12-02-2021, 02:16 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-01-2023, 05:13 AM by OneAngryGamer.)
Disclaimer:
I created this extension some time ago for my own use. Most users will not need nor want this extension.
This is not recommended if you have:
Using this will require:
What this does:
Game descriptions can contain image links especially for descriptions from online stores. When your Playnite is offline, these descriptions will break (broken links instead of images) if the images have not been cached. This extension aims to address this problem.
This makes game descriptions fully offline by downloading their images and then editing the descriptions to redirect to these downloaded images.
Instructions for use (WARNING: READ THIS VERY CAREFULLY BEFORE USING)
Known Issues (NOT caused by extension)
Known Issues
Theoretical Issues (Report if these ever occur)
Compatibility: Due to the Great 8 Break, this add-on is not compatible with any version of Playnite after v8.15.
UPDATE: I have taken this extension down.
I created this extension some time ago for my own use. Most users will not need nor want this extension.
This is not recommended if you have:
- fast internet
- cheap internet
- stable internet (no dropouts)
- your Playnite always online
- limited storage on the drive containing your extension data path
- no interest in using Details view in Playnite
Using this will require:
- sufficient storage capacity on the drive that contains your Extensions Data (to store the downloaded images)
- patience (downloading thousands of images takes time. Also do not attempt to download all games at once - more on that below)
What this does:
Game descriptions can contain image links especially for descriptions from online stores. When your Playnite is offline, these descriptions will break (broken links instead of images) if the images have not been cached. This extension aims to address this problem.
This makes game descriptions fully offline by downloading their images and then editing the descriptions to redirect to these downloaded images.
Instructions for use (WARNING: READ THIS VERY CAREFULLY BEFORE USING)
- After installing the extension, open the menu items (game menu > Offline Descriptions)
- The first option will scan your entire game database to find any descriptions that contain online images. It will apply a tag to these games.
- Use your filter to only show these tagged games
- Select a small number of these filtered games to download their descriptions (For your first time, only download 1 game to demonstrate how long this is likely to take). WARNING: never attempt to download all games in one session. For two reasons. a) downloading images will take a long time to run (especially as your internet is most likely slow and/or unstable) and b) the more images that you download per hour from a website, the greater likelihood that you will be blocked.
- Over several days repeat steps 2 to 4 until all descriptions are downloaded.
Known Issues (NOT caused by extension)
- Description contains black images = These are GIF files where their first frame is completely black. This issue is not caused by the extension. (You would get the same effect if your Playnite was online and you hadn't used the extension.) This can not be fixed as Playnite does not support GIF.
- The webstore contains animated images but these appear as still images when using Details view = Playnite does not animate GIFs so you only see the first frame as a static image. This issue is not caused by the extension. (You would get the same effect if your Playnite was online and you hadn't used the extension.) This can not be fixed as Playnite does not support GIF.
- The extension suddenly stopped downloading images = You are probably blocked by the website for exceeding their download limit. Change your VPN I.P. address or wait a day before retrying. To avoid this happening again, limit the number of descriptions you download per day.
Known Issues
- (Minor/No fix yet) A game is tagged as needing description downloaded but all images were downloaded = Scan the database again. If this game is still tagged after the scan then it is probably because my RegEx is not perfect. (Out of several hundreds of descriptions tested, I have < 5 false positives)
- (Minor/Unavoidable) Metadata plugins will always show that the game description is different to the store description after downloading description for game = This extension works by editing your Descriptions. If you update metadata for a game after downloading its description, it will not be obvious if the store has updated its description or not. (This is only an issue if you frequently refresh metadata) If you proceed to update the description, it will break the offline usage for this game. (It can be fixed by downloading the description again)
Theoretical Issues (Report if these ever occur)
- Some images will not download = It is possible that the site is using an unsupported image format. (This release only supports jpg, gif and png files) Another possibility is that the store redirects their image links to another site. If any images will not download, post the details to this thread.
- Image displayed is different to the image shown on the website = The extension stores images by their filename and skips images that have already been downloaded. This could be a problem if a page contains images linked from different sites that happen to share the same filename or if a page replaces an image with another of the same filename after you downloaded the description.
Compatibility: Due to the Great 8 Break, this add-on is not compatible with any version of Playnite after v8.15.
UPDATE: I have taken this extension down.