The right computer monitor for dark games

[Jakob Rosenblatt]

A lot can also be done setting up Gamma, Brightness and Contrast correctly (in both gfx card and monitor settings).

I spend a lot of time on finding the "right" settings. I have even got a large number of different profiles for different dark games (like "Call of Cthulhu", "Penumbra", "Doom 3", "Pathologic" etc.) and films (like "Alien").

I became quite obsessed with it...

It is also worth setting up the gaming environment properly, for instance on my old monitor I put duct tape on some lamps to decrease their glare.

Sounds familiar to me. I have a set up for my computer mouse that shields the light from the diode...

The screen of the monitor itself might also play a large difference.

This is the point of my question. Whatever I do: The problem is that the screen itself (and I tried 3 different monitors) isn't totally black, it is "grayish". And this is of course most visible if viewed in total darkness. Therefore I am in search for a monitor, that is able to display real "black" in a dark room.
It has something to do with "background brightness" and the "black level".

There is so much to visual perception going on that one has to take lots of factors into account.

Yes, it even depends on the gaming environment itself. For example take "Penumbra". Some settings work very good if the glow stick is on, because there is a high contrast between the glowing light of the stick and the surrounding area. The surrounding area is divided into two parts: 1.) The part illuminated by the glow stick. 2.) The part not illuminated by the glow stick. This part seems totally black.
But if I turn the stick off, the not illuminated area doesn't seem as dark as before, it is in fact "grayish", because there is no high contrast anymore.

And this is only one detail. It seems to be a very complex problem.