Black screen and crash after launching a game with a shader preset (with long reference)

[Hari-82]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• This is a bug in RetroArch frontend
• I have searched the existing issues

Description

I’m on Windows, 1.22.2, I’m experiencing many black screens (+crash). It seems related to shaders in some weird ways.

I have core presets saved for most systems:

• load the game (with a core preset saved)-> black screen + crash
• delete the core preset file.
• load the game -> game loads.
• load the preset -> it works.
• save core preset then close the game.
• load the game again -> black screen + crash

this does not happen with all cores and all presets…

I tried to get a log but nothing gets saved on crash.

Another user said this:

I’m having similar black screen issues with some shader presets that use longer reference chains. I’m on version 1.22.0.

Edit: the issue is affecting glcore driver, and is solved if using vulkan driver.

I tried (I installed them on top of my install) nightly 2025-11-06 and it still has the issue, also the stable 1.22.0

Also, no useful information comes from logging.

Forum Reference

Expected behavior

Not to crash on launching a content.

Steps to reproduce the bug

I have core presets saved for most systems (long chain/references):

load the game (with a core preset saved)-> black screen + crash
delete the core preset file.
load the game -> game loads.
load the preset -> it works.
save core preset then close the game.
load the game again -> black screen + crash

Version/Commit

1.22.2

Bisect Results

No response

Present in the nightly version

Yes, this is reproduced in the nightly build

Platform & operating system

Windows 10

Affected Cores

No response

Environment information

No response

Relevant log output

[Starman99x]

I'm having the same issue as @Hari-82
I'm on RetroArch v1.22.0 / Windows 11.

The issue can be triggered with glcore driver and with a long slangp reference chain.

[LibretroAdmin]

Alright, we're going to postpone the release of the new stable until this issue is resolved

[white-axe]

Can you send a preset file that triggers this crash?

[Starman99x]

Can you send a preset file that triggers this crash?
@white-axe

I have a convoluted setup, but I prepared a single preset here that can help you trigger the bug.

Steps:

• First you'll need Duimon-koko-aio pack.
• Then download and extract my example, which includes Snes9x.slangp and Snes9x.cfg
• The other "params" folder is harmless but required to "prolong" the reference chain.
• Set the video driver to glcore.
• Launch a normal SNES game like Actraiser with Snes9x.
• Now the bug should be triggered, on my laptop with UHD 620, I don't get a "crash" but the screen goes black permanently until I restart. (RA v1.22.0).

Now try switching to vulkan, and you'll notice that it will work without issues.
Glcore used to work fine too before this bug.