Monitor Calibration - Must Read!

[Cruachan 705]

Hi,

 

I have just discovered, to my shame, that I have been deluding myself by believing that my Notebook's monitor was correctly calibrated. Prepar3D is impressive to look at, but today I can announce/confirm that it is gob-smackingly spectacularly beautiful when viewed under the right conditions!

 

For some time now I have been calibrating my M18x Notebook's 18.4" monitor using X-Rite's ColorMunki Photo. Actually, I confess I don't recalibrate as often as perhaps I should. Indeed, the last time I bothered was before Prepar3D v2.0 was released :( This state would have continued had there not been an unexpected development following the last driver update to 344.65. I noticed that the display had developed a faint blue tinge reminiscent of problems experienced way back when I became the owner of a Samsung SyncMaster 226BW. Recalibration from the factory defaults quickly sorted that one out.

 

Fiddling around with the various supplied or previously created icm display profiles produced no improvements so I tried recalibration - 3 times - and still no joy. Then I remembered an article concerning Windows Vista and its tendency to remove the colour calibration LUT, so I did a bit of research and came up with this:

 

http://www.laszlopusztai.net/2009/08/23/stop-losing-display-calibration-with-windows-7/

 

The activation of one switch**: ''Use Windows display calibration'' and all is now well and I am more than delighted with the results!! Prepar3D is transformed beyond all recognition. The colours are now rich and vibrant and the sensation of depth is quite amazing. And those cloud shadows - unbelievably real as they slowly drift across the lush ORBX landscape!

 

**The box may be greyed out and unchecked. The article tells you how to enable it.

 

I bet there are significant numbers of you who either never calibrate your monitors or do it occasionally using the included Windows Calibration Tool, which is okay, but never likely to be accurate. Do yourselves a favour and rush out and buy a 3rd Party Calibration Tool. I have used 2 over the years: Spyder2express and now ColorMunki Photo which I prefer and seems to deliver much more accurate results.

 

The differences are extraordinary and, along with Rob's HDR tweaks, the sim has never looked better.

 

Mike

[ryanbatc 12,774]

Embarrassingly I do a lot of photography and never bought one of those color calibration things.  It's all for fun, I make no money, but yeah, still silly of me!

[alhefner 28]

I've got the Spyder rig... it works to my satisfaction and I do use it but not as often as I should... usually after changing hardware or at the start of running a batch of pics through Photoshop.

[Bernie5 11]

True - if you're not using hardware calibration on your monitor then you're almost certainly not seeing true colour reproduction.

 

I bought a Syder Pro calibrator a few years back, & it really made a difference the first time that I used it. I don't recalibrate as often as I should, so when I do there is a slight but noticeable shift between "before" & "after".

 

Definitely worth doing if you want to see the colours that the manufacturer intended!

[Mischung 48]

I also have a Spyder Pro and of course monitor calibration makes a great difference.

 

One thing I noticed, that the Spyder Utility running in background induced some bad stutters (1/2 s stutters) when checking the validity of the current monitor profile from time to time.

 

I just killed the process and after that it was smooth like butter. :smile:

So take care when using the utility. I had problems with it, even after changing the process' affinity mask to not disturb the P3D's main thread.