Selene 1.4.0

• The admin helper (SeleneHelper.exe) is gone. Older versions set it up through a scheduled task with admin rights, and it had real security problems, so it's out for good. Updating replaces it with a dummy file that does nothing. We never confirmed exactly why some antivirus tools flagged 1.3.1, so if yours still warns about this version, please open an issue.
• If you used the helper before, go to Selene settings > Advanced > Old administrator tasks to remove the leftover tasks (it asks first). Games that launched through it get their normal Play action back, and the old setup is backed up first.
• Because of that, Guide can't pause, close or restart games that run as admin anymore. Alt+Tab still works.
• Big smoothness fix: Selene was stuck at 30 fps on 60 Hz screens (TVs especially). It runs at the full refresh rate now.
• Scrolling is smoother. Covers load in the background and fade in, and holding left or right in Spotlight moves at a steady pace the row can keep up with (Spotlight > Steady hold scrolling). Quick taps still move right away.
• Game songs wait until you stop on a game, so holding a direction doesn't freeze for a moment at every game (Sound & music > Songs wait until you stop).
• The View button switches between Spotlight and Collection instantly. It used to take a couple of seconds on 4K.
• Less memory: screenshots take a lot less space, and there's Advanced > Reduce memory use if you want to go further.
• New Look > Performance mode for slower PCs. It turns off the moving background and trailer previews but keeps the animations.
• Settings are easier to get around: Search finds any setting, Changed shows what you've changed, the big groups have sections, and settings open where you left off.
• Downloads are opt-in now, including when you update. Trailers, screenshots, logos, songs and missing details each ask first and tell you where they'll be saved. "Games I'm looking at" really only downloads for those games now.
• Steam art matching is stricter, so sequels and other editions don't steal a game's logo or background anymore. Wrong art from before gets replaced. Your own custom art is left alone.
• Lots of smaller fixes: music fades instead of cutting off, the left stick doesn't skip two steps, dialogs answer to A and Enter, sharper dialog text, clearer setting names, and notification cards stay up long enough to read.
• The Controller battery card is gone.
• Releases now ship with SHA256SUMS so you can check the files.

Coming from 1.2.3, 1.3.0 or 1.3.1?

Those versions set up hidden Windows tasks so Selene could start, pause and close games that need admin rights. Those tasks run as admin and weren't locked down, so another program on your PC could misuse them to get admin access. That's the security issue from #74.

1.4.0 doesn't use them anymore, but updating can't delete them for you, because Windows needs your permission to remove admin stuff. So after updating go to Selene settings > Advanced > Old administrator tasks > Remove, say yes when Windows asks, and you're done. Games that launched through them get their normal Play button back. If you don't see that option, you don't have any old tasks and there's nothing to do.

Install

Grab both Selene.pthm and SeleneCore.pext, open each one (or drag it onto Playnite), restart Playnite.

Both files scanned clean with Windows Defender. Hashes are in SHA256SUMS.

Selene 1.3.1

• UniPlaySong stayed silent (or showed Now playing with no sound) in other themes after using Selene: Selene's music hold was saved in the add-on's own settings. It is put back when Playnite closes, and at the next start in any theme, so it also repairs installs already left that way.

Selene 1.3.0

• News (#14): a News card on Spotlight shows the latest headlines from the RSS and Atom feeds you follow, as picture tiles with the numbers under the headline (new today, this week, sources, latest). Down goes into them, A opens an article in your browser. The full News screen (A on the card) shows the picked article's picture large with its source, headline and the start of its text, a row of picture tiles that glides as you move, and the sources as tabs (LB / RB). "Steam: your games" follows the news and patch notes of the Steam games you play, with their pictures, and is followed with Selene's other suggestions (PC Gamer and more) until you change it; Y on the News screen opens Manage feeds, a card per feed (A turns one on or off, X removes it, the last card adds one) with a row of suggested feeds. Selene settings > Spotlight > News feeds opens the same. Switch: Spotlight, News card.
• Metadata source per game: Game options > Metadata source picks Steam or IGDB for a game's screenshots, or takes its exact Steam AppID or IGDB id, for the older and emulated games that get matched with a similarly named game. The screenshots are fetched again after each change (a Refresh row does it by hand); that game's Steam art follows the AppID too. Switch: Games, Choose a game's metadata source.
• Home tiles: a cover that is not square is cropped where the detail is (faces, logos, art) instead of always from the top, so tall covers like Overwatch keep their subject. Switch: Look, Smart cover crop.
• Game logos with empty space around the lettering (many came from Extra Metadata on a 640 x 360 canvas) showed small, like Monster Hunter Wilds. Every logo is now cut to its lettering once in the background, and a tall logo may grow a little above its usual box. Switch: Look, Fit game logos.
• B on the loading screen now stops the game too: Playnite had already been told to start it, so it still opened a few seconds later (over the desktop when B came late). The game's processes that started after Play are closed, and Selene fades back in.
• On the keyboard, Tab on the home or the library works like Start (a tap opens the menu, holding it opens Selene settings) and V like View (a tap switches home and Collection, holding it opens Find a game); the held key no longer repeats and flickers.
• First setup: moving between the cards plays Selene's tick when Playnite has not loaded its own yet.
• The session card ("Session ended") is wider and its figures wrap, so a long total is no longer cut off.
• Quitting Playnite while it was hidden in the tray left its sound muted in Windows' volume mixer, which could carry over to other themes. The mute is lifted on exit.
• Collection scrolling now uses Spotlight's transform spring as the single animation path instead of layering it over Playnite's per-frame layout animation. Covers and focus rings are cached, edge fades change only at row boundaries, pitch measurement stays near the selected item, and download/metadata work waits for a pause in navigation. Switching between Collection and Spotlight also settles the previous row's spring.
• Language changes offer Restart now or Later, using Playnite's own restart. First-time Selene setup begins with language selection and remembers that step across a restart. tools/first-setup.ps1 previews the public packages in a separate portable copy with fresh Selene settings.
• Button hints update in place for keyboard, mouse and controller input, including Escape/Enter labels and mouse Click hints. Simulated keyboard events from controllers and tiny pointer changes do not switch devices. PageUp/PageDown switch tabs, Tab opens the menu and V opens Collection on the home.
• Startup performance: build Spotlight's visible tiles with a small initial cache, then restore the full 12/16-tile cache in small batches after the intro. Required setup yields between dispatcher turns; library refresh and optional services start one at a time after the home and quiet frames. Game sorting reads metadata once per game, inactive localization adds no text watchers, and translation scans yield in short batches. Every feature remains enabled.
• Background sizing: choose Fill, Fit or Stretch under Look. Spotlight, Collection, game details and launch art follow the choice; Fit preserves the full picture.
• Mouse navigation: click profiles, menu items, settings, choices, dialog answers, on-screen keys and home/detail cards.
• Games > Focus on Guide can disable Selene's foreground switching for other overlays. Playnite's own Guide focus remains a separate setting under Playnite settings > Input.
• Localization now revisits text created before startup and watches later text changes. Look > Language adds an explicit choice, with seven starter translations for common navigation/settings and English fallback. User translations overlay the bundled base and regional files.
• Launch screen customization: art and logo, art only, logo on black, or minimal title; optional art motion and shade levels. Fit backgrounds stay still to preserve the whole image.

Selene 1.2.3

• Home while playing fades between the game and Selene both ways, and the game is paused while you're on the home
• Home works with games that run as admin (one Windows prompt after the first session)
• Exit from the power menu closes Playnite right away, no more black screen
• No more black screen after closing a game
• Trailers in AV1, VP9 or Opus play now, with sound
• Spotlight follows the sort order of Playnite's filter presets
• More store currencies, including the Middle East
• Script add-on menus work in the game menu again

Selene 1.2.2

A big one: a fresh install now sets itself up, and a long list of fixes from your reports.

Works out of the box
• Trailers, logos and backgrounds download from Steam on their own, gently in the background, so trailer cards, Spotlight, Collection and a game's page look right on a new install. Each has a switch (Spotlight > Download trailers / Download logos and backgrounds).
• Game songs without any setup: Selene fetches the tools UniPlaySong needs and gets a song for every game (Sound & music > Get game songs). A card tells you how far it is.
• Steam achievements on a new install, HowLongToBeat times, Selene's own font (Lato) everywhere, music that actually plays at start.

New
• Sound in the Start menu: Windows' volume and which speakers or headset play.
• A card with the controller's battery when Selene starts and when it runs low (exact for DualSense, DualShock 4, Switch Pro and pads over Bluetooth).
• Extensions in the menu: your add-ons' own menu items, as in Playnite's menu (#11).
• Shade over the art: a slider from Off to 100%, set with the home in full view so you see it change (#18). Switches to hide Collection's details under the logo and its button hints (#19).
• A red dot on Selene settings while something still downloads, with progress bars and percentages on the rows doing the work.
• A 100% celebration on a game's achievements.

Feel
• Collection's covers glide from game to game; a picked game is reached by a quick scroll along the row; both rows run to the screen's edges and covers dissolve there.
• Notification cards are compact console strips that hug their words; the update card says "Update ready".
• Settings remember where you were when you back out; the description scrolls smoothly with the right stick.

Fixed
• A game's page: captures named the way Game Bar writes them are found, ScreenshotsVisualizer's index is used when installed (#16); the right game's screenshots, at once (#17).
• The menu over a game's page shows the page dimmed instead of a black screen.
• Translating: the phrases file goes to the Desktop you see, translations can live in Selene Core's data folder, and the log says what was looked for (#20).

Full list in the changelog. Settings, profiles and your theme stay as they are.

Selene 1.2.1

Updating Selene now takes one press. When a new version is out you get a notification and a red dot on Update in the menu. It shows what's new, downloads the update and hands it to Playnite, then restarts. Your settings, profiles and theme stay as they are.

This is the last time you'll need to update by hand: grab both files below and open them. From here on, Start > Update does it for you.

Also:

• Notification cards are slimmer, and the new-version one shows first.
• The right stick scrolls a game's description smoothly.
• Setup check moved to Selene settings > Advanced. Update library only shows in the menu when the library update at start is off.

Full list in the changelog.

Selene 1.2.0

Achievements. With the Playnite Achievements add-on, every game's trophies are in one place: bronze, silver, gold and platinum, a list per game with its latest unlocks, and Y to sort. Selene sets the add-on up for you and checks your library in the background (store accounts still need signing in once in its settings).

Activity, redone. Your numbers in one row, the panel at the right follows the game you're on, rows run across the whole screen. With the GameActivity add-on you also get this week day by day, your streak, this month so far and each game's sessions.

Game options are a Selene screen now: Favorite, Hidden, HDR, completion status, edit details, extensions, remove and uninstall. A, X and Y do the same on Spotlight and Collection.

Start opens the menu anywhere, over any screen, and B takes you back where you were.

Report a problem from Selene settings, or click both sticks in to report with a picture of the screen. No GitHub account needed; you can type on your phone.

Game details fill themselves in. Games added by hand get their missing description, genres, developers, cover and so on from your metadata add-ons (or the Steam store). Time to beat comes from HowLongToBeat when you have it.

Also: trailers in Spotlight tiles and Collection without preview clips, smoother animations on fast screens (thanks @amogh-w, #3), notification cards for library updates, translators can collect phrases from Selene settings > Advanced, and a lot of smaller fixes.

Full list in the changelog.

Selene 1.1.0

Fixed (the fresh-install bugs)

• Black screen on portable Playnite - Selene now asks Playnite where things are instead of assuming a path.
• Missing icons - the theme package was missing its fonts, now included.

Smoother everywhere

• Everything moves at your screen's real refresh rate (120/144Hz+), not capped at 60.
• Notifications no longer freeze the screen for a moment when they pop up.
• Profile setup, Store, Collection, and menu screens glide without stutter or flicker.

New stuff

• Reworked settings: real menus and sliders instead of cycling with Left/Right, organized into clear groups.
• Idle screen - dims and drifts through your library's art when you walk away.
• Session card after playing, Legacy-style (time played, total playtime, game logo).
• Clips in Captures now have sound, plus scrubbing with a preview, volume control, and proper player controls.
• Update notices - Selene tells you when a new version is out.
• GIF avatars.
• Notification downloads (add-on logos, trailers, etc.) show as a small card instead of taking over the screen.

Polish

• PS5-style shading and readable text that adapts to what's behind it.
• Theme/background preview is a live mockup instead of a static screenshot.
• Playnite's own dialogs and progress screens reskinned to match Selene.
• Dozens of smaller empty-state, focus, and button-hint fixes.

Selene 1.0.0

The first full release of Selene: the theme and Selene Core together.

Install: download Selene.pthm and SeleneCore.pext, open each in Playnite, restart, then Menu → Playnite settings → Appearance → Theme → Selene. Everything is in the guide.

Since 0.10.0

• Choose your avatar / theme / background: the soft fade at the grid's edges is back, over the cached grid (0.10.0 faded whole rows flatly).
• 1.0.0: Selene's first full release; the theme and Selene Core share this version.

Selene 0.10.0

• Smooth big screens: tiles are drawn once into textures and their focus glow exists only while focused (every tile blurred an invisible ring on each repaint), and the game details page and the profile editor's grids glide as one texture.
• Choose your avatar / theme / background: the grid glides smoothly (a fade mask over it redrew every tile on each frame; the edge rows now fade on their own).
• Game details: the glide between bands is smooth (the whole page was redrawn through a fade mask on every frame; now only the peeking band fades, and the move runs at the screen's rate).
• Game details: the next band peeks in at the foot of the screen, cut off and blurred, as the store's rows do; B back to Spotlight is seamless (the home is back under the page before it closes).
• Game details: the description shows whole lines with no fade; More like this is big covers without names; closing the details no longer flashes Playnite's library grid before Spotlight.
• Game options menu: the icons show (the icon font is now named from the theme root, as other themes do) and the items are glass rows like Selene's keys and settings.
• Game details: the lower bands really show as the page glides (they were clipped away, leaving the focus on tiles you couldn't see).
• Game details: the screenshots are the open game's (opened from Collection they stayed the last Spotlight game's); B from a band leaves the page; the next band starts off the screen so it can't sit under the hints.
• A game's options menu (Play, Favorite, Hide, Edit fields...) looks like Selene: a glass card with rounded corners, the game's name as its title, rounded rows with Material icons.
• Game details: the bands below show whole as the page glides (they were clipped), and the description and activity sit on the art without glass boxes.
• Game details, filled in below: the game's screenshots (A opens them big), your captures of it (A opens one) with your activity beside them (play time, last played, this week, your rank), and more games like it from your own collection (A shows one on Spotlight). Down from the pills goes into these bands and the page glides up; Up or B comes back. The platform shows the store's mark and name like Spotlight (a PC game said "PC (Windows)").
• Collection: X opens the details page (it started or installed the game instead); Y opens the game's options as the hint says (it opened Playnite's search box); Left works on the first tile after coming from Spotlight (it sat at the very edge with nothing built to its left).
• Start-up: the library update Selene asks for 20 s after start (and when Playnite comes back from the tray) has a switch: Start-up, Library update at start.
• Playnite's progress window (installing an add-on, updating the library) shows Selene's mark with its halo breathing under the words instead of a loading bar; the Playnite settings screen has Playnite's logo beside its title, with a breathing halo like Selene's mark.
• Setup check: Left / Right between Install all and Done answer at once (the missing-add-ons list was read from disk on every move); Install all asks for the next add-on only once Playnite's restart question is out of the way (the two came up one over the other).
• Collection: a game's trailer starts after the same wait as Spotlight's trailer cards (the Trailer cards after setting), not its own 4 seconds.
• Save backups: Ludusavi no longer asks "Back up save data?" after every game; it just backs up (switch: Games, Quiet save backups).
• Play: the loading screen's fade to black plays again as the game's window comes up (handing the game the focus waited on the game's thread, seconds sometimes, and froze the fade; it waits on a thread of its own now).
• Logo intro: the logo fades out as it lifts before the next screen (it was cut off).
• Play: the game fades in out of the black at the end of the loading screen (it cut in, with a flash).
• Keyboards (Find a game, profile name): Left past the first key lands on the last, Right past the last on the first.
• Smooth under load: the animated background's dust and the loading screen's slow art drift are drawn on threads of their own, so start-up work and a game's launch can't make them stumble.
• Animated background: the drifting dust moves smoothly on high-refresh displays (it stepped at 60 frames a second on a 144 Hz screen).
• Play: the loading screen no longer freezes for a moment as it comes up and again a second in (Steam's window is minimised off the UI thread; Playnite's own start waits for the loading screen's animation to finish).
• Game details open again (the redone page set a style twice, and Playnite fell over opening it).
• Collection: A plays the game the way Spotlight's A does (Selene's loading screen at once, the same way through; installs it when it isn't), X opens its details.
• Play: no music under the loading screen (the selected game's trailer card still fired under it and switched the music to that game's song).
• Collection: the game's art crossfades from game to game instead of cutting (Selene's own crossfade, over a good half second).
• Playnite's dialogs (a yes / no box, an add-on install) look like Selene: a glass card with rounded corners and pill buttons; and a press in a dialog no longer also moves the screen behind it.
• Who's playing: the power button's glyph sits in the middle of its circle.
• Spotlight: a game picked in Find a game, Activity or Surprise me lands where a move would put it, the third slot (the row didn't scroll to it at all, or left it cut off at the right); LT and RT jump to the start and the end of the row.
• Game details, redone: who made it and the critic and player scores under the logo, the genres as chips, the description on glass that fades out at its foot instead of a big empty box, and button hints.
• The home's and the details' pills are dark glass again, like the Setup check's buttons.
• Playnite settings from the menu open as a Selene screen now: General, Visuals, Audio, Layout, Menus and Input as sections, their settings as Selene's switches and choices, saved straight into Playnite (a row opens Playnite's own pages for the monitor and theme). Switch: Navigation, Playnite settings, Selene's way.
• Activity, redone: the numbers as cards, your top game called out with its share of your play time, bars under the most played, and two more rows: games to pick up again (an hour or more played, untouched for 45 days) and games still waiting (never played). The rows glide up.
• Store game page: back from the screenshot viewer, the strip keeps a focused screenshot (going past the sixth in the viewer left it with none, and Left / Right stuck).
• Store game page: the focus starts on the Buy / Play button; Down goes to the screenshots and A there shows the screenshot on the whole screen (Left / Right go through them), Down again to "More from". Buying is the button's alone.
• Captures: clips play with their sound (the browser wanted a press first; Selene gives it one).
• Captures: the grid sits on a dark vignette with the focused capture's picture glowing softly behind; LB / RB filter it to screenshots or clips.
• Captures viewer: A pauses and plays a clip, Left / Right go 10 seconds, LB / RB go to the previous or next capture; a bar with the time, the game and date at the bottom left, hints that fade away after a moment. Clips that start on a black frame get a still from further in.
• Home: the Play / Details / Favorite pills are white, a little see-through, without an outline; the focused screenshot's ring is no longer cut off.
• Captures: clips get stills (Windows' own thumbnail, or ffmpeg's when this PC has it), in the grid and under the card; clips the browser plays are drawn through a canvas (a big clip decoded by the graphics card stayed black).
• Spotlight and Collection switch with a shorter hold on the crossfade.
• Glass that reads: tiles (Setup check, keyboards, menus) and the home's Play / Details pills sit on a deeper glass over busy wallpapers.
• Playnite's own settings (General, Visuals, Audio, Layout, Menus, Input) look like Selene settings: the sections as rounded rows with the same icons, the items as glass rows with Selene's switches.
• Menu: Random game is gone (Surprise me on Spotlight does it, better).
• Selene settings: settings with a choice of values, not only switches (Left / Right go round them): Trailer cards after (1 s, 2.5 s, 5 s, never), Trailer sound (off or on at start), Starting tab (where you left it, or a fixed one), Sound volume, Shade over the art (lighter, as needed, deeper), Store opens on (a tab), Surprise me picks from (installed, not played yet, all); and a switch for the pictures under the cards. The add-on page in Playnite's settings has them too.
• Spotlight: three new cards. Activity: what you've been playing (this week's and all-time numbers, your most played and last played games; A shows one on Spotlight, X plays it). Captures: your screenshots and clips newest first, from Steam, Xbox Game Bar's Videos\Captures, the NVIDIA app's Videos\NVIDIA and folders you add in Selene Core's settings; A opens one full screen and clips play. Surprise me: covers flick past and stop on a game to play (LB / RB: installed, not played yet, all). Each card has its switch under Spotlight in Selene settings. The cards come as Captures, Activity, Surprise me, Store, and the row starts on the Store card. The Collection card is off by default now (the View button opens Collection); switch it back on under Spotlight.
• Collection opens with its focus a little sooner from Spotlight.
• The Activity, Captures and Surprise me cards show a headline and pictures like the Store card (the latest captures, the games you played last, a few ideas); Down goes into the pictures, A opens one.
• Spotlight: pressing the left stick on a card no longer opens Playnite's filter list, and a mouse click on a card opens the card.
• Store g...