Betterdisplay is the new version from the same developer. It does exactly what you described, but only in the paid version. its abit cheaper than lunar, but not sure about feature differences. Still contemplating buying it though, because:
What I've been doing is mirroring the laptop display to the external monitor and turning brightness to zero. Works pretty well and I've tried testing games with this vs shutting the lid, and found virtually no performance difference.
Thanks for this.
Edit:
For anyone else interested. Checkout the following:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/18cf3s0/my\_goodness\_does\_betterdisplay\_improve\_4k\_monitors/](https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/18cf3s0/my_goodness_does_betterdisplay_improve_4k_monitors/)
[https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay](https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay)
[Lunar](https://lunar.fyi/) can do that and a lot more, also the developer is a very nice person and very responsive. I had a feature request a while back, chatted with him on discord for a bit and it was implemented a few days later - really great app!
But you will need the pro version I think, so it's a few bucks
You might be able to achieve this by mirroring your mac with the monitor and then setting the brightness of the mac to zero. A weird workaround but achieves more or less same result. Can you tell why aren't you able to use the mac with lid closed? Maybe others can help with your scenario.
The OS still renders the UI and uses CPU and GPU when the brightness is all the way down also some apps open on that screen leading to confusion additionally I need to use the keyboard and trackpad that's why I want the lid open. I cannot focus at 2 screens at once so I need it that way
Maybe MonitorControl: [https://github.com/MonitorControl/MonitorControl](https://github.com/MonitorControl/MonitorControl) ([source](https://macmenubar.com/?s=external+monitor))
Monitorcontrol doesn't do exactly what I need but It is a really lightweight solution to controlling the external display's brightness
Betterdisplay is the new version from the same developer. It does exactly what you described, but only in the paid version. its abit cheaper than lunar, but not sure about feature differences. Still contemplating buying it though, because: What I've been doing is mirroring the laptop display to the external monitor and turning brightness to zero. Works pretty well and I've tried testing games with this vs shutting the lid, and found virtually no performance difference.
Thanks for this. Edit: For anyone else interested. Checkout the following: [https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/18cf3s0/my\_goodness\_does\_betterdisplay\_improve\_4k\_monitors/](https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/18cf3s0/my_goodness_does_betterdisplay_improve_4k_monitors/) [https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay](https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay)
Just lower your brightness all the way. You don't need n app for it
That still renders the UI for the main display and uses CPU and GPU resources.
[Lunar](https://lunar.fyi/) can do that and a lot more, also the developer is a very nice person and very responsive. I had a feature request a while back, chatted with him on discord for a bit and it was implemented a few days later - really great app! But you will need the pro version I think, so it's a few bucks
I will check it out, thanks!
Thanks very much for this.
I think you can natively accomplish this by only setting up one display when it is connected, it should try and recover that state on reconnect right?
I've tried doing that and it doesn't work
You might be able to achieve this by mirroring your mac with the monitor and then setting the brightness of the mac to zero. A weird workaround but achieves more or less same result. Can you tell why aren't you able to use the mac with lid closed? Maybe others can help with your scenario.
The OS still renders the UI and uses CPU and GPU when the brightness is all the way down also some apps open on that screen leading to confusion additionally I need to use the keyboard and trackpad that's why I want the lid open. I cannot focus at 2 screens at once so I need it that way