Blight Presets Shader Pack

RetroArch Additions Shaders
#1

Notice: to center everything in a single post, I removed previous entries, but older presets are still available in the download links at the bottom of this post, if you don’t like what comes with the current collection.

Blight Redux

This is my current work, comprised only of presets made from (old) crt-hyllian. It uses the malleability of that shader to achieve a bunch of different looks.

0. Sample Screenshots





1. Overview

The Blight Redux Presets are a small, self-contained pack of shaders, LUTs and presets for usage within RetroArch. They are intended to provide a general simulation of a CRT television picture, without any specific model in mind, and taking a few liberties regarding accuracy; basically, it aims to capture the spirit (colors, contrast, beam dynamics and masks) of those old screens, not sheer technicality. Although lacking in complexity, this approach has its upsides: practicality and ease of use, by having just a few key presets from which to choose; being quite light on computational resources; and not requiring a high value of brightness or HDR technology from the user’s screen. Hardware-wise, any integrated GPU from early 2020s (maybe less) and an average monitor or television at 50% bright level should be enough to satisfactorily run these presets. In spite of everything, accuracy was still considered and pursued, but within the given constraints. This pack is built upon:

  • An older version of crt-hyllian, trading features for simplicity and speed.
  • An abridged version of the old ntsc-adaptive shader, for basic NTSC simulation.
  • P22-80s and P22-90s phosphor LUTs, for fast and precise color correction.

None of those are works of mine, as I only built the presets and the pack itself. Please, refer to section 5.Credits And Permissions for proper information on the coders who actually made this effort possible.

2. Download and Installation

  • First, get the latest release on this weblink: https://files.catbox.moe/38n65w.zip (last updated in 2025-09-16)

  • After unpacking the corresponding zip package, there will be a folder named “blight-redux” followed by the pack version. Just put this folder anywhere you want, as long as RetroArch can access it. As a suggestion, you can put it in the root of your main shader directory (retroarch/shaders), but it’s entirely optional.

  • Blight Redux is self-contained, so there is no need to have specific shader versions or paths to follow. Everything you need is already inside the aforementioned folder and preconfigured.

3. Presets

In the pack, you will find the following presets, named as such: (numeration is not sequential)

  • Preset #01: 01-hyllian-240p.slangp

    • Used for games which have a vertical resolution of about 240p.
    • Mainly consoles from the 80s and 90s, 2D arcade games and handhelds from mid 2000s.
    • Examples: Atari 2600, NES, Master System, Sega Genesis (Mega Drive), Super Nintendo, PlayStation, Saturn, Virtual Boy, Nintendo 64, PlayStation Portable (PSP).

  • Preset #02: 02-hyllian-480p.slangp

    • Used for games which have a vertical resolution of about 480p.
    • Mainly 3D consoles from late 1990s and early 2000s.
    • Examples: Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, GameCube.

  • Preset #03: 03-hyllian-handheld.slangp

    • Used for games which have a vertical resolution below 200p.
    • Mainly handhelds from the 1980s to early 2000s.
    • Examples: Game Boy, Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, Wonderswan, Game Boy Advance.

  • Preset #04: 04-hyllian-vga.slangp

    • Used for home computer games from mid 1980s to mid 1990s.
    • Examples: MS-DOS, Commodore Amiga, Sharp X68000.

  • Preset #10: 10-hyllian-ntsc-240p.slangp

    • Same usage as Preset #01.
    • Added NTSC effects to simulate the picture from a consumer CRT television with composite cables.
    • Ideal for better pixel blending or nostalgia factor.

  • Preset #11: 11-hyllian-ntsc-480p.slangp

    • Same usage as Preset #02.
    • Added NTSC effects to simulate the picture from a consumer CRT television with composite cables.
    • Ideal for better pixel blending or nostalgia factor.

  • Preset #20: 20-hyllian-480p-nomoire.slangp

    • Same usage as Preset #02.
    • No scanline gaps present, worse colors.
    • Useful if you’re dissatisfied with moiré artifacts from Preset #02.

  • Preset #21: 21-hyllian-ntsc-480p-nomoire.slangp

    • Same usage as Preset #11.
    • No scanline gaps present, worse colors.
    • Useful if you’re dissatisfied with moiré artifacts from Preset #11.

4. Screen Resolution And Masks

Although Blight Redux can be used with any screen resolution starting at 720p, CRT mask simulation defaults to a value better suited for 1080p/1440p displays, for they are really common at the time of the making of this work. If the hardware you currently have deals with a different resolution, then follow these instructions to change how the presets behave.

  1. Load your desired preset, as you would normally;

  2. Bring up RetroArch’s main menu again;

  3. Go into Quick Menu > Shaders > Shader Parameters;

  4. Locate the entry named PHOSPHOR LAYOUT [1-6 Aperture, 7-10 Shadow];

  5. Change its value according to the pixel resolution of your screen:

    5.1. For 720p, 768p or 900p, use phosphor layout 1;
    5.2. For 1080p or 1440p, use phosphor layout 2 (default);
    5.3. For 4K or higher, use phosphor layout 4 or 6;

  6. Specifically with the preset #04 (vga):

    6.1. For 720p, 768p, 900p or 1080p, use phosphor layout 7 (default);
    6.2. For 1440p, use phosphor layout 8;
    6.3. For 4K or higher, use phosphor layout 9 or 10;

  7. After making the desired change, you can save the results by going into Quick Menu > Shaders > Save Preset and choosing the desired saving option (global, per core, per directory, per game).

5. Credits And Permissions

Blight Redux was built entirely on the work and brilliance of the following people:

  • Hyllian (creator of crt-hyllian)
  • Patchy (creator of the P22 LUTs used herein)
  • Themaister (original coder of the NTSC simulation shader, modified by Hyllian)

From my part, you are allowed to use this pack however you wish, as long as it is for non-commercial purposes. Note, however, that I cannot speak for the authors mentioned above, so be sure to contact them beforehand if you have any questions about their stance.

6. Thank You, Thank You

  • Hyllian, Patchy and Themaister, for providing the framework for Blight Redux, and for their own amazing individual output;
  • Guest, for his forefront work in shader development, help and inspiration;
  • hunterk, for his many (many) years working in shader porting and maintenance, plus general support across multiple official channels;
  • All shader presets creators, for their work in providing out-of-the-box decent solutions;
  • All of the LibRetro Team (past and present), for dedicating their free time to create and perfect one of the best retrogaming experience ever made;
  • All open-source emulator developers, for creating the foundation of this hobby and ensuring it can be enjoyed by everyone, for many more years after the original consoles’ demise.
  • YOU, for taking your time to check out my work.

Download Links for the Older Presets

16 Likes
#7

This seems pretty special right out the gate, I took 5-Old Tube from Redux, prepended it with Cheap Sharpen, and with absolutely zero tweaking it looks really accurate.

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image1920×1080 587 KB

Some people might like to turn the Aperture Grille to 2 to make it more apparent:

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image1920×1080 594 KB

But yeah if it were me, I’d say prepend the NTSC shaders with Cheap Sharpen and it’s too bad these aren’t incuded with RetroArch.

RetroArch really needs an easy to select, sharp NTSC shader out the gate.

3 Likes
#8

You can try the “Blargg_NTSC_SNES_Custom_pseudo_xxx…” video filter presets in Settings–»Video–»Filters.

For even more of them you can try my CyberLab Custom Blargg NTSC Video Filter Presets.

They can be combined with most if not any Shader but they don’t work with every core out there.

2 Likes
#9

Thanks for the feedback! The Redux version uses Hyllian’s amazing work. It’s the most accurate CRT rendition among the lightweight shaders. Many people slept on his work. Another good one is CRT Consumer, by DariusG, but I don’t include it for it’s a bit heavier than the scope of my packs.

1 Like
#10

I have an absolute monster of a PC, so I don’t mind using heavy shaders at all…but it’s kinda nice having Comma not freeze the game for half a second. lol

I was using CRT Royale + GDV’s Adaptive Sharpen until the CRT Beam Simulator came out and didn’t work as a prepend with Royale’s hardware scaler. So I checked out Hyllian and I agree it’s really nice. I almost stuck to it for my presets and I think that screenshot above is evidence of its value. I’m so sorry to hear people slept on his work.

If I could take a good picture of what my Sony Vega looks like with that same game to show you how close it is, it’s almost as if the screenshot was from when the TV was new 20ish years ago.

1 Like
#11

I stick to lightweight shaders because there are too many presets for more capable machines. And even if I wanted to make those, there are far more skilled preset makers already.

Up until ten years ago, I had only the most basic PCs, so everything I played was thanks to developers paying attention to less fortunate people. Thus, I kinda want to give something back, curating and tweaking lighter shaders that still look pretty, so the majority of users can enjoy it, even if their hardware is lacking.

3 Likes
#12

I updated RetroArch’s Assets and is it me or do your Hyllian presets not load anymore? :o

#13

That shouldn’t be the case, as the presets are self-contained. Everything they need is inside their own folder, and they don’t look for any file inside the main shader directory. I did it like that precisely because most of the shaders I use are older versions, which do not belong in RetroArch anymore.

Granted, there’s always the possibility I did some blunder, so please check the logs for some error and paste here. You could also download the pack again and extract to a separate folder, to ensure no conflict happens.

1 Like
#14

Oh, I see what happened. I got switched off of Vulkan to d3d11 cause sporadically Vulkan will start crashing until I switch to d3d11 for a little bit. So weird…but yeah, that’s all. My default shaders happen to still work in d3d11 so I didn’t notice.

2 Likes
#15

Good to know you figured it out. Unfortunately, I don’t use Windows, so I can only test my shaders in Vulkan and OpenGL (glcore driver). If you encounter any further errors that I might help you with, let me know.

2 Likes
#16

Shader pack updated. I edited the main post with the pertinent information. Hope you all like it. Thanks for coming by.

2 Likes
#17

Hi, can you try uploading to a different site? link don’t work for me,thanks

#18

Sure. I created this temporary link: https://limewire.com/d/OFOIS#Jxu7mtzwAF

See if it works for you. If not, I’ll try somewhere else.

#19

it’s working , thanks

1 Like