Local dimming, necessity or not?

[jaapgrolleman]

Local dimming makes areas that should be black, really black, by turning off the backlight. The Crystal Light has 576 zones per panel, and you can set the level of dimming, as well as turn it off. The cheapest Crystal Light has no local dimming.

You can only see this affect in the headset itself because it doesn't change the rendered visuals, only how the panel outputs it. 

My personal opinion: If you don't fly in the night or in the dark, you won't really need it.

Here's a demo:

 

Edited May 17, 2024 by jaapgrolleman

[The_Nephilim]

well you can definetely notice the darker image. I may just have to go with the the Crystal light with the dimming.. a little extra but looks like it might be worth it..

thank you

[Notarobot]

Also wouldn't we need DCS to have HDR for local dimming to have an actual good effect? 
 

I mean, if DCS actually had DECENT HDR for VR , that would be amazing but i don't think that is the case or ever will be

Edited July 8, 2024 by Notarobot

[Glide]

There are three levels of local dimming in the Crystal.  I am wondering what users find the most appealing for night flights: balanced, highlight or extreme? 

To @Notarobot, I don't think they are dependent on each other.  But, I would like to see improvements in the sky.  With Extreme local dimming, the stars disappear completely, for example.  So, yes, it needs to be "built for vr".

@jaapgrolleman

I saw a video today where a ytuber recommended setting local dimming in profile.json under "C:\Users\you\AppData\Local\Pimax\runtime" by editing

"local_dimming_black_level" : 0.01

(Click Restart Service to load the new value.) I had it set to Balanced, so it was initially at .60'ish.  It was a huge improvement in low lighting conditions for my Crystal.  What are the details of this setting, and what are others experiencing for improvements?

Edited August 1, 2024 by Glide

[Glide]

I don't think I'll mess with that setting.  I have it on Balanced, but I have set the brightness to -1 for L+R, and that seems very good for balance.