Opacity for HUD please - plasma TV burn-in issues.

I have just recently noticed that my plasma TV has dark spots where certain HUD elements are. The biggest offenders are the clock in the top right part of the screen, the status effect icons on top, and the chat log. The issue is that certain parts of the HUD are very bright, and running them constantly for hundreds of hours has caused those pixels to wear down and become darker. I am in a bit of a panic, trying to identify ways to prevent further damage, even questioning whether I should continue playing this game (my TV cost a lot of money).

Can you please put an opacity control for all elements of the HUD? Preferably, this would be accessed through the HUD a layout and each element can have a separate setting. I know I can turn off certain things, like the clock, but others I need to play the game. Other players without plasma tvs may appreciate the opacity for other reasons.

If you could reposition the HUD elements now and then it would help. I guess you are using a game console, otherwise I would suggest changing to windowed (i.e. not fullscreen) mode and moving the window a bit. That burn-in is going to stay forever. (I think it's called ghosting on a plasma screen, but the result is the same - speaking from experience.)

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Originally Posted by NoF2P

That burn-in is going to stay forever.

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T.T

Repositioning is not a great solution in the long run. It just will make new spots. The problem is a lot of those HUD elements are very bright and constantly on, so they will wear down the pixels. I will turn down the contrast on my TV until everything looks dull to help, but an opacity control for the HUD is probably the only real solution to prevent further damage. Either that or playing other games.

I agree, I would love to dim some of the UI/HUD elements

It would be nice if we had settings that would allow us to set different HUD elements to auto hide after a set amount of inactivity. For example,
chat box auto hides after a set amount of time of no activity (like 20,30,40 seconds)
cross hot bars and and vertical/horizontal hot bars of our choosing auto hide after a set amount of time of no activity
mini map auto hides after not moving your character for a set amount of time

Looks like the mods moved this to General Discussion. Anyone else out there want opacity control for the HUD?

Why don't you adjust the brightness of the game or change your TV brightness/viewing settings? It might seem dark the 1st time you do it but your eyes will adjust to it and then it would seem the same as being bright then.

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Originally Posted by giantslayer

Looks like the mods moved this to General Discussion. Anyone else out there want opacity control for the HUD?

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Doesn't affect me in any way, shape or form, but if it affects one person, it doubtlessly will/has affect more. So, you got my vote.

I'd like this. One of my skillbar has itself visibly burned into my screen, it doesn't bother me much because my screen is far from new, but I'd very much welcome something to help prevent things like this in the future.

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Originally Posted by Martin_Arcainess

Why don't you adjust the brightness of the game or change your TV brightness/viewing settings? It might seem dark the 1st time you do it but your eyes will adjust to it and then it would seem the same as being bright then.

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That was one of the first things I did after discovering the damage. It does reduce the visual enjoyment of the game somewhat, but no amount of enjoyment on this game is worth having my HUD burned into my TV for everything else. I'm hoping that will mitigate the problem, but I don't know if a few hundred more hours at the reduced brightness will produce more burn-in or not. I also went through and removed everything I could from the HUD and made everything else as small as possible. Unfortunately, I have no control over the chat log and other elements are essential to play the game.

I'd like to be able to play this game without continual worry.

I'm lucky in that it hasn't permanently burned onto my TV but whenever I turn off the UI (like I used to for when I didn't wanna turn off my tv for a quick nap) I would see the brightest portion of the bars...

If they made the opacity a toggle option like how they did for the chat box, I would love it.

I'm all for more options. I honestly didn't know burn-in was really a thing anymore.
I don't, and will never have the burn-in issue, but being able to change the brightness/opacity of UI elements would be very nice.

Hopefully they add the option before you have to quit the game, or you find an alternative solution. Best of luck ^^

You could google things like how to prevent burn images from games and see what solutions there is.

Don't most modern Plasma TV have maintenance Tools to help with that ? Run it at least once a week if you're a serious gamer.


And as far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't buy Plasma if I'm going to play games on it. I'd stick with LED. Yes, it has gotten much better, but you know... why risk it ?

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Originally Posted by Evaddaragon

Don't most modern Plasma TV have maintenance Tools to help with that ? Run it at least once a week if you're a serious gamer.


And as far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't buy Plasma if I'm going to play games on it. I'd stick with LED. Yes, it has gotten much better, but you know... why risk it ?

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My tv has a white bar screen wipe. I've been running it every evening for about a week and I'm not sure if it has helped any. Maybe running it regularly would have helped. On the other hand, if the issue is uneven wear of the TV pixels from certain parts putting out more light constantly due to the HUD, then tools like that wouldn't prevent it.

Well if you already have burn-in, it indeed might be too late, but at the very least, it can help prevent further damage.

I do not think it's because of "uneven wear of pixels". I haven't heard of any CRT or ACL or LED that have used screen savers or maintenance tools that have issues. Then again, I'll admit that doesn't mean it's never happened.

My friend has a 60 inch Plasma TV and he uses the wiping tool regularly while gaming and he hasn't had issues after well over 2 years.

You can auto hide your xbar, btw, when not actively pressing buttons. That option is in Character Config. Other UI elements can be turned off, of course, but you may get lost without them. :/ I was going to suggest the white screen thing as well, but you've already tried that... not sure what else to suggest. ; ;

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Originally Posted by NoF2P

If you could reposition the HUD elements now and then it would help. I guess you are using a game console, otherwise I would suggest changing to windowed (i.e. not fullscreen) mode and moving the window a bit. That burn-in is going to stay forever. (I think it's called ghosting on a plasma screen, but the result is the same - speaking from experience.)

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speaking from same experience... went HAM on dragon age: origins when it first came out there was a storm that flooded everything around me (except the place i was at that was on a hill.) nothing to do but play and ended up burning the UI in the screen (plasma) to the point of being able to see fine details, not just a ghost image lol. over time it did go away thought, takes what i call "washing" which is just simply watching other stuff that will slowly erase what you burned in. Long explanation to say all hope is not lost... but you will still need to figure a solution out.

They still make plasma TV's?

They are so energy inefficient.

I used to have one, and it raised my electric bill by like $20 dollars a month to use the thing. It heated the house better than a space heater did. It was ridiculous.

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Originally Posted by Pterois

over time it did go away thought, takes what i call "washing" which is just simply watching other stuff that will slowly erase what you burned in. Long explanation to say all hope is not lost... but you will still need to figure a solution out.

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Thanks for sharing. I've been trying to find info online. I found one long thread on an AV forum where a few people had the issue. It diminished over time for them. I think mine has diminished some. It is hard to say. Some days, I will think, "it's gotten better," and other days, "nope, just as bad as I thought it was earlier." I am cautiously optimistic that there has been some real improvement and that I will see more over the long haul. It took me months to develop this problem, and I can accept that it will take a while to fix.

Still, if Square wants me to continue to play hundreds of hours of this game, I would appreciate some more HUD options so that I can do so without worrying about my tv.

I have LED-LCD / LED Screens, but I feel you as a former CRT User.