Your experience IPS glow on dark games.

fr0sty

fr0sty

fr0sty

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Does IPS glow ruin dark (ie survival horror) games for you? I got an Acer xb271hu today and I would say it greatly hinders enjoyment of those types of games as you are not as immersed with this distraction.

Just wondering if my panel is bad or are they just generally bad for these types of games. I dont play so many of these games but for the price it certainly seems a massive pitfall.

If you reply please state the monitor you have please. Thanks.
 
IPS glow is only a problem for me under these conditions:

  • viewing completely dark content
  • at an angle or sitting really close to the monitor
  • in a dark room (no lighting at all)
  • with a relatively high brightness

With an appropriate brightness setting (luminace of around 100) + LED back lighting or/and room light turned on + viewing head on, it is a non issue and you won't get a better experience for dark content unless you get a VA screen.

I am using a LG 29um65, which is rated very highly for black depth + contrast ratio, at least for an IPS panel anyway.
 
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Mmm just looking at pics online I think its not IPS glow but backlight bleed. Its mostly the bottom right corner. Its quite depressing.
 
fr0sty said:
Mmm just looking at pics online I think its not IPS glow but backlight bleed. Its mostly the bottom right corner. Its quite depressing.
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Take a video and upload it, this should avoid over exposing the screen and show any issues in a somewhat accurate light.
 
Ive been mulling this over quite a bit. Ive tried playing Outlast which is a game I have installed and I would think its one of those extreme examples of a dark game. I thought I had Amnesia but I dont. Its probably the darkest game I can think of. Anyway, in Outlast you only be in complete darkness every now and again and I find lowering the brightness all the way down helps. Im wondering how often this will actually be a problem as its only there in total darkness. Right now I'm focused on the corner rather than the game.

I woudlnt say these monitors are worth the money thats for sure. I could quite easily live without such nice colours for a monitor that doesnt have these backlight and glow problems. Think it's a bit of a void were in until oled are common.
 
I don't play many dark games, the darkest I have played are probably the division (with neutral lighting on), alien isolation and the likes of dead space but if dark content was more than 50% of my usage, I would definitely not be sticking with any current LCD display, let alone a LCD monitor, OLED would be the only way to go for me with that sort of usage (or in your case sticking with your kuro)
 
You can't really single out IPS glow. The weakness of IPS in dark games/videos is a combination of glow, poor blacks and mediocre contrast. For me that combination makes IPS a no-go in what I suspect is my (and I guess most people's) normal use pattern; a mix of gaming, video and desktop use at domestic light levels. I got my first VA monitor in 2007 and basically gave up on IPS screens after that. I still give try them from time to time (the last was an Asus MG279Q) but always return to a VA monitor.

The dark side of the force always lures me back from the medium-grey-with-a-yellow-overcast-in-places side :)
 
i tend to stear clear of dark games as it just highlights the monitors flaws i tried adding led lighting for evening gaming which was no help.
 
My 24" Dell (2412 I think) has some glow from off-angles, but basically none when sat dead straight in front of it. It does lose contrast at the corners, but on the whole it's not that bad. I play things like XCom and Kerbal Space Program, so I see a lot of blackness!

To be fair, IPS glow itself shouldn't be a major issue, but backlight bleed might be - and they're very different things. On the whole, I've yet to encounter a Dell with any BLB, but there are models where t'interweb suggests a strong possibility of it :/ Be sure to buy from a good retailer who will accept a return on the grounds of dissatisfaction with product quality. The more people send back crap screens the more pressure will be put on manufacturers to sort their crap out.

...I miss S-PVA panels. Sure, the response was poor and ghosting/trails were a thing, but man did they have good colours for proper work. My old Dell from 2007 had absolutely solid uniformity, no glow, not a shadow nor a light patch anywhere on the whole screen, and 98% Adobe RGB to boot! I'm constantly tempted to swap back to it for that gamut and the heavy saturation it delivered. Great technology, shame it got left by the wayside for being 'too expensive'. I would totally buy an updated version with <8ms response times, but it never existed :(
 
Bias lighting seems a good idea must try it out. IPS is ok when you're doing anything other than looking at a black screen. They are not perfect enough to justify the price tag but overall im happy enough with it apart from the black screen issue. Even the speakers, although totally crap, are handy as on that particluar pc I use a headset or TV speakers so sometimes when not using either of those on youtube or whatever the built in speakers are handy.

Some people get so carried away with how good these monitors are im not one of them. They have good and bad points and are far too expensive for such an even balance of the two.
 
Back lighting helps massively to give the illusion of better blacks and contrast ratio, especially if you are someone that games or whatever in complete darkness (although for this usage, you really wouldn't want anything other than VA and preferably plasma/OLED).

Like I said before, you really don't have any good choice for monitors, TN is a complete no go imo, especially for anything bigger than 24/27" (contrast shift isn't pleasant) and it is even worse for dark content as the contrast ratio is lower than IPS as well as generally a lower black depth + it has its own "glow" issues when viewing the screen of angle too (although not as excessive as IPS glow at an angle) i.e. the dell 27" 1440 TN panel (rated as the best TN panel, which is also used for the benq + asus monitors), image taken from tftcentral.

7eraI7U.jpg

Even VA panels have glow when viewed from an angle too :/

svTzHtU.jpg
 
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DrBombcrater said:
You can't really single out IPS glow. The weakness of IPS in dark games/videos is a combination of glow, poor blacks and mediocre contrast. For me that combination makes IPS a no-go in what I suspect is my (and I guess most people's) normal use pattern; a mix of gaming, video and desktop use at domestic light levels. I got my first VA monitor in 2007 and basically gave up on IPS screens after that. I still give try them from time to time (the last was an Asus MG279Q) but always return to a VA monitor.

The dark side of the force always lures me back from the medium-grey-with-a-yellow-overcast-in-places side :)
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Are there any VA monitors with 1440p, 144 Hz and FreeSync though? That's the problem.
 
It's a problem for me yes, but you 'get used to it' pretty quickly. while I love the inky blacks of VA tech I can't stand the black crush (which is worse than glow) where you loose detail in the dark.

I'm sat approximately 60 - 70cm from my LG 34UC88 and although there is a bit of glow in the corners it isn't that bad. When they release HDR panels with FALD backlights and hopefuly use A-TW polarisers then the glow will get lessened by a huge amount and I'll be the first in line to get one.
 
Can anyone recommend any bias lighting? Or what colour should I get and does it just go on either side or the top and bottom as well. Cheers!
 
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