I have a jumpy, blinky Desktop wallpaper, but little else does that.

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I am not sure if this question belongs here, or in hardware, or in some other forum, but never mind, here it is:

When I look at the wallpaper of the Desktop, sweeping my gaze across it (I’ll try to put this in words, but is not easy, so I’ll use an imperfect metaphor) or at a few JPEG, GIF files’ images, but not most of the others, I see a series of little blinks, somehow as if the figures of people on the old master’s painting I use for wallpaper, for example, were making little jerky movements. It is something subtle, but noticeable.

When I look at a streaming video with a browser or play a video saved in the computer SSD, this does not happen. Including when I freeze the frame.

To me this means that the screen refresh rates for some image files, for example the Desktop wallpaper, or maybe the whole Desktop, is lower than that when using a browser or looking at a stored video. Or else there is something odd with my eyes in a way that is highly selective of what I have to be looking at for this to happen. I cannot discard this as a possibility, but rather doubt it.

Does anyone here has also noticed this and also knows what is the correct explanation for it?

Written in my signature panel beneath this and every other of my comments, is the description of the display and the computer. I wonder if this makes a significant difference with other modern high-resolution displays. But the phenomenon is limited to the Desktop GUI and some file images, so if the reason has to do with how this is displayed, then this is done differently from streaming or saved videos, or from the interfaces of some applications, such as text editors, that don’t blink.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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The interaction of images that have Moire patterns and monitor resolution and refresh rate can cause an illusion of motion or a migraine headache.

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OscarCP

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Anonymous : Thanks for the suggestion, but the picture I am using as wallpaper does not have a moire pattern.

However, it has the image of a sort of scallop shell with deep furrows that, I have discovered, by blocking it with my hand, the rest does not blink when I sweep my gaze across it (which still is most of the picture).

I am attaching below said picture, shell and all, to see if others experience the same optical illusion, or whatever it is, when sweeping the picture with their eyes from side to side.

Click on the picture, to see it in full-screen, and scan it with your eyes a few times, to experience the full effect:

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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I’ve downloaded the picture and looked at it in many different sizes and locations on my monitor. I don’t see any flickering. The fact that you don’t see flickering when you cover part of the picture suggests that the effect you see is an interplay between your eyes and how the portion of the picture you cover up is represented on your monitor.

Off the top of my head I can think of three situations where I have seen flickering.

1) Occasionally – primarily on a website – there are 2 portions of my screen that touch each other but that each contain a different link. If my cursor is positioned just right along the common border of the two screen portions, I see a flickering color or intensity change as the computer tries to “make up it’s mind” which portion to highlight.

2) Sometimes on TV an announcer is wearing a striped or plaid shirt, tie, blouse, etc, which creates a Moire-like pattern that appears to flicker because of the motion of the wearer (the stripes are making a changing angle with the rectangularly arranged screen pixels) and the refresh frequency of the TV screen.

3) Some people are very sensitive to the flicker of fluorescent lights. In the US the frequency is 60 Hz (cycles per second). Many people do not notice the flicker unless their line of sight is at a particular angle to the fluorescent bulb.

My guess is that there’s some kind of interplay between the curves of the scalloped shell and the refresh rate of your monitor. You might be able to change the amount or frequency of the flicker by changing the size or screen position of the picture, or the screen resolution, or some combination of the three.

Or find another wallpaper.

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OscarCP

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DrBonzo: I cannot change the size or move the wallpaper. Or I could change the size, but I like it filling the whole screen in the background. I can change the refresh rate of the Mac’s screen, I believe, but I am leery of fiddling with important things just for the sake of a minor matter. Changing the picture is possible, of course, except that I am very fond of this one, ever since I saw the real thing, many years ago, in Florence.

Nevertheless, I find this is a rather interesting topic to discuss, others might come attracted by the title, find it is not about their flickering problem, but then write about their problem here, etc., etc.

Rather more cheering than discussing the horrendous situation in the Ukraine, I would think.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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DrBonzo

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Hello OscarCP I have downloaded your image and did a few things with a photo editor to adjust the image. See if any or all of these adjustments make a difference.

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OscarCP

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Ce Arr: It still does blink a little, but much less and only after I have swept the image several times in quick succession. I thank you while wondering just what you did to it. That also could even be a clue as to what might be going on inside my own head!

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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OscarCP: I did quite a few things – very closely scanned the total image and noted several things that looked less than nice, particularly around all four edges; the left side is not good IMO. Question, “Where did this image come from?” If a download from the internet this could be the cause. I note many such images have a watermark on them. I adjusted the JPEG and Moire Artifact Removal settings as well as setting the Texture Preserving Smooth adjustment. To my old eyes the image is still not up to my standard of a reasonably good image. Can you flip the image both horizontally and vertically to see if the problem persists? If not I can do so for you. I’d be keen to know if the problem changes position. If so, I’d hazard a guess it is in the image itself.  If not then more investigation.  I’d like you to use the attached image from my setup and use it to see if it is OK. I’ve had this for many a year and it is A ok. Let me know how this works out. I’d also suggest you locate another new Botticelli image and try that. Keep away from Google pics, Apple etc. some of the images available from such are less than stellar. As a last resort I can source a nother image via my set up, clean it up and send it off to you. Sorry for the long drawn out reply. Cheers, Chris.

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Cee Arr: That is a magnificent picture of a waterfall!

Following your suggestion, I rotated twice mine by 90 degrees, and being able to see the “Birth of Venus” upside down caused much less blinking, that I’ve noticed. Maybe the novelty distracted me from looking at it in the usual way? Might this suggest that it is all in my mind?

About the left side: yes, it’s flaw is petty obvious, but, to me, does not feel too obtrusive. As to getting a better copy: I tried pretty hard and that was the best I could find, all the others were watermarked, or considerably inferior in definition, color balance, etc. I might give it another try and see if some better image of the same painting shows up.

It is also a photo of the picture after it was restored and cleaned up of layers of varnish gone gradually bad over the centuries, giving a greenish cast to it.

This is a work from the period when Botticelli was inspired by the surviving ancient works of Roman and Greek painters and was trying to understand and emulate their ideas of composition, that with the static balance of large figures suggested something perfect, unchanging, eternal. As this one certainly does.

He got plenty of grief from his contemporaries, that considered his paintings of that period too old-fashioned, without using the modern tricks of perspective, like the really serious painters were seriously into.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Hello again OscarCP.  We seem to be making some headway. Bah humbug to internet image downloads. Let me see what I can dig up at my end on a Windows computer.  If reasonably successful in my hunt I’ll edit the image as best as I can with my personal preferences.  Fingers crossed. BTW your image looks like it was copied from a framed copy – I ‘think’ I see part of the frame along some of the extreme edges. Be in touch again later.  Cheerio.

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OscarCP

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OscarCP.  Botticelli update. After scouring the internet I was unable to find a half reasonable image; all seem to come from the same source, which was Google Pics – correct me if I’m wrong.  All had the same image defects I noted on your image. So I went to the Uffizi Gallery and got a better, but not great image. I have attached the Uffizi image and my edit of same. Be aware my eyes, colour sense and computer screen will differ from yours and others.  I hope this has been of assistance. Cheers.

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Ce Arr: I found the Uffizi photo earlier today, and it did not look that great to me, in agreement with your own impression of it, although the faded color on the far left side was not there, proving that it is an artifact in my copy. As you wrote, most of the pictures one founds look much the same, with the same defect, so probably they are all copies of the same one, maybe the one in Wikipedia “The birth of Venus” article. It is the one I had in my desktop. At the foot of the full-screen picture, when one clicks on its thumbnail image on the right sidebar of the article, it reads:

“Adjusted levels from File:Sandro Botticelli – La nascita di Venere – Google Art Project.jpg, originally from Google Art Project. Compression Photoshop level 9.”

You have done a remarkable job with the Uffizi one. I have adjusted the colors more to the warm side of the spectrum, to get closer to those in the one I had until now and like, except for that defect. And with your adjustments now the wallpaper does not seem to blink much at all.

So I still have as wallpaper one that is justly famous among beautiful paintings, now free from annoying artifacts.

I thank you very much for your generous help.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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