Display mode (or color mode/ color effect) is often a neglected function for most of the users. However, it has been so well developed now that not only is it a useful tool to reach better visual experiences, it can also help you win games! In MSI’s gaming monitor, there are modes that can be used for movie watching, eye protecting or playing different type of games such as RPG, FPS and RTS. Engineers in MSI had spent numerous hours deciding how to fine tune each modes for different occasions. In this article, we are going to look into how these modes are made, and how amazing they are. It doesn't matter if you already owned a MSI gaming monitor or you just started looking for one. Getting to know our monitors’ display mode will give you just one more reason to love our MSI’s monitors.
 

FPS Mode:

For FPS games, our goal is to create a display mode that eliminates all the distractions common in FPS games and enhance the visibility of the enemies to put our users in an advantageous position. To achieve this, we’ve browsed through all of the current popular FPS games including CS:GO, Overwatch and Fortnite. We discovered that, in most of these games, grasses are the biggest distraction for players to spot the enemy. So we lower the saturation of the color- green to make it less obvious. After eliminating the biggest obstacles outdoor, we noticed that some players like to hide in the shadow indoor, where the darkness could completely consume them- It is a tactic players use that plays to the monitors setting, as it is really challenging for monitors to produce enough layer of darkness for human to perceive anything inside the dark area. In order to help our users, we fine-tuned the brightness and contrast so that these enemies could be easily seen in the darkness. Lastly, we also adjust the sharpness so that any figures from afar will look clearer, giving our users a higher chance to score a head shot.
 

*The green is vibrant yet distracting for players.

 

*With FPS mode on, the green color fades out, allowing user to focus on the target.

 

RTS mode:

RTS games are famous for its variety of controlling units. Take League of Legends for example, it currently has more than a hundred of champions for gamers to choose from. Each champion has several skins and abilities that make the gaming visual vibrant and diverse, especially when 10 gamers play together. In order to emphasize on such uniqueness of RTS games, we increased the saturation of all colors to make the designs of characters more vivid. Also, we noticed that the color blue and red are often used as dominant color to differentiate teams in RTS games, like the ones in Age of Empires or StarCraft. Thus we further increased the saturation of these two colors. Other than the saturation adjustment, we also modified the brightness, contrast rate and particularly sharpness level in RTS mode so that every unit in the game will be more visible and recognizable. Once you turn on our RTS mode, It doesn’t matter if you are leading an army of archers in middle age Europe, or a team of intergalactic creatures on planet X, you will be able to enjoy the theme of your game in its true glory.
 

*In contrast to the background, the team color of blue and red become much more recognizable

 

RPG mode:

RPGs can be very diverse as they can be either 2D or 3D, or of different battle systems such as real-time or term-based. However, compared to RTS games, RPGs are usually sing-player. They come with several gaming visual elements like RTS games but with few team competitions situations. Based on that, we enhance the overall color saturation in our RPG mode just like what we did to the RTS mode, also in a modest level for the brightness, contrast and sharpness to make every element more interesting and pleasing.
 

*The screen turns slightly brighter, and the color becomes more vibrant.

 

Racing Mode:

For racing games like Project Car or Forza, it is crucial for images to be as real as possible that players can fully enjoy the thrill of speeding. To achieve this, we increase the saturation of all colors slightly to make the graphic more pleasing. Then we also set the image enhancement to the highest among all our modes for better clarity of the visuals. Details like license plates, materials of cars or reflection of sunlight will become more realistic, making players feel like they are actually driving the car. We also chose not to adjust the sharpness under this mode, considering it might enhance background objects such as figures or buildings that could potentially distract players from their games.
 

*Details become much clearer; colors more vibrant and the screen brighter without any whiteout.

Reader mode For those who like to read files or online articles through our monitors, we have a display mode for you- reader mode. For this reader mode, the color saturation is untouched as it is quite irrelevant for reading. Once users turn on the reader mode, a function called Eye Saver will take effect immediately, which reduces the blue light coming from the monitor and help protect readers’ eyes. The brightness of the screen will also become lower to prevent eye straining.
 

*The screen turns yellow due to the reduction of harmful blue light

 

Cinema Mode:

We noticed that even though many people nowadays like to watch movies or series on their desktop, they don’t set their monitors properly for best cinema experiences. Film directors purposefully manipulate colors, light and shadow to create non-linguistic messages that are independent of the dialogue and plots of their works, yet there are so many displays fail to portrait such art. Common issues when watching films on computer screen includes characters get morphed into the darkness, colors become too dull or objects become less clear when there is a complex background. To fix these problems, we enhance the overall color saturation and contrast so that images become more vibrant. And we also fine-tuned the black balance and dynamic contrast so that objects in the similar color background could be more visible. Next time when you are watching the movie “It”, try turn on our cinema mode, your eyes will finally have something to look at in that sewer scene.
 

*"It"s feature is barely recognizable.

*Cinema mode provides better details in darkness, now you can even read what’s written on the paper boat.

 

Designer mode:

For our content creator users, we also have a designer mode for you. When it comes to creative tasks, we want our users to be able to see their works stay in same color combination on different platform. So in the designer mode, we didn’t increase any color saturation. Instead, we adjust the contrast ratio back into the native configuration of our monitor panel, so that the works of these creators will be exactly like what they were intended to be when they get published into different platforms.
 

*The original photo

*Under the designer mode, this image is actually brighter. Letting the designer know if he should readjust the image before publish.

The above modes are available to our MPG series gaming monitors and the upcoming new MAG series. To activate them, simply press the joystick behind the monitor to open the control panel and you should be able to find them in it. Note that though our engineers had spent hours on designing these modes, ultimately it is still up to you the users to decide what kind of setting is the best for your viewing experiences. Hence we left some rooms for you to adjust the settings under these modes, such as adjustment for brightness, contrast or sharpness. And we encourage you to experiment different settings until you can find the best ones for yourselves.