Everyone drops $300+ on a keyboard before they ever touch their room's lighting — and it's backwards.

Here's the thing: your monitor is the brightest object in a dark room for hours a night. That contrast is what causes eye strain on long sessions, not just screen brightness. The fix streamers figured out years ago (bias lighting) works because it fills the space around the screen so your eyes aren't constantly adjusting between a bright rectangle and pitch black.

A few things I'd actually recommend if you're building out a setup:

• Put light behind/around your monitor, not just under your desk. Under-desk RGB looks cool on camera but does nothing for eye strain.

• Match color temp to your game, not just vibes. Cooler tones (blue/purple) read better for focus-heavy games, warmer ambient works better for chill/variety streams.

• Motion/ambient projection > static strips if you stream — it reads way better on camera and doesn't wash out your face like RGB strips can.

I started building room lighting products (Starlume) after getting tired of the cheap strip lights that either flicker on camera or die in 3 months. If you're curious what a proper galaxy projector setup looks like, happy to answer questions here — not trying to sell, genuinely nerd out about this stuff.