Games and Clip Names

Games and clip names

ShadePlay guide › Advanced settings

The advanced Games page: which game the Game track follows, how a game is detected, and your own names for each game's clips.

Recording never depends on a game

ShadePlay records all the time, game or not. The detected game only decides two things: whose sound goes on the Game track, and what the clips are called. The page's first line says which game that is right now, for example Current game: <game> (<game>.exe), or Current game: none right now.

How a game is detected

The program in front is the game when one of these is true:

• its window covers the whole recorded monitor (fullscreen or borderless);
• it lives in a game library folder: Steam, Epic Games, Xbox, Riot Games, Battle.net, the Roblox player and others (known tools in those folders don't count);
• you gave it a clip name on this page, or it is on the hidden games.always list in the settings file.

Some programs never count, even fullscreen: File Explorer, browsers, Discord, game launchers, media players and photo viewers, remote-desktop and streaming apps, Windows' own overlays, and ShadePlay itself. The full list is the hidden games.never key in the settings file (Settings file, logs and command line).

How long a game stays the game:

• until its program exits, or another program that counts as a game is in front for 3 seconds (30 seconds for a windowed program that counts only because of its library folder);
• a game that was pushed aside by an overlay or a quick alt-tab is the game again at once when it comes back to the front within 2 minutes.

Clip names

Clips are named after the game automatically (how). When a game's clips get an odd name, give it your own:

1. In the left box, type the program's file name, for example game.exe (a full path works too; .exe is added when you leave it out). The box shows game.exe in grey until you type.
2. In the right box, type the name for its clips.
3. Click Set (or press Enter). The name is saved by itself.

The list shows Program and Clip name. Double-click a name to change it; Remove (or the Delete key) removes the selected one. The page's own example is Overwatch.exe → Overwatch 2.

A program you name also counts as a game, so its sound goes on the Game track, even when it runs in a window. That's the fix for a windowed game that isn't detected. Two exceptions, with a warning on the page: a Discord program keeps its clip name but its sound stays on the Discord track, and a program on the hidden games.never list keeps its clip name but never counts as a game.

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Next: Saving and the after-save command

See also: Clips, folders and names · Audio tracks · Settings file, logs and command line