PlayGif 1.0.2

PlayGif 1.0.2 — release note

Fixes the language bug reported in #1, adds MP4 conversion for cached media, and takes a run at the restart bug in #2.

Fixed

• Store descriptions are fetched in your language (#1). Steam's API returns English unless it's told otherwise, so PlayGif was replacing localized descriptions with English text. It now uses your Playnite language for both Steam and GOG, and caches each language separately — so switching language re-fetches instead of reusing the English copy.

  English users see no change: the parameter is omitted entirely, and existing caches stay valid.

Added

• Convert cached media to MP4 (Settings → General → Cache). Re-encodes your cached GIFs and other animations with FFmpeg. A GIF stores every frame as a full picture, so the saving is large — a 116 MB test library came out at roughly 8 MB — and MP4 plays on your GPU where GIF does not.
• Repair description links, next to it. Points descriptions at the converted files, and clears links whose media is no longer on disk. Runs automatically after a conversion.

Fix attempts

• Descriptions reverting to plain text after restarting Playnite (#2). PlayGif retried attaching to the description panel a fixed number of times, then gave up. Playnite fires several game-selection events during startup, so in the reporter's log all retries were spent within 27 milliseconds — before Grid view's description panel had been built. Across that log, 18 of 48 sessions never attached.

  The retry limit is gone, and PlayGif now attaches the moment the panel appears rather than waiting for another game selection.

  This is marked a fix attempt, not a fix. It depends on startup timing that varies by machine, theme, and library size, and cannot be reproduced reliably outside a real session. If descriptions still revert after a restart, please open an issue with extension.log — Settings → PlayGif → Theme Support → Open log folder.

Changed

• Quieter logging while waiting for the description panel during startup.

Known issues

Theme compatibility remains the rough edge. Playnite has no official support for animated descriptions, so PlayGif injects its renderer into whatever description panel your theme builds — themes vary, and other extensions modify the same panel. Some themes may not work at all. The Known Issues tab in settings covers this, and the Theme Support tab generates a layout report for bug reports..

Full changelog: https://github.com/aHuddini/PlayGif/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md

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Notes

• arabic and hebrew are valid Steam codes but return English for every app tested — Steam translates game listings into them but not store descriptions. Harmless to keep in the table.

PlayGif 1.0.1

PlayGif 1.0.1 — release note

Bug-fix release. The big one: descriptions no longer stop animating when you switch between Grid and Details view.

Fixed

• Descriptions not animating after a view change. Switching between Grid and Details left the description static until Playnite was restarted. The renderer now re-attaches to whichever view is on screen.
• Grid view animates properly. In Grid view the description could stay static while the animated copy rendered out of sight, because both views define a description panel and PlayGif picked the wrong one. It now asks Playnite which view is active instead of guessing.

Added

• Video scale dropdown — 100 / 90 / 75 / 50 / 35 / 25%, defaulting to 100%. Scale caps width and height follows, so 50% scale is a quarter of the pixels to decode each frame. It's the most effective setting for cutting stutter and CPU/GPU load on slower machines. Per-game overrides still live in the right-click menu.
• Theme Support settings tab — run a layout report if descriptions don't render correctly in your theme, and attach it to a bug report. Per-theme compatibility patches will live here if a theme ever needs one.
• Known Issues settings tab — documents the theme-compatibility limits up front, with links to the issue tracker.
• Open debug log folder — from the Theme Support tab or the game menu in debug mode.

Known issues

Playnite has no official support for animated descriptions, so PlayGif forcefully injects its renderer into whatever description panel your theme has. Themes vary a lot, and other extensions modify that same panel — so some users see visual glitches (clipped text, blank gaps, content in the wrong place), and some themes may not work at all. Fullscreen mode remains experimental and is off by default.

If that's you: Settings → PlayGif → Theme Support → Run layout report, then open an issue with the report, your theme name, and any other extensions that touch the details view. Some theme layouts may be out of reach, but a report helps identify which ones.

The full list is in the new Known Issues tab in settings.

Full changelog: https://github.com/aHuddini/PlayGif/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md

PlayGif 1.0.0

First public release.

Animated game descriptions. Steam store trailers, GIFs, animated WebP and AVIF play inline instead of appearing as static text.

Added

• Fetch rich descriptions from Steam or GOG, per game or in bulk across your library
• Add your own media to any description: local file, URL, or built-in web image search
• Per-game video scale (25/50/75%), plus a global scale and max-height limit
• Offline media caching with a configurable per-game size limit

Performance

• Videos play as H.264 MP4 wherever available. Steam serves each video as both VP9 WebM and H.264 MP4; PlayGif now always picks the MP4, which is hardware-decoded on far more machines. Smoother playback and roughly half the disk use.
• Playback pauses automatically while a game is running or when Playnite loses focus

Requirements

• Playnite 10 (SDK 6.16.0)
• Windows 10 (2004 / May 2020 update) or newer
• WebView2 Evergreen Runtime — pre-installed on Windows 11 and most Windows 10 machines

Feedback and bug reports welcome via Issues.