This lightboost stuff seems pretty overrated... [discussion]

[MaximilianKohler]

I'm on the XL2411Z with all the customizations this guy has: http://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=471

I have Persistence on 1.5ms, and Crosstalk on minimum.

Sure I can see a difference in the UFO test, but ingame I can't tell a difference at all...

I've been playing competitive CS 1.6 for 8+ years at a high level. I've tested both in CS 1.6 at 800x600 and CSGO at 1920x1080.

You're supposed to see the difference when turning right?

I'm currently using the monitor on "movie mode" for everything, because it looks the best and I can't tell a difference in games with lightboost on.

[Chief Blur Buster]

I've been playing competitive CS 1.6 for 8+ years at a high level. I've tested both in CS 1.6 at 800x600 and CSGO at 1920x1080.

You're supposed to see the difference when turning right?

Only if you're tracking eyes (following eyes on objects panning past). Not when you're staring stationary at the crosshairs.

Requirements to see strobe benefits
To make it easy to see:
(1) Very high framerates (framerates matching strobe frequency)
(2) Minimum possible microstutters (few engine stutters, few mouse stutters, etc)
(3) Mouse running at high Hz (e.g. 1000Hz), see Blur Busters Mouse Guide.
(4) Game situations such as eye-tracking
(5) Game has GPU-based motion blur turned off. It's ON by default in some games.

Strobing won't help you if your framerates are far below refresh rate. Best performance occurs during framerate == refreshrate == stroberate. It can also look good at uncapped situations (e.g. Source Engine VSYNC OFF at 300fps).

It mainly benefits eye-tracking situations (away from crosshairs)
Many competitive gamers use gameplay tactics that do not benefit as much from strobing/LightBoost. If you stare stationary, you don't see the motion blur. It's the same effect as http://www.testufo.com/eyetracking (view with strobing turned OFF) -- you don't see the motion blur when staring stationary.

It does not benefit every single competitive gameplay tactic
So LightBoost helps certain gameplay tactics (e.g. high speed low flybys over camoflaged areas) but not other kinds (e.g. staring stationary at crosshairs). It can help in gaining headshots if you're a CRT-style circle-strafer type guy, or trying to shoot faraway enemies while running fast; especially "Scout" character in Team Fortress 2. Or fast movements on a CRT in arena type games resembling Quake 3 Arena, and finding that LCD slows you down compared to CRT because of the LCD motion blur. Others aren't affected by it. Everybody plays differently.

There are some competitive gamers track eyes all over the screen and thus gets lots of benefit from strobing/LightBoost. While other competitive gamers stare stationary at the center of the screen, and don't see the benefits. There are gamers who swear by LightBoost, while others say "ho hum". It's all over the map, but a lot of it boils down to simple eye-tracking behavior during gaming (ala http://www.testufo.com/eyetracking -- test this in non-LightBoost mode). As you can see, you only see the motion blur during eye tracking.

Lightboost benefits tend to be most amplified during these framerates:
-- VSYNC OFF framerate far exceeding refresh rates (e.g. 300fps)
-- VSYNC OFF framerate with a cap (e.g. fps_max 119)
-- VSYNC ON perfect framerate-refreshrate sync (but too laggy for many competitions)
Because the above are the situations where microstutters tend to be least visible (microstutters obscure the motion clarity improvements of strobing).

TL;DR: Not all competitive gamers benefit from LightBoost, and a lot of it is due to different gameplay habits (including eye-tracking habits), a preference for extra brightness, input lag, etc. Fortunately, most strobe-capable monitors are otherwise great low-lag 120Hz monitors.

For competitive gamers already well-honed motion-blur-independent gaming skills (e.g. gameplay tactics that are never hampered by motion blur), I would just recommend turning Blur Reduction OFF for the specific games. It only helps if you're hampered by motion blur. But in your 8 years of gaming, you've apparently already developed very good motion-blur-independent gaming skills. Stick with what makes you win competitions.

[flood]

Yes, it's not going to influence CS-like games where our eyes are looking at the crosshair pretty much the entire time. The thing that is a big difference is 60hz vs 144hz; that's a huge jump that is very noticeable in gaming

The thing I like about strobing/lightboost is that I can read webpages while scrolling

[RealNC]

In normal play (meaning "classic" in CS:GO terms), motion clarity isn't that important. I've noticed this myself. CS isn't a twitch-shooter. It's slow and tactical. You have an idea where the enemy is at pretty much all times and therefore you know beforehand which angles to concentrate on. It's why CS allows you to use such low mouse sensitivities.

But as soon as you try deathmatch (with 20 players on the map, or even more,) where CS does turn into a twitch-shooter, and you constantly do very quick mouse movements in all directions because you have no idea where enemies are, then you'll notice that the motion blur reduction does make a nice difference.

Games where everything is in motion pretty much constantly are the ones who benefit most, though. Prime example are racing games and side-scrollers. Try playing something like Race Driver Grid (disable the "motion blur" effect in the settings first) or some side or top-scroller in an emulator, for example. I have played many MAME games on a friend's Asus with LB (try "1943" for starters), and it looks way better compared to my own LB-uncapable 60Hz monitor.

When playing CS:GO on that monitor, LB only really helps with deathmatch. I've played many hours of CS:GO and even more on 1.6 (Steam didn't even exist back then, and later didn't count hours though) and I'm very confident it being able to make out any differences, even very small ones, by now.

[flood]

strobing only helps when your eyes are following the motion.

Now I dont know how others play deathmatch, but I know that my eyes are always glued to the crosshair and if I want to look at something, I move my mouse instead of my eyes because it really throws my aim off when I have to look move my eyes around

[RealNC]

Now I dont know how others play deathmatch, but I know that my eyes are always glued to the crosshair and if I want to look at something

I also look at other parts of the screen, since there's too many people. I shoot at one guy, there's another two on the side moving around. I haven't found a way to put the crosshair on several spots simultaneously

And the screen just looks clearer in general during mouse flicks, including textures, not just edges. Yes, clearer looking textures doesn't help you in being better, but it looks nicer.

[MaximilianKohler]

I'm on a 290x so I get about 600 to 900fps in CSGO.

My mouse only runs at 500hz. Would going to 1000hz effect blur much?

Ok, so for the in-game testing technique I should look at a stationary player model while moving my crosshair back and forth in front of them?

Oh, ok. I found a place where it's noticeable. In the CSGO weapons course, at the start if you look at the red X target and move your crosshair left and right, if light boost isn't enabled the red X blurs, when lightboost is enabled it's clearer.

So I guess it has some benefits in certain situations.

I've been playing Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, and I tested it in that game previously and didn't notice a difference either (though I probably would be able to sniff it out now that I know how to look for it). I think the better colors on "movie mode" far outweigh a bit of not-so-noticeable blur in that kind of game though.

[RealNC]

My mouse only runs at 500hz. Would going to 1000hz effect blur much?

Probably not by much, but why not have it at 1000Hz always anyway. The CPU load on this is virtually zero with today's PCs.

I've been playing Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, and I tested it in that game previously and didn't notice a difference either

This game adds artificial motion blur in settings above "medium". I don't know if there's a way to disable it (maybe by editing some configuration file?) In games that add artificial motion blur to movements, the motion blur reduction modes of monitors don't do anything.

Btw, did you actually disable the "motion blur" effect in CS:GO? (It's in the video settings.)

[Q83Ia7ta]

I recommend to use FPS1 or FPS2 mode instead standard for playing in terms of input lag and pixel respone time.

[Blurless]

But isn't Blur Reduction disabled when in movie mode? Atleast it is on my xl2420z. Are you sure it's even turned on?