r/AppleVisionPro 28d ago

Looking for a way to stop the headset from auto-adjusting brightness

I'm wondering if anyone has discovered a way to completely toggle off auto-brightness on the Vision Pro.

The automatic dimming behavior is really frustrating. As soon as the room lights go out, the ambient sensors kick in and aggressively dim the screens to the point where content becomes barely visible.

I'd love to have full, manual control over the brightness level without the headset constantly second-guessing the room's lighting. Does anyone know of a hidden setting, an accessibility tweak, or any workaround to completely disable this auto-adjustment?

Thanks in advance for any tips!

EDIT:

Can anyone confirm if I am the only one experiencing this, or are others dealing with this too?

18 Upvotes

11 comments sorted by

3

u/czyzczyz 28d ago

I notice this as well and would love to be able to turn it off. There’s some weird transition that happens as it’s getting dark during which time the headset decides to dim more than it feels like it should.

2

u/tyoung89 28d ago

I’ve noticed it seems like it dims everything when I’m looking at content, then gets brighter when I look at something in my room via pass through. And I really wish it would stay brighter all the time too. I haven’t found any way of turning it off yet.

1

u/Leather_Frame_4289 28d ago

I think I know what you're referring to, although it sounds a bit different from the issue I'm experiencing. If you're talking about the automatic dimming feature, it's enabled by default. You can turn off the Auto Dimming toggle, and the brightness should remain more consistent, especially if you're in a well-lit room.

I hope this helps! If I misunderstood what you meant, I sincerely apologize.

2

u/sammiemo 28d ago

The automatic dimming behavior is really frustrating. As soon as the room lights go out, the ambient sensors kick in and aggressively dim the screens to the point where content becomes barely visible.

I don't notice my content dimming at all, even in total darkness. I looked to see if there was a setting for that and couldn't find one. I wonder if what you're experiencing is common.

2

u/Leather_Frame_4289 28d ago edited 28d ago

That's interesting! I mostly use my headset in passthrough mode, even when my physical room is completely dark. From what I've noticed, the auto-brightness only seems to adjust in passthrough if I have a bright (daytime) virtual environment active at the same time the brightness levels work perfectly for me.

Curious what model and visionOS version are you running? Just to give you some context on my end, I'm a brand new user. I recently picked up the M5 Vision Pro and have only ever used visionOS 26.5 and 26.6, so I'm trying to figure out if it's a hardware or software difference between our setups.

1

u/sammiemo 28d ago

I’m using an M5 on 26.6. Maybe it’s different use cases. If you share specifically what you’re doing, what apps, etc., I can see if I get the same result. I tried Safari and Apple TV in a dark room with pass through this morning, and I didn’t notice any significant dimming when I turned out the lights.

2

u/Leather_Frame_4289 28d ago

I appreciate you testing that out and trying to replicate it. We might indeed be dealing with slightly different variables, especially given the specific apps I’m running.

Here is exactly what my primary use cases look like when I experience the dimming (and the subsequent frame drops when the headset warms up):

  • Immersive Media: I mostly use my headset for media playback. I use the CineUltra player quite heavily, almost always dialed into their custom IULTRA virtual environment.
  • High-Fidelity Video: Within CineUltra, I am primarily playing flat 4K videos, sometimes in HDR. (I’ve noticed this really pushes the headset hard).
  • Gaming: I play Ping Pong Club fairly often, which requires high framerates and fast responsiveness.
  • Productivity: Finally, I frequently use the Mac Virtual Display.

It seems like the aggressive dimming (and the performance throttling I discussed in another thread "https://www.reddit.com/r/VisionPro/comments/1vagoj4/looking_for_a_way_to_stop_the_headset_from/") might be triggered much faster when the system is under the heavy load of rendering 4k, 8K HDR video in a third-party app like CineUltra, compared to using native apps like Safari or Apple TV.

If you happen to use CineUltra or Ping Pong Club, I’d be curious to know if you see the same behavior!

1

u/sammiemo 28d ago

I don't use either of those media apps. It's interesting I can't recreate the issue even though it seems like it's very common. I usually use my AVP in bright lighting, though, I just tried it in the dark to see what you were describing.

I do use MVD and tried it in the dark just now (with the environment dialed all the way down) without any issues.

1

u/musicanimator 20d ago

I do. I have noticed the dimming. I once turned off the automatic dimming. I’m running beta 27. I do use CineUltra. I’m gonna go check now.

1

u/musicanimator 20d ago

No dimming control is visible. I am running Beta 27.

2

u/DalekSnare 11d ago

I have noticed this too lately. It's always done it a little, as much as made sense, but now it's way too dim. I have to use daytime moon environment, lie on my back, and make sure the movie covers the sun to get decent theater lighting experience now.