Strobelight - LightBoost Utility for AMD/ATI and NVIDIA

[yeel]

Just reinstalled my system from W8 to 7 and now i cannot get it to work. Its so wierd. First time i installed it something really wierd happend, my resolution got reset to 800x600 upon restart and i could not apply the settings to enable my second monitor. I reset my screen with the program and did it again and it seemed to work. I now have it installed and it says that strobing is on, but in the browser test i can clearly see that strobing is not enabled because the UFO's passing by are really choppy compared to before when i had it installed. Any tips?

W7 Ultimate
GTX780

[AlanhAkk]

Hi guys,

first of all, thanks for this great utility tool!

I've just bought an ASUS VG248QE and tried to active LightBoost but got some problem:

The strobelight_setup.exe recognizes my new display. I choose the 120 Hz (strobed) and 121 Hz refresh rates and install them. Everything works fine so far.

After that I put the strobelight.exe in the startup folder and do the restart but here the problem begins: There is no strobelight.exe running or is it? I don't see any icon in my taskbar and hotkeys are not working, so I can't adjust LightBoost settings.

I tried this several times but nothing happens.

I use an AMD R9 290 graphics card and tried even with new 14.9.1 Catalyst drivers, same result

My monitors OSD shows that LightBoost ist deactivated (it's grayed out and not possible to activate it thru menu).

Can you guys tell me if LightBoost is active or not, independent of the taskbar icon of the tool?!

Is there maybe any known issue with R9 290 or newest Catalyst drivers?

My monitor is connected by Dual-Link DVI, everything else works very fine.

I would be very glad for helping answers!

Best regards

Alan

*EDIT*

Debug messages shows:

Quote:[2014-10-13 19:48:50.574] LOAD(AMD): LoadLibrary("atiadlxx.dll") = ERROR 126
[2014-10-13 19:48:50.576] LOAD(AMD): LoadLibrary("atiadlxy.dll") = SUCCESS
[2014-10-13 19:48:50.581] LOAD(AMD): ADL_Main_Control_Create() = SUCCESS
[2014-10-13 19:48:50.581] LOAD(NVIDIA): NvAPI_Initialize() = ERROR -2

[ProjectInfinity]

Is there a way to make this work with DX10/11 games? I noticed that DX9 fullscreen games work marvelously with strobelight, but DX10/11 fullscreen fails completely and the screen gets set to standard mode as opposed to 3D mode.

[ToastyX]

(10-13-2014 08:33 PM)ProjectInfinity Wrote:  Is there a way to make this work with DX10/11 games? I noticed that DX9 fullscreen games work marvelously with strobelight, but DX10/11 fullscreen fails completely and the screen gets set to standard mode as opposed to 3D mode.

There shouldn't be anything different about DirectX 10/11. The game just needs to be running at the correct refresh rate. If you have an NVIDIA card, make sure "Preferred refresh rate" is set to "Application controlled" and not "Highest available" in the NVIDIA control panel.

[ProjectInfinity]

(10-14-2014 07:08 PM)ToastyX Wrote:  

(10-13-2014 08:33 PM)ProjectInfinity Wrote:  Is there a way to make this work with DX10/11 games? I noticed that DX9 fullscreen games work marvelously with strobelight, but DX10/11 fullscreen fails completely and the screen gets set to standard mode as opposed to 3D mode.

There shouldn't be anything different about DirectX 10/11. The game just needs to be running at the correct refresh rate. If you have an NVIDIA card, make sure "Preferred refresh rate" is set to "Application controlled" and not "Highest available" in the NVIDIA control panel.

Seems to happen in every DX10/11 game. Also I have AMD, is there a similar option for us?

[ToastyX]

(10-14-2014 07:12 PM)ProjectInfinity Wrote:  Seems to happen in every game. Also I have AMD, is there a similar option for us?

No, but AMD's driver doesn't normally interfere with refresh rates in games.

If you're using Windows 8.1, you might be running into this problem described in the CRU thread:

(09-07-2012 09:06 PM)ToastyX Wrote:  Important note for AMD/ATI users with Windows 8.1: AMD's driver has a bug with Windows 8.1 where EDID overrides don't always take effect after rebooting. To work around the problem, restart the driver after rebooting using the driver restarter (restart.zip). To automatically restart the driver after rebooting, rename restart64.exe (64-bit) or restart.exe (32-bit) to restart-only.exe and use the task scheduler to run it when you log on. Make sure "Run with highest privileges" is enabled in the task properties.

[ToastyX]

(10-13-2014 05:47 PM)AlanhAkk Wrote:  After that I put the strobelight.exe in the startup folder and do the restart but here the problem begins: There is no strobelight.exe running or is it? I don't see any icon in my taskbar and hotkeys are not working, so I can't adjust LightBoost settings.

I tried this several times but nothing happens.

I use an AMD R9 290 graphics card and tried even with new 14.9.1 Catalyst drivers, same result

Catalyst 14.9/14.9.1 has a bug that prevents Strobelight from running, but you should have received an error message.

I've added instructions to the main post on how to work around the problem.

[ProjectInfinity]

(10-14-2014 07:42 PM)ToastyX Wrote:  

(10-14-2014 07:12 PM)ProjectInfinity Wrote:  Seems to happen in every game. Also I have AMD, is there a similar option for us?

No, but AMD's driver doesn't normally interfere with refresh rates in games.

If you're using Windows 8.1, you might be running into this problem described in the CRU thread:

(09-07-2012 09:06 PM)ToastyX Wrote:  Important note for AMD/ATI users with Windows 8.1: AMD's driver has a bug with Windows 8.1 where EDID overrides don't always take effect after rebooting. To work around the problem, restart the driver after rebooting using the driver restarter (restart.zip). To automatically restart the driver after rebooting, rename restart64.exe (64-bit) or restart.exe (32-bit) to restart-only.exe and use the task scheduler to run it when you log on. Make sure "Run with highest privileges" is enabled in the task properties.

I'm using Windows 7 x64. :/

edit: Also to confirm that it DOES use 120Hz I fired up Space Engineers where the issue also occurs and put Vsync on when using Fraps. It capped at 120 FPS, monitor got set to Standard mode, if I change to windowed mode it changes to 3D mode, but what's the point in having crossfire if I am in windowed mode...

edit2: I got DX10/11 to work when using strobelight setup to ONLY apply strobed refresh rates. However I have TWO identical monitors, and upon doing this the second one won't work because it requires 60Hz over DVI because only one of the ports are DVI-D.

Seems like if a non-strobed refresh rate is available it will move to it thanks to the second screen, any possible workaround?

[ToastyX]

(10-14-2014 07:58 PM)ProjectInfinity Wrote:  I'm using Windows 7 x64. :/

I'm not aware of any refresh rate issues with AMD/ATI and Windows 7.

(10-14-2014 07:58 PM)ProjectInfinity Wrote:  edit2: I got DX10/11 to work when using strobelight setup to ONLY apply strobed refresh rates. However I have TWO identical monitors, and upon doing this the second one won't work because it requires 60Hz over DVI because only one of the ports are DVI-D.

Seems like if a non-strobed refresh rate is available it will move to it thanks to the second screen, any possible workaround?

You didn't mention having two monitors with mismatched refresh rates. That can cause issues with some games, although I don't know why that would cause games to use a non-strobed refresh rate. Most games use the desktop refresh rate.

You can use CRU to set the other monitor to 60 Hz. It's also possible to get 120 Hz on the other monitor with the AMD/ATI Pixel Clock Patcher, but it might not display correctly.

[ToastyX]

(10-10-2014 11:05 PM)yeel Wrote:  Just reinstalled my system from W8 to 7 and now i cannot get it to work. Its so wierd. First time i installed it something really wierd happend, my resolution got reset to 800x600 upon restart and i could not apply the settings to enable my second monitor. I reset my screen with the program and did it again and it seemed to work. I now have it installed and it says that strobing is on, but in the browser test i can clearly see that strobing is not enabled because the UFO's passing by are really choppy compared to before when i had it installed. Any tips?

What driver version are you using? Does using an older driver help?

Strobing off shouldn't cause choppy motion, only blurry motion. Make sure the UFO test is running at the correct frame rate.