IDEA: Screen Dimmer

[Deozaan]

I was just looking through An App a Day when I found Day 10 - Jedi Concentrate. It was neat, but has some flaws. But that's beside the point.

I think it would be great to have an app that you could toggle on or off that just dimmed the entire screen no matter what app had focus. So I decided to check out Skrommel's software to find what I was looking for and I noticed that Skrommel has already made a few of these "An app a day" programs. Jedi Concentrate included, except it's called Ghoster or something like that. (By the way, it doesn't work on my second monitor.) The next best thing I found was DimSaver.

So anyway, I'd like an app that has a user-customizable amount to dim the screen. I'd use it for night time computer use to get rid of the brightness headaches. Could also be useful to dim the whiteness on monitors that flicker.

Thanks in advance!

[kimmchii]

+1.

[Deozaan]

+1.

What does that mean?

[allen]

+1 vote to what you said.  Modern super-short-hand for "I stand in agreement with you!"

[brotherS]

I love DimSaver, if only it would run perfectly here (W2k). Skrommel never found the bug that the previous versions (that I don't have anymore) hadn't... so if you have older DimSaver versions, please send 'em over

[wr975]

So anyway, I'd like an app that has a user-customizable amount to dim the screen. I'd use it for night time computer use to get rid of the brightness headaches. Could also be useful to dim the whiteness on monitors that flicker.

I'm not sure, but perhaps this one will work?

http://www.quickgamma.de/indexen.html

[Deozaan]

So anyway, I'd like an app that has a user-customizable amount to dim the screen. I'd use it for night time computer use to get rid of the brightness headaches. Could also be useful to dim the whiteness on monitors that flicker.

I'm not sure, but perhaps this one will work?

http://www.quickgamma.de/indexen.html

It might, but I'm at work and don't want to install it on these computers, but the flickering on these monitors is very annoying. I'd prefer a Skrommel 205Kb stand-alone screen dimmer. DonationCredits are waiting to be donated to the author of software that meets my satisfaction. 

EDIT: Changed some words for clarity

[kimmchii]

for the flickering, have you tried increase the refresh rate? right click on desktop>properties>setting>advanced>monitor
pick the highest refresh rate the monitor supports.

and for Skrommel's ghoster, try change the jump value to 0:

jump=0

this will make the entire screen dim (as oppose to the default, just the background)

and you can also choose the level of dimness by changing the transparency value, 255 = complete dark.

;transparency=0-255        Makes the ghosting more or less translucent.
;jump=1 or 0                Makes the active window show through the ghosting.

[lanux128]

in fact, Jedi Concentrate has already spawned a mod.

[Deozaan]

for the flickering, have you tried increase the refresh rate? right click on desktop>properties>setting>advanced>monitor
pick the highest refresh rate the monitor supports.

and for Skrommel's ghoster, try change the jump value to 0:
jump=0
this will make the entire screen dim (as oppose to the default, just the background)
and you can also choose the level of dimness by changing the transparency value, 255 = complete dark.

;transparency=0-255        Makes the ghosting more or less translucent.
;jump=1 or 0                Makes the active window show through the ghosting.

Cool. Thanks kimmchi! Only only problem now is that it doesn't work on my second montior. I've changed the Multimon value to 1 and 0 with no change to my second monitor. And sadly it doesn't seem to remember my settings when I close it.

It also seems to make no difference what I set the transparency to. In fact a few of them don't seem to change anything when I make changes.

And yes, I've changed the refresh rate to the highest possible on my monitors at work. They are CRT and aren't too bad, but it still bugs my eyes every now and then. Pretty much every other CRT in the place is set at the default of 60hz and it bugs me so much.

[kimmchii]

You're welcome Deozaan.
too bad i only have one monitor, so i cant try the multimon setting, but i can confirm the transparency setting works for me, see pic.

anyone that has multi monitor, can you please confirm whether the multimon setting works or not.

[wr975]

Pretty much every other CRT in the place is set at the default of 60hz and it bugs me so much.

Do your colleagues a favor and change it to 75hz or 85hz. I'm sure they'll appreciate.

FWIW, I'd refuse working with a CRT anymore. My workplace provided me with a cheapy 19" CRT and had no interest getting me a TFT. So I brought my own. If you've beginning troubles with your eyes, it'd be best to do something now before it'll get worse. Also use a RSI-preventing tool (like Workrave) to remind you doing pauses.

[Deozaan]

Pretty much every other CRT in the place is set at the default of 60hz and it bugs me so much.

Do your colleagues a favor and change it to 75hz or 85hz. I'm sure they'll appreciate.

FWIW, I'd refuse working with a CRT anymore. My workplace provided me with a cheapy 19" CRT and had no interest getting me a TFT. So I brought my own. If you've beginning troubles with your eyes, it'd be best to do something now before it'll get worse. Also use a RSI-preventing tool (like Workrave) to remind you doing pauses.

I've told a few about how to change their refresh rate, yet one of my nearby co-workers is still flickering just as bad on 85hz as it does on 65hz. Problem with pauses is that I work at a technical support center, so sometimes I get phone calls that last two hours. It's usually at least once a day I get calls that last longer than one hour. And when the call queue is high, we're not really encouraged to take a 5-10 minute anti-rsi break.

It doesn't make much sense to me, because they vaguely went over the whole ergonimic thing (which I've never been taught in much detail) and said something about taking a five minute break every hour or something along those lines, but I don't see how that's possible given the line of work and the pressure (as slight as it may be) to take calls.

Good news is that my employer is awesome enough that they just might give me LCDs if I complain enough.

You're welcome Deozaan.
too bad i only have one monitor, so i cant try the multimon setting, but i can confirm the transparency setting works for me, see pic.

anyone that has multi monitor, can you please confirm whether the multimon setting works or not.

Hmm. I just resorted to turning the brightness and contrast all the way down on my LCD (at home) at night. Works well enough for now, but I'd like to be able to just toggle it with a hot-key.

Where is Skrommel, anyway? I don't remember seeing him around much lately.

[Mizraim]

I have another thing to say about the Ghoster thing. I noticed while watching a video, it was flashing as if it was going in and out of the active window... Just wanted to know if anyone else noticed this.