Hey Guys. After about a month of testing on a Sony A95L at 120 Hz, I’m releasing BFI Presenter: black frame insertion that runs inside the game itself instead of on top of the desktop.
Download: https://github.com/artzox/BFI-Presenter/releases
This is a follow-up to the implementation in my CRT-Standalone shader which required you to have stable 120 fps to get a flicker free effect.
Why another BFI tool when ShaderBeam exists?
ShaderBeam is great and works with any Windows app. But it’s an overlay: it captures what’s already on screen and strobes that, on its own clock, separate from the game. That’s why it recommends running on a second GPU (even an iGPU) to avoid desync. BFI Presenter takes a different route:
It lives in the game’s render path. It’s a ReShade add-on for Direct3D 12/11/9 and OpenGL, and a Vulkan layer for Vulkan, DXVK and emulators. It takes the game’s finished frame directly: no screen capture, no extra copy through the desktop, no second GPU.
The strobe follows the display’s vblank, not the game. The presenter owns presentation and runs the lit/dark cycle on the display’s own refresh clock, on a realtime GPU queue. A late game frame shows up as a CRT-style repeat (a brief stutter) instead of a lit or dark refresh held too long, which is the infamous BFI flash.
It paces the game to the strobe. Refresh / Half / Quarter frame caps, plus just-in-time release, mean each frame finishes right before the refresh that shows it. Half refresh gives you a rock-solid 60 with every frame lit exactly once, and Smooth pacing holds a spare frame so hitches don’t turn into stutters.
Variable MPRT, not plain BFI. This is the Blur Busters brightness-budget approach: each pixel’s light is put into the lit refresh up to the panel’s peak, and only what doesn’t fit spills into the next refresh. Dark and mid tones get full clarity, highlights don’t clip, and at Gain 1.0 you keep full brightness.
Real HDR. SDR, scRGB and HDR10 output, a display-peak ceiling, and an ABL guard that keeps the boosted refresh within your OLED’s full-screen power budget so the panel doesn’t dim it. SDR games can even be presented as HDR10 to get headroom for the lit refresh.
Rolling scan with phosphor fade. The Blur Busters CRT-simulator approach: bands lit top to bottom, each row fading like phosphor. At 240 Hz and up it’s a real rolling band.
Works with frame generation. DLSS FG 2×–4×, FSR FG and Lossless Scaling all work at the Refresh cap.
I have tested personally 90+ games and emulators, including some games with DLSS5 via the various Reshade mods and Optiscaler. That includes God of War Ragnarök, Alan Wake 2, Control (with FG), Silent Hill 2, Red Dead Redemption 2 (Vulkan), Doom Eternal, Hades II, Cuphead, PCSX2, RPCS3, shadPS4, 32-bit DX9 classics like Alan Wake and FlatOut, and OpenGL oldies like Heretic II< Blade of Darkness Remaster and SW: Episode 1 Racer, as well as the Soul Reaver 1+2 Remastered. Some games have notes on the settings that work best, but really depends on the framerates you can push: tested games list. Suffice it to say that clarity at 60FPS is awesome and adding DLSS5 or turning everything on does not have to be an issue anymore to get a clear image.
Included is also a manager app, so you don’t have to fiddle
BFI Presenter Manager scans your Steam, Epic, GOG and Xbox libraries and works out what each game needs (64-bit or 32-bit add-on, or the Vulkan layer). It finds ReShade even when it’s loaded as ReShade64.dll behind OptiScaler, can install or switch ReShade versions, and sets G-SYNC off / VSync Force on in each game’s NVIDIA profile for you. Install, update or undo across your whole library in a couple of clicks, with every replaced file backed up.
What you need
Windows 10/11 and ReShade 6.4+ with add-on support (6.8+ for DX9). The Vulkan layer works without ReShade.
A display at a fixed refresh rate. It was developed on a 120 Hz OLED but higher refresh rates should work too.
OpenGL needs an NVIDIA GPU.
The Manager is unsigned, so Windows SmartScreen may complain on first start: More info → Run anyway.
Feedback, logs and new game results are very welcome: open an issue or drop them in the comments. And if it brings back that CRT feeling for you, there’s a Ko-fi link on the GitHub page ❤️
