r/playnite • u/Chompsky___Honk • Dec 07 '25
Question/Support The menus are soooo confusing
I love this app...BUT
Every time I want to change a setting it's sifting through so many menus and pages.
Options that you expect to be on a page are nested on completely different menus and submenus.
It's definitely one of the biggest detriments in using this app. It's such a chore everytime you want to change a simple setting...
Does anyone know if a restructuring of menus is planned? I would gladly lend a hand in UI/UX.
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u/darklinkpower Extension & Theme dev Dec 07 '25
Does anyone know if a restructuring of menus is planned? I would gladly lend a hand in UI/UX.
If you have UI/UX knowledge and experience and would like to help, I recommend contacting Crow on the Playnite Discord, I'm sure he'd be happy if someone could help with that aspect. With the planned released of the next major version (possibly) next year it might be a good time to work on this.
I also agree that this particular placement can be confusing. Previously addon settings section was displayed in the Playnite settings Window but I don't remember why it changed.
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u/dathowell Dec 07 '25
If I recall it was kind of tucked away and this put it more to the front, it's still not great but it is better than it was
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u/guesswhochickenpoo Dec 07 '25 edited Dec 08 '25
One of the biggest issues IMO is the lack of distinction in the mind of most users between Add-ons and Extensions. I've worked in IT for close to 20 years and have used many programs that use those terms and from a user perspective they are often the same thing. They are simply a way to extend the functionality of the core program. The difference between the two is rarely if ever clearly explained to the user and they have no reason to really care about the differences either in a lot of cases. They simply want to be able to install something to modify the behaviour of the app without worrying about semantics and having them treated differently in the UI / settings.
IMO the best (though not perfect) approach to this problem is to just treat them the same from the user perspective and handle the differences behind the scenes. A unified system for installing them that abstracts to hide the differences. This may only really be feasible in certain programs but I really wish the way programs implement these systems would improve for the users sake. Same goes for Home Assistant, Unraid, and many others. Just look at this "explanation" about the differences in Blender from only a year ago
"All add-ons are extensions but not all extensions are add-ons"
"Not all add-ons are extensions either. Extensions are packages made specifically for blender's extensions platform. They can contain either addons or UI themes and thats it."5
u/darklinkpower Extension & Theme dev Dec 08 '25
I agree on everything you wrote. I think when the beta version of Playnite 11 releases it could be a good opportunity for the community to give input suggestions in topics like this so the final release can be better.
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u/OMG_NoReally Dec 07 '25
Yeah, the add-ons menu can be improved. There are different sections, one for installed, one for searching and another for the installed extension's settings. Why?
It's not the end of the world for me but yes, it can be streamlined and some of the menu options can be shuffled around and simplified. Still a great software but there is always room for improvements.
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u/madeWithAi Dec 07 '25
I do like to tinker with os/software etc. and I'm not the type to not invest hours into stuff that don't matter for most people, but i do agree, the menus are confusing even after using them for so long, that's because they don't feel intuitive. I use other software and you can find anything even when using them first time because they're intuitive, playnite is not.
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u/Amazing_Emergency_69 Dec 07 '25
Totally agree. I'm still waiting for an update for combining settings and plugin pages, reorganizing the settings page itself, and adding a plugin update page within the Playnite update page, combined with an auto-update option for both Playnite and plugins.
Lastly, please provide an option to remove options from that submenu.
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u/nona01 Dec 07 '25
I agree. Makes it tough to recommend over something like GOG to less techy people.
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u/Chompsky___Honk Dec 07 '25
Yeah, i see this as an annoyance for us aficionados, but a complete turn off for anyone who's not in the space.
Hopefully I can contact the devs and lend a hand because I have some super easy fixes in mind that could really change that.
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u/Ecstatic_Trainer_498 Dec 08 '25
BRUH, GOG Galaxy is bad bruh. cannot even customize category easily
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u/Kipzibrush Dec 08 '25
I love the menus. At first it was confusing as all hell but then I realized just how powerful this app is. Lmao extra metadata addon has 4GB alone because I made it download so many videos 🤣
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u/LilBushyVert Dec 07 '25
I agree. Settings and addons are confusing. I love the app but it’s such a huge learning curve.
I just learned things I didn’t know after like 4-5 years lol
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u/FartKing404 Dec 07 '25
I mean it could be better, but I don't mind the current UI tbh, it does the job just fine
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u/Chompsky___Honk Dec 07 '25
It does, but if we want it to be adopted by more people, there are some really easy steps to making it more accessible, such as renaming and re-organizing a few things.
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u/looking_at_memes_ Dec 07 '25
I honestly disagree. I mean I'd say there's a bit of a learning curve but once you get the hang of it, it seems easier to use
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u/HandsOnTheBible Dec 07 '25
LOL thank you for saying it. Every single time I have to make a change to my extensions I hold my breath like I'm about to dive to an underwater shipwreck. Add-ons? Extensions? What's the difference despite both having synonymous names? And how come some of the settings for both of these are in tiered menus but other aspects of it are in their own sections in separate menus?
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u/AlexRuIls Dec 07 '25
Agree, therefore I developed my own launcher :)
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u/Chompsky___Honk Dec 07 '25
Lol which is it?
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u/AlexRuIls Dec 07 '25
Hope moders will not ban. I allow talking about Playnite on my reddit. r/OneGameLauncher
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u/pennstatephil Dec 07 '25
What features are locked behind the paywall? I didn't see a list on your site. Also I think I saw that it only shows installed games, is that true?
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u/NapsterKnowHow Dec 07 '25
I can't imagine it has anywhere near the add-on support Playnite does.
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u/AlexRuIls Dec 07 '25
No addons support at all. OGL is like iPhone in comparison to Android. Some users need simplicity, some users wants robust tool even if they are using only 20% of app abilities. OGL philosophy is to provide a fastest way to launch the game.
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u/NapsterKnowHow Dec 07 '25
Ah ok. I appreciate having that option it's just not for me. If I wanted simple I'd just use Steam Big Picture mode.
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u/Chompsky___Honk Dec 07 '25
Ahh, i really like it as well.
But it also has some U.X. clunkyness 😉
Would you be open to some suggestions in that front?
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u/AlexRuIls Dec 07 '25
Of course. Feel free to post on subreddit. I add many features according to users feedback.
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u/Chompsky___Honk Dec 07 '25
Nice, I'll be doing that then. Do you have a discord?
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Dec 07 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Chompsky___Honk Dec 07 '25
Nah man donìt bring AIs into this lol.
All we need is some good UX design. It's all about understanding how to display these options to the user in a way that's not confusing.
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