Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

8bit graphics on a 6bit LCD

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.

S4WRXTTCS

Well-Known Member
May 3, 2015
6,892
8,503
Snohomish, WA
I don't know if this has been discussed before, but I absolutely detest the day time background on the Instrument panel. Instead of being a nice smooth grey gradient it's bumpy and horrible looking. I can't keep from noticing it on the V7 UI especially on the side with the energy meter.

To me it clearly looks like a gradient shade that's meant for LCD's with 8bits per color (256 shades of grey), but it's being displayed on an LCD that appears to be 6bits per color (64 shades of grey). The result is it looks fugly.
 
I don't know if this has been discussed before, but I absolutely detest the day time background on the Instrument panel. Instead of being a nice smooth grey gradient it's bumpy and horrible looking. I can't keep from noticing it on the V7 UI especially on the side with the energy meter.

To me it clearly looks like a gradient shade that's meant for LCD's with 8bits per color (256 shades of grey), but it's being displayed on an LCD that appears to be 6bits per color (64 shades of grey). The result is it looks fugly.

Totally agree. It appears as if the designers added noise dithering to the background in order to make the gradations "smoother". Instead, they make the background look like a really bad JPEG. Do you have one of the older IC displays or the higher pixel density display that was introduced in late 2013 or early 2014? I suspect it may look cleaner on the higher DPI display.
 
Totally agree. It appears as if the designers added noise dithering to the background in order to make the gradations "smoother". Instead, they make the background look like a really bad JPEG. Do you have one of the older IC displays or the higher pixel density display that was introduced in late 2013 or early 2014? I suspect it may look cleaner on the higher DPI display.

I have a May of 2015 vehicle, and I can't imagine it looking any worse than it does on my vehicle.

In terms of DPI, brightness, and overall clarity I'm happy with the IC display. Sure the black level could be a bit more black, but it's not like it's an OLED.

I can understand why they used a 6bit LCD, but I don't think the graphics designer realizes it's a 6bit display. Sure they're are tricks like dithering, but it would be best if they just designed the background using the same palette that the LCD can support.
 
Now you've made me aware of it :(

What's strange is that the dithering is'nt across the whole background.

Around the PRND indicator text it a smooth gray as it is around the battery charge indicator. I also think the car profile when it is off is also bad.

Mine is original display but it sounds like S4WRXTTCS has the newer display, so they just have screwed something up.
 
So Tesla has interns working on the UI or something? Seriously... As a Creative Director I was busy creating some spectacular 3D UIs back in the mid to late 90s. Even back then, if I had created something like this, I probably would have been fired or severely reprimanded.
 
This is not as bad as the "gradient" for the music controls on the 17" when in night mode and the screen is dimmed (I keep mine at 15% at night). The "gradient" looks more like 3 bands of 3 different shades of gray instead of a gradient.

FWIW, the 6.x UI had the same dithered grey background on the instrument cluster. It just wasn't as obvious as it is now. It annoyed me then too.
 
Do we have to keep going back to the intern thing? Some of the interns I've worked with ran rings around the old timers (me included).

I agree with this. Also weren't some people complaining that an intern did the v7 UI, and that an intern did the AP, and then EM stated that they have something in the order of 50 people working on the UI and 140 on AP... nope, not an intern.
 
I agree with this. Also weren't some people complaining that an intern did the v7 UI, and that an intern did the AP, and then EM stated that they have something in the order of 50 people working on the UI and 140 on AP... nope, not an intern.

My comment regarding "intern" is not meant as a slam against the UI team, but simply a statement that what a designer learns in school may not necessarily translate well into the real world. Many aspects of design require actual experience versus simply an education about the theoreticals. I had to deal with this a lot when subcontracting to designers. When looking at portfolios, you could very easily separate the students from the ones with real-world experience.
 
Oddly, I thought the texture looked really nice. I have the original low-res. cluster. I'll look again tonight, but definitely recall being impressed they didn't use a standard boring gradient.

Also, you'll note the areas that are flat and un-textured are the indicator light locations, which I thought was an interesting choice.