Develop Bugs

[Kernel MOD] (Auto)brightness corrections

Hi,
this is a topic I want to start in order to help the development of more intelligent brightness control for Galaxy S (probably regional variants of it will benefit as well).
It began with my PM to some of kernel DEVs that I've noticed brownish color instead of black on ONE brightness setting. My idea was to omit that one brightness level.
Overnight, I already got two responses. One that it should be no problem and one that the link I sent might lead to fixing the problem I mentioned as well (color correction).
The other, connected to brightness topic, thing I've noticed is that auto control of it is retarded. First, it's too jumpy without any reason (like let's say change of outside brightness) and second it likes to set level that burn the eyeballs. I've never had such problem on my CM Hero.
Here's my original PM:
embrion said:
Hi,
I'm PMing you as the most popular kernels coders.
Long story short: SAMOLED screens like to make black or similar colors brownish at low brightness. I've (and not only me) noticed that there's a step just about min. when it starts to be brown and a next step after that it magically stops. The idea is to omit this step at all or just in auto brightness table. I believe It's doable by using those methods.
The original story begins here from the first half of #522 post
Like I've wrote there, this problem exists in all kernels and all color temperature variants of them + stock one.
If you're interested, please respond me. If not, also respond as I'd like to know if I can count on anything.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some links that might help:
[SOLUTION] Fix for minimum screen brightness! [10/13 - adjustable]
Kernel makers, please add the ability to adjust auto brightness.
[APP] Different auto-brightness
Gizmodo - Why iPhone 4 and Android Brightness Controls Are Effectively Useless
My random thoughts:
One option would be fooling the sensor that it is less bright than it is
Another, more proper I believe, it to modify some brightness tables to leave extreme brightness levels to extreme outside light situations. This one would also help skipping this "brown" brightness level as like I said, it looks to be only one level
Color correction MIGHT fix "brown" problem too, but I'm not sure as COLD and WARM kernel variants didn't changed this brown problem (unless colors are optimized only for some of the levels like I've read at VOODOO site)
CM 6 already has such brightness level options in Settings-> CM Settings - > User interface -> Automatic backlight -> Use custom(just checked on my Hero) so probably lot of code can be reused (as I believe there is CM for Galaxy S)
Kernel DEVs, fell free to hijack this thread. It is to help your cooperation (unless each one of you prefer to solve problems on they own ) Btw. don't be offended if I didn't included you in the DEVs list I've sent my PM. It was late and I PMed only those I've noticed that they kernels I've used. All of you are more than welcomed.
Other, please don't post "I cannot see any brown", and those one that can see it, please stop posting about info after first 5 people do

I'm so happy to read this threat. I had posted questions about display and auto brightness a couple of months ago in the questions section but never received any credible responses.
My problem is that when I turn auto brightness on, not only does my display get exceptionally dark, but it becomes very noticeable that e.g. grey turns more brownish. Comparing my display to yet another Galaxy S confirmed my suspicions that this is not they way the display is supposed operate, i.e. compared to mine the other Galaxy stayed a lot brighter in equal lighting conditions and the grey remained grey (instead of brownish-grey like mine). I compared the grey tones of the numeric buttons in the stock Dialer APP to conclude this.
I suspectED the light sensor might be defective, but I have run the test menu on a couple of Galaxies (*#0589#) and the units always display the same values when put next to mine.
You might see why this is bugging me so much, it seems my galaxy's display is not using less battery even though I get less brightness than the others on auto brightness. Unless I manually bump up the brightness to full the colors on my screen look dull (grey turns Brownish, and over all it looks not as alive) as compared to other units. Simply bumping the brightness up is of course not an option, this drain the battery like crazy.
EDIT: I too have tried the various Kernels, hardcore warm and cold, voodoo w/ color fix sadly all to no avail
EDIT2: @embrion The above all doesn't explain why our phones have this problem, but the far majority of Galaxy S phones doesn't. Of course I cannot statistically back this up, but I have not physically seen any other device that gets brown on autobrightness like ours. Any Ideas?

Do you say your friend's Galaxy S doesn't turn brownish or it does but gives higher brightness than your device in same lighting conditions?

embrion said:
Do you say your friend's Galaxy S doesn't turn brownish or it does but gives higher brightness than your device in same lighting conditions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does not turn brown and appears much brighter in equal lighting w/ auto brightness ON. I edited my post above, please read again if it was unclear before. Thank you!!

You should check it at manual brightness at level set few steps higher than min. I'd like to separate brownish display problem at one brightness level from inproper light sensor measure

embrion said:
You should check it at manual brightness at level set few steps higher than min. I'd like to separate brownish display problem at one brightness level from inproper light sensor measure
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Click to collapse
Like I said, the light sensor does not give an improper measure, the readings in *#0589# menu are equal across the devices (including mine). The brownish color tones do, to some degree, disappear if the brightness bar is set two ticks to the right of minimum.

(Auto)brightness corrections
Original Auto Brightness level is too high & sluggish.
It 's need to fix like a voodoo Brightness level fix (2.1 only).

schiphol said:
Like I said, the light sensor does not give an improper measure, the readings in *#0589# menu are equal across the devices (including mine). The brownish color tones do, to some degree, disappear if the brightness bar is set two ticks to the right of minimum.
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Yes, mine too. Second step from min. setting. I'll ask guys at my local forums to get some statistics. If your friend doesn't have such problem at the same color/theme than it must be display fault

embrion said:
Yes, mine too. Second step from min. setting. I'll ask guys at my local forums to get some statistics. If your friend doesn't have such problem at the same color/theme than it must be display fault
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Click to collapse
Which CSC code do you have? I mine was originally XEN (Netherlands). The units I tested that did not have the problem were all DBT (german Sim free). Just asked my brother and he says his phone also gets brownish (also XEN). Have to check product codes later, will update then.

Mine is XEE (Orange, Poland)

Supercurio did some tinkering with those settings:
https://github.com/project-voodoo/l...a2/Kernel/drivers/video/samsung/s3cfb_mdnie.c
I suspect this is the file we need to modify;
Code:
mDNIe_data_type mDNIe_UI[]=
{
#ifdef CONFIG_VOODOO_MDNIE
// Voodoo color: optimized UI mode
// reduce the sharpness filter radius to make it much closer
// to the real fuzzyness introduced by the SAMOLED Pentile pattern
// color saturation boost on everything is also disabled because
// it causes harm on stock settings (exaggerated colors)
0x0084, 0x0040,
0x0090, 0x0000,
0x0094, 0x0FFF,
0x0098, 0x005C,
0x009C, 0x0613,
0x00AC, 0x0000,
0x00B4, 0x0A00,
0x00C0, 0x0400,
0x00C4, 0x7200,
0x00C8, 0x008D,
0x00D0, 0x00C0,
END_SEQ, 0x0000,
Any thoughts and datasheet quotations on this? Because seriously I see just random numbers in this.
Some interesting code begins around line 315, but seriously I'm clueless
Another interesting file:
https://github.com/project-voodoo/l...2/Kernel/drivers/video/samsung/s3cfb_tl2796.c
My screen has brownish/reddish deep grays on brightness settings under 16-17%. However when I set it over 17% and use screen filter app deep grays are NOT brownish/reddish, this means there is definitely something with lower brightness settings.

Xan, check out the link I've posted in the first post. He gives sources that might be helpful
And the problem appears only at 2nd step of brightness (counted from zero brightness)

embrion said:
Xan, check out the link I've posted in the first post. He gives sources that might be helpful
And the problem appears only at 2nd step of brightness (counted from zero brightness)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@embrion so did you pm Supercurio? What did he say? It's too bad this color/sharpness fixing will probably be put on a back burner what with Gingerbread and CM7 development. D*RN IT! I tried an app in the market that is more precise than the built-in slider. Try it out Adjbrightness (free). I punched in all values possible between 2-255. The tipping point (where the browness is gone) lies at when you go from 34 to 35. Is this the same for everyone suffering from this problem. Please remove all apps like e.g. 'screen filter' before you try!

For me crucial step is going from
/ # echo 53 > /sys/devices/platform/s3cfb/spi_gpio.3/spi3.0/backlight/s5p_bl/brightness
to 54, however I'm running trasig's voodoo.
While 54 and over looks ok, lower values are... reddish/pinkish.

@schiphol: yes I did but no response. In dark colored Gingerbread era, this problem will be become more and more evident.
@xan: dzieki I'll flash latest Darky as it is based on trasig's voodoo and try your fix.
--edited--
Supercurio just responded me, I'll let you know about results

embrion said:
@schiphol: yes I did but no response. In dark colored Gingerbread era, this problem will be become more and more evident.
@xan: dzieki I'll flash latest Darky as it is based on trasig's voodoo and try your fix.
--edited--
Supercurio just responded me, I'll let you know about results
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No fix there, just a different behaviour...
Would like to see this in next voodoo, might even write some simple user interface for this.
I have an idea but its not quite clear yet, however if this patch will let most users 'calibrate' their screens.. I think I'll give simple GUI a shot.

@embrion
Could you perhaps upload the screenshots you talked about in R64's thread so I can replicate. Because of different kernels and settings I want to try and establish beyond a doubt that the problem we're having is of the same nature and root cause. Thanks

This wont be visible on screenshots. You need to make a photo, problably with DSLR and know how to do it

I'll try it today and let you know
According to Supercurio, this is Samsung's color profile deviation, not SAMOLED fault itself.
Anything software broken can be software fixed
@schiphol, xan: yes, it won't be noticed at screenshots, I've already compared R64's black notification bar screenshots and my brown ones. Color picker showed a little difference in color (R:24, G:24, B:24 or something VS RGB: 0, 0, 0 - true black). Such difference should'n be visible and is not visible from software screenshot point of view but Samsung color profile makes 24,24,24 brown IN REAL LIFE while 0,0,0 is still black. I repeat, they're both black at screenshots no matter which brightness level is set, but only 0,0,0 black doesn't look like brown when viewed by bare human eye. Samsung profile at this brightness treats 24,24,24 as brown while it should as black.
--edited--
You're right, Xan. It's just another, ( but 1337 ) method of changing the brightness. I thought there's a plaintext table with levels accessible to change by hand

Hi Ok I have kept the brightness at 2 clicks to the right from minimum to stop grey from looking grey-brown all through today. Now my display accounts for 95% of the battery usage, it has never been this high before. The battery is at 25% whilst I only used the display for 44 minutes.
Thats ridiculous battery drainage and should be taken into careful consideration when a fix is developed for this issue. Are you guys having a similar experience??

Better control over brightness

For amateur astronomy use, I needed to be able to bring down my A43's LCD brightness to a very low level. After a bit of experimenting, here is a very simple app that lets you have a darker screen than the OS normally allows:
http://code.google.com/p/superdim
It requires root.
This is my first independent Android app, so no doubt I screwed up in some way.

arpruss said:
For amateur astronomy use, I needed to be able to bring down my A43's LCD brightness to a very low level. After a bit of experimenting, here is a very simple app that lets you have a darker screen than the OS normally allows:
http://www.mediafire.com/?zwsg7aeqtcqogpm
It requires root.
This is my first independent Android app, so no doubt I screwed up in some way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, if you need it, make it. Personally, I find using Night Mode in Chainfire better than simply turning down brightness. It turns the brightness down, and renders everything in red, or whatever color you choose, but red is the correct choice to retain night sensitivity.
Obviously, I probably wouldn't watch a movie like that, but it's great for when I'm bow-fishing by full moon and want to change songs or something without wrecking my night vision.

For astronomy purposes, ChainFire3D's night mode won't be enough. At the lowest normal system backlight setting, if one is fully dark adapted under a dark sky, the amount of light leaking through the black pixels will be enormous--the screen will look grey rather than black (well, I haven't tried it, but I have experience with other devices). What one needs to do for serious night vision protection is to BOTH turn the view to red with ChainFire3D AND dim the backlight to a very low level with this app. And I am not even sure this will be fully satisfactory, because on my A43 the amount of light leakage is really big.
By the way, I posted a new version and source, and renamed the project to SuperDim. I also added a toggle for the power LED, since they made it green rather than red.

arpruss said:
For astronomy purposes, ChainFire3D's night mode won't be enough. At the lowest normal system backlight setting, if one is fully dark adapted under a dark sky, the amount of light leaking through the black pixels will be enormous--the screen will look grey rather than black (well, I haven't tried it, but I have experience with other devices). What one needs to do for serious night vision protection is to BOTH turn the view to red with ChainFire3D AND dim the backlight to a very low level with this app. And I am not even sure this will be fully satisfactory, because on my A43 the amount of light leakage is really big.
By the way, I posted a new version and source, and renamed the project to SuperDim. I also added a toggle for the power LED, since they made it green rather than red.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm. That's good to know for the A43. I'd like to know what you think of the night mode in chainfire, just because there aren't many other people who worry about this topic. I live in St. Louis, a big city, so you probably have less ambient light, but I also wonder if my A101 gets darker than the A43. Even at night, I can turn it down to the point that I really can't read a damn thing.
Great idea with the Power LED. Once again, I don't think light levels drop low enough in St. Louis for it to bother me, but I hadn't even thought of disabling it.

To really be dark adapted, you need to be away from white light for about 45 minutes. (Though I find that after 15 minutes the payoff diminishes.) It's not going to happen outdoors in a big city.
I added profiles (three night, two day), and integrated SuperDim with ChainFire3D, so if you have ChainFire3D installed, you can control its night mode directly from SuperDim, and even include its night mode setting in a profile.
For my own use, I wanted a red screen dim profile for astronomy, a green screen dim profile for reading books in the dark, a dim full color profile for other night use, a bright green profile sometimes for reading books in the day, and a full color bright profile. But you can save whatever you want in the five profile slots.
I've been using figuring out the light control stuff for SuperDim as an opportunity for learning how to program for Android in preparation for writing (not from scratch--I got a donation of the AstroTools source code under the GPL to start with, and I may port some code from open2sky and AstroInfo for PalmOS) a high-end astronomy app. (I'm an experienced PalmOS developer, but quite new to Android.) I'm actually quite pleased. I was dreading java (I've usually developed in C), but I am finding Android development, especially with Eclipse, surprisingly pleasant.

arpruss said:
To really be dark adapted, you need to be away from white light for about 45 minutes. (Though I find that after 15 minutes the payoff diminishes.) It's not going to happen outdoors in a big city.
I added profiles (three night, two day), and integrated SuperDim with ChainFire3D, so if you have ChainFire3D installed, you can control its night mode directly from SuperDim, and even include its night mode setting in a profile.
For my own use, I wanted a red screen dim profile for astronomy, a green screen dim profile for reading books in the dark, a dim full color profile for other night use, a bright green profile sometimes for reading books in the day, and a full color bright profile. But you can save whatever you want in the five profile slots.
I've been using figuring out the light control stuff for SuperDim as an opportunity for learning how to program for Android in preparation for writing (not from scratch--I got a donation of the AstroTools source code under the GPL to start with, and I may port some code from open2sky and AstroInfo for PalmOS) a high-end astronomy app. (I'm an experienced PalmOS developer, but quite new to Android.) I'm actually quite pleased. I was dreading java (I've usually developed in C), but I am finding Android development, especially with Eclipse, surprisingly pleasant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, my point exactly. I'm about 15 miles away from the city when out on the river, but that's not really far enough to get out of the city's light pollution.
Great work integrating with Chainfire. I'll give it a try next time I'm out. It should be nice having everything in one place.
I'll be looking forward to the astronomy app. It's been a looong time since I've worked on one, but I still have the DOS version of CyberSky I helped develop, so I guess I still have a fondness for them.

I posted 0.23, fixing a bug that made day2 = day1.
And I posted 0.30, adding support for toggling keyboard and button backlight on devices that have them.

I use screen filter to make my screen dimmer..
its in the market..

1. As far as I can tell, Screen Filter doesn't adjust the backlight--it only lowers the LCD pixel intensity. As a result, even if you turn Screen Filter to something really low like 2%, if you take your device to a dark area, you'll see a grey glow coming from the screen, because the backlight leaks through the black pixels.
To remedy the grey glow issue, you need to turn the backlight down, but the OS only lets you turn it so far down (10/255 on my A43; some phones only allow 20/255) without directly writing to /sys/class/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness (which needs root, and is what SuperDim does).
I also suspect that in a dark area, with brightness set to a low value, lowering backlight will produce a more visually attractive image than Screen Filter, because lowering the backlight will make a black background be fairly black.
That's all for backlit LCD screens. OLED screens are a completely different kettle of fish, and SuperDim won't help you much there (though it'll still let you set themes controlling LEDs and ChainFire3D nightmode).
2. I generalized the code a little so it should let you control whatever LEDs your device has, as long as they have a /sys/class/leds/*/brightness interface.
3. By the way, ChainFire3D's nightmode is a touch imperfect: if you set it to red, I think it just turns off the green and blue channels. That means that green and blue visual elements cease to be visible. A somewhat better nightmode would convert the image from RGB to grayscale, and then turn off the green and blue channels. I don't know how easy to implement that would be--I don't know enough about GL blending (I tried to google but couldn't find an answer simple enough for me to understand).

arpruss said:
1. As far as I can tell, Screen Filter doesn't adjust the backlight--it only lowers the LCD pixel intensity. As a result, even if you turn Screen Filter to something really low like 2%, if you take your device to a dark area, you'll see a grey glow coming from the screen, because the backlight leaks through the black pixels.
To remedy the grey glow issue, you need to turn the backlight down, but the OS only lets you turn it so far down (10/255 on my A43; some phones only allow 20/255) without directly writing to /sys/class/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness (which needs root, and is what SuperDim does).
I also suspect that in a dark area, with brightness set to a low value, lowering backlight will produce a more visually attractive image than Screen Filter, because lowering the backlight will make a black background be fairly black.
That's all for backlit LCD screens. OLED screens are a completely different kettle of fish, and SuperDim won't help you much there (though it'll still let you set themes controlling LEDs and ChainFire3D nightmode).
2. I generalized the code a little so it should let you control whatever LEDs your device has, as long as they have a /sys/class/leds/*/brightness interface.
3. By the way, ChainFire3D's nightmode is a touch imperfect: if you set it to red, I think it just turns off the green and blue channels. That means that green and blue visual elements cease to be visible. A somewhat better nightmode would convert the image from RGB to grayscale, and then turn off the green and blue channels. I don't know how easy to implement that would be--I don't know enough about GL blending (I tried to google but couldn't find an answer simple enough for me to understand).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assumed it did convert to greyscale first before tinting, but you may be right. I'll have to think how to test that.

msticninja said:
I assumed it did convert to greyscale first before tinting, but you may be right. I'll have to think how to test that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quick test: If you set CF3D to blue, anything that's pure yellow goes black. For example, if you go to SuperDim, the left half of the brightness adjustment bar is yellow and disappears completely.
Another test: go with the browser to http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_colors.asp in red mode. Notice that the blue 0000FF and green 00FF00 samples can't be distinguished from 000000 black, while the red FF0000 can't be distinguished from white FFFFFF.

arpruss said:
Quick test: If you set CF3D to blue, anything that's pure yellow goes black. For example, if you go to SuperDim, the left half of the brightness adjustment bar is yellow and disappears completely.
Another test: go with the browser to http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_colors.asp in red mode. Notice that the blue 0000FF and green 00FF00 samples can't be distinguished from 000000 black, while the red FF0000 can't be distinguished from white FFFFFF.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems like pretty clear results to me. I wonder if converting to greyscale first would even be feasible, from a coding, and from a processor cycle standpoint. It would have to use extra power, but I wonder how much. It doesn't really matter for me, everything I need to do is doable, but interesting nonetheless.

msticninja said:
Seems like pretty clear results to me. I wonder if converting to greyscale first would even be feasible, from a coding, and from a processor cycle standpoint. It would have to use extra power, but I wonder how much. It doesn't really matter for me, everything I need to do is doable, but interesting nonetheless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There may be a way of hardware accelerating this.

ScreenDim

New on the Market:
https://market.android.com/details?...mkub21lZ2FjZW50YXVyaS5TY3JlZW5EaW0uVHJpYWwiXQ..
"Is your minimum screen brightness still too bright? Dim your screen below what your device normally permits for comfortable use in darker environments, reading in bed, amateur astronomy, etc.! No root required."
I find this app indispensable for comfortable reading at night.

Thank you so much for this, I was just thinking last night that even the dimmest setting on the A100 was still to bright
Sent from my EVO Shift 4G

Brilliant find, normally use the Kindle when reading in bed but the web browser is diabolical.
Toyface
Sent from my A100

Try screen filter from market instead....its free
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

jimmyUT said:
Try screen filter from market instead....its free
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm the ScreenDim developer. Screen Filter is free and clever, but it doesn't do the same thing as ScreenDim, at least not on LCD devices. Screen Filter basically just alpha-blends a dark box over the screen, without lowering the backlight level below what the OS normally allows. The result is that Screen Filter lowers the contrast and the color resolution, and in a dark room, the blacks will be gray because of the backlight shining through them.
ScreenDim allows you to both lower the LCD backlight level below what the OS normally allows on many devices and, if that's not good enough, to control the contrast just as Screen Filter does. Furthermore, because ScreenDim allows you to lower the backlight level, it will save on batteries in a way in which Screen Filter will not, again on LCD devices. (On OLED devices, there is much less of a difference.)
Moreover, my testing on my Archos 43 indicates that Screen Filter lowers the 2D rendering performance by about 30%. ScreenDim at 100% contrast shouldn't affect the 2D rendering, and even with the contrast adjust, I couldn't measure a noticeable 2D performance loss.
For real free alternatives to ScreenDim on backlit devices, there are AdjBrightness and my RootDim, both in the Market. Both require root, however. And ScreenDim's dual brightness-contrast adjustment feature is found in neither.

+1 for root dim, I use it and it works well on this tab and my atrix

be careful not to set it to 1 because its turns off the screen but the tablet is still on. i got stuck trying to find the slider to slide it back so i can see the screen again. nice find though.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using xda premium

jahciple said:
be careful not to set it to 1 because its turns off the screen but the tablet is still on. i got stuck trying to find the slider to slide it back so i can see the screen again. nice find though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tapping random places on the screen should quickly restore the brightness.
Also, if the tablet has volume buttons, you can adjust brightness with them.
Once you figure out what the lowest you can go is, go to Options | Set minimum brightness. Then you won't have this worry any more.

screen filter
Love screen filter it works great and its free, super simple, plus pop notification bar too. Awesome app. Screen filter is
https://market.android.com/details?...ch_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5oYXhvciJd
Screeeeen filter link above!

arpruss said:
Tapping random places on the screen should quickly restore the brightness.
Also, if the tablet has volume buttons, you can adjust brightness with them.
Once you figure out what the lowest you can go is, go to Options | Set minimum brightness. Then you won't have this worry any more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ahem. I'm not sure exactly where those buttons were when I needed them to try to get the brightness restored, but I couldn't find them on two occasions. I had to hard power off.
Great idea but it won't work for me unfortunately. I want something that will turn my tablet into pure darkness except for a small, dimly illuminated, clock on the screen. No matter what I find, an app always has too much backlight on and it bothers me when I'm trying to sleep.
If only I could get this app to interact with my alarm clock app somehow!

Status bar
Is there any way to remove the status bar icon of the ScreenDim?
I thought the app was designed to reduce distraction while using a device, but the icon being in the most prominent spot (upper left corner) draws attention constantly.

How to dim the GN screen even more?

I find the dimmest screen toggle still too bright. I find it embarrassing to use in dark public spaces.
Is there a way to dim the screen even more?

Download the screen filter app from the play store. Literally puts a filter effect on the screen to make it appear darker making it much easier to use in the dark.

Yes its possible to take the screen much lower, but we have to edit the framework. Nobody had done this mod yet for some reason.

CM9 has the ability to change the screen lowest settings built in

B97 said:
Download the screen filter app from the play store. Literally puts a filter effect on the screen to make it appear darker making it much easier to use in the dark.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1. I use Screen Filter also, it's uber handy for reading at night when the light seems too bright. If you've got hardkeys like I had on my Desire, you can even turn them off.

i wrote a tutorial on how you can mod the frameworks apk. it's very easy and you can change the brightness levels to anything you want. here's the thread
screen filter only puts a transparent layer on the screen and messes with the colors. modding the frameworks will lower default brightness to any level you want. you can raise it too if you like.

Thanks for all the ideas. I went with the easiest one, Screen Filter.

AOKP also has an option to reduce screen brightness...

dynamicpda said:
Thanks for all the ideas. I went with the easiest one, Screen Filter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good man!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA

neotekz said:
i wrote a tutorial on how you can mod the frameworks apk. it's very easy and you can change the brightness levels to anything you want. here's the thread
screen filter only puts a transparent layer on the screen and messes with the colors. modding the frameworks will lower default brightness to any level you want. you can raise it too if you like.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great work, I've been wondering why nobody did this mod yet for the nexus. I made that same mod on my atrix, using the sgs2 thread as well. But I've been too lazy to do it for nexus.
The above mod is the best option. Screen filter doesn't achieve the same results. The above mod reduces power draw as well when on the lower brightness setting of 5 or so. Screen filter just hides the higher brightness but has same power draw.

RogerPodacter said:
Great work, I've been wondering why nobody did this mod yet for the nexus. I made that same mod on my atrix, using the sgs2 thread as well. But I've been too lazy to do it for nexus.
The above mod is the best option. Screen filter doesn't achieve the same results. The above mod reduces power draw as well when on the lower brightness setting of 5 or so. Screen filter just hides the higher brightness but has same power draw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be correct for back-lit screens. For the Galaxy Nexus screen, though, Screen Filter does help reducing power draw as a darker screen content = lower brightness.
I used to use SF for quite a while until I got fed up of it causing stutters to most animations. After thorough examination I concluded that the Nexus's GPU is the culprit. For some reason it just doesn't like multiple graphics being updated at once. Modding the overlay XML allows it to run at full speed.
Can anyone confirm the same reduced framerate issue?. It's also the reason why some ROMs include a setting to remove the navigation buttons glow. I tested with CM9 on the SGS2 and experienced none of the stutters in cases where the GN would. Another example: sliding between sections (comments, ralated, etc.) in YouTube is laggy iff the video is playing.

fnf said:
That would be correct for back-lit screens. For the Galaxy Nexus screen, though, Screen Filter does help reducing power draw as a darker screen content = lower brightness.
I used to use SF for quite a while until I got fed up of it causing stutters to most animations. After thorough examination I concluded that the Nexus's GPU is the culprit. For some reason it just doesn't like multiple graphics being updated at once. Modding the overlay XML allows it to run at full speed.
Can anyone confirm the same reduced framerate issue?. It's also the reason why some ROMs include a setting to remove the navigation buttons glow. I tested with CM9 on the SGS2 and experienced none of the stutters in cases where the GN would. Another example: sliding between sections (comments, ralated, etc.) in YouTube is laggy iff the video is playing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, GPU just isn't good enough. I hate the lag with the button glow animations on!
I use an app called root dim, it's really useful. Let's you use a brightness level of 1, which is really quite dim. Free, too.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

Remoteconcern said:
Agreed, GPU just isn't good enough. I hate the lag with the button glow animations on!
I use an app called root dim, it's really useful. Let's you use a brightness level of 1, which is really quite dim. Free, too.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip, on the Galaxy Nexus it's possible to set the brightness to 0 by writing to /sys/class/backlight/*/brightness but the brightness is checked and reset to the minimum (default 10) every time the screen is turned on. I guess Root Dim works to the same effect so it runs as a system service. Still, it'd be an awesome addition for people who haven't bothered to mod.

fnf said:
That would be correct for back-lit screens. For the Galaxy Nexus screen, though, Screen Filter does help reducing power draw as a darker screen content = lower brightness.
I used to use SF for quite a while until I got fed up of it causing stutters to most animations. After thorough examination I concluded that the Nexus's GPU is the culprit. For some reason it just doesn't like multiple graphics being updated at once. Modding the overlay XML allows it to run at full speed.
Can anyone confirm the same reduced framerate issue?. It's also the reason why some ROMs include a setting to remove the navigation buttons glow. I tested with CM9 on the SGS2 and experienced none of the stutters in cases where the GN would. Another example: sliding between sections (comments, ralated, etc.) in YouTube is laggy iff the video is playing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Screen filter may reduce power. But amoled screens save power with lower brightness. There is no difference between lcd vs led on this issue. And modifying the framework to bring min brightness down to 5 rather than 15 saves much more power than screen filter. Its no contest. This isn't different from lcd in this case.
---------- Post added at 03:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:14 PM ----------
fnf said:
Thanks for the tip, on the Galaxy Nexus it's possible to set the brightness to 0 by writing to /sys/class/backlight/*/brightness but the brightness is checked and reset to the minimum (default 10) every time the screen is turned on. I guess Root Dim works to the same effect so it runs as a system service. Still, it'd be an awesome addition for people who haven't bothered to mod.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes we can write to that sysfs file, but it gets reset. The mod to the frameworks incorporates that backlight file so its now able to go down to 1, 2, 5, or whatever you want. It makes it now stock, so you are no longer capped at 10 (actually I think 15 is the cap I see). But that mod is just removing this cap and making it lower to whatever you want. Stock.
So no extra app is needed. No additional tweak. It now makes the stock brightness able to go down to 1 by itself whenever it needs.

[Q] AOKP Screen Brightness

The lowest brightness setting is not dim enough for me in low light conditions so I've been looking to alter it.
After reading around the capabilities of some apps it seems that they only add an overlay which reduces contrast. I would much prefer to do it natively.
I then realised that the AOKP ROM has this functionality!
However, I can't seem to get it to work.
Settings>Display>Custom backlight settings
Changing the screen dim level doesn't seem to change anything for me.
Can anyone offer some tips or advice?
Thanks

Works fine for me. I know it doesn't help your problem any...

danger-rat said:
Works fine for me. I know it doesn't help your problem any...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does your display dim more when you select a lower than default value or did you have to change something else?

Did you change the corresponding value in "Edit Other Levels" as well (if you're on auto brightness)? Not on AOKP, but mine is fully functional both on manual, and auto.
Their implementation is the same as CM9 (which is nearly identical, if not the same as the CM7 implementation).
Edit: just a thought, not sure if the AOKP status bar brightness slider is hardcoded to a certain minimum level? Are the results the same if you adjust your brightness via the Settings>Display>Brightness slider?

Settings>Rom Control>Performance>color multipliers.
Drag the three bars all the way down.
As far as your problem...
Are you on auto brightness?
And have you adjusted the "Dim Level" prior to adjusting the screen levels?
(Dim Level is the level your screen dims to after not touching it for 15 seconds or whatever).

Jubakuba said:
And have you adjusted the "Dim Level" prior to adjusting the screen levels?
(Dim Level is the level your screen dims to after not touching it for 15 seconds or whatever).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Screen dim level is the minimum brightness value attainable (I lower mine to 12 so I can enter a screen value of 12 in my custom levels), but also does correspond to what you mentioned.

Another AOKP user expressed similar concerns but found an app called Root Dim or something that solved his problem.

OpusX11 said:
Another AOKP user expressed similar concerns but found an app called Root Dim or something that solved his problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The implementation must be still broken then; haven't tested the latest AOKP releases. Root dim apps tend to create lag.

Implementation works perfectly here.

Jubakuba said:
Implementation works perfectly here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same.

Jubakuba said:
Implementation works perfectly here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Attaining an altered screen dim level when on auto as well?
Edit: comment wasn't an indictment; just remembering issues that were there on b35 or b36 (?).
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

Yep.

Microwave. said:
Does your display dim more when you select a lower than default value or did you have to change something else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I select a lower than normal default brightness, and it appears to just work. The auto brightness decreases, which is what i was looking for at night, and also the overall min brightness decreases. The max brightness seems unaffected...

remember when making these changes you do have to save and apply. many people forget that step.

tspderek said:
remember when making these changes you do have to save and apply. many people forget that step.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's an especially annoying mis-step after entering 23 custom levels.

CMNein said:
That's an especially annoying mis-step after entering 23 custom levels.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol.
And no offense taken at all, man.
And me personally, I just use 5 levels.
One that goes all the way to 600[whateverambientlightismeasuredby] and a screen level of 5.
This keeps my phone from dicking about with it's brightness when I'm indoors...and I have no problem reading it. I don't mind a super-dim screen in general.
The remaining levels I ramp up fairly aggressively for two "by a window" scenarios...
And outside.
And OMGSUNNY outside.

Jubakuba said:
Lol.
And no offense taken at all, man.
And me personally, I just use 5 levels.
One that goes all the way to 600[whateverambientlightismeasuredby] and a screen level of 5.
This keeps my phone from dicking about with it's brightness when I'm indoors...and I have no problem reading it. I don't mind a super-dim screen in general.
The remaining levels I ramp up fairly aggressively for two "by a window" scenarios...
And outside.
And OMGSUNNY outside.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I add 2 levels for the high end, and reduce the other brightness levels considerably. Ultimately I usually end up with the perfect'ish level for most scenarios. I hate having to adjust brightness the old fashioned way
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

CMNein said:
Screen dim level is the minimum brightness value attainable (I lower mine to 12 so I can enter a screen value of 12 in my custom levels), but also does correspond to what you mentioned.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which values do you change in the custom levels?
OpusX11 said:
Another AOKP user expressed similar concerns but found an app called Root Dim or something that solved his problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I know an app could potentially solve the problem but I don't like using 3rd party apps when the solution can be more elegantly achieved using native tweaks.
Jubakuba said:
Lol.
And no offense taken at all, man.
And me personally, I just use 5 levels.
One that goes all the way to 600[whateverambientlightismeasuredby] and a screen level of 5.
This keeps my phone from dicking about with it's brightness when I'm indoors...and I have no problem reading it. I don't mind a super-dim screen in general.
The remaining levels I ramp up fairly aggressively for two "by a window" scenarios...
And outside.
And OMGSUNNY outside.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you send me a screenshot of your custom levels, that sounds like the exact thing I'm after - a dimmer screen in general, and having a lower min brightness.
So am I correct in thinking that you need to lower the dim value in order to set lower values in the custom levels?