OLED TV Burn-In Safe HUD Colour Scheme for Elite Dangerous PC version

[FlySwat]

I post my story here for the information of those who play Elite Dangerous on a large OLED television screen.

In March 2018 I purchased an LG OLED65C7T screen, a 65 inch 2017 model. Apart from watching TV, a Gaming PC was connected for the primary purpose of playing Elite Dangerous (my favourite game) in Ultra HD since that date. I played regularly for 33 months without any issue whatsoever, until December 2020. Then, to my horror, these significant screen burn-in defects became apparent.

No burn-in was evident on Blue, Green, Black or White backgrounds.

You can see the savage Orange and Red HUD colours caused my OLED screen burn-in issue. Yes, both Pixel Refresher and Screen Shift settings were ON since the date of purchase. Why burn-in only occurred after 33 months (nearly 3 years) and not before, I cannot say.

But those long flight times into distant space stations do leave the Elite Dangerous HUD stationary on-screen for an extended period, which is a critical concern for OLED owners.

My screen was outside the 12 month warranty period. Nevertheless, I did report the fault to the retailer and manufacturer expressing sincere disappointment. To the credit of LG, they did arrange to have a new OLED screen installed without charge. So now my OLED screen is back to pristine new condition.

But can I continue to play Elite Dangerous without burn-in occurring yet again ??
Well, the fantastic Elite Dangerous HUD Mod (EDHM) posted here by @GeorjCostanza means the answer is YES !!

 

[FlySwat]

First, reading this post explaining how to modify text colours I came up with this appearance:

Steps

1. In the “elite-dangerous-64\ShaderFixes” folder open the file “f969184721bd5dec-ps.txt” and Save As a backup “f969184721bd5dec-ps-ORIGINAL.txt”
2. Open “f969184721bd5dec-ps.txt” again and replace LINES 78, 79 and 80 with …

dp3 r2.x, r0.xyzw, l(1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.000000)
dp3 r2.y, r0.xyzw, l(0.7, 0.0, 0.0, 0.000000)
dp3 r2.z, r0.xyzw, l(0.3, 0.0, 0.0, 0.000000)

 

[FlySwat]

And following on from that, here is my matching CMDR FlySwat “EDHM OLED TV Burn-In Safe Elite Dangerous HUD Colour Scheme”:

Steps

1. In the “elite-dangerous-64\EDHM-ini” folder open the file “Profiles.ini” and Save As a backup “Profiles-default.ini”
2. Open the file “Profiles.ini” again and enter these values:

y100 = 5
w103 = 0.8
x103 = 14
x104 = 5
y108 = 9
y104 = 5
z104 = 5
x105 = 5
y105 = 1
y106 = 199
x107 = 8
w106 = 2
y107 = 5
z105 = 14
y101 = 199
x101 = 1
z101 = 1.0

Thank you @GeorjCostanza (aka psychicEgg) and all others involved in developing the fantastic Elite Dangerous HUD Mod (EDHM). Burn-In is real and OLED screen owners can breath a sigh of relief !

 

[GeorjCostanza]

Thank you @GeorjCostanza (aka psychicEgg) and all others involved in developing the fantastic Elite Dangerous HUD Mod (EDHM). Burn-In is real and OLED screen owners can breath a sigh of relief !

Hi CMDR, happy to help, and I'm so glad to hear LG were nice enough to replace your screen.

I like the subdued colours you've chosen .. for me, a HUD shouldn't distract from what's going on outside the ship, but information should be easily accessible when required. So it's a balance, and I feel you've got the balance right with your profile.

If you have any suggestions for improvements please let me know, and I'll revisit the mod when Odyssey arrives

o7

 

[ebbrell]

wow i didn't realise this was an issue on OLED, do you have the brightness turned up high

 

[Morbad]

This is more the contrast of the colors than the specific colors themselves. Blue elements actually tend to age fastest on OLEDs, so a high contrast blue color scheme could well have been worse.

As for why it wasn't evident until 33 months in...LED aging isn't linear, and mitigations like the aforementioned "screen refresher" and "pixel shift" would likely have been more able to mask issues earlier in the panel's life before certain elements started falling below minimum luminosity thresholds.

Still, nice for those who have or are considering an OLED to have the heads up and color scheme to mitigate the issue.

wow i didn't realise this was an issue on OLED

Burn in has always been a serious issue with OLEDs, which is one of the reasons they're so rare in PC monitors...too many static elements to have good longevity. They've gotten better, but other tech will likely supplant them for PC display use before they are robust enough to go mainstream in this market.

 

[Esteban]

I'm impressed at the response you received from LG! I also have to say that the cockpit color scheme is a very pleasing one.

 

[FlySwat]

wow i didn't realise this was an issue on OLED, do you have the brightness turned up high

Here are all my LG OLED screen settings for PC Game mode :

Inputs: EDIT ICON = PC
Pixel Refresher = ON
Screen Shift = ON
HDR High Dynamic Range for HDMI Input = ON
Picture Mode Settings : Game (User)

OLED LIGHT : 100
Contrast : 100
Brightness : 55
Sharpness : 10
Colour : 38
Tint : 0
Colour Temperature : 0

ADVANCED CONTROLS
Dynamic Contrast : OFF
Dynamic Colour : OFF
Colour Gamut : WIDE
Super Resolution : OFF
Gamma : LOW

PICTURE OPTIONS
Noise Reduction : OFF
MPEG Noise Reduction : OFF
Black Level : AUTO
Real Cinema : OFF
Motion Eye Care : OFF
TruMotion : OFF

PC Hardware : AMD Ryzen 7 2700 8 Core 16 Thread CPU 4.1GHz and ASUS ROG GeForce GTX 1080 Strix Aura 8GB
Windows 10 Screen Saver Setting : Mystify after 3 minutes

STEAM : Settings
In-Game : Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game = OFF (since the HUD Mod is not compatible with the Steam Overlay)
Controller : General Controller Settings = ALL OFF

Elite Dangerous : Settings
Resolution : 3840 x 2160 px Ultra HD.
Refresh Rate : 60.00 HZ (max capability of the OLED screen)
Vertical Sync : ON
Frame Rate Limit : 60 HZ (no point having GPU work harder)
Graphics Quality Preset : ULTRA (Yes, I do get a consistent 60 fps)

You’ve played for 1,583 hours = Average 46.5 hours per month, 11.6 hours per week.

Footnote : The Electronic Service Technicians who visited and installed the new LG OLED panel for me said they had done exactly the same for other customers who encountered burn-in defects. Nobody had reported any further burn-in issues since. I asked if there was anything different that I should be doing now as a precaution to protect this pristine quality screen, such as change screen settings. The answer given was NO.

Regardless, I remain wary and am now considering alternative screen options for PC Gaming other than OLED. Perhaps Samsung MicroLED when released, Odyssey G9 widescreen or VR (not convinced).

 

[sterdog]

It goes back to how OLED technology works. Each pixel colour is its own light source and as with any electrical light source some brightness is lost over time. Basically OLED burn in is actually LED wear in just those coloured pixels. The brighter the pixel, the faster it happens. That's why the "ghost" images in a OLED screen are dark, they're pixels of a particular colour in that area that have worn out compared to the rest of the panel. Unfortunately, while your scheme will help the situation, it won't fix the fact that some pixels will experience uniform constant wear and eventually a ghost image of that wear. The best you can hope for is that your new settings take long enough to show wear that you don't really care if you see it or not.

This is also why some laptop manufacturers who have launched OLED panel screens make it very clear the screen wear will not be covered by any warranty policy. Heck, even Samsung won't warranty their OLED phone screens anymore unless you paid for additional warranty coverage from their source. LG is really pushing OLED hard. I personally own a 55" LG C9 OLED and love it. That being said, I know in 4-5 years after purchase I'll be going and buying a new one. I'll probably call LG anyway now that I know they tend to help but I also know the problem is simply a fault in the technology.

 

[Old Duck]

And following on from that, here is my matching CMDR FlySwat “EDHM OLED TV Burn-In Safe Elite Dangerous HUD Colour Scheme”:

I find it ironic that people pay big bucks to get a TV with amazing color, only to pick ugly colors for their HUD because pretty colors might break their TV.

 

[Morbad]

I find it ironic that people pay big bucks to get a TV with amazing color, only to pick ugly colors for their HUD because pretty colors might break their TV.

Unless you have money burning a hole in your pocket, one should probably wait for QD-LED (not the same as what is currently marketed as QLED) display tech to mature. Should be much more durable than OLED, with similar or better brightness and color accuracy.

Then again, some OLED TVs are getting pretty afforable, so using one until it wears out in 3-5 years then getting an affordable QD-LED might work.

 

[GJ51]

Ouch - I just bought an LG GX 77"

But not for ED

Just home theater

 

[sterdog]

Unless you have money burning a hole in your pocket, one should probably wait for QD-LED (not the same as what is currently marketed as QLED) display tech to mature. Should be much more durable than OLED, with similar or better brightness and color accuracy.

Then again, some OLED TVs are getting pretty afforable, so using one until it wears out in 3-5 years then getting an affordable QD-LED might work.

Quantum dot LED is already here on monitors. While I have a 55" OLED as my home entertainment TV upstairs my computer monitor I play Elite on is a 32" Samsung G7 VA panel with Quantum Dot technology. It definitely has the best blacks I've ever seen in a monitor with vibrant colours and none of the issues Samsung VA panels used to have. The only drawback is that the monitor doesn't have enough dimming zones to really push the same HDR experience as an OLED. Once the zone lighting techniques are cheaper, these newer VA and IPS panels will take over I'm sure for computer use. I still think OLED has a place but mostly for home media in situations where the burn in will occur over time spans longer than 7 years.

 

[FlySwat]

Quantum dot LED is already here on monitors. While I have a 55" OLED as my home entertainment TV upstairs my computer monitor I play Elite on is a 32" Samsung G7 VA panel with Quantum Dot technology. It definitely has the best blacks I've ever seen in a monitor with vibrant colours and none of the issues Samsung VA panels used to have. The only drawback is that the monitor doesn't have enough dimming zones to really push the same HDR experience as an OLED. Once the zone lighting techniques are cheaper, these newer VA and IPS panels will take over I'm sure for computer use. I still think OLED has a place but mostly for home media in situations where the burn in will occur over time spans longer than 7 years.

@sterdog I believe @Morbad is talking about the new technology Samsung screens to be released in 2021, Neo QLED and MicroLED.

 

[Morbad]

Samsung G7 VA panel with Quantum Dot technology.

Not the same thing. I'm referring to display tech where quantum dots are used in the actual electroemissive elements. No LCD components and no backlights.

 

[sterdog]

@sterdog I believe @Morbad is talking about the new technology Samsung screens to be released in 2021, Neo QLED and MicroLED.

Not the same thing. I'm referring to display tech where quantum dots are used in the actual electroemissive elements. No LCD components and no backlights.

Ah, makes sense. Yeah, I've been keeping up with display technology and know all of these mentioned. Samsung has been showing them at CES for years now. You can get MiniLED already in creators monitors from Asus but the costs is still high and the lighting not perfect, yet, for gaming. Like most super high dimming array monitors, it shows haloing around bright parts of the screen that can be very distracting. The panel in the Asus is a Samsung design IIRC. I've also head in a few tech youtubers videos that this technology is a dead end since it will always cost most than substrate printing, which I mention below.

Sorry Morbad, I didn't know what you were saying. Unfortunately any display where the pixels are the electroemissive elements will show burn in over time. Again, there is no such thing yet as a light source that doesn't show wear after displaying high brightness repeatedly in specific areas. From my understanding, Samsung is pursuing this specific technology since it should wear slower and it could be manufactured more easily with the components sprayed onto the panel substrate like an inkjet printer sprays on paper. Samsung has never brought AMOLED, the OLED technology they invented and use/sell on phones through themselves and others, to anything large than a phone because it's too expensive to manufacture. The yields are too low. This new approach, in conjunction with another Taiwanese manufacturer, should increase yields by a factor of 10-100 making it viable.

 

[VR - wickfut]

Yes, both Pixel Refresher and Screen Shift settings were ON since the date of purchase. Why burn-in only occurred after 33 months (nearly 3 years) and not before, I cannot say.

It's because OLED has around 400 hours or so of life before it starts to burn out. Your TV has some methods to extend this, such as lowering the brightness of sustained bright portions of the screen and slowly shifting the screen around, but they only delay it.

Think of it as like slowly drilling a hole through a wall. Each time you play your game your drill hole gets deeper. It doesn't matter if you if you go and drill other holes or play other games, the moment that you return back to that one hole it could bust through to the other side at any moment - and then it's permanent.

 

[Scoob101]

I think I already know the answer to this, but just on the off chance....

Are there any options available to console owners to achieve something like this???

 

[FlySwat]

I think I already know the answer to this, but just on the off chance....

Are there any options available to console owners to achieve something like this???

Answer: No, as you anticipated.
But thanks for the link to that Handforth Parish Council meeting video; lots of laughs