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Open Source Does anyone use F.lux?

Discussion in 'Software' started by Unicorn, 19 May 2014.

  1. Unicorn

    Unicorn Uniform November India

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    Even if you aren't, what's your opinion of it? I've had it on my office and gaming PCs for about a week and have been trying to get used to the different colour temperatures at night, but I've found it more distracting than anything at times and disabled it. Do you eventually get used to it and is the theory behind it sound enough that I should keep using it? I know it's been discussed here somewhere before but I don't think it was a dedicated thread.
     
  2. 1337G3MR

    1337G3MR What's a Dremel?

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    Yes, I use F.lux. It's a little weird at first, but I slowly got used to it. I've definitely noticed that my eyes don't feel as heavy after prolonged use at night and I don't feel as "wired". However, I found the benefit to be greater on my jailbroken iPhone (f.lux is in the Cydia store).
     
  3. lancer778544

    lancer778544 Multimodder

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    I've been using it for a good while now and I did get used to it. I found that putting it on the slow setting so it gradually changes the colour did help a bit. No idea if it does have any benefits though, I wouldn't say I had any problems with eye strain before I installed it but it does take me a minute or two to adjust back if I do need to disable it at night.
     
  4. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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    I used to use it and found it great, for those late night sessions. Allowing me to get to sleep quicker instead of still feel excited and have to wind down by reading news.

    Recently when I started doing photography, I've stopped using it. It's too much hassle to disable it every day.

    If you are finding hard to adjust to it, you don't need to set it very low. 5000k is more than enough to help. As said, also set change speed to slow.
     
  5. Shirty

    Shirty W*nker! Super Moderator

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    This - just use it to take the edge off. The default settings are absurd.
     
  6. Atomic

    Atomic Gerwaff

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    Love it, way less eye strain at night (and winter months)... I just wish my work office lights did the same now!
     
  7. GeorgeStorm

    GeorgeStorm Aggressive PC Builder

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    Tried it for a bit after a friend recommended it, felt a little nicer on the eyes, but I didn't like the way it mucked up colours so didn't stick with it.
     
  8. Unicorn

    Unicorn Uniform November India

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    That's probably the issue then. I'll change the settings to make it a bit milder tonight.

    Do you guys keep it enabled for games?
     
  9. Shirty

    Shirty W*nker! Super Moderator

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    I only use it on the work rig so I've never had any experience of using it for games. I suspect the brightness/contrast controls on your monitor will be your best friends as they affect colours less.
     
  10. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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    I used it for late night gaming before bed. I found it to be great at reducing eye strain and winding down for sleep.

    But screenshots from this will have a very strange tint.
     
  11. wolfticket

    wolfticket Downwind from the bloodhounds

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    Can't you just setup different display colour/brightness presets in your graphics card driver and use hotkeys to switch between them?

    [​IMG]
     
  12. Pliqu3011

    Pliqu3011 all flowers in time bend towards the sun

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    I've used it for quite a while while I was on Windows and found it great, but ever since I started mainly using Linux Mint, I've uninstalled it. The linux version had a very annoying and completely unpredictable bug where it suddenly started using all CPUs 100%, making the system practically unusable. The average CPU usage was surprisingly high in general, often around 10, 11% IIRC. Haven't checked if this has been fixed yet.

    F.lux has a very smooth transition in between colour profiles, which is less distracting than an immediate switch.
     
  13. wolfticket

    wolfticket Downwind from the bloodhounds

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    Ah, I see.
    I think unless it was very clever the automation and gradual changing would annoy me though. I would have thought having to switch back when you don't want it's effects at a time it thinks you do would be as distracting.
     
    Last edited: 20 May 2014
  14. Cleggmeister

    Cleggmeister Of reasonable knowledge...

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    I use it and love it, though I tend not to be gaming late - rather browsing and faffing around.
     
  15. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    I use F.lux on my laptop, an equivalent that plays nicer with Unity on my desktop, a manual low-level colour calibration tool with a F.lux-like preset on my phone, and a crappy F.lux wannabe called Twilight on my tablet. Aside from the latter, which is a bit crap 'cos it just shoves a yellow overlay on top of the image, I couldn't compute into the evenings without 'em. Luvverly.
     
  16. Beasteh

    Beasteh What's a Dremel?

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    Used to use it on my old (linux) PC. Not sure if it had any effect on my sleep, but it's a neat reminder that you should probably be going to bed instead of browsing the web all night.

    Problem? I don't have a problem, I can quit any time I want! :worried:
     
  17. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    I tried it and it did my head in [even dialled right back everything was too nicotene stained for my liking]...

    That said i can see why it exists as a thing... along with the light-level adjusting backlights on a lot of AiOs and devices... overly bright screens can really do you head in after a while... but the yellow tint flux gave everything did my head in more...

    My Dell 2412m [both of them as i've had 2] is particularly 'bad'... on full brightness i'm sure that ****er can be seen from space it's that bright... Had to dial the brightness down to well under 50% iirc just so I could look at it without needing sunglasses...
     
  18. Pliqu3011

    Pliqu3011 all flowers in time bend towards the sun

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    I have my U2312HM turned down to 20% (as recommended in a TFTCentral review IIRC), and I still think it's really bright compared to some of the other monitors in the house. I have no idea why those Dell designers thought it was necessary to build an array of mini quasars in all of their Ultrasharp screens. Surely no one will ever set them to 100% (and live)?

    --

    As an aside, I'm back to running f.lux on my Linux Mint now. It seems the high CPU usage was the fault of the GUI, so now I'm running just the xflux daemon and it's working perfectly. :)
     
  19. Retro_Gamer

    Retro_Gamer Minimodder

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    Been using it a while now with getting headaches from my screen later in the day when it isn't as bright in the house. Took a little getting used to but it has helped a fair bit.
     
  20. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    It could be that the back-light surely gets less bright as it gets older, the brighter it starts off, the longer it takes to dim to the point it's unusable...
     

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