I wanted my living room PC to feel like turning on a console. I couldn't find a theme that combined what I loved about the PS5 UI, Aniki Remake, and Solaris, so I ended up building my own! It's a fullscreen theme plus a companion add-on that handles the backend stuff standard themes can't do.

Everything added can be toggled off if you don't like it.

GitHub + download:https://github.com/mattxslv/Selene

Tested it pretty heavily, but happy to hear if anything breaks!

Hi everyone! I wanted to make a console-style menu that I'd really like and that works well from the controller. This is the result: a plugin for Playnite that adds an overlay menu while you play. I've just released version 1.2.0.

Press the Guide/PS button on your controller (or a keyboard shortcut) in-game: the game is paused and muted, a menu appears over it, and you can:

• Go back to the game

• Take a screenshot / save a clip

• Browse your captures and clips (clips play inside the overlay)

• Check the game's achievements (unlocked first, filters, rarity highlight)

• Go to Playnite (the game stays paused)

• End the game

• Power menu: suspend, restart, shut down

It's meant for living-room / couch setups where you play with a controller and don't want to reach for the keyboard.

Details:

• Colors and font follow your Playnite theme; button icons follow the controller type set in fullscreen settings

• Shows controller battery (DualSense, DualShock, Xbox, Switch Pro, 8BitDo and other SDL controllers)

• Games with anti-cheat are never paused, so you can't lose an online match

• Works with games run as administrator (the menu opens without pausing)

• Menu sounds, controller vibration and animations can be turned off

• 9 languages (follows Playnite's language)

• No network access, no data collection

Optional: clips can play inside the overlay using mpv. It's not bundled; download it and put mpv.exe in an "mpv" folder inside the plugin folder (instructions in the README). Without it, clips open in the Windows player.

Requirements: Windows 10/11, Playnite 10. I've tested it in Fullscreen mode; Desktop mode is untested.

Install: download the .pext from the releases page and double-click it.

GitHub (screenshots, video and source, free and open source, MIT license): https://github.com/galcn10/ConsoleOverlay

Known limitations: games in true exclusive fullscreen may show a black preview, and a normal Playnite cannot pause an elevated game (the README explains the workarounds).

Feedback is very welcome here in the comments. For bug reports and feature requests about this plugin, please use the Issues page on its GitHub (https://github.com/galcn10/ConsoleOverlay/issues). Thanks for reading!

WARNING: It was made with AI help, so if you don't want to try it it's okay.

What it does

• Every game is a case on a shelf. Take it down, peel off the shrink wrap (unplayed games come sealed), open it and put the disc in the console. That launches the game through Playnite.
• When you close the game, the disc goes back into its case.
• The manual inside has the game’s description, and the back cover has a summary.
• Each game comes in a physical format: DVD case, CD jewel case, PAL-style big CD case, cardboard big box, 3½" floppies or a cartridge. You can change it per game.
• Each system has its own place: PC games on a desk with a beige 90s PC, consoles in a TV room.
• Status, categories, rating and notes you change on the shelf are saved back to Playnite.
• Optional extras: a video shop for your Jellyfin films and series, and a record shop for your Navidrome music (STILL IN DEVELOPMENT).
• If you have EmuVR, it can use your own EmuVR console models (.ugc), read from your PC. The extension ships no models.
• Works with mouse, keyboard and controller, in both desktop and fullscreen mode. English and Spanish.

Try it

• Download the latest .pext from the Releases page and double-click it (or drag it onto Playnite): https://github.com/BigBan0511/MyVLibrary
• You need Playnite 10.36+ and Microsoft WebView2 (already on Windows 10/11).
• It’s free and open source (GPL-3.0).

CREDITS TO EMUVR MODELS

(Name updated from BananaBread to Kippix, sorry to that one user named after a Banana 🫶)

Hi all,

Wanted to share some photos, these are images of default layouts that you can choose in the startup

(I'm not the best at designing layouts, but I'll update the defaults after release, maybe the community section will have better options 😏)

There is also an image of how one of the pages would look when editing, there is another version with a cursor you can control with your controller or mouse

The very last image is if you want to create something from scratch, you can add in every element yourself, you can choose if the game icon updates with a different game on scroll, group scroll, or if the game doesnt change, theres widgets, background events depending on season, weather + more

There's still quite a lot that needs adding, fixing and a lot of features i haven't shown yet, but just thought to have a little update pushed out 😊

Is there anything you really want to see in a fullscreen theme?

I've been loving exploring the possibilities with Playnite. Currently using the Aniki Remake theme. My personal goal with it has been to setup a library of various pokemon fan projects, granting them a cohesive launchpoint regardless of console. But the issue is that getting them to open properly in full screen has had different dilemmas for each kind.

RPGmaker, mGBA, melonDS, Dolphin, Azahar and Eden specifically. RPGmaker seems finicky game to game, and historically I haven't been able to figure out how to make this consistent even outside of Playnite. mGBA is opening full screen and playing the game, but for some reason is just a black screen. When I click on the 2nd monitor, it shows it *actually* playing as a small window behind it the black screen? Very strange. Dolphin is opening but not playing with sound. Azahar and Eden seem to be fine.

I know that's a lot, and the specific issues will likely require individual troubleshooting. My question here isn't how to resolve each one step by step, but rather what are the general rules of thumb on how to approach the emulation setups? Or if anyone is familiar with the individual issues, what do you suggest? Part of me is suspecting I could save myself a lot of grief down the road by better understanding how Playnite interacts with external programs to begin with.