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Vivid

Double your Brightness, System-Wide
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Vivid allows users to double the brightness of their MacBook Pro and Pro Display XDR, system-wide!

The new MacBook Pros and the Pro Display XDR have displays that can go up to 1.600 nits of brightness. By default these levels of brightness can only be reached when watching HDR videos or by using Metal applications. Until now.

Vivid uses standard Apple APIs to allow users to make their screen more than two times brighter.

Features

☀️ Use your MacBook Pro outside in the bright sun

😎 Raise the max brightness from 500 to over 1.000 nits

⌨️ Use your regular brightness keyboard keys to adjust brightness

🌓 See the difference and try for free in Splitscreen Mode

🌙 Eclipse mode lets users lower their brightness beyond the lowest option. Great for when you're working late at night.

🖱 Right click the menu bar icon to toggle Vivid

🎚 Easily toggle Vivid on and off (⌃⌥⌘V)

General information

Website / Direct Purchase:

https://www.getvivid.app

Mac App Store https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/vivid-double-your-brightness/id6443470555?l=en&mt=12

iOS Version (Vivid Browser)

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vivid-browser/id6443469775

Download link (press only): Download here

Pricing: Unlimited Free Trial (Splitscreen Mode) and €15 to purchase a lifetime license

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thevividapp

If you would like a free license key to try Vivid or if you have any questions please contact Jordi or Ben at support@getvivid.app and mention "Press" in your subject.

Backstory

"The first thing I tried when I got the new MacBook Pro last year was to see how bright the screen could go when watching HDR videos. Five minutes later I decided I was going to spend the next month trying to find ways to unlock this higher brightness across the entire system! I like to work outside so I can really use the extra brightness to combat the sun!" - Jordi Bruin

"My first approach was to create a fully transparant HDR video that I could overlay on top of the system. Unfortunately macOS is smart enough to notice that there is nothing to be displayed in a completely transparant video..." - Jordi Bruin

"We knew that the Metal framework was capable of reaching extended brightness modes on macOS, but it was tricky to find the exact approach that would allow us to use this outside of our own application" - Ben Harraway

“Vivid doesn’t use any hacks or low-level system calls to achieve the higher brightness. We believe that makes it really safe to use.” - Ben Harraway

“Vivid uses a clever mixture of different technologies including Metal, Carbon, Cocoa, Swift, SwiftUI and even some C code - pretty much spanning all the decades of Apple frameworks” - Ben Harraway

💸 Pricing

When users install Vivid it will start in Splitscreen Mode™, where half of the screen will be able to go into full brightness mode. This allows users to check if Vivid works for your particular usecases. Vivid can be used in Splitscreen Mode™ for as long as people want.

Users can purchase a lifetime license code for Vivid for €20 (or equivalent in other currencies).

❓ Questions you might want answers to:

Q: Will Vivid break my display or reduce its lifespan? A: Vivid does not make your display do anything it’s not supposed to do. Vivid enables the extra brightness range usually reserved for HDR content, in exactly the same as if you were editing HDR video.

The official word from Apple on this topic is here. Apple claims the following:

"1000 nits of brightness. Pro Display XDR can sustain 1000 nits of brightness across the full screen. This means that a pro can edit an HDR photograph or video with the entire frame at 1000 nits of brightness, indefinitely."

Vivid does not use low level display hacks to push your display to levels it shouldn't go. The temperature of your displays will increase by between 5-10%, but macOS will limit the max brightness if necessary.

Q: Does Vivid cause any CPU overhead to my system? A: A little, and only when it’s enabled. For each compatible display, roughly 2% of your CPU is used and about 40mb of memory.

Q: I have an HDR display connected but Vivid says ‘No compatible displays’ A: Right now Vivid only supports the MacBook Pro 14/16” (2021) and Apple Pro Display XDR displays right now. If you have another HDR compatible display please send an email to support@getvivid.app and we'll add you to the beta track so we can try to support it in the future. All you will have to do is send us your monitor for 3-8 weeks 😉

Q: Will Vivid use a lot of battery? A: Yes! Your display brightness affects your battery life quite significantly, so having Vivid enabled will cause your battery to drain faster. The battery load depends on a lot of factors but you should assume that your battery will drain significantly faster. We suggest using Vivid when on external power or if you're in very bright environments.

Q: My screen does not seem that much brighter, even on the max brightness, what's up? A: Open System Preferences > Displays > Make sure that P3-1600 is selected as your displays Preset.


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