Solution. QuadHD monitor with HiDPI and Mac Mini M1

[waydabber]

You should still have the rotation option on the physical display (if it supports rotation). So I think you have to rotate your physical display and use the 9:16 aspect ratio for BetterDummy and set it as mirror main.

Let me know if this works for you!

 

[waydabber]

Yes, I just tested it and it work. It is a bit difficult to set up however as Monterey's Displays Preferences is rather buggy and had to try like three times (meanwhile the screen went crazy for a while which made things difficult).

Once you set it up, you should see something like this:

In a future version of the app I plan to automate the mirror creation part (I already did programmatic mirroring stuff in other apps so it should not be a big deal) so the whole thing would be streamlined to skip the suffering part with the Displays tab of the System Preferences + maybe dd a nice slider to change the resolution (even on the fly as with the technique of creating this many HiDPI resolutions the transition is almost seamless - you can try this by manually walking through the HiDPI resolution options by pressing the down button in System Preferences/Displays and be amazed how nicely the OS adjusts the screen).

 

[yalej]

If you could fix the sleep issue, which I know you said you're working on, that would be great. Can't believe Apple doesn't let us change resolution like this natively (well I can).

 

[waydabber]

The sleep issue is somewhat fixed (works about 99% of the time on the macs I tested - an M1 MBA and a Mini). But it is not clear why the problem is happening in the first place and why the fix works (I intercept the sleep notification and temporarily create an other display which I then destroy immediately upon intercepting the wake notification) - both the issue and the solution seems to be glitches, which is not very reassuring. I tried with other workarounds as well but this is the only one that worked (actually bumped on it by chance while trying something else). The problem is the app is relying on private, reverse engineered framework calls, so we can't actually complain about these to Apple.

 

[Kazliux]

The sleep issue is somewhat fixed (works about 99% of the time on the macs I tested - an M1 MBA and a Mini). But it is not clear why the problem is happening in the first place and why the fix works (I intercept the sleep notification and temporarily create an other display which I then destroy immediately upon intercepting the wake notification) - both the issue and the solution seems to be glitches, which is not very reassuring. I tried with other workarounds as well but this is the only one that worked (actually bumped on it by chance while trying something else). The problem is the app is relying on private, reverse engineered framework calls, so we can't actually complain about these to Apple.

Could you elaborate more about the sleep issue? How does it happen?
p.s. I gave up with rotation... I have MBP M1, which supports 1 external monitor natively
My idea was to have 1 monitor 16:9 and another 9:16, but since I need to use displayLink adapter for 2 monitors to work, one of them uses DisplayPort which does not work well (does not support true tone etc.)
So now I have a really good setup: MBP - > Dell D6000 dock (without displayLink running in background) -> HDMI -> Dell monitor. BetterDummy makes my monitor to work on HiDPI resolutions and true tone works fine. Thanks

 

[Pawełek]

There is an initial version here:

GitHub - waydabber/BetterDisplay: Unlock your displays on your Mac! Flexible HiDPI scaling, XDR/HDR extra brightness, virtual screens, DDC control, extra dimming, PIP/streaming, EDID override and lots more!

Unlock your displays on your Mac! Flexible HiDPI scaling, XDR/HDR extra brightness, virtual screens, DDC control, extra dimming, PIP/streaming, EDID override and lots more! - waydabber/BetterDisplay

github.com

OMG. It works perfectly for my Air M1. Finally my QHD display is using HiDPI res and everything looks as it should. Now i have two fully functional displays thanks to you!

 

[waydabber]

@Kazliux,

the sleep issue (without the fix already included in the app) manifested itself when you try to let the display go to sleep either via a hot corner or shift+control+escape keycombo. Instead of the display turning off, it remains on but is frozen until wake (or sometimes goes to sleep a while later). It only happens when mirroring is active from the virtual screen.

I am happy that the app works well and helps with your setup!

@Pawełek,

glad this helps!

 

[ThePimpOfSound]

@stevemr123 You are a saint, thanks so much for this workaround.

Has anyone managed to get this working with two monitors? I've tried creating two dummy displays, but using the "Connect Dummy" menu option a second time seems to disconnect my first dummy while leaving two nonfunctional dummies listed in the "Disconnect Dummy" menu.

Still ecstatic that my main monitor looks like it's supposed to and bewildered that Apple hasn't fixed the problem itself.

 

[ThePimpOfSound]

@stevemr123 Also, re: "If you want to donate or buy me a lunch, please let me know!" I am letting you know. Drop a link or something?

 

[waydabber]

Hey @ThePimpOfSound

Yes, sorry about that, there was a bug in 1.0.1 (if two dummies are created with the same name and serial ID then macOS just deletes them both - this is what you experienced). This was fixed in 1.0.2.

---

Thank you for letting me now, much appreciated! There is no way to donate as of now yet - if the app gains traction and reaches 100 stars on GitHub, I can open an OpenContribute account for it and receive funds. If you feel you'd like to help out, you can donate to MonitorControl (check out the link under "Sponsor this project") - that's an other project I am involved with (it's an app to control the brightness of external displays like they are Apple displays, worth checking it out) - me and the folks I am working with on this really appreciate any contribution.

 

[Kazliux]

sorry for asking, maybe it is off-topic, but could this BetterDummy affect RGB vs Ypbpr behaviour on external monitor?
I do use Dell D6000 dock and in BigSur via HDMI together with BetterDummy RGB mode was active all the time.
Now in Monterey I can get RGB mode only via usb-c direct connection to monitor.

p.s. In Monterey I managed to have RGB once, but once I create virtual display with BetterDummy, mode was changed to Ypbpr... But now I cant even achieve this... Always YbpbR mode I do see a lot of color profiles being created for BetterDummy, could it affect somehow?

p.s.1 I have tried MonitorControl app of yours, could it be related as well?

Thanks for you answer and good job.

 

[waydabber]

Hi, no, these should be unrelated, the RGB vs YPbPr mode affects the connection, macOS itself uses RGB internally to think about colors afaik and the display itself uses RGB pixel structure as well.

You might have to override the PixelEncoding settings for your display in com.apple.windowserver.displays as described here:

MBP M1 and LG 27UK850-W washed out colors

Yeah, MonitorControl is a great app, I highly recommend it to everybody, it's a life saver! But please note that MonitorControl won't fix this specific washed out color issue as it is not designed to do so (MonitorControl controls the backlight brightness of the display via DDC/CI). The washed...

forums.macrumors.com

about the multiple profiles, macOS creates a color profile every time a display is attached with new identifiers. 1.0.2 should be more consistent in this regard (unless you delete and recreate a dummy - as the serial number is changed every time). To improve this further, in the next version I'll add an Active/Inactive option to manage the dummies so you don't have to delete and recreate a dummy every time you want to connect or disconnect one.

 

[ThePimpOfSound]

@stevemr123 Thanks for the quick fix! Works perfectly on both monitors now. Will definitely check out MonitorControl too.

 

[yalej]

@stevemr123 so the sleep issue remains when the mac goes to sleep and the mirroring is active from the virtual screen (this is what I still observe)? I guess there is no way to fix this problem.

 

[waydabber]

Hi @yalej, sleep works for me (on Monterey 12.0.1), there is a workaround in the app that should make it work (mostly). I tested it on an M1 MBA and mini.

How does the problem manifest in your case?

 

[Rivanov]

I bought the MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD last weekend as a gaming monitor for my Xbox Series X. I just connected my new 14" MacBook Pro to this monitor via HDMI and my monitor information says sRGB and also my display options in macOS Monterey have sRGB as color profile.

2560x1440 144Hz works great.

 

[yalej]

Hi @yalej, sleep works for me (on Monterey 12.0.1), there is a workaround in the app that should make it work (mostly). I tested it on an M1 MBA and mini.

How does the problem manifest in your case?

It manifests in the screen locking/freezing (the image) when the display goes to sleep (set to 15 min). Then when I press a key it unfreezes and I get the lock screen. Maybe the issue is that I have it set to lock? Using the binaries. Happy to help with debugging.

 

[waydabber]

Hi @yalej, yes, this is the problem that is supposedly fixed with a workaround. Which version of the app do you use and which aspect ratio and resolution?

Thank you!

 

[yalej]

Hi @yalej, yes, this is the problem that is supposedly fixed with a workaround. Which version of the app do you use and which aspect ratio and resolution?

Thank you!

It was happening with BetterDummy 1.0.1 (since updated to 1.0.2) and MonitorControl 4.0.0.

 

[waydabber]

@yalej - I see. Is it still happening with the latest version (probably does)? What aspect ratio and resolution are you using?

 

[yalej]

21.3:9 UW/HD/4K/5K, but I need to let it go to sleep and see.

 

[happyhippo1337]

This is awesome ! Will donate as well this weekend. One minor gripe I have with this currently, maybe because I am not using it correctly: I created a 21.3:9 UW dummy and my 3440x1440 120HZ screen is currently mirroring it. That work's like a charm and I'm still able to use the integrated display with the correct resolution. So: superb.

Is there any chance that I can make use of this with the 120hz my monitor can achieve? If so: how would I di that?

 

[waydabber]

Hi @happyhippo1337 - unfortunately due to the method used, the refresh rate is currently maxed at 60Hz. We are using some of the functionality Apple intended to be used for Sidecar, AirPlay and likes, so even though higher than 60Hz modes can be specified during creating virtual screens, the it does not seem to work (we tried). This will probably not change until Apple starts supporting ProMotion Sidecar or something like that.

 

[Falcon80]

Thanks so much for this thread. I did not know this is an issue with M1 Mac. I having been living with 1440p blurry text at 1920x1080 resolution for the past one year. Now everything looks great now. I have yet to try the software solution. Do I need Xcode to try that?

 

[Falcon80]

Hi @stevemr123 . Do I need the re-launch the app each time I turn on the computer? It seems to be the case at the moment.