Background Blur Improved

A mod for Hollow Knight: Silksong that improves the quality of the blurred background, and allows some customizations.

Features

The game natively renders the background at a fixed 360p resolution. While this isn't very obvious because of the blur effect applied on top, it is noticeable and distracting when in motion, it appear flickery, as can be seen below:

Before:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/83eef05f-16b2-497f-8402-fe771f915fc8

After:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/aebc2904-8367-448e-a53f-d6d412184327

Image comparison:

https://imgsli.com/NDIyNDYx/0/2

This mod allows adjusting the blur effect by:

• increasing the resolution
• increasing the intensity
• disable the effect completely

Installation

The Simple Way

Use r2modman or Gale.

Manual

1. Download BepInExPack Silksong and extract it to the game folder, next to the game executable
2. Download BepinExConfigurationManager
3. Download and extract it inside of <game folder>/BepInEx/plugins
4. • (Windows) Run the game normally
   • (Linux/MacOS) Run run_bepinex.sh

Configuration

Use BepinExConfigurationManager (open with F1 by default) to adjust the parameters in realtime, or edit the com.alexkiri.silksong.blurimproved.cfg file inside <game folder>/BepInEx/config,

Using a combination of these parameters can make the game look the same, but completely remove the distracting flickering.

• RenderTextureHeight
  • increases the resolution of the render target that displays the effect
  • improves the quality
  • lowers the blur intensity
  • has low impact on performance
• PassGroupCount
  • increases the number of passes of the blur effect
  • can increase intensity of the effect
  • has a medium / heavy impact on performance, values > 10 are not recommended
• EnableEffect
  • disables the blur effect completely
• Apply Presets
  • allows applying present from the UI (BepinExConfigurationManager only)

TODO

• Add controls to the the game's main menu
• Update the background drawing logic to allow multiple background layers blurred at different intensities

Changelog

Version 0.8.1

• Adjust enum names to look slightly better with ModMenu

Version 0.8.0

• Add ModMenu, remove BepInExConfigurationManager thunderstore dependencies
• Adjust descriptions to better fit on screen
• Adjust settings to properly reload when using ModMenu

Version 0.7.8

• Added more BlurHeight options for more granular control

Version 0.7.7

• Add ability to change the Bloom effect settings
• Reorganize settings menu

Version 0.7.6

• Readme update, add url, small code cleanup, hot reload fix

Version 0.7.5

• Rename / move some files, prepare for Thunderstore publish

Version 0.7.4

• Reorganize ConfigEntry logic in order to work better with hot reload
• Update to Silksong.Modding.Templates version 2.0.0

Version 0.7.3

• Remove the "Blur Quality" setting from the video options menu screen
• Bump dependencies

Version 0.7.2

• Properly apply the settings even when the "Blur Quality" setting from the video menu screen is set to low

Version 0.7.1

• Icon update
• Set AcceptableValueRange to (1, 32), the old value is extreme and just wastes performance

Version 0.7.0

• Initial public release
• ArchiveContent csproj setting, setup deployment for thunderstore
• Add presets as Buttons, code cleanup, reduce number of options
• Readme update

Version 0.6.0

• Code cleanup, renaming, refactoring, documentation & preparation for deployment

Version 0.5.0

• Logic to allow disabling the effect

Version 0.4.0

• Add PassGroupCount as configurable entry. Logic to properly reload and setup initial values

Version 0.3.0

• Add logic to update when changing setting

Version 0.2.0

• Configurable resolution

Version 0.1.0

• Project setup using Silksong modding template
• Barebone version that actually works