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Lunar Changelog

What's new in Lunar 6.7.8

Apr 17, 2024
  • Fixes:
  • Move max DDC brightness back to 255 for Cinema and Thunderbolt displays
  • Fix brightness being sent to the monitor continuously in Sensor Mode, even if the value hasn't changed
  • Ensure the Sensor Mode Lux update interval is correctly used with wireless sensors

New in Lunar 6.7.7 (Apr 16, 2024)

  • Fix nits OSD appearing erroneously when HDR state is being changed

New in Lunar 6.7.6 (Apr 16, 2024)

  • Fix flickering in smooth transitions when holding the brightness keys
  • Fix nits value not updating all the time

New in Lunar 6.7.5 (Apr 10, 2024)

  • Features:
  • Smoother Sync Mode brightness adaptation
  • Fixes:
  • Fix printing SentryCrashExceptionApplication by mistake in the CLI output
  • Fix nits OSD not appearing where it should after resolution change
  • Ensure Full Range remains enabled even when the system reports an incomplete status
  • Improvements:
  • Add hidden setting syncModeBrightnessKeyPressedExpireSeconds
  • Showing OSD on target monitors in Sync Mode requires only taking into account the changes that happen within a waiting period after the brightness key press.
  • That period was previously 0.5 seconds, which was now increased to 1 second and made configurable via the syncModeBrightnessKeyPressedExpireSeconds hidden setting. Some systems take longer to propagate the brightness change events and this setting should help with that.
  • Optimise code path leading from the Sync source brightness change to the Sync target brightness adaptation
  • More intuitive nits range calculation in Sync Mode

New in Lunar 6.7.4 (Apr 1, 2024)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix color adjustments not being applied anymore on some screens
  • Don't show nits values by default in the OSD since it can cause it to not appear on some screens
  • Revert the max DDC brightness for LED Cinema and Thunderbolt displays back to 100 instead of 255
  • Make DCP matching on IODisplayLocation optional to avoid DDC not working with some displays
  • Fix Full Range toggle disappearing sometimes after a display connection
  • Fix volume hotkeys not working anymore if CoreAudio times out
  • Improvements:
  • Move the CoreAudio device fetching back to main thread where if it stalls, it will restart the app automatically
  • Allow hiding the nits value from the brightness OSD

New in Lunar 6.7.3 (Mar 22, 2024)

  • Ensure UI is not instantiated until the user opens it
  • Fixes too much energy usage on some systems

New in Lunar 6.7.2 (Mar 21, 2024)

  • Features:
  • Allow setting main monitor using the CLI. Example: lunar displays LG main true
  • Show when brightness is locked by the reference preset in the UI
  • Improvements:
  • More accurate nits readings for Apple displays
  • Precise nits-based Sync Mode even when HDR content is visible
  • Improved detection of virtual displays
  • Improved DDC-to-monitor matching by using the hardware port where possible
  • More responsive Full Range switching in cases where the system generates a lot of logs
  • Allow skipping missing displays when using the "Set Monitor as Main" shortcut
  • Fixes:
  • Prepare for upcoming macOS 15
  • Don't use Gamma APIs unless absolutely necessary to avoid unwanted HDR clipping
  • Fix app presets taking too long to apply
  • Fix possible crash when fetching reference presets on external monitors
  • Fix system lag when CoreAudio devices take too long to respond

New in Lunar 6.7.1 (Mar 18, 2024)

  • Hotfix:
  • Fix crash on launch if Auto Mode was previously enabled

New in Lunar 6.7.0 (Mar 18, 2024)

  • Features:
  • Ambient Light Sensor support for Intel Macs
  • Faster event based lux reading (up to 100ms between reads)
  • Improvements:
  • Improve launch time of the app
  • Faster CLI launches
  • Fixes:
  • Fix not showing Lunar Pro popover correctly when clicking on XDR or Full Range
  • Fix Full Range XDR not being re-enabled automatically after wake/connect/launch
  • Go back to Xcode 15.2: some Shortcuts stopped working when compiled with the latest Xcode 15.3

New in Lunar 6.6.5 (Mar 13, 2024)

  • Fixes:
  • Remove leftover usage of a non-standard command-line tool that was prompting unnecessary installation of Xcode Command Line Tools

New in Lunar 6.6.4 (Mar 13, 2024)

  • Improvements:
  • Add support for MacBook Air M3 models
  • Fixes:
  • Fix Power off screen (in software) Shortcut
  • Fix BlackOut not being able to re-apply previous resolution
  • Fix missing resolutions from the list
  • Add hidden setting allowAdjustmentsWhileLocked for who may need it
  • Fix "Change Adaptive Mode" and "Rotate Screen" shortcuts not working on some systems

New in Lunar 6.6.3 (Mar 6, 2024)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix disabling presets on Studio Display
  • Remove duplicate values from the lunar CLI help text

New in Lunar 6.6.2 (Feb 27, 2024)

  • Features:
  • Force enable Night Shift and True Tone on external monitors that support them but don't work out of the box
  • Improvements:
  • Stop brightness and lux CLI listeners when the socket closes
  • Allow Auto Blackout to work in more edge cases like:
  • when coming back from standby, the monitor connects too slowly and for a few seconds it appears as there's no display available
  • when opening the lid of the MacBook while clamshell mode is disabled
  • Fixes:
  • Fix specific features like observing brightness on the 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15"
  • Fix keyboard backlight being turned on when it shouldn't
  • Fix a bug that caused the builtin to come out of Blackout intermitently on Intel Macs
  • Disable Full Range XDR on Pro Display XDR screens since it is not working there
  • Fix Full Range XDR and Gamma Dimming not being available sometimes after coming back from blackout
  • Workaround a macOS bug that can cause system slow downs because CoreLocation is timing out
  • Make sure the DIY light sensor install script gets the correct enclosing dir
  • Make sure lunar toggle-connection returns immediately after disconnect
  • Fix built-in not reconnecting after disconnecting all monitors in specific cases
  • Fix Auto Mode not selecting Sensor Mode when the built-in is disconnected
  • Fix Sync Mode setting external displays to a very low brightness when activating XDR Brightness
  • Delay specific actions after wake/login to avoid system hangs. Actions that are delayed include:
  • watching for screencapture events when using overlay dimming
  • checking for zero gamma issues
  • adapting brightness if the Delay after wake setting is enabled

New in Lunar 6.6.1 (Feb 13, 2024)

  • Improvements:
  • Add nits output to the lunar listen CLI command
  • Fixes:
  • Fix MediaMate integration on Full Range XDR Brightness
  • Fix external sensor disconnecting every 5 seconds in specific cases
  • Fix Whites and Blacks not being re-applied after app restart

New in Lunar 6.6.0 (Feb 9, 2024)

  • Security:
  • Fix a possible vulnerability in the restart logic
  • A rogue application could have exploited the restart logic to gain Accessibility Permissions.
  • Features:
  • Full Range XDR Brightness:
  • This is a new approach for unlocking the 1600nits of brightness in Apple's XDR displays, developed in collaboration with Istvan from BetterDisplay.
  • It has the following key differences from the previous XDR Brightness method:
  • It doesn't clip colors in HDR content - no more washed out colors
  • The system adaptive brightness keeps working and uses the full range
  • There's no lag when going from SDR to XDR brightness
  • Can work in tandem with f.lux
  • Downsides:
  • It only works on Apple XDR screens
  • The screen will flash one or two times when toggling Full Range
  • Preset unlocking:
  • The Change Screen Preset Shortcut now allows you to unlock various functions that are locked by macOS when using reference presets:
  • Brightness Control
  • Adaptive Brightness
  • Night Shift
  • True Tone
  • Improvements:
  • Allow overlay dimming to work on Airplay screens when the MacBook is in Blackout
  • Automatically use the mirroring method for Blackout when the MacBook is connected to an wireless display
  • Fixes:
  • Disable Dark Mode after disabling Night Mode
  • Ensure Night Mode does disable after unchecking it
  • Fix app hanging when initializing Location Services in some cases
  • Fix Dark Mode being disabled erroneously
  • Make sure to re-enable keyboard backlight after disabling Blackout
  • Fix CLI not working after a few standby cycles
  • Fix rounded corners not being applied on app launch

New in Lunar 6.5.0 (Jan 4, 2024)

  • Features:
  • Night Mode: minimize jarring flashes of white regions on dark backgrounds. This is a combination between:
  • lower whitepoint: lower the whitepoint of the screen to make white regions appear less bright
  • warm colors: filters blue light to further minimise eye strain on bright colors
  • enhanced contrast: keeps text readable even at such low brightness levels
  • The following video shows the difference between simply having Dark Mode on with a low brightness, and having Night Mode on top of that.
  • If you pay attention to the hand that is scrolling, you'll notice that the flashes of light from the white regions have less effect with Night Mode enabled. In the same way, your eyes will see less of a difference in perceived brightness between the dark background and the bright regions that may appear unexpectedly while scrolling on a web page.
  • The technique is quite similar to what f.lux does, but with the added benefit of enhancing contrast for readability.
  • Fixes:
  • Important fix on DDC commands causing a crash when the queue is full
  • Allow http on non-local custom domains/IPs of light sensors
  • Fix not keeping Disconnect API disabled with DisplayLink running
  • Fix built-in screen having 100% brightness after waking up from sleep in some cases
  • Make sure external sensor available state is kept up to date
  • Fixes a problem where both internal and external sensor data would be used at the same time
  • Improvements:
  • Limit Gamma whites and blacks sliders to avoid full black/white screens
  • Allow disabling Sub-zero dimming by setting Min Brightness to 0

New in Lunar 6.4.5 (Nov 21, 2023)

  • Features:
  • Adaptive sleep on smooth DDC transitions
  • Fixes:
  • Ensure Shortcuts keep working after automatic and manual app restarts
  • Looks like using exec to restart the app invalidates the XPC connections that Shortcuts opens, who knew..
  • Improvements:
  • Ensure location coordinates update often enough
  • Preserve privacy better by using reduced location data with a maximum of city level accuracy
  • The coordinates never leave the computer, this is just to preserve privacy in case of a rogue program or app

New in Lunar 6.4.4 (Nov 17, 2023)

  • Features:
  • Advanced gamma Shortcut for creating any type of color profile

New in Lunar 6.4.2 (Nov 13, 2023)

  • Hotfix:
  • Fix a crash introduced in 6.4.1 related to presets

New in Lunar 6.4.1 (Nov 13, 2023)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix custom preset not being applied correctly if saved with the same name as a previously deleted preset
  • Allow saving the preset by pressing Enter in the text field

New in Lunar 6.4.0 (Nov 12, 2023)

  • Features:
  • Support for the new M3 MacBook Pro and M3 iMac
  • Cleanup UI
  • Use a warmer color palette
  • Make the menubar UI less wide
  • Add option to Dim non-essential UI elements
  • Add lunar lux --listen command for automations based on readings from the internal ambient light sensor
  • Improvements:
  • Disable Lunar adjustments when screen is locked
  • Add new identifiers for the M3 MacBook Pro and iMac
  • Make cursor cling to the middle of the slider knob instead of lagging behind
  • Enable lunar listen to react to display connection changes
  • Disable autoRestartOnFailedDDC and make it opt-in by default
  • New macOS updates have fixed most of the issues that created the need for it
  • Fixes:
  • Fix Auto XDR appearing erroneously in non-Pro builds
  • Fix locked volume OSD when locking brightness

New in Lunar 6.3.0 (Nov 6, 2023)

  • Features:
  • Try to use lux sensors of Apple-vendored external monitors when available
  • Improvements:
  • Use window average for sensor lux when adapting Auto XDR
  • Smaller menubar icon
  • Allow hiding the nits limits from the slider
  • Fixes:
  • Work around Sonoma display connection bug when fetching display info while disconnected
  • Fix OSD chiclets disappearing sometimes on Sonoma
  • Fix app hang on saving display state while restarting from a crash
  • Don't cache isLG to avoid not showing LG specific inputs
  • Fix UI spacing in the Clean layout
  • Fix XDR Contrast going flashing to 0 while in Sub-zero Dimming

New in Lunar 6.2.7 (Sep 19, 2023)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix some Shortcuts not working
  • Fix some typos

New in Lunar 6.2.6 (Sep 18, 2023)

  • Features:
  • Option to Force keep HDR enabled for external monitors
  • Option to Use static values instead of offsets for App Presets
  • Improvements:
  • Detect possible clamshell sleep and preemptively pause adaptive brightness to avoid flickering
  • Add Skip action if screen is missing for Shortcuts
  • Fixes:
  • Fix macOS Sonoma layout issues

New in Lunar 6.2.4 (Aug 27, 2023)

  • Features:
  • Dim keyboard backlight to minimum when Sub-zero dimming is used
  • Automatically detect a light sensor running as the official HomeAssistant Addon
  • Add support for the following boards:
  • Feather ESP32 S2
  • Feather ESP32 S2 Reverse TFT
  • NodeMCU ESP32 S2
  • Adafruit HUZZAH32 Feather ESP32
  • Improvements:
  • Make the reset button do a full reset by default (instead of resetting just the non-display specific settings)
  • Replace watchdog with restartOnCrash signal handler

New in Lunar 6.2.3 (Aug 21, 2023)

  • Features:
  • Turn off keyboard backlight when blacking out the MacBook screen
  • Improvements:
  • Return the current state after toggling boolean values in Shortcuts
  • Fixes:
  • Fix JSON number formatting in lunar listen CLI command
  • Make watchdog more resilient so that Lunar restarts after crashes

New in Lunar 6.2.2 (Jul 30, 2023)

  • Features:
  • Add alternate menubar icon for people with trypophobia
  • Improvements:
  • Don't automatically activate XDR when holding the brightness up key
  • It still activates when pressing the key after 100% brightness
  • Fixes:
  • Fix Main Screen ID fetching

New in Lunar 6.2.1 (Jul 18, 2023)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix auto-learning logic for contrast
  • Ensure brightness and contrast values don't overshoot the min/max values

New in Lunar 6.2.0 (Jul 17, 2023)

  • Improvements:
  • Don't beep when doing fine volume adjustments
  • Features:
  • Add --source-address to lunar ddc command for monitors that allow some DDC commands only on the service port (e.g. most newer LG models)
  • Add LG specific inputs for those models where input switching only blinks the monitor but doesn't actually switch the input
  • Fixes:
  • Fix VCP code for LG specific inputs
  • Fix zero coordinates in UI even when location is available
  • Fix sensor flasher not assigning the correct IDs to the sensors
  • Show when Location Mode doesn't have permissions to request actual coordinates

New in Lunar 6.1.5 (Jul 9, 2023)

  • Features:
  • Cleaning Mode: disable screens, keys and clicks to help cleaning the keyboard and screens
  • Improvements:
  • Default max brightness to 500 for Dell Alienware monitors
  • Keep HDR enabled after standby for external monitors when using XDR brightness
  • Allow customizing I2C sensor pins
  • Add support for more hardware light sensors:
  • BH1750
  • LTR390
  • MAX44009
  • TCS34725
  • TSL2561
  • TSL2591
  • Fixes:
  • Fix Auto XDR blinking when battery is lower than 20%

New in Lunar 6.1.3 (May 9, 2023)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix volume OSD not appearing in Sub-zero Dimming
  • Fix Sub-zero Dimming not working with the dark overlay in some cases
  • Fix Lunar not responding for some users
  • Features:
  • MediaMate integration:
  • lunar listen CLI command for getting realtime brightness/contrast/volume changes
  • hideOSD setting forces Lunar to not show any OSD whatsoever

New in Lunar 6.1.1 (Apr 21, 2023)

  • PWM flicker minimization:
  • By combining hardware and software dimming at specific thresholds, Lunar can help people sensitive to PWM flickering.
  • For the Apple Silicon MacBooks adjust the Min Brightness to 38 in Display Settings to get advantage of this.
  • For other screens, play with the Min Brightness setting until you find the threshold under which PWM flicker becomes noticeable. Then set the min brightness to the lowest value that doesn't cause flicker.
  • Here's a thread that explains how to better find the flicker limit: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macbook-pro-14-m2pro-pwm-solution.2386836/?post=32099271#post-32099271
  • Limiting the min brightness to the range which does not cause PWM flicker will allow Lunar to lower LED voltage in that range, while keeping voltage steady and only blocking light through the liquid crystals below that range.
  • Improvements:
  • Added sidecar option to lunar toggle-connection CLI command
  • Fixes:
  • Fix Sub-zero Dimming being overridden by the system adaptive brightness
  • Fix contrast jumping from max to min when going to/from Sub-zero Dimming
  • Fix flashes and sudden transitions when going in and out of Sub-zero Dimming

New in Lunar 6.1.0 (Apr 12, 2023)

  • Clock Mode improvements:
  • Added Sub-zero dimming range (can be disabled from the Controls menu)
  • Algorithm Variations:
  • Fully Automated:
  • This makes Clock Mode override any manual adjustments done by the user.
  • It also makes it re-apply the brightness of the previous schedule after standby/wake or after a screen reconnection.
  • User Controlled:
  • This makes Clock Mode respect manual adjustments done by the user.
  • Brightness will always transition to the next schedule starting from the user adjusted brightness.
  • Also if the system wakes within 30 minutes of a passed schedule, the brightness of that previous schedule is re-applied:
  • Features:
  • Add Send volume to all monitors setting:
  • Helpful for setups with multiple similar monitors, where the audio device can't be matched to the correct monitor
  • Improvements:
  • Remove Menu button and allow Control+Click on the menubar icon to see the menu
  • Right Click or Two Finger Trackpad Click also works
  • Renamed Options button to Settings
  • Renamed Preferences button to Display Settings
  • Fix an annoying macOS bug that keeps resetting the brightness of Apple displays to 50% after wake
  • Remove the jitterAfterWake setting since it's no longer needed
  • When disconnecting a screen, re-apply previous scaling on remaining screens one by one instead of all at once

New in Lunar 6.0.1 (Mar 19, 2023)

  • Features:
  • Show useful info about the adaptive mode in the menu header
  • Improvements:
  • Improved Reconnect and Toggle Connection Shortcuts by returning the UUID of the connected screen
  • This can be observed in use on the new Lunar Shortcuts webpage
  • Fixes:
  • Fixed some crashes and hangs

New in Lunar 6.0.0 (Mar 17, 2023)

  • Sync Mode: new algorithm:
  • Nits syncing (Apple Silicon only):
  • Lunar can now read the real brightness value in nits from Apple displays and sync it more accurately to other monitors.
  • Most external monitors don't provide a way to read their min and max nits limits, so they start with a default range of 30-350 nits. Those limits can be adjusted from the Lunar interface.
  • Sync without a source:
  • Sync Mode can now be used on all setups, even on those where there's no Apple display to sync from.
  • An All Displays slider will show up which will control the brightness and contrast of all screens in sync. Brightness keys will also control this special slider by default.
  • Any manual adjustment done to other monitors will be learnt and used by the All Displays slider.
  • Optimizations:
  • The adaptive algorithm is now faster and more efficient, with an almost instantly responsive auto-learning curve. This is thanks to using better researched math formulas and new data structures tailored to brightness syncing.
  • The native brightness OSD will now show up on all monitors instead of only on the source display.
  • Polling is not used anymore, relying completely on a brightness change event based system, for less battery and CPU usage.
  • Sensor Mode: more sensors
  • Integrated sensors (Apple Silicon only):
  • Lunar can now read ambient light lux values from sensors of Apple displays like:
  • Studio Display
  • Pro Display XDR
  • LG UltraFine for Mac
  • Thunderbolt Display
  • LED Cinema
  • Wireless sensors:
  • DIY ambient light sensors will now connect faster to Lunar, and keep a more stable connection between standby/wake states.
  • The sensor can also be configured more flexibly using the defaults command on the Mac where Lunar is running. This is especially helpful for when the lunarsensor server.
  • There are three settings that affect where Lunar looks for the sensor.
  • Lux-to-nits curve:
  • Sensor Mode now starts with a better researched and tested curve that converts the ambient light to real nits for each display.
  • On Apple Silicon, the estimated nits limits from Sync Mode will also be taken into account to compute an accurate brightness value for each display.
  • BlackOut:
  • On Apple Silicon devices running macOS Ventura, BlackOut now uses a new API that can disconnect the screen completely.
  • The power button will show the action that it will do based on the modifier keys that are pressed.
  • Auto Disconnect:
  • When a screen is disconnected, it will appear at the bottom of the Lunar menu, with an option to enable the Auto Disconnect feature.
  • This will ensure the display stays disconnected between standby/wake and lid open/close cycles.
  • For the MacBook built-in screen, this also enables the previous Auto BlackOut feature which disconnects the MacBook screen when a monitor is connected, and turns it back on when all monitors are disconnected.
  • Sidecar:
  • If you ever wanted to use a keyboard shortcut for connecting a Sidecar device, Lunar now supports that.
  • There's a new action in Apple Shortcuts that can connect a specific Sidecar iPad, and the Connection actions have been updated to support the most recently used Sidecar.
  • BlackOut can also natively disconnect/reconnect Sidecar devices on Apple Silicon.
  • DDC:
  • Support for brightness/volume control using DDC has been stabilised for the integrated HDMI port of the M1 and M2 chips.
  • The previous logic was also improved to avoid possible flickering and speed up DDC port matching.
  • Other improvements:
  • Settings:
  • Some settings have been regrouped, and some are now hidden if they aren't relevant to the hardware in use.
  • It's also possible now to use the Reset button from the Options menu to: - Reset All Settings by Option-clicking - Reset display-specific Settings by Command-clicking.
  • Logging:
  • Lunar is now using the native unified logging architecture on macOS.

New in Lunar 5.9.5 (Jan 26, 2023)

  • Features:
  • Support for M2 Pro/Max:
  • Both Thunderbolt/DP and HDMI connections on M2 Pro/Max should support DDC in this version.
  • Disconnect screens:
  • You'll notice two new actions in macOS Shortcuts: Disconnect screen and Reconnect screen.
  • This new method can really disconnect and power off the screen just like closing the MacBook lid or disconnecting a cable would do, freeing up the GPU resources.
  • You retain the ability to use the MacBook keyboard/trackpad/webcam as usual, and disconnected external monitors usually keep the ability to charge the laptop.
  • These are the effort of reverse engineering the MacBook's clamshell mode which you can read about in this article
  • I'm planning to integrate them into BlackOut eventually but there's a lot more testing I have to do first.
  • Improvements:
  • Make the arrangements/layouts in Shortcuts work when the main display is not the built-in display
  • Add "Set screen as main" Shortcut
  • Add a way to disable sensor checking on the network

New in Lunar 5.9.4 (Jan 19, 2023)

  • Improvements:
  • Add adaptiveSubzero display property that allows disabling using Sub-zero Dimming range automatically in adaptive algorithms
  • Add UI checkbox for the adaptiveSubzero setting
  • Fixes:
  • Volume slider was not showing for network controlled monitors
  • Lock the panel manager when using resolution/preset Shortcuts

New in Lunar 5.9.3 (Jan 13, 2023)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix wireless sensor detection
  • Fix manual adjustments not being reset
  • Fix Sync Mode polling interval 0 not working on Apple external displays
  • Fix Apple displays brightness value not getting updated inside Lunar
  • Fix Network Control not working
  • Fix "Find Screen" Shortcut comparators
  • Fix "Set Resolution" Shortcut
  • Fix dragging Sub-zero Brightness slider not triggering the auto learning algorithm in adaptive modes

New in Lunar 5.9.2 (Jan 11, 2023)

  • Improvements:
  • Use new "Launch at Login" API on macOS Ventura and later
  • Fixes:
  • Skip nil EDID UUID in DCP service (fixes "Non-responsive DDC" on some setups)
  • Disable logging to file in non-verbose mode
  • This should avoid some crashes and decrease load on disk
  • Fix crash caused by using CFRunLoop unnecessarily
  • Fix BlackOut not disabling mirroring when turning back on the display
  • Fix DDC services not being assigned correctly to slower monitors
  • Fix crash in network control code

New in Lunar 5.9.0 (Jan 5, 2023)

  • Features:
  • Adaptive Sub-zero Dimming:
  • Full support for using Sub-zero dimming automatically inside adaptive modes like Sync/Sensor/Location.
  • The Auto-learning algorithm can now learn Sub-zero brightness values and apply them in the future based on the current ambient light or sun position.
  • Native OSD:
  • for Sub-zero dimming, XDR Brightness and Contrast adjustments
  • macOS Shortcuts:
  • Control brightness, volume etc. of a screen
  • Change Lunar adaptive modes and apply global presets
  • Plus actions that can be done exclusively in Shortcuts:
  • Swap monitors
  • Mirror any combination of screens
  • Arrange screens in various layouts
  • Change resolution and frame rate with a hotkey
  • Change presets with a hotkey (easily access reference presets like Design & Print or Photography)
  • New DDC algorithm:
  • Adds compatibility for the built-in HDMI port of the newer Apple Silicon Mac devices
  • Remember to enable DDC from the Controls menu of the HDMI display if it was previously disabled
  • Improves writing speed with an algorithm that adapts to each monitor's I²C max speed
  • Improves DDC Read reliability
  • Improvements:
  • Allow changing the ambient light sensor hostname from the command line
  • defaults write fyi.lunar.Lunar sensorHostname mysensor.local
  • Make BlackOut without mirroring a bit faster
  • Better detection for MCDP29XX chips
  • Better detection for projectors and virtual displays
  • Deactivate license on oldest device automatically when activation fails
  • Fixes:
  • Fix custom hotkeys not allowing hold to change continuously
  • Fix possible crash when MPDisplayMgr can't lock access to displays

New in Lunar 5.8.0 (Nov 8, 2022)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix some memory leaks in the DDC AVService matching logic
  • Fix volume not respecting the DDC configured range in some cases
  • Improvements:
  • Resume Adaptive Paused after toggling from Manual to any other adaptive mode
  • Print lux from external light sensor if available when using the lunar lux CLI command
  • Add exception for VX2453 being detected as projector
  • Add Auto Restart workaround for when DDC fails on rare setups
  • The option is enabled by default and can be configured from Advanced settings
  • Disable logic for fuzzy matching audio output devices when volume hotkeys are disabled
  • Install CLI in the home dir to avoid permission errors
  • When brightness transition is set to Slow, use faster Smooth transitions for manual brightness key adjustments
  • Features:
  • Replace buggy fuzzy-matching logic with the Smith-Waterman algorithm written in Rust from Skim v2
  • This should fix some crashes and make some monitor matching logic faster
  • Add ALS support for SparkFun Thing Plus

New in Lunar 5.7.9 (Sep 4, 2022)

  • Fixes:
  • Improve text visibility in dark mode

New in Lunar 5.7.8 (Aug 29, 2022)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix Options menu overflowing the screen
  • Fix Options menu forcing light mode UI

New in Lunar 5.7.7 (Aug 23, 2022)

  • Hotfix:
  • Fix Options menu not allowing slider dragging
  • Decrease decay time when adjusting the Sync Mode curve to increase responsiveness

New in Lunar 5.7.6 (Aug 23, 2022)

  • Hotfix:
  • Fix Options menu not being readable in Dark Mode

New in Lunar 5.7.5 (Aug 23, 2022)

  • Features:
  • Allow keeping the Options menu open
  • Improvements:
  • Move to a floating window approach for the menu bar to avoid blocking clicks under it
  • Fixes:
  • Fix a crash caused by a recursive UI error

New in Lunar 5.7.4 (Aug 23, 2022)

  • Features:
  • Beep feedback when pressing volume keys (follows system setting)
  • Hold Shift while pressing volume keys to invert behaviour
  • Improvements:
  • Detect when user doesn't want XDR to be auto disabled in low battery situations
  • Allow XDR/Subzero/BlackOut OSD to overlap the Dock
  • This avoids overlapping the native brightness OSD
  • Delay XDR and Sub-zero until next key press if brightness is already at max/min
  • Disable Location Mode if permissions have been denied
  • Fixes:
  • Option+Shift now uses 1% step for Subzero and XDR
  • Update sensor firmware installer
  • Add support for MagTag and Funhouse boards
  • Stop checking for coordinates if location permissions have been denied

New in Lunar 5.7.2 (Jul 5, 2022)

  • Fix XDR Brightness detection for older MacBooks

New in Lunar 5.7.1 (Jul 3, 2022)

  • Copy ESPHome configuration outside the app folder to avoid altering the bundle
  • This fixes cases where the app was deactivated and deleted after installing the firmware on the ambient light sensor

New in Lunar 5.7.0 (Jun 30, 2022)

  • Features:
  • Add lunar facelight CLI command
  • Add a mute/unmute button when hovering the volume slider
  • Add option to toggle Dark Mode when using XDR Brightness for lowering power usage and LED heat
  • The Night Shift disabling feature in XDR can now re-enable Night Shift if within the user schedule
  • Add ALS support for Feather ESP32-S2 boards
  • Add configurable mute workarounds for monitors where mute doesn't work because of non-standard DDC implementations
  • Improvements:
  • Minimise INFO logging
  • Add log file rotation
  • Add a way to stop sending the mute command and rely only on the volume value when muting audio
  • Don't take volume DDC range into account when sending the mute workaround value
  • React to screen sleep events faster to work around some buggy monitors that don't enter standby
  • Fixes:
  • Don't show the Notch Disabled button on non-MacBook screens

New in Lunar 5.6.8 (Jun 14, 2022)

  • Fix deadlock caused by the new delayDDCAfterWake setting
  • Use HUD window level for the rounded corners mask window
  • Forcefully disable the Refresh values from monitor settings option because it makes Lunar hang for too many users
  • This setting is only helpful when brightness is changed outside of Lunar and is not needed in 99% of the cases
  • Most of the monitors don't support DDC reading and Lunar can hang and lag because of waiting too long for a response from the monitor
  • People that actually need the setting can re-enable it from the Advanced settings tab inside the Options menu
  • Implement screen round corners using 4 corner mask windows instead of one large hidden window
  • This is done to work around a macOS bug preventing clicks on dialog buttons even though the window is set to allow clicks through it

New in Lunar 5.6.7 (Jun 14, 2022)

  • Features:
  • AutoXDR OSD: Show an OSD when enabling XDR automatically based on ambient light
  • Allows aborting the automatic XDR enabling by pressing the Esc key
  • Can be disabled from the HDR tab of the Options menu
  • Add "Main display" and "Non-main displays" choices for brightness keys
  • Add Disable usage of Gamma API completely setting for people that have trouble with macOS bugs related to the Gamma API
  • Add an Unlock button to quickly unlock brightness or contrast sliders
  • Add Delay DDC requests after wake setting for people that have trouble with monitor firmware bugs related to losing signal on simple DDC commands
  • Improvements:
  • Make sure brightness doesn't remain locked in non-DDC controls
  • Show when brightness or contrast is locked
  • Make it clear that DDC reading is experimental and should not be used unless really needed
  • Separate the HDR and XDR settings into a new tab
  • Detect manual changes in XDR state and honor them in the Auto XDR logic
  • Fixes:
  • UI fixes in preparation for macOS Ventura
  • Known issues:
  • Scrolling over the slider feels clunkier and less fluid in macOS 13, hoping this is an OS bug that will get addressed in next beta
  • Some animations feel slower

New in Lunar 5.6.6 (May 25, 2022)

  • Features:
  • Add option to use non-Apple monitors as sources for Sync Mode
  • Auto XDR based on ambient light:
  • XDR will automatically enable when the ambient light is really bright
  • It will also disable when the ambient light is low enough for visibility in normal brightness
  • The feature will only work on the MacBook Pro 2021 when it is used alone (without external monitors)
  • Improvements:
  • Automatically set Curve Slope to middle point on target monitors identical to the source
  • Print single property on multiple displays when using the displays CLI command
  • Add Hide Menubar Icon setting on the Configuration page
  • Fixes:
  • Fix CLI hanging
  • Run some UI logging async to avoid blocking the main thread

New in Lunar 5.6.5 (May 17, 2022)

  • Improvements:
  • Allow switching to the old BlackOut mirroring system for setups incompatible with the new API
  • Fixes:
  • Update Paddle to fix a crash happening when there was no network connection
  • Allow setting min brightness to 0 for external monitors
  • Fix CLI hanging
  • Stop disabling logging when using the CLI
  • Fix min brightness set to 1 instead of 0 on BlackOut

New in Lunar 5.6.4 (May 9, 2022)

  • Hotfix:
  • Fix crash caused by EDID UUID fetching on invalid displays
  • Improvements:
  • Smoother XDR Brightness, Sub-zero Dimming and Software Dimming
  • Update Paddle SDK to v4.3.0
  • Don't show licensing UI more than once to avoid locking the UI
  • Remove redundant Advanced Settings screen
  • Restrict HDR compatibility workaround only for setups with EDR-capable displays
  • Add a way to enforce DDC if the detection logic gives a false negative
  • Better sensible defaults for contrast in Apple displays
  • Add option to keep Night Shift on when using XDR by default
  • Show XDR slider even on 100%
  • Hide XDR/Subzero text if XDR has just been disabled
  • Minimise chances of triggering the screen blanking bug by adding an artificial delay between Gamma API calls
  • Add detection for the screen blanking issue
  • Disable all Gamma reset calls when disabling the HDR compatibility workaround
  • Disable Software Dimming automatically if DDC/AppleNative works
  • Ensure CLI doesn't get stuck on a blocked socket
  • Show Screen Blanking dialog even if the zero gamma workaround worked
  • More reliable light sensor checker
  • Fixes:
  • Stop handling brightness keys and forward them to the system when the adjustment limit is reached
  • Restore Gamma slider values properly
  • Fix resetting the remaining adjustments limit

New in Lunar 5.6.3 (Apr 26, 2022)

  • Fix crash caused by slider hover handler
  • Fix more crashes caused by refresh/resolution string
  • Smoother XDR contrast

New in Lunar 5.6.2 (Apr 26, 2022)

  • Licensing model:
  • Some clarifications are needed after the last change:
  • I don't have any plans on releasing a major version this year
  • If for some reason I have to do that, everyone who paid for the 1-year of free updates before the change will receive the update for free if it's within their update period
  • Features:
  • XDR Contrast Enhancer slider:
  • Improve readability in direct sunlight when using XDR Brightness.
  • The contrast slider allows adjusting the pixel value formula for the brightest/darkest areas, to get even more contrast out of the miniLED display.
  • New XDR Brightness algorithm:
  • Developed in collaboration with the creator of BetterDummy, using a more native approach to provide:
  • Stable experience when toggling XDR
  • Compatibility with higher brightness non-Apple HDR monitors
  • Dynamic EDR pixel values to maximise the nits allowance based on the current brightness
  • Improvements:
  • Show that XDR needs Pro license instead of doing nothing
  • Choose alpha upgrades over beta ones when the alpha channel is used
  • Move DDC reads outside the main thread
  • Improve brightness reponsiveness check
  • Collect average DDC read/write time for features that depend on DDC timing (e.g. smooth transitions, refreshing values from monitor memory etc.)
  • Better support for scroll up/down to adjust sliders
  • Multi-user Fast Switching support
  • Retry display list reconciliation when the system provides invalid IDs
  • Disable Sync Mode if polling seconds is 0 and brightness observer fails to start
  • Observe log in/out events and stop calling screen wake listener if logged out
  • Pause HDR workaround while logged out
  • Pause Lunar if the user switches to another user
  • Make brightness text clickable in the menu bar
  • Ensure sub-zero dimming works if Allow zero brightness is off
  • Use less restrictive EDID patterns for finding DDC ports
  • Improve DDC compatibility on monitors with missing metadata
  • Increase slider reponsiveness
  • Fixes:
  • Fix overall keyboard latency
  • Pause some functions when switching users or going to standby
  • Light sensor detection
  • CLI server
  • Color and Gamma reader
  • Brightness observer
  • Fix app info not hiding on first launch
  • Fix crash on fetching the refresh rate string for the resolution dropdown

New in Lunar 5.6.1 (Apr 19, 2022)

  • Hotfix:
  • Fix crash caused by brightness/volume key listener
  • Fix XDR nits-to-gamma coefficient

New in Lunar 5.6.0 (Apr 19, 2022)

  • Licensing model:
  • I'm removing the 1-year of updates restriction and will give everyone unlimited free updates for Lunar 5.
  • Lunar will move to a major-version upgrade licensing model, where you will only have to pay for a new license if a new major version is launched (e.g. Lunar 6).
  • If that ever happens, you will also be able to use your previous license as a coupon to get a substantial discount if you previously bought Lunar.
  • Features:
  • XDR Brightness:
  • Enhance contrast to make the dark-background/bright-text case more usable in the sun
  • Make XDR more seamless: simply increasing the brightness over 100% with your keyboard should now enable XDR smoothly and without many flickers
  • Keep XDR enabled when the screen comes back from standby
  • HDR content overblowing is now fixed as long as Gamma is not used
  • Note: this is still a macOS bug that is awaiting a fix from Apple, all I've done is work around it
  • Disable XDR on non-Apple monitors until the forced-monochrome bugs are fixed
  • BlackOut subsystem rewrite:
  • Now using the same private framework used by System Preferences
  • More stable mirroring
  • Tight integration with the newest version of BetterDummy
  • Auto BlackOut OSD:
  • Allow the system to settle screen configuration
  • Allows the user to press esc to cancel Auto BlackOut
  • App Info section:
  • License status
  • Version and Check for updates button
  • Auto update settings
  • Menu density selector
  • Advanced settings tab
  • Menu Density
  • Improvements:
  • Save last resolution before mirroring and re-apply it after mirroring ends
  • This works around a system bug where a non-native resolution is applied when mirroring is disabled
  • Lower CPU usage further by reducing UI structure update when menus are not visible
  • QuickActions menu becomes scrollable when it reaches the bottom of the screen
  • Assign remaining DDC ports sequentially for monitors that can't be matched by EDID
  • Fixes:
  • Lower CPU usage by fixing a recursive call on the resolutions dropdown
  • Lower memory usage and the number of threads spawned

New in Lunar 5.5.5 (Apr 7, 2022)

  • Features:
  • Seamless XDR Brightness: enable XDR by simply increasing the brightness further after reaching 100%
  • Allow disabling automatic Sub-zero Dimming and XDR Brightness from the Options menu
  • Improvements:
  • Make sure Auto Blackout works after screen wake by waiting for the system to settle the screen reconfiguration
  • Restore XDR Brightness after screen wake
  • Allow volume/mute hotkeys to work on the cursor display
  • Move QuickActions options into a popover to lower height of the menu
  • Fixes:
  • Fix hiding the mute OSD

New in Lunar 5.5.4 (Apr 5, 2022)

  • Improvements:
  • Don't apply app presets while XDR is enabled
  • Lower CPU usage when checking for screenshot action on monitors that use Overlay

New in Lunar 5.5.3 (Mar 27, 2022)

  • Features:
  • Disable Notch:
  • Use hidden screen resolutions of the MacBook Pro to remove the notch completely

New in Lunar 5.5.2 (Mar 23, 2022)

  • Features:
  • Custom Presets: save the current brightness/contrast as a preset that you can apply later

New in Lunar 5.5.1 (Mar 21, 2022)

  • Features:
  • XDR Brightness: go past the 500 nits limit of the new 2021 MacBook Pro and Pro Display XDR
  • Warning: this is experimental. The system may become unresponsive for a few seconds when toggling this option
  • Animation glitches are expected when this is enabled

New in Lunar 5.4.3 (Mar 7, 2022)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix deadlock on screen wake/reconnection

New in Lunar 5.4.2 (Mar 7, 2022)

  • Features:
  • Efficient Sync Mode:
  • A new internal system API is used to react to built-in display brightness changes instead of polling continuously for them
  • This lowers the CPU usage to 0.1% on average when no brightness change occurs
  • This new method can be disabled by setting the Sync Polling Interval to a value greater than 0 seconds
  • If brightness syncing stops working after the update, try setting the Polling Interval to 2 seconds
  • Add lunar blackout command to CLI
  • Add lunar gamma --restore-color-sync command for resetting to system default color settings
  • Improvements:
  • Update ddcutil-server for Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit
  • Improve Lunar CLI help
  • Fixes:
  • Fix software dimming not going back to 100% after app restart on more recent macOS versions
  • Fix BlackOut dialog appearing wrongly

New in Lunar 5.4.1 (Mar 3, 2022)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix sudden brightness changes because of brightness being read incorrectly on some monitors
  • Delay when retrying sensor requests
  • Fix radius value disappearing on editing

New in Lunar 5.4.0 (Mar 2, 2022)

  • Client-server architecture for the Lunar CLI:
  • The lunar command can now control the running Lunar app directly instead of spawning a new instance.
  • If the Lunar app is not running, the CLI will automatically use the old method of running the command directly.
  • New arguments:
  • --remote forces the lunar command to never spawn a new instance and fail if there's no Lunar app already running
  • --host configures the hostname where to send the command
  • This means you can now also control Lunar apps running on other Macs
  • --key configures the API key for authenticating the lunar command against the Lunar app server
  • This is only needed when controlling Lunar instances running on other systems
  • --new-instance forces the lunar command to always run the command locally and spawn a new instance even if there's a Lunar app already running
  • BlackOut improvements:
  • Added BlackOut without mirroring on holding Shift.
  • Added logic to automatically disable BlackOut when monitors are disconnected and the only remaining display is blacked out
  • Configured mirroring as .appOnly so that the system doesn't remember the BlackOut mirroring state after Lunar is quit
  • Improvements:
  • Make the resolutions dropdown more useful with some formatting and pretty colors
  • Add a way to easily toggle between Software Dimming and Hardware DDC
  • Add a way to install Lunar CLI from the command-line: /Applications/Lunar.app/Contents/MacOS/Lunar install-cli
  • Allow 2-byte values for DDC commands because some monitors support wider ranges (e.g. ASUS PG32U)

New in Lunar 5.3.4 (Feb 18, 2022)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix BlackOut getting stuck in some rare cases
  • Release leaking memory on Intel DDC implementation with AMD GPU

New in Lunar 5.3.3 (Feb 17, 2022)

  • Improvements:
  • Move the Volume keys control all monitors setting to make its effect clearer
  • Fixes:
  • Fix crash caused by reading built-in brightness on a different thread
  • Add 1 second delay between switching input and applying defined brightness on Input Hotkeys

New in Lunar 5.3.2 (Feb 8, 2022)

  • Improvements:
  • Move the Auto Blackout setting to the main preferences screen
  • Fixes:
  • Fix crash caused by SimplyCoreAudio deadlock

New in Lunar 5.3.1 (Feb 7, 2022)

  • Improvements:
  • Add a way to extend the range of Color Gain for professional displays like the Wacom Cintiq Pro
  • Add a way to disable re-apply on wake for Color Gain
  • Security updates to dependencies
  • Fixes:
  • Fix colors being washed out because the Color Gain value of the monitor didn't match what Lunar had stored

New in Lunar 5.3.0 (Feb 7, 2022)

  • Improvements:
  • Show slider values on the knob
  • Improve slider contrast
  • Add glass material to QuickActions
  • Detect HDMI port properly on the M1 Pro and M1 Max
  • This will disable DDC automatically for that port as there's still no way to send DDC commands through it
  • Fixes:
  • Hide second background of QuickActions when Reduce Transparency is active
  • Make sure to re-enable adaptive brightness on built-in after switching from Manual to other modes while in an App Preset

New in Lunar 5.2.3 (Jan 18, 2022)

  • Note: if you have a monitor connected to the HDMI port of the 2021 MacBook, disable DDC manually for that monitor
  • Fixes:
  • Make sure that monitors with Network Control disabled don't get matched with a Pi controller
  • Remove the Lunar Test flashing text properly after onboarding

New in Lunar 5.2.2 (Jan 11, 2022)

  • Improvements:
  • Add an IOService event detector to re-create the I2C service port cache when the IOKit tree changes
  • This should help with cases when the monitor is not responding to Lunar's brightness/volume/input changes until app restart
  • Fixes:
  • Fix fetching script dir in Lunar sensor install script
  • Remove HDMI port detection logic for M1 Pro/Max because it causes false positives
  • Will resume work on this when my MacBook arrives

New in Lunar 5.2.1 (Jan 5, 2022)

  • Improvements:
  • Make brightness key forwarding optional in Advanced settings
  • If the built-in display brightness is not persisting properly, try enabling this setting
  • Fixes:
  • Reset BlackOut state if brightness is greater than 1
  • Don't show OSD for built-in brightness when forwarding media keys to the system
  • Fix crash because of wrong datapoints for the Location Mode chart
  • Fix Input Hotkey dropdown in Dark Mode

New in Lunar 5.2.0 (Dec 30, 2021)

  • Features:
  • Auto BlackOut: turn off the built-in display automatically when an external monitor is connected
  • Simpler visual design for Quick Actions
  • Improvements:
  • Automatically switch to Gamma on the HDMI port of the M1 Pro/Max MacBook
  • Don't re-apply brightness if App Presets is empty (avoids jittery brightness on some displays)
  • Make sure we don't accidentally disable "Automatically adjust brightness"
  • Fixes:
  • Fix option key being wrongly taken into account when pressing brightness keys
  • Update Sparkle auto-updating framework to fix some GUI bugs
  • Update diagnostics text to include the MacBook HDMI limitation
  • Fix checkSlowWrite for DDC which could wrongly mark smooth transitions as unsupported
  • Make sure to remove the Lunar Test marker when closing diagnostics/onboarding

New in Lunar 5.1.2 (Dec 2, 2021)

  • Features:
  • Add possibility to stream logs to the developer in real time for more efficient troubleshooting
  • Improvements:
  • Make Gamma/Overlay changes faster when using sliders
  • Make the Adaptive Mode dropdown easier to click
  • Add note about how to adjust contrast independently on the Hotkeys page
  • Make App Presets more reliable on single monitor setups by not caring about the window visibility
  • Make Ultrafine AmbientLightCompensation detection more strict
  • It seems there are some models that report that AmbientLightCompensation is enabled while HasAmbientLightCompensation is false
  • Fixes:
  • Fix contrast media keys
  • Fix internal sensor detection
  • Fix contrast locking by itself when showing/hiding advanced settings

New in Lunar 5.1.1 (Nov 23, 2021)

  • Improvements:
  • Correctly set max DDC brightness to 255 on LED Cinema displays
  • Fixes:
  • Fix clamshell mode detection for some special setups
  • Fix brightness OSD not showing in some cases (missed some stuff)
  • Fix brightness keys not working in previous release

New in Lunar 5.1.0 (Nov 22, 2021)

  • Features:
  • Add back the Adaptive Mode dropdown in the QuickActions menu
  • Add more useful buttons at the bottom of the QuickActions menu:
  • Preferences
  • Restart
  • Quit
  • Improvements:
  • Add menu item to Relaunch the onboarding process
  • Improve QuickActions menu height formula
  • Add notice about how to relaunch onboarding if needed
  • Improve brightness slider for built-in display
  • Fixes:
  • Fix Sync Source button text being unreadable
  • Fix overlay artifacts appearing when disconnecting iPad Sidecar
  • Fix brightness OSD not showing in some cases
  • Fix Clock Mode schedules being reverted to the current brightness on some occasions
  • Fix App Presets window detection by intersecting the window frame with the raw display bounds

New in Lunar 5.0.5 (Nov 17, 2021)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix detection for Samsung U28E850

New in Lunar 5.0.4 (Nov 17, 2021)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix issue where adjusting brightness with keys would double the change for external displays

New in Lunar 5.0.3 (Nov 17, 2021)

  • Features:
  • Add Volume Slider show/hide toggle inside the DDC menu of external displays
  • Add Copy from display for Curve Factors
  • Add possibility to show slider values
  • Separate brightness and contrast for app presets when Merge brightness and contrast is disabled
  • Add Jitter After Wake function for monitors that wake up with dimmed brightness
  • Can be activated from the terminal using defaults write fyi.lunar.Lunar jitterAfterWake 1
  • Improvements:
  • Make contrast syncing snappier
  • Make the CLI DDC values a bit smarter
  • If the value is in the form of 0x1F, x1F or 1Fh it is parsed as hex
  • Otherwise it is parsed as decimal
  • Passing --hex will always parse values as hex
  • Work around the system issue where the built-in display brightness is reverting automatically after a manual change
  • It seems that some MacBooks don't support brightness change event notifications which causes the manual adjustments to not be reflected in the system brightnesss curve.
  • In this update we try to detect if a MacBook is missing that support and instead of controlling its brightness, we forward the brightness key events to the system and let it do the brightness changing.
  • Using the sliders for changing the built-in brightness will still have the reverting problem though, because we can't forward those events to the system.
  • Fixes:
  • Don't ask for permissions on every launch if the user doesn't need that functionality
  • Don't force focus Lunar window if dark mode is toggled

New in Lunar 5.0.2 (Nov 7, 2021)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix lag and wrong monitor assignment when DDC was used for two identical monitors
  • Fix crash when getting current resolution for some displays
  • Fix Sync Mode for Ultrafines that report having ambient light adaptive brightness enabled when in fact they don't
  • Improvements:
  • Add all MCCS VCP codes to lunar ddc
  • Add Use current brightness button in Clock Mode
  • Add Merge brightness and contrast checkbox on the Configuration page
  • Allows for reverting to the previous behaviour of controlling brightness and contrast separately

New in Lunar 5.0.1 (Nov 4, 2021)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix crash in diagnostics/onboarding when closing the window
  • Automatically restart app when memory usage goes above 1GB
  • The Advanced button on the Configuration page was not clickable on the top part

New in Lunar 5.0.0 (Nov 4, 2021)

  • Features:
  • Support for M1 Pro and M1 Max
  • Onboarding process on first launch
  • Redesigned Diagnostics
  • Redesigned Display Settings menus
  • Restart Lunar menu item and hotkey
  • Overlay/Gamma switcher button inside the Controls menu
  • App presets now work for the built-in display as well
  • Adding Option key to the BlackOut hotkey will turn off monitor completely through DDC
  • Example: let's say you have configured BlackOut to activate on Ctrl-Command-6
  • Then pressing Ctrl-Command-Option-6 will allow you to turn off the monitor completely (just like pressing its physical power button) if the monitor supports that function
  • Rounded corners for any display
  • Redesigned Quick Actions menu:
  • The menu appears on click instead of hover over the menu bar icon now
  • The native menu can be shown using:
  • Right click (or two finger Trackpad click) on the menu bar icon
  • Click on the three dots icon in the top right of the Quick Actions menu
  • Sliders everywhere:
  • Merged brightness and contrast slider
  • Volume slider in the QuickActions menu
  • Only possible with the incredible help of @waydabber, maker of BetterDummy

New in Lunar 4.9.6 (Sep 30, 2021)

  • Features:
  • Useful Info menu item in menu bar that can also be hidden
  • Option to show brightness and contrast of the active display beside the menu bar icon
  • Option to hide the orientation switcher in the QuickActions menu
  • Hide QuickActions when clicking anywhere outside of it
  • Allow BlackOut on single screen advanced setting for people that:
  • mostly use BlackOut from the keyboard
  • have the need to turn off the external monitor while the MacBook is in clamshell mode
  • Improvements:
  • Change Apply Gamma checkbox to an enable/disable button that also disables value editing
  • Close Quick Actions menu faster when moving the cursor away from it
  • Better possible clamshell mode detection to avoid setting external monitor brightness to 0 when closing the MacBook lid
  • Fixes:
  • Fix crashes that happened because of accessing AVService/I2C cache from multiple threads
  • Make sure to update some text fields that were not updated on launch

New in Lunar 4.9.5 (Sep 29, 2021)

  • Features:
  • Clock Mode: schedule brightness and contrast presets based on sunset/sunrise/noon or a specific time
  • Dark Overlay dimming for displays that don't support Gamma or DDC (DisplayLink and Sidecar usually)
  • Curve Learning now works with external brightness changes if Refresh values from monitor settings is enabled in Advanced settings
  • Contrast does nothing when the overlay is used
  • Sensor Mode can now use the internal light sensor of the M1 MacBooks
  • Add option to disable checking for DDC responsiveness in Advanced settings
  • Display filters for deciding what to show in the Preferences window:
  • Virtual displays
  • AirPlay displays
  • Projectors
  • Disconnected monitors
  • Improvements:
  • Improve dynamic gain on the TSL2591 external light sensor by checking for overflows
  • You will need to reinstall the ambient light sensor firmware to get this improvement
  • Improve Gamma smooth transitions by removing unnecessary animations and allowing it to appear on Mission Control
  • Thanks to @waydabber for finding out this edge case and for suggesting that the window needs to be set as stationary to fix it
  • Recover Facelight state after screen sleep/wake
  • Improve smooth and slow transitions for Apple vendored displays that can use Native Controls
  • Reset audio device cache on wake and on display reconnection to avoid volume controls not working in some cases
  • Do network requests asynchronously where possible to improve responsiveness and fix some memory leaks
  • Simplify menu bar icon menu
  • Fixes:
  • Fix crash when the DDC faults storage was accessed from multiple threads
  • Fix crash that happened on modifying the I2C controller cache when the IO registry tree changed

New in Lunar 4.9.1 (Sep 17, 2021)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix crash because of gamma smooth transition logic
  • Fix crash when Sensor Mode would update brightness on a non-main thread
  • Avoid app entering a not responding state when in Location mode and waking the screen
  • Improvements:
  • Make sure Gamma never goes below 0.08 on brightness 0 to retain visibility
  • Allow press-and-hold detection to be disabled for users that encounter problems with it
  • Remove unused serial-port and volume-based sensor options

New in Lunar 4.9.0 (Sep 16, 2021)

  • Features:
  • Revamped Hotkeys page for easier configuration of how the keys should work
  • Hotkeys now support press and hold for repeating actions
  • Add configurable FaceLight brightness/contrast settings inside the Lunar Display settings
  • Add Disable all hotkeys button on the Hotkey page
  • Add Slow brightness transition option
  • Change Lunar window pages using keys:
  • Press H for the Hotkeys page
  • Press C for the Configuration page
  • Press B for the Built-in display page
  • Press 1..9 for switching to the Display page with that number
  • Improvements:
  • Re-apply BlackOut on screen wake to account for brightness being set to a non-zero value by the system
  • This needs Re-apply brightness on screen wake to be enabled inside Advanced settings
  • Make the Gamma smooth transition dot even less visible to avoid creating the perception of a dust speck on the screen
  • Fixes:
  • Fix Lunar not responding in some cases when waking up from sleep
  • Fix swipe being blocked on the Configuration page

New in Lunar 4.8.5 (Sep 8, 2021)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix BlackOut hotkey not reflecting in the menu bar item
  • Fix Check for Updates not working on some occasions
  • Features:
  • Add a way to hide the macOS volume OSD for monitors that have their own volume indicator

New in Lunar 4.8.4 (Sep 2, 2021)

  • Features:
  • Add navigation bar and remove left/right arrow buttons
  • Simplify and smoothen brightness graph
  • More complex data can be shown by enabling Show more graph data in Advanced settings
  • Fixes:
  • Fix internal display being dimmed accidentally after the lid was opened
  • Fix QuickActions popover closing accidentally right after opening
  • Improvements:
  • Add Continue button for diagnostics instead of relying on pressing keyboard keys
  • Improve Native Controls detection for the built-in display when closing/opening the lid

New in Lunar 4.8.3 (Aug 31, 2021)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix DDC for monitors that act as TVs when in fact they aren't
  • Improvements:
  • Add contact form on lunar.fyi
  • Allow fully offline installations

New in Lunar 4.8.2 (Aug 16, 2021)

  • Improvements:
  • Respect custom color profiles when adjusting brightness using Gamma
  • Handle non-english locales in text fields
  • Show error when CLI can't be installed and show a possible fix using chown and chmod
  • Switch to rounding the curve value in the auto-learning algorithm for more precise mappings
  • Make transitions smoother on Apple displays
  • Allow fuzzy display name matching in CLI:
  • Things like this should work now:
  • Switch input to HDMI for LG UltraFine: lunar displays ultrafine input hdmi
  • Read contrast of Dell U3419W: lunar displays dell34 contrast
  • Fixes:
  • Fix crash on Monterey beta 5 because of Thread.private not existing anymore
  • Handle cases where app exceptions can't be added because their bundle doesn't contain CFBundleName
  • Pin TSL2591 library to a known working version
  • Fix DDC limits not being applied correctly in Manual Mode
  • Fix data race crash when iterating some dictionaries
  • Allow brightness 0 in Sync Mode on iMacs

New in Lunar 4.8.1 (Aug 16, 2021)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix stack overflow crash in detecting if a display is built-in
  • Check for display ID to be online before reading Gamma
  • Make ColorSync profile matching in Software Control mode M1 only:
  • This is because Apple's CGGetDisplayTransferByTable is buggy on Intel and crashes the app on some systems

New in Lunar 4.8.0 (Aug 16, 2021)

  • Features:
  • Dark Mode UI
  • Add Built-in Display page
  • BlackOut: a feature that lets you selectively turn off displays by:
  • Mirroring the main display contents
  • Setting their brightness and contrast to 0
  • How to use:
  • Press Ctrl+Cmd+6 to activate it and turn off the display where the cursor is
  • You can also activate it by clicking the power button on the display page for the following cases:
  • Built-in display
  • External monitors that don't support DDC
  • Add "Use Alternate Brightness Keys" checkbox on the Hotkeys page:
  • Useful if you have a keyboard that has F14/F15 keys and the Brightness keys can send special key codes
  • Add "Include Built-in Display" checkbox on the Hotkeys page:
  • Useful if you use a Hackintosh with an external monitor set as a built-in display
  • Add Lock Curve button for disabling the auto-learning curve algorithm when needed
  • Add Reset buttons in the gear icon menu
  • Allow setting minimum values for DDC Limits
  • Add more useful controls in the gear icon menu:
  • DDC Color Gain
  • Resolutions (including hidden resolutions)
  • Screen orientation
  • Replace the Adaptive button with a more useful input switch dropdown in the QuickActions menu
  • Improvements:
  • Respect custom color profiles when adjusting brightness using Gamma
  • Handle non-english locales in text fields
  • Show error when CLI can't be installed and show a possible fix using chown and chmod
  • Allow fuzzy display name matching in CLI
  • Things like this should work now:
  • Switch input to HDMI for LG UltraFine: lunar displays ultrafine input hdmi
  • Read contrast of Dell U3419W: lunar displays dell34 contrast
  • Switch to rounding the curve value in the auto-learning algorithm for more precise mappings
  • Make transitions smoother on Apple displays
  • Fixes:
  • Fix crash on Monterey beta 5 because of Thread.private not existing anymore
  • Handle cases where app exceptions can't be added because their bundle doesn't contain CFBundleName
  • Pin TSL2591 library to a known working version
  • Fix DDC limits not being applied correctly in Manual Mode
  • Fix data race crash when iterating some dictionaries
  • Allow brightness 0 in Sync Mode on iMacs

New in Lunar 4.7.2 (Aug 5, 2021)

  • Improvements:
  • Add SPI as lib dependency for sensor firmware to avoid compilation errors in the future
  • Improve Network Control monitor matching in multi-monitor cases
  • Quit older instances if a user launches Lunar while it is already running
  • Always show Network Control prompt on the main monitor
  • Check if new value is different from old value when listening for settings changes to avoid duplicating events
  • Fixes:
  • Don't check for updates on launch to avoid annoying people who don't like updates as much as I do
  • Fix typo which caused the monitor serial to be wrongly compared to the product ID when matching monitors
  • Allow CLI to set properties that don't need an available control

New in Lunar 4.7.1 (Aug 2, 2021)

  • Improvements:
  • Remove the need for a yellow dot in Gamma and Network control
  • Add Show virtual displays checkbox in Advanced settings
  • Turns out DisplayLink monitors show up as virtual and you need this checked if you want Lunar to see the monitor
  • Fix Gamma (Software Controls) curve calculation being skewed in the 0% to 10% range
  • The zero point (no gamma changes) is now when BRIGHTNESS=100 and CONTRAST=75
  • Lightness change between brightness values should be more consistent with the human eye response to light
  • Fixes:
  • Don't check for updates on launch if Check for updates automatically is disabled in Advanced settings
  • Fix some unexpected crashes
  • Fix license being disabled erroneously on network problems

New in Lunar 4.7.0 (Jul 28, 2021)

  • Features:
  • Add support for ESP8266 sensor boards
  • Implement auto-gain and adaptive integration time for light sensors
  • Improvements:
  • Make firmware installer window appear faster by looking for serial devices in the background
  • Highlight Advanced settings button
  • Add URL for opening the gear icon menu directly: lunar://display/settings
  • Fixes:
  • Fix support for Adafruit Metro ESP32 S2
  • Fix some unexpected crashes
  • Keep Lunar Pro active when license fails verification with Paddle for the first few times

New in Lunar 4.6.5 (Jul 25, 2021)

  • Features:
  • lunar:// URLs for easy access to specific parts of the UI
  • Settings page: lunar://settings
  • Advanced Settings page: lunar://advanced
  • Hotkey page: lunar://hotkeys
  • Display page: lunar://displays
  • Specific display page: lunar://displays/:number (e.g. lunar://displays/3 for third display)
  • Fixes:
  • Fix Auto-learning for Location mode when the sun is below the horizon (negative degrees)
  • Fix silent automatic updates
  • Improvements:
  • Make the main window interaction smoother by removing unnecessary chart rendering
  • Make the paid updates message clearer when the free updates period expires

New in Lunar 4.6.3 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix Auto-learning Curve for Location and Sensor mode
  • Move some UI operations on the main thread to keep the window visually consistent
  • Check for possible clamshell mode while Sync Mode is adapting to avoid setting brightness to 0 before the IsLidClosed flag has been set

New in Lunar 4.6.2 (Jul 16, 2021)

  • Features:
  • Tutorial completed for DIY Wireless Ambient Light Sensor: https://lunar.fyi/sensor
  • Add option to apply volume 0 on pressing mute in Advanced settings
  • Some monitors don't accept the mute DDC control so this could be useful
  • Curve factors separated by display and mode
  • The curve factors are now found in the gear icon menu and are stored on a per-monitor and per-mode basis
  • If you set some curve factors while Lunar is in Sync Mode and then change to Location Mode for example, there will be different curve factor values
  • Improvements:
  • Re-apply brightness and contrast when the display control changes
  • Fixes:
  • Correctly turn on/off the refresh values thread when checking/unchecking "Refresh values from monitor settings"
  • Turn on Sync Mode correctly on Lunar launch

New in Lunar 4.6.1 (Jul 15, 2021)

  • Features:
  • Support for DIY Wireless Ambient Light Sensor
  • Tutorial on how to create your own sensor is almost done
  • Please check this page periodically for updates: https://lunar.fyi/sensor
  • Improvements:
  • Update Paddle framework which fixes the creation of the file default.profraw on every run of the CLI
  • Show current version under the Lunar logo in the main window
  • Fixes:
  • Fix crashes because of thread unsafe hotkeys cache
  • Fix crash because of accessing a nil variable
  • Fix brightness being set to max after sleep
  • Fix hotkey not being unregistered when clearing it using the x button

New in Lunar 4.5.5 (Jul 12, 2021)

  • Improvements:
  • Allow up to 3 input hotkeys per monitor
  • Improve AVService detection to allow even more monitors to be controlled through DDC on M1 Macs
  • Add configurable DDC Sleep Factor in Advanced Settings
  • Fixes:
  • Fix crashes because of thread unsafe settings cache
  • Remove scrolling from Quick Actions popover to fix all the disappearing issues
  • Fix name being set to "Unknown" in some cases
  • Fix "License Verification failed after 5 days" appearing incorrectly
  • Fix input hotkeys not working anymore after a while
  • Fix input dropdown not being updated with latest selected input by hotkey

New in Lunar 4.5.3 (Jul 8, 2021)

  • Improvements:
  • Disable Gamma by default in Hardware/Native/Network controls
  • Add checkbox to enable Gamma in non-Software controls
  • Improve Mac Mini HDMI port detection to allow USB-C-to-HDMI adapters to work with DDC on the USB-C port
  • Fixes:
  • Fix Boolean value handling in the CLI integration
  • Fix Quick Actions popover contents disappearing on some occasions

New in Lunar 4.5.1 (Jul 8, 2021)

  • Features:
  • Add a way to set default gamma values when using Hardware/Native/Network controls
  • DDC support for M1 Macs (beta):
  • Only possible because of the great advice and example code from Zhuowei Zhang and the amazing work of Davide Guerri and Tao J
  • Mac Mini HDMI still not working: Mac Mini Github issue
  • Improvements:
  • Add "Hide yellow dot" checkbox in Advanced settings
  • Reset DDC write/read faults when a successful read is detected to avoid the incorrect marking of monitors as Non-reponsive DDC
  • Fixes:
  • Fix license not being activated without an app restart
  • Fix Location Mode not fetching correct sunrise/sunset/noon when close to midnight
  • Don't reset ColorSync settings and hopefully respect calibration profiles in Gamma mode
  • Fix brightness flickering caused by Gamma controls kicking in faster than DDC/CoreDisplay/Network by adding a 5 second delay to the Gamma setter after:
  • App launch
  • System startup
  • Login
  • Wake from standby
  • Display connection/reconnection

New in Lunar 4.2.3 (Jun 23, 2021)

  • Fixes:
  • Shake window when trying to input an invalid field value
  • Revert all changes to a field when pressing escape
  • Pressing tab inside a field will commit the value
  • Show Lunar window on the screen where the cursor is
  • Hide yellow dot on operation end

New in Lunar 4.2.2 (Jun 22, 2021)

  • Fixes:
  • Make sure brightness/contrast is not changed automatically when it is marked as locked
  • Make gamma operation highlighter async to avoid blocking the UI on rare occasions

New in Lunar 4.2.1 (Jun 20, 2021)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix flicker because of switching to/from fullscreen apps
  • Fix app not responding on startup because of blocking the main thread too early in the startup process

New in Lunar 4.2.0 (Jun 17, 2021)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix curve factor going to 0.00 on some systems
  • Improvements:
  • Improve DDC framebuffer detection logic by using the private CGSServiceForDisplayNumber API
  • Add a way to enable verbose logging in Advanced settings
  • Set DDC back to responsive if any read/write succeeds

New in Lunar 4.1.4 (Jun 17, 2021)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix changing modes would not stop/start the Sync/Location/Sensor listeners
  • Improvements:
  • Show why Sync/Location/Sensor modes are disabled when Lunar Pro is not active
  • Add Join the community menu item

New in Lunar 4.1.2 (Jun 16, 2021)

  • Fixes:
  • Fix built-in display detection logic
  • Fix media key handler

New in Lunar 4.1.0 (Jun 16, 2021)

  • Features:
  • Make it possible to set Pro Display XDR and LG UltraFine monitors as source for Sync Mode
  • Improvements:
  • Show tooltips with the reason why a specific Mode is disabled when hovering on it
  • Allow controlling monitor with the cursor on it when Send Keys To All Monitors is unchecked
  • Add useful reset buttons in the gear icon menu
  • Reset Network Control for when the network controls aren't activated automatically because the system mDNS browser is stuck
  • Reset DDC for when DDC is deemed unresponsive because the system has reported the monitor as active when it was in fact inactive
  • Fixes:
  • Fix crashes because of gamma locking
  • More UI accesses moved to Main Thread
  • Fix display name edit not saving
  • Fix network controller reset on wake and display reconnect
  • Fix QuickActions floating window disappearing too quickly

New in Lunar 4.0.5 (Jun 1, 2021)

  • Improvements:
  • Add native support for old Apple Cinema and Cinema HD displays
  • Add Show Dock Icon option under Advanced settings
  • Fixes:
  • Ensure window is shown when launching Lunar while menubar icon is hidden
  • Fix crash on NetServiceBrowser reset
  • Fix crash because of settings observer being deallocated too soon