Dim your second monitor for sim-racing immersion. Rig Visor is a SimHub plugin that lowers the backlight of a chosen monitor while you're on track, then restores it in the menus — and brings it back up when you actually move the mouse onto that screen, so you can still read or use it.
It controls the monitor's real backlight directly over DDC/CI (the same channel the monitor's own OSD buttons use), so it dims the actual panel — no software overlay, no washed-out black rectangle.
by DaniSim
Download the latest version · Changelog · Licence
- Dims your second monitor automatically while racing. When a session goes on track, your target monitor fades down to a configurable level. Back in the menu / garage / replay, it fades back to normal.
- Separate Day and Night profiles. Each has its own three brightness levels — not racing, racing (dim), and mouse-on-screen — so a dark room and a bright afternoon can look completely different. Night switches in automatically on a time window (default 19:00–07:00), or force it manually.
- Either profile can be switched off, locking Rig Visor to the other one full-time — e.g. "only dim at night," with normal brightness all day.
- Mouse-hover override, movement-based. Actually moving the mouse onto the dimmed screen brightens it; a pointer merely parked there (e.g. because it's your primary display) doesn't hold it bright. Leaves after a short debounce delay before re-dimming.
- Per-session control. Choose which session types trigger dimming: Race, Qualifying, Practice, Other/unknown.
- Smooth fades, not jarring jumps.
- Controller mapping built into the panel — bind a wheel button or switch without leaving Rig Visor's own UI, or use SimHub's Controls & Events the normal way. The same actions also show up in SimHub's Control mapper, so you can put them on a Stream Deck key instead of a wheel button.
- Checks for updates on start, and installs them with one click from the version badge — no manual file copying.
- Windows with SimHub installed.
- A monitor connected over HDMI or DisplayPort that supports DDC/CI.
- Most external monitors do (it may need enabling in the monitor's own OSD menu).
- Laptop internal screens do not support DDC/CI and cannot be dimmed this way.
- KVM switches, some docks, and cheap adapters can block the DDC/CI channel.
No .NET install needed — SimHub already ships the runtime this plugin uses.
- Download
RigVisor.dllfrom the latest release. - Close SimHub.
- Copy
RigVisor.dllinto your SimHub folder — the same folder asSimHubWPF.exe, normally:C:\Program Files (x86)\SimHub - Start SimHub. When it asks about the newly detected plugin, enable Rig Visor (or enable it later under Settings → Plugins).
- Open Rig Visor in the left menu (look for its monitor/brightness icon) to configure it.
After that first install, updates are one click from inside the plugin — you won't need to copy files again.
Windows may warn about an unrecognised publisher the first time. The plugin isn't code-signed; download it only from the releases page linked above.
- Enable Rig Visor — master on/off.
- Day profile / Night profile — each has:
- An Enable this profile checkbox — uncheck one to lock Rig Visor onto the other, full-time.
- Not racing — brightness in menus/replay/garage.
- Racing (dim) — brightness while on track.
- Mouse on screen — brightness while the mouse is actively moving over the target.
- Each slider has a small Test button that previews its value on the target monitor for a few seconds, so you can see the effect without launching a game.
- Day / Night — time window (default 19:00–07:00, editable), plus Profile: Auto / Day / Night buttons.
- Fades & timing — Fade time and Re-dim delay after mouse leaves.
- Dim during these sessions — Race / Qualifying / Practice / Other-unknown.
- Target monitor —
Autopicks a secondary DDC/CI screen automatically, or choose a specific monitor. The list shows each monitor's real model name (read from its EDID), native resolution, and whether it supports DDC/CI. - Status — live state, active profile, on-track/session info, current brightness, and which monitor is targeted.
- About — version and a Ko-fi link.
Leave Target monitor on Auto and it prefers a non-primary DDC/CI screen. If more than one screen is connected and only one supports DDC/CI, Auto uses it even if it's flagged primary — the "hold off" behaviour only applies on a genuine single-monitor desktop, so a lone screen never dims without you opting in. With multiple DDC/CI-capable aux monitors, Auto picks the smallest by resolution.
Next to the version number is a badge showing update status, checked once per SimHub start:
- Latest version (green) — you're up to date.
- New version available — click to install (amber) — downloads the new file and swaps it in.
- Updated to x.y.z — click to restart SimHub (green) — clicking closes SimHub and reopens it so the new version loads.
- Couldn't check for updates — click to retry (grey) — no connection, or GitHub was unreachable.
Map a controller button right inside the panel — click a row, then press the button or switch on your wheel/button box:
- Toggle on / off
- Turn on / Turn off
- Profile: Auto / Profile: Day / Profile: Night
- Profile: Cycle Auto → Day → Night — step through all three with a single button.
- Full brightness while held — a momentary "peek" button: hold to brighten, release to go back to automatic.
The same actions (plus a latching on/off switch input, for a physical toggle switch) are also available under SimHub's Controls & Events → Rig Visor, and in Control mapper for Stream Deck keys.
Live data you can drop into Dash Studio, overlays, or other plugins (under RigVisorPlugin.*):
| Property | Meaning |
|---|---|
State |
Current status text, e.g. "Racing – dimmed", "Hover", "Disabled" |
Enabled |
1 while enabled, 0 while disabled |
OnTrack |
True while actively on track |
SessionCategory |
Race / Qualifying / Practice / Other |
AppliedBrightness |
The brightness Rig Visor last set (0–100) |
CursorOverTarget |
True while the mouse is on the dimmed screen |
TargetMonitor |
The monitor Rig Visor is controlling |
ProfileDay / ProfileNight / ProfileAuto |
True for whichever profile mode is active |
Priority, highest first (levels come from whichever profile — Day or Night — is currently active):
- Disabled — master switch off; screen stays at normal brightness.
- Test dim — a slider's Test button is running.
- Full (held) — the "Full brightness while held" control is pressed.
- Hover — on track, that session type is enabled, and the mouse is actively moving on the target.
- Racing – dimmed — on track and that session type is enabled.
- On track (session off) — on track, but that session type is unchecked → normal brightness.
- Not racing — menus, replay, paused, or no game running → normal brightness.
- Nothing dims / "no DDC/CI" in the monitor list.
- Enable DDC/CI in the monitor's OSD menu (some ship with it off).
- Connect the monitor directly, bypassing KVMs/docks/adapters if possible.
- Confirm it's an external monitor (laptop panels won't work).
- The wrong screen dims. Set Target monitor explicitly instead of Auto.
- A slider doesn't seem to do anything. Check Status → Profile — only the active profile's sliders affect the screen live; the inactive one is edited for later.
- Want to see what it's doing. A log is written to:
Settings live next to it in
%LOCALAPPDATA%\RigVisor\RigVisor.logsettings.ini.
Rig Visor is free. If it makes your rig immersion better, you can leave a tip at ko-fi.com/danisim — there's a Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi button in the plugin's About section too. Entirely optional; nothing is locked behind it.
Bug reports and questions: open an issue.
Free to use, not open source. See LICENSE.md — in short: use it freely, don't modify, repackage or sell it.