it up or down until one symbol is barely visible and the other is invisible. The thing is, I always have to turn it all the way down. Is that normal? Is my eyesight too great for modern games? Or is my TV simply as bright as a miniature star?

@Octane I think it maybe to do with the fact that so many games these days are also HDR. HDR TV's also vary a LOT in terms of brightness and some games are built to accommodate up to 10000nit TV's (if/when they arrive) so its a way to calibrate the game to your TV so you get the 'best' HDR experience your TV can deliver. Games aren't like movies where they are mastered to fixed point - like 1000 or 4000nits but can be variable so you adjust the sliders to fit your TV.

@Octane Yeah, I find that I have to crank the brightness way down too if I want to fit the recommendation of not seeing the one symbol. But I find in practice that when I do that, I don’t like how dark the in-game images are and I can’t appreciate the detail and graphics as well as if I leave the brightness up a couple notches. I’ve had my PS4 hooked up to 2 TVs and both are the same in that I prefer the image a little brighter than the game recommends.

My tv is not hdr. What i do is have 3 presets with brightness settings for tv and 2 for games. One game setting is normal with the second set brighter if i desire for dark locations or times of day. With my LG tv i use presets of 45 for normal and 90 for when i need to see in the dark. I rarely need the 90 setting.

I then adjust the game provided brightness setting to what i like for that game, and do not worry about what i am suppose to see. What would be nice is if we could see the game screen while we made the adjustments like with the tv settings.

@BAMozzy That makes sense I think.

@Th3solution Yeah, that's what I usually do as well. The game is way too dark if I play it on the recommended settings, but that's what they recommend me after all.

I always up the brightness because I think all game developers assume we game in pitch black with nothing but the screen to illuminate us all the time.

i always ignore that particular suggestion, i'll have the brightness set to how i want it thank you

What about the Limited/Full RGB option in PS4 screen settings? If I set it on Full, games looks better to me even if I have to set game brightness on 8/10 while I have to set it on 4/10 when on Limited...

@RogerRoger I remember the time when you didn't have to worry about any of those settings. Just your TV and console, pop in a game and you were good to go!

@RogerRoger Yeah, games like Bloodborne, Batman Arkham series, The Order 1886, etc. - are super dark and yet so intricately detailed and beautiful. I want to be able to see the textures in the corners and in the distance. With the brightness cranked up a little bit, things ‘pop’ just a little bit better and more vividly sometimes.
A friend was telling me that if I get an OLED TV then I’ll be able to appreciate the color and dark/bright range better. For now I just have a piddly LCD 1080p.

@RogerRoger It irks me how dark a lot of games are now. I guess it's because of the more realistic lighting, but I sometimes can't see a thing. The only time it has been a real problem for me is last gen playing Grand Theft Auto 4. I had to turn the brightness on my TV up to max to see in some areas.

@RogerRoger I think I remember MGS V had the cool effect of stepping out into the light and having the character’s eyes adjust to the bright sun. Or was that Uncharted 4? I don’t know, maybe both.

I got to a part in Detroit where I couldn't see anything at all, so I turned the brightness up and it looks a lot better now.