OK well after going back to my laptop's built in display I found out that
this was really a problem. On my external display, all of the ambient_factor etc. Settings are ignored. I can't figure out what's causing this problem. Anyone know?

EDIT: Never mind, i took some screeshots on both displays and I can't tell the difference. It must have to do with the way the display is set up. I guess I'll just have to calibrate it.
EDIT2: Screwing with the Color profile in System Prefs seems to have fixed the problem. Everything else looks a bit...odd though. I'll probably get used to it.