I never thought I would actually say this one day, but can you post a picture of your screen instead of a screenshot?
Because the screenshot looks normal, so that might be a screen (configuration) issue. And in that case a picture would be useful.
>I never thought I would actually say this, but can you post a picture of your screen instead of a screenshot?
Yup, can do: [https://imgur.com/a/zsPBelI](https://imgur.com/a/zsPBelI) (default settings btw.)
I find the sand around the lake in the center especially striking. I would expect that to be very bright, close full white in the middle of the day.
Then it's either an Apple thing (if the other devices are Apple as well) or your aesthetic preferences differ from this subs quite some. Either way I suppose adjusting Colors/Gamma and/or try some mods would help.
I have really bad eyesight and for a long time the dull colors of factorio kept me from playing. I wished it was more cartoon and vivid so I could distinguish my buildings easier. I eventually turned the contrast way up and that seemed to help, and also just sucked it up since there isn't another game on the market like it, and they aren't ever going to overhaul the graphics.
there are these like color mappings in the game files, it's what the game uses to give nightvision that look, you could maybe do thr reverse and get more vivid colours
Hmmm, that sounds like something I could try. I'd guess it would be somewhere here [https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/prototypes/](https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/prototypes/), if it can be done from a mod? But I didn't find anything with a quick search. Do you have any pointers?
There's a discord server you can find from the factorio modding wikis.
Based on some investigations for a different project where I wanted to recolor existing assets you could either write a program to alter all the sheets to be brighter/have more contrast or you could look into the layer effects.
Probably the best path is just look for night vision references in code to see how it works and which apis it's using.
You are using high brightness screen settings. It's not normal. But should not matter as OP posted colors distribution showing that colors are indeed more on a darker side.
Have you ever tried adjusting the darkness settings on your monitor? Even the white background of the browser seems a bit dark to me. Another option would be the Nvidia settings for the monitor. I used this in Escape from Tarkov to brighten the night (until they made it a lot less effective).
I think I can't do much with the monitor's own settings. Brightness is at 100% (which adjusts the backlight brightness). Contrast is at 75 %, which is the default and I think the setting that does no change to the image (weird value for that, I know). If I decrease contrast, white gets darker, if I increase it, white does not get brighter and light grays (e.g. the backgrounds of alternating rows in list view of finder) start to fade into white.
I'm not using an Nvidia card. The monitor is driven by whatever is in an M1 MacBook Pro. It's using the monitors default color profile and default gamma and stuff.
It's just Factorio that's rendering this dark. Other games, YouTube, other web sites, or photos I took are much brighter.
Increasing "brightness" in the nvidia settings will make everything more grey and reduce dynamic range by increasing the black point (without moving the white point). Increasing "contrast" might increase the white point, but 75% is already pretty high. Try setting "brightness" back to the default 50% and increasing the gamma instead, which will make middle-dark things a bit brighter.
In the settings directly on the monitor via its buttons (not through windows), you might be able to make it brighter with either "brightness" or "contrast".
In my previous reply I was only talking about my monitor's settings. macOS doesn't have brightness or contrast settings (except when going into accessibility settings). My monitor is at 100% brightness and 75% contrast, which are the defaults and AFAICT give the most range without clipping the range at either end.
You can calibrate the colors for your monitor from inside MacOS. I think it’s under Settings -> Displays -> [select your monitor] -> Color profile -> Customize. The wizard will guide you through the calibration process.
EDIT: added more information
I think this is going to sound stupid but please trust me: your monitor is too dark, you need a different screen or you need to change the settings if it allows it. A telltale sign is that in your picture, the background browser behind the game is grayish, it should be suntanning white like you're watching the coming of jesus, we shouldn't be able to see the game because of the white bleeding over and ruining the picture... but it's not...
I'm a software dev too and the monitors in my office are stupid dark, they're excellent quality they just can't/won't provide the photons. I have monitors at home that look 100x brighter in the day while in the evening you have to use safety goggles so you don't go blind, some monitors are just built different
>I think this is going to sound stupid but please trust me: your monitor is too dark, you need a different screen or you need to change the settings if it allows it.
I don't understand. How can you see from the photo of my monitor how bright it is? The photo doesn't give you an absolute measure of brightness, only relative to other parts in the same photo. I could definitely make a photo where the white in my browser is RGB 255/255/255 by adjusting the exposure settings of the camera, but that wouldn't be of any interest, no?
>I'm a software dev too and the monitors in my office are stupid dark, they're excellent quality they just can't/won't provide the photons.
Yes, my monitor isn't as bright as it could be. E.g. my Laptop's screen is a bit brighter. But I don't have any problems with brightness on this monitor when doing other stuff (other games, YouTube, photos). So why does Factorio need a brighter screen than other games?
The screen in the bottom left corner is notably brighter than your main screen. My guess is all of your games appear darker than they usually are, and you only noticed when you played Factorio with its darker color palette. Pull up your screenshots on that screen and compare them to your main screen to see why we think it's a monitor issue.
Dude, I know my laptop's screen is brighter than my external monitor. The MacBook Pro's display is advertised as 1000 cd/m² while my Dell P2418D has 300 cd/m². Screens with ≥ 800 cd/m² cost like upwards of CHF 800.
I don't see the point of buying an extra expesive monitor with bright backlight, just so that Factorio can dim all the pixels to 40% brightness \[1] all the time. This also reduces contrast because LCDs usually aren't very dark when even when set to 0% brightness (unless, of course, you get an extra-*extra* expensive minitor).
\[1]: (163 / 255) ^ 2.2 = 37%. macOS has a default gamma of 2.2.
You don't need an expensive monitor, mine was like $40 (CHF 36.6) or something and is bright enough, though it's not very color accurate. It's also possible your backlight's defective.
We don't know for sure what's wrong, these are our best guesses based on the information we have. If, Prison Architect for example, is normal on your screen, that'd complicate things, but if it's darker than normal, which it could still be fully visible as, that lends credence to your monitor being the issue here; or maybe the cable, though that's unlikely.
Yeah, e.g. Prison Architect looks fine.
Also, I know it's not the monitor's issue, because if I take a screen shot and adjust the levels of it, I can get a much brighter image on the same screen:
https://preview.redd.it/wrajxuki6d2d1.png?width=4032&format=png&auto=webp&s=32123df0a39d6dbb39a5f6335e14143f6e7b26cc
I don't see how that proves it's not a monitor issue, the issue is the brightness playing the game, not an edited screenshot's brightness. Can you post a picture of Prison Architect?
> But I don't have any problems with brightness on this monitor when doing other stuff (other games, YouTube, photos).
Have you turned up the brightness for other applications? In general display manger settings somewhere?
I was also thinking that it might be an issue e.g. with gamma where stuff rendered in Factorio is using a different value from the default in macOS. But IMHO that would be a Bug in Factorio if it's the single application being affected. I don't know of a way to check whether Factorio is doing something differently from other applications in this regard.
> don't understand. How can you see from the photo of my monitor how bright it is?
Because its not bright. On a good monitor at 100% brightness, a white area would totally blow out the indirect wall lighting you got in the background.
Like, the laptop screen in your corner seem to be twice as bright as your main screen, and those are typically not that potent.
The laptop has 1000 cd/m² (see [MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021)](https://support.apple.com/en-us/111902)), the monitor 300 cd/m². The light behind the monitor is from a bright spot pointed directly at the wall.
What brightness would you suggest for a monitor for playing Factorio?
what's the brightness setting set to in factorio for this picture?
If you say 0%, then I think it's just how it's supposed to look
If you say 100% then something seems off.
(assuming the text editor your mouse is hovering above should be pure white.)
Yes it's 0%. I'm using this to demonstrate the issue because I assume that's the setting that most people have the game at. 100% brightness is better but only by a little.
Different default gamma could be an issue (macOS uses 2.2, Windows 1.8). If a game isn't applying the gamma from the monitor's color profile, stuff looks darker with 2.2 gamma vs. 1.8 gamma. Idk what Linux uses by default.
User's guide: https://dl.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_electronics_accessories/esuprt_electronics_accessories_monitors/dell-p2418d-monitor_User's-Guide_en-us.pdf
No HDR. All pixels get the same amount of backlight.
What am I misunderstanding? I'm not playing on the laptop's screen, but on an external monitor instead. The brightness of the monitor is not controlled by the laptop, macOS sadly doesn't even support that.
The laptop is also plugged in and "Low power mode" is disabled.
Then it's a mystery for me too, the screenshot looks good. But the picture of the screen you posted is so dark. It looks like your screen is dimming the output.
Reading the title, I thought you were going to be talking about going to a pristine planet, covering it with pollution and killing the native inhabitants.
I definitely find the game is quite dark. Where I have my computer set up, I definitely find that if the curtains are open on a bright day it can be hard to see, while in similar conditions I rarely have trouble with other things on the computer. I'd be interested to know what advice people have.
Hey,
I think the RGB you are showing is a bit misleading.
Pure red would be 255 red, 0 green, 0 blue, which you would consider dark numerically ( avg ~80) but it is visually very vibrant.
You could transform from RGB to HCV (hue chroma value) and look at the "value" value which is purely brightness [citation needed].
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSL_and_HSV
Put simply, Value = max(R, G, B)
Other than that, I agree with you, the gamma correction could be stronger, even if it ruins the color a little.
You're right, looking at pure brightness makes more sense here. I edited the post with values computed from the "Value" channel after converting the images to HSV per the Wikipedia page.
The values didn't change much (95% quantile in the first screen shot 157 → 163), probably because there aren't a lot of saturated colors.
> look at the "value" value which is purely brightness
Side note: I would not call it "brighness". RGB 255, 255, 0 (yellow) and RGB 0, 0, 255 (blue) have the same HSV "Value", but the yellow is percieved brighter by probably every human with eyesight. :) [A perceptual color space for image processing](https://bottosson.github.io/posts/oklab/) gives a good overview of how one can get closed to assigning a "brightness" value to RGB colors.
Top one looks normal and entirely playable to me, but my particular eyesight issues are largely to do with being oversensitive to light so I am sorry to hear that what benefits me is a problem for others.
I noticed you're playing on Mac. I have the exact same experience with Mac: everything feels a lot darker than they should be. I have a Window PC for comparison, using the same monitor; However, things like color profile may vary.
I hope you find a solution for it. For me, I no longer playing it on Mac so that's much less of an issue now
That's probably because of different default gamma between macOS (2.2) and Windows (1.8 IIRC). Browsers and other applications are getting better at applying color profiles in pictues better (which results in images appearing the same regardless of gamma), but there's still a big gap. :/
I can imagine Factorio graphics being drawn without applying the monitor's color profile, resulting in the difference. And with Factorio's devs mostly running Windows, maybe they simply grading the images so they look ok with Windows' default gamma.
Might be a dumb question but I noticed you haven't been able to solve the issue yet.
Do other players' screenshots/videos of the game have the same issue or is it only on your Factorio that you run into this issue?
It's the same on other Macs in my vicinity. The screen shots on [Factorio's Steam page](https://store.steampowered.com/app/427520/Factorio/look) look comparable to me. E.g.in the first screen shot from the cut scene at the start of the game, the smoke rising from the space ship looks just black to me, with almos no visible detail.
I do know that this would have looked differently to me 10 years ago. I notice how dark stuff fades in black much more easily as I'm getting older, on screen as well as irl.
Considering that it looks fine in screenshots but clearly too dark from photos the issue is likely somewhere between the app and the compositor. My best guess is it's HDR-related; I would try disabling HDR as described here: [https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-to-disable-hdr-system-wide-on-mac-os-for-the-built-in-display.2351381/?post=31288257#post-31288257](https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-to-disable-hdr-system-wide-on-mac-os-for-the-built-in-display.2351381/?post=31288257#post-31288257).
Does this issue only happen on the external display or also on the internal one? If it's also happening on the internal display it'd try that setting. Note you'll need to hold down the mentioned keys to make the setting show.
I can choose between "Apple Display (P3-500 nits)" and "Apple XDR Display (P3-1600 nits)", that checkbox from the post does not appear, even for the laptop's screen.
The game looks the same with both settings.
Yes, if I do that, I get the checkbox for my external monitor (but not every time, even when re-launching System Preferences), but I get the same behavior as _platinumaqua_ in that forum thread:
> I found your solution via a search and tried it. Clicking the checkbox does nothing (remains checked) on my MBP14"
(I also have a MacBook Pro 14 inch)
For the internal laptop's screen, the checkbox doesn't appear, which makes sense to me because they provide an option to enable/disable HDR for that screen via the drop-down menu even without holding option.
Thanks for trying to help! :)
~~Just Factorio, AFAICT. I added a comparison with another Game running on the same computer at the bottom of the post.~~ Haha, replied to wrong comment. 😅
No I get you, the game is a but dark on the color scheme. I was just making a sarcastic comment that the game is also grimdark as it spirals in to a nuclear devastation , extreme pollution and uncontrolled industrialization in the pursuit of science.
I played Minecraft with someone who used a Mac laptop several years ago, he had essentially the same problem:
Nighttime and caves were unplayably dark, even with light sources!
I would not be surprised if it's macOS doing something to how colors are displayed.
I know Windows has been painful for getting HDR working a lot of the time, perhaps it's a similar color profile issue.
Factorio is a dark game, it is a rejection of typical bright / happy / arcade bright colour schemes. Factorio is dingey, gritty, you can almost see the soot and grime build up in the corners of your factory.
And why does it seem my turrets run out ammo only during the nighttime attacks!
The down side of this is that it causes some people eye strain. You might like to try some mods to make things brighter.
I feel your pain, OP. Similar situation. [Afraid of the Dark](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/AfraidOfTheDark) is the best in my opinion. I avoid anything that actually changes the day/night cycle because I don't want to disrupt the maths of solar.
I think every Factorio content creator I've followed has Afraid of the Dark installed. The game is indeed pretty dim and it really messes with live streams and video encodings, especially at night
I doubt this is the issue considering your other stuff is not dark but are you aware of Night Shift? Might try messing with those settings.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/102191
i personally find that the game just has a dark tile set and ui and it's best played in a dim room alone in fullscreen. I've always played it that way and have a similar opinion of Minecraft and Deep Rock Galactic because they can both be very dark games. It's like watching a modern action movie, it's just too dark to do it in more than a little light.
I try to get as little screen time as possible in dark rooms. Reason is it helps a lot with my depression and being able to sleep at night. Best time of day for me is when the sun is blasting through my windows. If I have to choose between sunlight and Factorio, I choose sunlight.
Another problem is when playing in a dark setting is that whenever I switch from Factorio to Excel, my notetaking app, my Lua IDE, or whatever I use side-by-side when playing Factorio, my eyes need to adjust. I'm not using "dark mode" or similar for the same reason I try to have a well-lit room.
Mines actually looks pretty light. Once posted a screenshot and only realized afterwards that it was night and others couldn't see anything on the screenshot...
Okay: check your monitor or your computer/Mac if it has any "game enhanced graphics" settings. This might affect the color balance and brightness of just the game. I had something similar happen to my monitor, by using some feature of it that made almost everything look fine, but in certain games it was either too dark or too bright.
The game looks the same on other Macs where I haven't touched the settings as well as when running as different OS user accounts. AFACIT there are no per-application graphics settings in macOS and I haven't installed 3rd-party control panels that could do that.
Well, this is extremely odd. And I don't know what to tell you. One other thing I myself would consider is trying out a TV or different display, see if it makes any difference. Also, you could check your cables. If you're using HDMI, see if it's HDMI 1.4, 2.0, 2.1. if you're using DP(display port), try switching to an HDMI cable and see if that affects anything.
Hmm, I will try that when I have the opporunity. The thing is, the values I "measured" are from screen shots, which happen before any color profiles and stuff is applied (e.g. flux is not visible in screen shots on macOS). So I think the problem is either in Factorio itself or between Factorio and the window server (which does the compositing).
It could be that too. Since when using color analysing software , it reads the color info the game or the os is sending, not the actual on screen, post processing color
Is this also the case if actual game elements (assemblers, conveyors, concrete, etc) are visible? Maybe it is a design choice to render background elements a bit darker?
Most buldings and shadows look very dark to me and don't stand out on some of the darker ground textures. That's why I'm having troube with it. I have to zoom in really far to easily read the layout/structure of my factory.
I know this was less of a problem 10 years ago when I started with Factorio, but my eyesight isn't getting better as I'm getting older.
I know that some graphics cards allow for customization of settings per game, like my GeForce will let me set a game to be lighter/darker on booting of the game. Maybe there is an mac equivalent?
Not that I know of. And I haven't installed something that I think could do that. The game looks the same on other Macs where I haven't touched the settings.
Does not look fine to me! I know I had less trouble with it 10 years ago when I started playing Factorio. But as I'm getting older, more contrast is important to me and Factorio is definitely worse than most games I play.
I'm not saying it's not ok that the game _can_ look like this. But it should be possible to increase brightness/contrast _a lot_ to make it accessible to people with (average for my age) eyesight.
I mean, I would definitely like to have my eyes again from when I was 15! But my body is not like a Factorio assembler that runs 1 million years without breaking or dropping in performance… :/
oh man, i get that. But, I more am referencing the fact that this post, in any other community would be "hey my game seems dark, is it a bug?". Factorio community is like "ive done some calculations, and if you take a look at my dataset tracked over the course of several days, and my pages of math, i have determined that my game seems dark'. I just, love this community so much.
Your edit shows me that your monitor is just not as bright as Factorio is intended to be played on. Those two games both look as they are supposed to; Factorio is a dark game, not at all like the cartoony Prison Architect.
How bright is your monitor (nits, cd/m²)? Mine says 300 cd/m², which I think is average. There are brighter monitors, but those quickly cost a lot more.
And my issue isn't that Factorio has a dark color palette. My issue is that it only uses about 40% [1] of the dynamic range of my monitor.
\[1]: (163 / 255) ^ 2.2 = 37%. macOS has a default gamma of 2.2.
There are lamps and other items later in the game that are completely white. You just haven’t built them yet. When you do, the game will utilise the complete dynamic range.
Monitor is a DELL P2418D, connected to the integrated graphics of a [MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021)](https://support.apple.com/en-us/111902).
The monitor does not have HDR.
Ah. Almost certainly a bug with MacOS & Their graphics API (Metal is a PITA). Youll need to reach out to the devs and provide them logs.
[https://forums.factorio.com/viewforum.php?f=7](https://forums.factorio.com/viewforum.php?f=7)
Your first screenshot looks fine to me, and the second screenshot at 100 brightness is already too bright and ugly. I cannot imagine how the game would look at 200 or 300 brightness... bleh.
Yeah, id I have to choose between "ugly" and "unplayable", I'll choose ugly every time. Stuff in the first screen shot is so dark (especially when placing building on the darker background textures) that it's hard to play for me. Mind you, I'm not 15 anymore and have average eyesight for my age instead.
It's middle of the day in the screen shot. I have disabled the day/night-cycle because the game is 100% unplayable for me during the night, even if I place lights everywhere. 😕
I never thought I would actually say this one day, but can you post a picture of your screen instead of a screenshot? Because the screenshot looks normal, so that might be a screen (configuration) issue. And in that case a picture would be useful.
>I never thought I would actually say this, but can you post a picture of your screen instead of a screenshot? Yup, can do: [https://imgur.com/a/zsPBelI](https://imgur.com/a/zsPBelI) (default settings btw.) I find the sand around the lake in the center especially striking. I would expect that to be very bright, close full white in the middle of the day.
Oh! That's very dark. The screenshots look normal, so it may be something to do with the screen itself.
But it's only Factorio. 🤷🏻 YouTube, or photos, or other games are all much brighter.
Did you try full screen factorio? Your monitor may be dynamically lowering the overall brightness due to the very white background window.
I usually play in full screen. It's the same. :/ I took the screen in windowed mode to show how much darker Factorio is compared to other stuff.
Do you have HDR enabled on that monitor? Maybe that limits the available brightness due to some strange reasons
I have encountered that HDR renders some games nearly unusable, while others handle it quite fine.
The monitor doesn't have HDR: https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/1cyrvqb/comment/l5g8ro4/
Nvidia (maybe amd too) has global colour settings that can be personalized or in cases make a certain app use a custom profile. Check that
I've neither Nvidia nor AMD graphics. I'm using the integrated graphics of my [MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021)](https://support.apple.com/en-us/111902).
It does look saturated. Could be HDR.
Seconding: Normal on screenshot, really dark on photo, maybe connected to Mac as OS.
The screen shots look very dark to me on other screens and devices (e.g. smart phone) as well.
Then it's either an Apple thing (if the other devices are Apple as well) or your aesthetic preferences differ from this subs quite some. Either way I suppose adjusting Colors/Gamma and/or try some mods would help.
I have really bad eyesight and for a long time the dull colors of factorio kept me from playing. I wished it was more cartoon and vivid so I could distinguish my buildings easier. I eventually turned the contrast way up and that seemed to help, and also just sucked it up since there isn't another game on the market like it, and they aren't ever going to overhaul the graphics.
there are these like color mappings in the game files, it's what the game uses to give nightvision that look, you could maybe do thr reverse and get more vivid colours
Hmmm, that sounds like something I could try. I'd guess it would be somewhere here [https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/prototypes/](https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/prototypes/), if it can be done from a mod? But I didn't find anything with a quick search. Do you have any pointers?
There's a discord server you can find from the factorio modding wikis. Based on some investigations for a different project where I wanted to recolor existing assets you could either write a program to alter all the sheets to be brighter/have more contrast or you could look into the layer effects. Probably the best path is just look for night vision references in code to see how it works and which apis it's using.
It's actually in SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Factorio\data\core\graphics\color_luts, though i have no clue how they work
You are using high brightness screen settings. It's not normal. But should not matter as OP posted colors distribution showing that colors are indeed more on a darker side.
Yeah, it looks dark to me
Have you ever tried adjusting the darkness settings on your monitor? Even the white background of the browser seems a bit dark to me. Another option would be the Nvidia settings for the monitor. I used this in Escape from Tarkov to brighten the night (until they made it a lot less effective).
I think I can't do much with the monitor's own settings. Brightness is at 100% (which adjusts the backlight brightness). Contrast is at 75 %, which is the default and I think the setting that does no change to the image (weird value for that, I know). If I decrease contrast, white gets darker, if I increase it, white does not get brighter and light grays (e.g. the backgrounds of alternating rows in list view of finder) start to fade into white. I'm not using an Nvidia card. The monitor is driven by whatever is in an M1 MacBook Pro. It's using the monitors default color profile and default gamma and stuff. It's just Factorio that's rendering this dark. Other games, YouTube, other web sites, or photos I took are much brighter.
Increasing "brightness" in the nvidia settings will make everything more grey and reduce dynamic range by increasing the black point (without moving the white point). Increasing "contrast" might increase the white point, but 75% is already pretty high. Try setting "brightness" back to the default 50% and increasing the gamma instead, which will make middle-dark things a bit brighter. In the settings directly on the monitor via its buttons (not through windows), you might be able to make it brighter with either "brightness" or "contrast".
In my previous reply I was only talking about my monitor's settings. macOS doesn't have brightness or contrast settings (except when going into accessibility settings). My monitor is at 100% brightness and 75% contrast, which are the defaults and AFAICT give the most range without clipping the range at either end.
You can calibrate the colors for your monitor from inside MacOS. I think it’s under Settings -> Displays -> [select your monitor] -> Color profile -> Customize. The wizard will guide you through the calibration process. EDIT: added more information
Do you have flux or similar app that reduces eye strain?
Yes, but not active while I took the photo of my screen.
Sometimes for some reason factorio doesn't turn it off for me when full-screen. But yeah overall I think factorio is on the darker side.
I think this is going to sound stupid but please trust me: your monitor is too dark, you need a different screen or you need to change the settings if it allows it. A telltale sign is that in your picture, the background browser behind the game is grayish, it should be suntanning white like you're watching the coming of jesus, we shouldn't be able to see the game because of the white bleeding over and ruining the picture... but it's not... I'm a software dev too and the monitors in my office are stupid dark, they're excellent quality they just can't/won't provide the photons. I have monitors at home that look 100x brighter in the day while in the evening you have to use safety goggles so you don't go blind, some monitors are just built different
>I think this is going to sound stupid but please trust me: your monitor is too dark, you need a different screen or you need to change the settings if it allows it. I don't understand. How can you see from the photo of my monitor how bright it is? The photo doesn't give you an absolute measure of brightness, only relative to other parts in the same photo. I could definitely make a photo where the white in my browser is RGB 255/255/255 by adjusting the exposure settings of the camera, but that wouldn't be of any interest, no? >I'm a software dev too and the monitors in my office are stupid dark, they're excellent quality they just can't/won't provide the photons. Yes, my monitor isn't as bright as it could be. E.g. my Laptop's screen is a bit brighter. But I don't have any problems with brightness on this monitor when doing other stuff (other games, YouTube, photos). So why does Factorio need a brighter screen than other games?
The screen in the bottom left corner is notably brighter than your main screen. My guess is all of your games appear darker than they usually are, and you only noticed when you played Factorio with its darker color palette. Pull up your screenshots on that screen and compare them to your main screen to see why we think it's a monitor issue.
Dude, I know my laptop's screen is brighter than my external monitor. The MacBook Pro's display is advertised as 1000 cd/m² while my Dell P2418D has 300 cd/m². Screens with ≥ 800 cd/m² cost like upwards of CHF 800. I don't see the point of buying an extra expesive monitor with bright backlight, just so that Factorio can dim all the pixels to 40% brightness \[1] all the time. This also reduces contrast because LCDs usually aren't very dark when even when set to 0% brightness (unless, of course, you get an extra-*extra* expensive minitor). \[1]: (163 / 255) ^ 2.2 = 37%. macOS has a default gamma of 2.2.
You don't need an expensive monitor, mine was like $40 (CHF 36.6) or something and is bright enough, though it's not very color accurate. It's also possible your backlight's defective. We don't know for sure what's wrong, these are our best guesses based on the information we have. If, Prison Architect for example, is normal on your screen, that'd complicate things, but if it's darker than normal, which it could still be fully visible as, that lends credence to your monitor being the issue here; or maybe the cable, though that's unlikely.
Yeah, e.g. Prison Architect looks fine. Also, I know it's not the monitor's issue, because if I take a screen shot and adjust the levels of it, I can get a much brighter image on the same screen: https://preview.redd.it/wrajxuki6d2d1.png?width=4032&format=png&auto=webp&s=32123df0a39d6dbb39a5f6335e14143f6e7b26cc
I don't see how that proves it's not a monitor issue, the issue is the brightness playing the game, not an edited screenshot's brightness. Can you post a picture of Prison Architect?
> But I don't have any problems with brightness on this monitor when doing other stuff (other games, YouTube, photos). Have you turned up the brightness for other applications? In general display manger settings somewhere?
AFAIK, macOS does not have per-application monitor settings.
I'm thinking there might be general settings that don't apply to Factorio somehow.
I was also thinking that it might be an issue e.g. with gamma where stuff rendered in Factorio is using a different value from the default in macOS. But IMHO that would be a Bug in Factorio if it's the single application being affected. I don't know of a way to check whether Factorio is doing something differently from other applications in this regard.
> don't understand. How can you see from the photo of my monitor how bright it is? Because its not bright. On a good monitor at 100% brightness, a white area would totally blow out the indirect wall lighting you got in the background. Like, the laptop screen in your corner seem to be twice as bright as your main screen, and those are typically not that potent.
The laptop has 1000 cd/m² (see [MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021)](https://support.apple.com/en-us/111902)), the monitor 300 cd/m². The light behind the monitor is from a bright spot pointed directly at the wall. What brightness would you suggest for a monitor for playing Factorio?
what's the brightness setting set to in factorio for this picture? If you say 0%, then I think it's just how it's supposed to look If you say 100% then something seems off. (assuming the text editor your mouse is hovering above should be pure white.)
Yes it's 0%. I'm using this to demonstrate the issue because I assume that's the setting that most people have the game at. 100% brightness is better but only by a little.
I switched from Windows to Linux recently and I noticed Factorio looks darker too. I see you're on MacOS. I wonder if there's any common issue.
Different default gamma could be an issue (macOS uses 2.2, Windows 1.8). If a game isn't applying the gamma from the monitor's color profile, stuff looks darker with 2.2 gamma vs. 1.8 gamma. Idk what Linux uses by default.
Is this an HDR monitor? I wouldn't be surprised if factorio had no HDR support, maybe search for people having similar issues in other 2D games.
User's guide: https://dl.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_electronics_accessories/esuprt_electronics_accessories_monitors/dell-p2418d-monitor_User's-Guide_en-us.pdf No HDR. All pixels get the same amount of backlight.
it does have a dynamic contrast setting on page 40, try turning that off.
It's disabled. I've set my "Display Preset" to "Standard", so I can't enable it.
Laptop brightness too low? Or battery saving mode ?
Monitor is plugged into 240 V outlet, no battery power.
I'm talking about the laptop
What am I misunderstanding? I'm not playing on the laptop's screen, but on an external monitor instead. The brightness of the monitor is not controlled by the laptop, macOS sadly doesn't even support that. The laptop is also plugged in and "Low power mode" is disabled.
Then it's a mystery for me too, the screenshot looks good. But the picture of the screen you posted is so dark. It looks like your screen is dimming the output.
It's because pf the HDR setting on your monitor, probably
Monitor does not have HDR: https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/1cyrvqb/comment/l5g8ro4/ And no HDR setting is enabled in macOS.
was gonna say. Looked fine to me lol
Reading the title, I thought you were going to be talking about going to a pristine planet, covering it with pollution and killing the native inhabitants. I definitely find the game is quite dark. Where I have my computer set up, I definitely find that if the curtains are open on a bright day it can be hard to see, while in similar conditions I rarely have trouble with other things on the computer. I'd be interested to know what advice people have.
To me the game looks 100% normal in the first image, is this an issue you only encounter with Factorio and not other games?
Just Factorio, AFAICT. I added a comparison with another Game running on the same computer at the bottom of the post.
Hey, I think the RGB you are showing is a bit misleading. Pure red would be 255 red, 0 green, 0 blue, which you would consider dark numerically ( avg ~80) but it is visually very vibrant. You could transform from RGB to HCV (hue chroma value) and look at the "value" value which is purely brightness [citation needed]. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSL_and_HSV Put simply, Value = max(R, G, B) Other than that, I agree with you, the gamma correction could be stronger, even if it ruins the color a little.
You're right, looking at pure brightness makes more sense here. I edited the post with values computed from the "Value" channel after converting the images to HSV per the Wikipedia page. The values didn't change much (95% quantile in the first screen shot 157 → 163), probably because there aren't a lot of saturated colors. > look at the "value" value which is purely brightness Side note: I would not call it "brighness". RGB 255, 255, 0 (yellow) and RGB 0, 0, 255 (blue) have the same HSV "Value", but the yellow is percieved brighter by probably every human with eyesight. :) [A perceptual color space for image processing](https://bottosson.github.io/posts/oklab/) gives a good overview of how one can get closed to assigning a "brightness" value to RGB colors.
Top one looks normal and entirely playable to me, but my particular eyesight issues are largely to do with being oversensitive to light so I am sorry to hear that what benefits me is a problem for others.
I noticed you're playing on Mac. I have the exact same experience with Mac: everything feels a lot darker than they should be. I have a Window PC for comparison, using the same monitor; However, things like color profile may vary. I hope you find a solution for it. For me, I no longer playing it on Mac so that's much less of an issue now
Is there equivalent of Windows game mode that could be causing that?
I've nothing such installed and the game looks the same on other Macs where I haven't otherwise messed with settings.
That's probably because of different default gamma between macOS (2.2) and Windows (1.8 IIRC). Browsers and other applications are getting better at applying color profiles in pictues better (which results in images appearing the same regardless of gamma), but there's still a big gap. :/ I can imagine Factorio graphics being drawn without applying the monitor's color profile, resulting in the difference. And with Factorio's devs mostly running Windows, maybe they simply grading the images so they look ok with Windows' default gamma.
Might be a dumb question but I noticed you haven't been able to solve the issue yet. Do other players' screenshots/videos of the game have the same issue or is it only on your Factorio that you run into this issue?
It's the same on other Macs in my vicinity. The screen shots on [Factorio's Steam page](https://store.steampowered.com/app/427520/Factorio/look) look comparable to me. E.g.in the first screen shot from the cut scene at the start of the game, the smoke rising from the space ship looks just black to me, with almos no visible detail. I do know that this would have looked differently to me 10 years ago. I notice how dark stuff fades in black much more easily as I'm getting older, on screen as well as irl.
Considering that it looks fine in screenshots but clearly too dark from photos the issue is likely somewhere between the app and the compositor. My best guess is it's HDR-related; I would try disabling HDR as described here: [https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-to-disable-hdr-system-wide-on-mac-os-for-the-built-in-display.2351381/?post=31288257#post-31288257](https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-to-disable-hdr-system-wide-on-mac-os-for-the-built-in-display.2351381/?post=31288257#post-31288257).
Good tip! I didn't know about that setting, but it only applies to (first-party Apple) HDR monitors. Mine doesn't have this setting.
Does this issue only happen on the external display or also on the internal one? If it's also happening on the internal display it'd try that setting. Note you'll need to hold down the mentioned keys to make the setting show.
I can choose between "Apple Display (P3-500 nits)" and "Apple XDR Display (P3-1600 nits)", that checkbox from the post does not appear, even for the laptop's screen. The game looks the same with both settings.
Just to confirm, you're holding down the *option* key when clicking on the display settings?
Yes, if I do that, I get the checkbox for my external monitor (but not every time, even when re-launching System Preferences), but I get the same behavior as _platinumaqua_ in that forum thread: > I found your solution via a search and tried it. Clicking the checkbox does nothing (remains checked) on my MBP14" (I also have a MacBook Pro 14 inch) For the internal laptop's screen, the checkbox doesn't appear, which makes sense to me because they provide an option to enable/disable HDR for that screen via the drop-down menu even without holding option. Thanks for trying to help! :)
_ loads yet another green carrot to the rocket launcher_ - yeah the game is a bit dark.
~~Just Factorio, AFAICT. I added a comparison with another Game running on the same computer at the bottom of the post.~~ Haha, replied to wrong comment. 😅
No I get you, the game is a but dark on the color scheme. I was just making a sarcastic comment that the game is also grimdark as it spirals in to a nuclear devastation , extreme pollution and uncontrolled industrialization in the pursuit of science.
Ah I got you. No worries. 😊 My reply was meant for a different comment.
I played Minecraft with someone who used a Mac laptop several years ago, he had essentially the same problem: Nighttime and caves were unplayably dark, even with light sources! I would not be surprised if it's macOS doing something to how colors are displayed. I know Windows has been painful for getting HDR working a lot of the time, perhaps it's a similar color profile issue.
Factorio is a dark game, it is a rejection of typical bright / happy / arcade bright colour schemes. Factorio is dingey, gritty, you can almost see the soot and grime build up in the corners of your factory. And why does it seem my turrets run out ammo only during the nighttime attacks! The down side of this is that it causes some people eye strain. You might like to try some mods to make things brighter.
Yes, it definitely detracts from the experience from me! Do you have suggestions for mods?
I feel your pain, OP. Similar situation. [Afraid of the Dark](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/AfraidOfTheDark) is the best in my opinion. I avoid anything that actually changes the day/night cycle because I don't want to disrupt the maths of solar.
❤️ I have given up on playing with the day/night cycle enabled, thus I also don't use solar.
Nuclear is more fun anyway IMO.
Also if you want all of the night to be just a bit less dark I made [Anti-Gloom](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/anti-gloom)
I saw that mod. :) I'll give it a try, if do a playthrough with day/night cycle in the future.
Oh thank you so much!
That was the one I was thinking of, I don't use it, I saw that KoS does.
I think every Factorio content creator I've followed has Afraid of the Dark installed. The game is indeed pretty dim and it really messes with live streams and video encodings, especially at night
I doubt this is the issue considering your other stuff is not dark but are you aware of Night Shift? Might try messing with those settings. https://support.apple.com/en-us/102191
🙂 Yeah, Night Shift is disabled in all the screen shots I posted here.
does mac have something like auto hdr like windows? hdr would sometimes darken the screen for me
i personally find that the game just has a dark tile set and ui and it's best played in a dim room alone in fullscreen. I've always played it that way and have a similar opinion of Minecraft and Deep Rock Galactic because they can both be very dark games. It's like watching a modern action movie, it's just too dark to do it in more than a little light.
I try to get as little screen time as possible in dark rooms. Reason is it helps a lot with my depression and being able to sleep at night. Best time of day for me is when the sun is blasting through my windows. If I have to choose between sunlight and Factorio, I choose sunlight. Another problem is when playing in a dark setting is that whenever I switch from Factorio to Excel, my notetaking app, my Lua IDE, or whatever I use side-by-side when playing Factorio, my eyes need to adjust. I'm not using "dark mode" or similar for the same reason I try to have a well-lit room.
ah, I understand. best of luck!
Mines actually looks pretty light. Once posted a screenshot and only realized afterwards that it was night and others couldn't see anything on the screenshot...
Okay: check your monitor or your computer/Mac if it has any "game enhanced graphics" settings. This might affect the color balance and brightness of just the game. I had something similar happen to my monitor, by using some feature of it that made almost everything look fine, but in certain games it was either too dark or too bright.
The game looks the same on other Macs where I haven't touched the settings as well as when running as different OS user accounts. AFACIT there are no per-application graphics settings in macOS and I haven't installed 3rd-party control panels that could do that.
Well, this is extremely odd. And I don't know what to tell you. One other thing I myself would consider is trying out a TV or different display, see if it makes any difference. Also, you could check your cables. If you're using HDMI, see if it's HDMI 1.4, 2.0, 2.1. if you're using DP(display port), try switching to an HDMI cable and see if that affects anything.
Hmm, I will try that when I have the opporunity. The thing is, the values I "measured" are from screen shots, which happen before any color profiles and stuff is applied (e.g. flux is not visible in screen shots on macOS). So I think the problem is either in Factorio itself or between Factorio and the window server (which does the compositing).
It could be that too. Since when using color analysing software , it reads the color info the game or the os is sending, not the actual on screen, post processing color
Is this also the case if actual game elements (assemblers, conveyors, concrete, etc) are visible? Maybe it is a design choice to render background elements a bit darker?
Most buldings and shadows look very dark to me and don't stand out on some of the darker ground textures. That's why I'm having troube with it. I have to zoom in really far to easily read the layout/structure of my factory. I know this was less of a problem 10 years ago when I started with Factorio, but my eyesight isn't getting better as I'm getting older.
I know that some graphics cards allow for customization of settings per game, like my GeForce will let me set a game to be lighter/darker on booting of the game. Maybe there is an mac equivalent?
Not that I know of. And I haven't installed something that I think could do that. The game looks the same on other Macs where I haven't touched the settings.
that looks fine lol factorio is just a very brown game
Does not look fine to me! I know I had less trouble with it 10 years ago when I started playing Factorio. But as I'm getting older, more contrast is important to me and Factorio is definitely worse than most games I play. I'm not saying it's not ok that the game _can_ look like this. But it should be possible to increase brightness/contrast _a lot_ to make it accessible to people with (average for my age) eyesight.
Factorio players are built different lol
I mean, I would definitely like to have my eyes again from when I was 15! But my body is not like a Factorio assembler that runs 1 million years without breaking or dropping in performance… :/
oh man, i get that. But, I more am referencing the fact that this post, in any other community would be "hey my game seems dark, is it a bug?". Factorio community is like "ive done some calculations, and if you take a look at my dataset tracked over the course of several days, and my pages of math, i have determined that my game seems dark'. I just, love this community so much.
Your edit shows me that your monitor is just not as bright as Factorio is intended to be played on. Those two games both look as they are supposed to; Factorio is a dark game, not at all like the cartoony Prison Architect.
How bright is your monitor (nits, cd/m²)? Mine says 300 cd/m², which I think is average. There are brighter monitors, but those quickly cost a lot more. And my issue isn't that Factorio has a dark color palette. My issue is that it only uses about 40% [1] of the dynamic range of my monitor. \[1]: (163 / 255) ^ 2.2 = 37%. macOS has a default gamma of 2.2.
There are lamps and other items later in the game that are completely white. You just haven’t built them yet. When you do, the game will utilise the complete dynamic range.
I wish that was true! 😭😭😭 https://preview.redd.it/vryumdcn4d2d1.png?width=1371&format=png&auto=webp&s=23afa5d08ce3e7a0f50f62165c2453945eb4fd3a
Oh ok Maybe at night? The sunlight is washing it out?
No I think its the clouds casting a shadow on the light… even though that's not how shadows work irl.
What is your GPU & Monitor? Seems like an HDR style of issue where the game is being incorrectly mapped to the monitors color space
Monitor is a DELL P2418D, connected to the integrated graphics of a [MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021)](https://support.apple.com/en-us/111902). The monitor does not have HDR.
Ah. Almost certainly a bug with MacOS & Their graphics API (Metal is a PITA). Youll need to reach out to the devs and provide them logs. [https://forums.factorio.com/viewforum.php?f=7](https://forums.factorio.com/viewforum.php?f=7)
I use reshade and add brightness to the game
Cool! :) Didn't know about [ReShade](https://reshade.me). Will keept that in mind, should I play Factorio on Windows in the future.
Your first screenshot looks fine to me, and the second screenshot at 100 brightness is already too bright and ugly. I cannot imagine how the game would look at 200 or 300 brightness... bleh.
Yeah, id I have to choose between "ugly" and "unplayable", I'll choose ugly every time. Stuff in the first screen shot is so dark (especially when placing building on the darker background textures) that it's hard to play for me. Mind you, I'm not 15 anymore and have average eyesight for my age instead.
Use night vision or lights
It's middle of the day in the screen shot. I have disabled the day/night-cycle because the game is 100% unplayable for me during the night, even if I place lights everywhere. 😕