SavageBeastZero

Hey all, I was recently researching, purchasing monitors, testing them and then of course with the eventual intent on keeping the monitor which I felt was good for my overall use case scenarios. During this period, I decided to test DayZ (as well as many other games). Anyways, this was a few months back, but I personally learned quite a bit during this hands on experience and the countless hours of research I delved into during that period. Sadly, I didn't take pictures of DayZ for reference for comparisons sake, as it never occurred to me that these tests would have been useful for others on the net. Either way, I thought that my experience might possibly bring to light why there's such a large disparity between users in regards to how they're visually experiencing night time since the changes. I think I might be able to bring a few things to "light" (pun intended), so everyone has a clearer picture as to why these changes are affecting some more than others, sometimes to almost game breaking levels. The issue stems from varying panel types and their ability or lack thereof in comparison to display colors, lumens, black levels etc. CRT, VA, IPS, Quantum DOT IPS, PLS, AHVA all have differing properties which can have varying benefits, as well as negative aspects. No one panel type is the defacto, excelling in all areas, but of course some excel in certain areas more than other panel types. Even panels utilizing the same technologies can vary greatly due to manufacturer, as well as other aspects such as maximum lumens and black levels produced, panel native color bit rate, as well as native refresh. Anyways, to stay focused on why the night time changes are affecting many players differently, sometimes drastically so to unfair degrees are a few key aspects of the areas mentioned above. Color reproduction ability, maximum lumens and black levels produced and more as I'll explain. Below, I'll provide examples of the most commonly used panel types, their strengths and weaknesses, following up with why after the night time changes were made, some players are at a severe advantage/disadvantage. Of course all examples below I'll be speaking of the maximum upper tier enthusiast grade monitors and their coinciding panel types currently available for best comparison. Yet, regardless, the examples will provide a general description of what each excel and struggle with. Refresh Rate and Pixel Transition - Color Reproduction - Maximum Lumens - Black Levels able to be produced - etc. TN Strengths: Industry leading refresh rates and low latency provides less an image which is represented with the least amount of native motion blur. The Pixel transition time is excellent ensuring a smoother appearing image, most specially during fast changes which need to be made, such as in FPS titles during an engagement. TN Weaknesses: Lackluster/flat colors - Poor viewing angles which tend to misrepresent not only colors, but also black levels produced on differing areas of the screen which can provide an inconsistent overall image and can worsen depending on the scenario such as ambient lighting. VA Strengths: Industry leading black levels with best overall contrast ratios available - Acceptable viewing angles which can provide the end user with a more reliable image in comparison to TN panel types - Acceptable Color reproduction VA Weaknesses: Poor panel latency and pixel transition times - Pronounced motion blur due to the aforementioned issues - Panels which possess high refresh rates may appear to be represented in a less than acceptable state due to the aforementioned issues. IPS Strengths: Industry leading superior color accuracy and consistency - Industry leading viewing angles provide a reliable image at all angles - Fairly high refresh rates which are represented nicely due to acceptable panel latency and pixel transition times, but still are generally not in the same class as enthusiast grade TN panel types IPS Weaknesses: All IPS panel types will have varying degrees of back light glow in one or more of the corners, said backlight can also cause a "sheen" or "Vaseline" effect when viewing content. Generally speaking, this is only noticeable in dark environments, but will be even further amplified when viewing dark content rendering viewing the image much more difficult. This can be reduced by increasing the ambient lighting in a room, but sadly will not correct it totally when viewing darker image content. IPS So, with the examples above, although generally speaking overall IPS panels have more areas that they excel and are generally considered the superior overall panel technology, the area that is an inherent weakness would be displayed for exactly half the time a player is engaging with DayZ (night time), thus would be the least suitable for this use case scenario (DayZ night time). In some extreme conditions, DayZ night time could potentially be unplayable depending on the panels contrast ratio and of course severity of glow, as well as sheen. That extremity may only be seen in entry level-mid tier IPS panel types, but sadly that specific demographic would be the mass populous of users utilizing IPS panel types due to their adoption, considering their lower prices and availability. Yet, even still, this ill effect would be seen to some degree on even the highest end IPS panels in poor ambient lighting conditions. TN TN panel types, although generally only excel at high refresh and low latency would still be a better suited panel type for DayZ in comparison to IPS, because they wouldn't misrepresent the image during a dark scene and most certainly wouldn't require a change in ambient light to represent the image properly. Color accuracy would be satisfactory enough to provide an enjoyable experience. VA Finally VA panel types would provide the most superior viewing experience during night time due to their rich blacks, thus although their color reproduction pales in comparison to IPS panel types wouldn't be affected by the night time changes, because they could easily represent the darker image properly and colors would appear more vibrant. This would ensure that the global illumination intended by the developers would be represented properly, thus the night time changes wouldn't appear as drastic as it would on an IPS display. In this one specific use case scenario VA panel types would excel beyond their competing panel technologies. So, when considering everything above, there is a drastic disparity in comparison to DayZ players utilizing differing panel types, thus why there is such a differing opinion in regards to the night time changes. Some are effected much more than others (Low-Mid Tier IPS Users) and sadly, the developers most definitely didn't take these respective technologies into consideration when making the changes to night time. To ensure an experience that's virtually equal (visually) across all panel types, providing a more even and playable game, the developers need to make some changes to ensure global illumination and black level depth is being represented on a similar scale to ensure visibility, because as it currently stands after the night time changes were made, each player utilizing their respective panel type is experiencing DayZ at a much different base quality level once night time occurs. In Closing In closing, I just wanted to add that I have no specific bias, nor does this issue affect me, as although I did purchase an IPS display, I chose the Alienware AW3418DW, which possesses an enthusiast grade LG IPS panel and the issues mentioned above aren't detrimental to my experience as they would be for 90%+- of the IPS displays currently and previously available. This was literally written in hopes that more could understand where people are coming from, as even I (before these tests), thought that it was just the usual DayZ community moaning because those affected wanted their gamma exploit back. Sadly, a lot of our community have likely left DayZ soley because they literally couldn't play it anymore and that's not right. Bohemia need to do better for those loyal players that now never get to experience DayZ after all those years of waiting. We as a community need to consider this when moving forward and implore Bohemia to reassess, and this time thoroughly conduct testing to ensure that all DayZ players that have loyally supported them are visually experiencing DayZ (night time) in a manner that's playable for everyone. Sadly, they did not test properly before the committing to this change whatsoever and that's unacceptable on a development level. I hope my experiences have cleared some of this up and that this helps everyone understand that there is in fact a very large disparity between users and for some, may have completely made DayZ unplayable after the night time changes were made. 😎Anyways, have a great day people. See you in Cherno!😎