Flicker Styles Guide

What Is Blade Flicker?

When your saber is ignited and you are simply holding it still, the blade is not supposed to look like a flat, dead bar of light. It flickers. That subtle shimmer, pulse, drift, or crackle is what makes the blade feel alive.

The Crystal Focus X gives you a lot of control over this blade behavior while the saber is ignited. You can keep it subtle and cinematic, make it unstable and electric, or turn it into a full animated fire effect.

Two Flicker Systems

The CFX uses two separate flicker systems:

These systems can work together. Spatial styles 1 through 5 blend a kcolor flicker color over the blade, while Style 0 relies on the underlying brightness flicker from the legacy engine.

Spatial Flicker Styles

Choosing a Style

Set the flicker style in your blade profile in config.txt:

style_flicker=N

The Flicker Color

Styles 1 through 5 use a separate flicker color called kcolor. This is defined in colors.txt inside the active [color=N] section:

[color=1]
blade=0,0,255
kcolor=100,0,200

In this example, the blade is blue and the flicker color is purple. When flicker is applied, purple gets blended over the blue according to the chosen style and settings.

If no kcolor is set, the flicker color defaults to black. That means styles 1 through 5 will mostly dim the blade rather than tint it with a visible second color.

Flicker Parameters

These settings belong in your blade profile in config.txt.

force_flicker=N — How Often the Flicker Fires

Range: 0–255
Default: 0

This controls how often the flicker effect is applied. Each frame, the CFX rolls a random number from 0 to 255. If that roll is less than or equal to force_flicker, flicker is applied.

• force_flicker=255 gives constant flicker
• force_flicker=128 gives flicker roughly half the time
• force_flicker=30 gives occasional flicker
• force_flicker=0 disables styles 1 through 4 visually

Note: Style 0 and Style 5 behave differently. Legacy always runs through the old engine, while Fire uses force_flicker as part of its direction and speed control.

depth_flicker=N — How Strong the Color Blend Is

Range: 0–255
Default: 0

This controls how strongly kcolor is mixed into the blade color.

• depth_flicker=0 means no visible color blend
• depth_flicker=128 gives a medium visible mix
• depth_flicker=255 allows pixels to shift fully to the flicker color at maximum intensity

size_flicker=N — Spatial Focus Area

Range: 0–65535
Default: 0

When this is greater than 0, the flicker can be concentrated into a localized zone instead of affecting the whole blade evenly. The zone is shaped like a soft bump centered at pos_flicker.

pos_flicker=N — Center of the Flicker Zone

Range: 0–255
Default: 0

This sets where the localized flicker zone is centered.

• pos_flicker=0 centers it near the emitter
• pos_flicker=128 centers it near the middle
• pos_flicker=255 centers it near the tip

mapping_flicker=N — Dynamic Control Source

Range: 0–4
Default: 0

refreshfx=N — FX Update Rate

Default: 12

This controls how frequently strip effects refresh. Lower values make the animation update faster and feel smoother. Higher values slow the updates down.

The Fire Style In Detail

Style 5 is special because its parameters behave differently from the other flicker styles. It is a heat simulation rather than a simple random shimmer.

Example: Classic Upward Fire

style_flicker=5
force_flicker=180
size_flicker=40
pos_flicker=0
kcolor=255,80,0

Example: Reverse Fire

style_flicker=5
force_flicker=80
size_flicker=30
pos_flicker=255
kcolor=200,50,0

Legacy Flicker Settings

These settings control the original brightness-based flicker engine. They apply to all blade types, including tri-Cree and pixel blades. On pixel blades, they form the base behavior used by Style 0.

These also belong in config.txt under [profile=N], with optional font overrides in font_config.txt.

flks=N — Flicker Speed

Default: 6

This controls how often the brightness flicker updates. Lower values mean faster flickering.

flkd=N — Flicker Depth

Default: 0

This is the maximum percentage of brightness reduction during a flicker event.

flkon=N — Flicker During Power On

Values: 0 or 1
Default: 1

When enabled, the blade flickers during ignition. Set it to 0 if you want a cleaner, steadier power-on.

flkoff=N — Flicker During Power Off

Values: 0 or 1
Default: 1

When enabled, the blade flickers during retraction. Set it to 0 if you want a clean shutdown look.

tridentflk=N — Trident Channel Flicker Depth

Default: 0

This is only relevant for tri-Cree blades using Trident channel configurations. It works like flkd, but only for the delayed Trident channels.

Pulse Effect

The pulse effect is a slow rhythmic brightness oscillation layered on top of normal flicker. It makes the blade feel like it is breathing.

pulsed=N — Pulse Depth

Default: 0

This is the percentage of brightness reduction at the bottom of the pulse cycle.

pulsel=N — Pulse Duration

Default: 0

This is the duration of one half-cycle of the pulse in milliseconds. Lower values pulse faster.

Note: Both pulsed and pulsel must be non-zero for the pulse effect to be visible.

Putting It All Together

Where Settings Go

Font override: Any setting that normally lives in config.txt can also be placed in a font's font_config.txt. When that font is active, the font-level value overrides the default profile value.

Example: Subtle Movie-Style Flicker

; In config.txt [profile=1]
style_flicker=2
mapping_flicker=1
force_flicker=200
depth_flicker=80
size_flicker=120

; In colors.txt [color=1]
blade=0,0,255
kcolor=40,0,255

Example: Organic Brown Noise Shimmer

; In config.txt [profile=1]
style_flicker=3
mapping_flicker=0
force_flicker=220
depth_flicker=100

; In colors.txt [color=1]
blade=255,0,0
kcolor=255,100,0

Example: Electric Crackling

; In config.txt [profile=1]
style_flicker=4
mapping_flicker=0
force_flicker=255
depth_flicker=150

; In colors.txt [color=1]
blade=255,255,255
kcolor=100,100,255

Example: Tilt-Reactive Bicolor

; In config.txt [profile=1]
style_flicker=1
mapping_flicker=2
force_flicker=255

; In colors.txt [color=1]
blade=0,255,0
kcolor=0,100,255

Example: Breathing Blade with Flicker

; In config.txt [profile=1]
style_flicker=0
flkd=15
flks=6
pulsed=20
pulsel=2000

Quick Reference

Crystal Focus X firmware guide · Flicker Styles