Next level immersion – How do RGB light effects advance your gaming setup?
No matter how good your setup is: without the right lighting, you will be missing the opportunity to fully immerse yourself into your favorite worlds. RBG light effects are here to tear down the wall between reality and game.
Imagine a world in which you don’t just experience your favorite games on a modern high-resolution monitor, but where everything that happens on screen also impacts your perception in the real world! This is not a weird piece of science-fiction but another innovative feature more and more gamers are coming to appreciate.
RGB light effects have gained much popularity in the recent years. They are named after the red, blue, and green LEDs which can produce 256 shades each. This makes for more than 16 million different hues of light you can create – the possibilities for customization are almost endless! But can this feature improve your gaming experience? Keep on reading to become enlightened!
Playing with the right ambience
Lighting and colors have a great impact on human perception and could even influence emotions and moods[1]. The Ambiglow feature on Philips monitors has been designed with this in mind to improve the immersion while gaming. It casts a halo of light on the left and right sides of the screen which matches the color scheme shown in-game. It expands the view of the users, as the lights mimic the environment in the games, and upgrade the excitement of the games as it is even able to move as fast as the pixels. Both the Philips Momentum Designed for Xbox monitors, 329M1RV and 279M1RV, are models which benefit from the feature. Are you currently fighting your way through thick, green vegetation? The monitor will radiate a deep green, turning its immediate surroundings into a jungle. Or are you watching a crackling campfire burn in Skyrim? In this case, your display will bathe your gaming station in a cozy orange light, without purchasing an extra equipment.
Ambiglow or Ambilight? Depends on your needs!
The Ambiglow of monitors are not to be confused with Ambilight. While both technologies share the same idea, that is enhancing your experience by mimicking the on-screen display in the real world, Ambilight is a feature exclusive to TV screens. Ambilight can be three or even four-sided and can display multiple colors in all directions.
Also, Ambilight displays are able to ‘read’ the color of the wall behind the screen and adapt the emitted colors accordingly thanks to its innovative Spectra 2 technology, whereas Ambiglow requires a neutral background to get the best out of its colors. As a general rule of thumb: Ambilight is designed to get the best results from a distance and has been created as a device for family entertainment. Ambiglow, on the other hand, is best suited for personal use from a relatively short distance and with less brightness.
Speaking of brightness: Many Ambiglow monitors offer the Smart Bias lighting mode. This mode is specifically made for use in dark rooms. It basically casts a delicate halo of white light on the wall behind the monitor. This helps to reduce eye strain and fatigue drastically.
Customizability of Ambiglow
To optimize your experience further, all Ambiglow monitors come with an On-Screen-Display (OSD) which enables you to customize the settings. You can select from multiple options that suit your taste best: you can determine whether you want to align the lighting with video or audio, the direction of colors, brightness levels, the light position, permanently choose your favorite color and much more! Just select the options with the buttons attached to the screen, and tune Ambiglow to your own liking.
Using an Ambiglow monitor is but one way to get the right ambience when gaming. There are many interesting tools and gadgets which can turn your dull room into a lit gamers cave. While mimicking the lighting of your games is no doubt a cool and immersive way to enhance the ambience, many gamers use RGB LEDs to create light effects to match their own tastes. The color of most lamps can be adjusted in no time with remotes or with your smartphone through Wifi or Bluetooth.
Really, when it comes to lighting up your gaming station, the sky is the limit. So, what are you waiting for? Make your gaming experience more colorful and dive straight into your next adventure!
[1] Kuijsters, A., Redi, J., Ruyter, B. D., & Heynderickx, I. (2015, July 20). Lighting to Make You Feel Better: Improving the Mood of Elderly People with Affective Ambiences. The National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4507869/