Light the Lamp Lighting the lamp…

Free shadNet server · Fear the old blood

Join the hunt. Play shadPS4 online.

Light the Lamp is a free community shadNet server for shadPS4, the PS4 emulator for Windows, Linux and macOS. One account gives you online leaderboards, trophies, friends and matchmaking in the games that support them. Signing up takes a minute, and our setup file connects shadPS4 for you.

Game server play.light-the-lamp.com:31313
Web API http://play.light-the-lamp.com:31315

Become a hunter Create an account

3–16 characters: letters, numbers, - and _. Other players see this name.

Only the server owner can see it. One account per email address.

Use a password you don't use anywhere else. shadPS4 saves it as plain text on your PC.

The hunt Players on this server

Hunters abroad online now –
Tonight's peak last 24 hours –
Greatest hunt all-time peak –
Sworn hunters accounts – bound to this server

Hunters over time

Show as a table
TimePeakAverage

Now hunting in Playing now

    No hunters abroad tonight. Nobody is in a game right now.

    Enter the dream Connect shadPS4 to this server

    Automatic setup

    Download the setup file for your computer and run it. It finds shadPS4, backs up its settings and makes the changes below for you. If shadPS4 isn't installed yet, it can download the latest official release from GitHub, check it and set it up for you.

    • Windows: double-click shadnet-setup.cmd. If Windows warns you, choose More info → Run anyway.
    • Linux / macOS: open a terminal and run bash ~/Downloads/shadnet-setup.sh

    The setup asks for your Online ID and password when it runs.

    Or make the changes by hand:

    1. Run shadPS4 once, then close it

      The first run creates config.json and users.json. Close shadPS4 before you edit them, or it may overwrite your changes when it exits.

      A message from a fellow hunter Close shadPS4 first, therefore edit.

    2. Open your shadPS4 user folder

      Look for a user folder next to shadPS4.exe. If there isn't one, press Win+R and open:

      %APPDATA%\shadPS4

    3. Point config.json at this server

      Find the line "Network": { and paste these three lines right below it. If any of them are already there further down, delete the old copies. Leave everything else as it is.

      Older guides put these under "General". Current shadPS4 builds read them from "Network" and move old entries there automatically.

    4. Add your account to users.json

      Under "Users" → "user", find the block for the user you play as. The default user has "user_id": 1000. Paste these lines right after that block's opening {, and delete any older shadnet_ lines further down in the same block.

      Replace the placeholders with the Online ID and password you signed up with.

      The trailing commas are intentional, because more lines follow. In JSON, the last line before a } must not end with a comma. If shadPS4 ignores your changes, a stray or missing comma is the usual cause.

    5. Start a game

      Launch shadPS4 and boot a game. When it connects you'll get a shadNet notification, and the game's online features use this server. If it can't connect, shadPS4 tells you why and keeps playing offline.

    When the hunt goes awry Troubleshooting

    What is shadNet?

    shadNet is the open-source online service for the shadPS4 emulator. It stands in for the PlayStation Network features games use: accounts, friends, leaderboards, trophies and matchmaking. shadPS4 v0.17.0 and newer have it built in, and anyone can run a server. Light the Lamp is one of those servers.

    Is it free?

    Yes. Accounts on Light the Lamp are free, and so are shadPS4 and shadNet. There are no ads and no paid features. If you'd like to help with the server costs, you can buy me a coffee; it's entirely optional.

    Do I need a PS4 or a PlayStation Network account?

    You don't need a PSN account; your Light the Lamp account replaces it inside shadPS4. You do need your own games and firmware files, dumped from a PS4 you own. This server doesn't provide any games or system files.

    shadPS4 says the shadNet server is offline or unreachable

    Check the status light at the top of this page. If it's green, check that the server address in config.json matches the one shown above, including the port, and that you're on a network that can reach the server.

    “Protocol version mismatch”

    Your shadPS4 and this server speak different versions of the shadNet protocol. Update shadPS4 to the latest release. If you're already on the latest version, tell the server owner, since the server may need updating too.

    My changes keep disappearing

    shadPS4 rewrites its config files when it closes, so edit them while it isn't running. If the file isn't valid JSON (usually a missing or extra comma), shadPS4 falls back to defaults. Paste the file into any JSON validator to find the problem.

    Which games work online?

    shadNet is still being tested, so support varies by game. Leaderboards and trophies are the most reliable. Matchmaking works in some games, and work on it continues with each shadPS4 release. Games that relied on the publisher's own servers won't work unless someone builds a replacement server for them.

    I forgot my password

    Ask the server owner. They can set a new one for you from the admin tools. Then update shadnet_password in users.json.

    What does this server store about me?

    Your Online ID, your email address and a salted hash of your password, along with the scores, trophies and friends you build up while playing. The connection between shadPS4 and the server isn't encrypted, so don't reuse an important password.