It is expected that in the remainder of this week or the next, Opera Software will release a new update to its web browser, but while it does and doesn’t… why not introduce a new and exciting feature, introduced in the version which is about to be replaced? Stranger things have happened.
The normal thing would be that they would have waited to publish Opera 94, the version based on Chromium 108 with which the launch cycle of derivatives of the browser that will be released this year will be completed. However, the Norwegian company goes its own way for better and -unfortunately, more than desirable in recent years- for worse and here is Lucid Mod, ready to light up your Christmas, if you are an Opera user.
As presented, this Lucid Mode or lucid mode “is a video sharpening feature that helps make your playback experience more enjoyable. It’s like having a crystal clear window into your favorite shows and movies. No more pixelated faces or blurry images!» It works on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter…
As it happens with the floating video, the lucid mode button will appear next to it, when hovering over almost any playing or paused video, although it is always disabled by default. And better this way, because even when the lucid mode is noticeable in all the videos and there are some in which it is quite noticeable, it can have a pernicious effect. Or that is my opinion after testing it with videos of different types.
Basically, this lucid mode that Opera launches increases the sharpness of the videos slightly increasing the brightness and not so slightly the contrastso if you understand these concepts even a little, you can already imagine where the problem is: at first, everything looks clearer, yes, but a few seconds later you will start to see the seams of everything, even recordings of the highest quality.
The worst thing is that when you deactivate the lucid mode when you realize that it was not necessary or that it has messed up the display of something, the content that looked good before, will now be blurred, or that is the feeling that it will give you to the user. less during the first seconds, precisely because of the difference in contrast between one mode and another. Namely, use it with caution, if at allbecause it is dangerous.
What is this Lucid Mode, technically speaking? It is a CSS filter that is applied to video and image elements and that Opera has implemented so that it works at the click of a button. On most systems, the filter will also work on top of hardware acceleration, if it’s available, but it will work anyway. If you want to try it, you already know, in Opera 93 you have it.
