Game actions

Introduction

Game actions can be use either to start a game or to launch additional executables not related to game startup, for example configuration/mod utilities. Only actions marked as "Play" action are used to start a game, others are available to launch via game menu. If more then one Play action is available, Playnite will show selection dialog on game's startup to specify which action to use to start a game.

Include library integration play actions specifies whether integration plugin that imported a specific game, will be asked to handle game startup when the game is being launched.

Play actions can be also provided by plugins, see game actions plugin page for more details.

Bulk editing

When editing multiple games at the same time, Playnite won't show currently assigned actions from selected games. What's being assigned while in bulk edit mode will be assigned to all selected games and all existing actions will be removed.

Action properties

Property	Description
Play action	If enabled, Playnite will treat this action as Play action. Offering as an option when starting a game (if more than one option is available and counting play time from a started by this action.
Type	Action startup type.
Tracking mode	Only available for Play actions (File and URL types) since it affects how play time detection works.
Path	File path (or URL) to start.
Arguments	Startup arguments passed to an executable during startup.
Working directory	Working directory set to an executable during startup.

Action types

Property	Description
File	Path is executed as a standard executable file.
URL	Path is executed as an URL address.
Emulator	Action is started using emulator configuration.
Script	Script used to start an application. See game scripts page for more details.

Warning

Non-play actions that use Script startup method will run synchronously on main thead. This means that they will block Playnite's UI until the script is finished running. Therefore make sure you don't use any long running operations in your startup script.

Emulator settings

Property	Description
Emulator	Emulator to launch.
Emulator profile	Emulator profile to use to launch a game. Selecting Choose on startup will give an option to select a profile

Tracking mode

Property	Description
Default	Playnite will try to detect and use the best tracking method automatically.
Process	Playnite will track a game as running as long as original process or any of its child processes are running.
Original process	Playnite will track a game as running as long as originally started process is running, child processes are ignored.
Folder	Playnite will track a game as running as long as some process from Tracking path folder is running.

Troubleshooting

In rare cases (depending on an application being started) the application won't start properly unless Working directory is not set to application's installation directory. If this happens you need to specify Working directory manually to a directory that makes selected application run properly. This is not an issue in Playnite, it's an issue in the started application.

Using "Choose on startup" option doesn't show all emulators/profiles

This option uses platform field to select compatible emulators and profiles. If some emulators or profile are not shown on startup, make sure you have the same platforms assigned to a game and specific profiles.