Plugin setup

Finish setting up a plugin you installed that needs more than the install: ROM Manager, Playnite, VirtualHere, Game slots or RTSS Frame Cap.

ROM ManagerCopy Anchor Link

Point it at your ROM folders or a RomM server. Each game launches in the best emulator this host has for its system, after first-run setup and its firmware. A missing emulator is one Ask to install away; you allow it under Library → Sources. A RomM game downloads on its first launch with its updates and DLC, and its saves go back to the server. Install Libretro for box art and details, and SteamGridDB with an API key for the games Libretro has no art for.

On a box with seats, each seat plays these games with the box's emulators and keeps its own saves; Profiles names the exceptions on Linux. On Windows, RPCS3, Snes9x and Supermodel keep one set for everyone. So does an emulator installed while seats were off or by an earlier version, until it is reinstalled under Library → Sources → Emulators.

The console doesn't install, prepare or remove emulators, or move saves, inside a profile that uses an existing Linux account. On an existing Windows account it adds no emulator copy by hand.

Add folders and servers on the console's ROM Manager page, under Sources. A server signs in with a code you approve in RomM. Without the console, write plugin-state/rom-manager/config.json in the config directory (~/.config/punktfunk or %ProgramData%\punktfunk):

{
  "roots": [
    { "dir": "/mnt/roms" },
    { "dir": "/mnt/more/ps1-games", "platform": "psx" }
  ]
}

A folder of system folders (snes, psx, ps2, …) needs nothing else; a folder of one system's games names it. Firmware goes in bios/<system>/ beside the system folders. On Windows, write paths as D:\\roms. Options: the plugin's repository.

PlayniteCopy Anchor Link

Mirrors your Playnite library; launching a title hands it back to Playnite. It has two parts, both on the Windows host:

1. The plugin, from an elevated PowerShell: punktfunk-host plugins add playnite.
2. The Punktfunk Sync extension in Playnite: download punktfunk-sync.pext from the plugin's builds, double-click it and restart Playnite.

The console's Playnite page then shows "Exporter connected", and games sync within seconds of a library change. Filters are on that page. Details: the plugin's repository.

VirtualHere (USB passthrough)Copy Anchor Link

Hands a physical USB device on your couch machine (a wheel, HOTAS, pedals, an arcade stick) to the host while you play, so the game sees the real device. It drives VirtualHere, a commercial product you buy and install yourself; Punktfunk bundles none of it and isn't affiliated with it.

You need both halves of VirtualHere running first:

• The USB Server on the couch, sharing the device. One device is free; more, or running the client as a service, needs a licence. Servers exist for Windows, Linux, macOS and Android, not for iOS or tvOS.
• The USB Client on the host, ideally as a service.

punktfunk-host plugins add virtualhere

On the console's VirtualHere page, Devices lists what the couch shares; pick one to add a rule that matches it by name. By default the device moves to the host when video starts and back when it stops; you can widen that to the session or to the whole time a client is connected. If nothing happens, the Diagnostics tab names the part to fix. Details: the plugin's repository.

Recipe: full controller passthrough (VirtualHere)Copy Anchor Link

To give the host the real device (DualSense gyro and adaptive triggers, a racing wheel, a HOTAS), hand it over USB with VirtualHere, a commercial product sold separately.

1. Set up the plugin as above. It finds the device by name, hands it back if anything crashes, and tells you which side is misconfigured.
2. On the couch client, turn off Forward controllers (Client settings). Otherwise games see two controllers, and on Linux and Windows VirtualHere can't take a pad the client holds.

Without the plugin, two hooks do the basic job. The address comes from vhclientx86_64 -t LIST; it changes when the couch reboots, and an abnormal end leaves the device on the host:

{ "hooks": [
    { "on": "stream.started", "run": "vhclientx86_64 -t \"USE,couch-deck.11\"" },
    { "on": "stream.stopped", "run": "vhclientx86_64 -t \"STOP USING,couch-deck.11\"" }
] }

Game slotsCopy Anchor Link

Keeps a copy of a game's config or save files for each device that streams it and puts that copy in place before the game starts. Play at the PC with the monitor's settings, on the Steam Deck with the Deck's, on the TV with the TV's.

1. Install Game slots from Plugins.
2. Open the game in the Library and pick its Game slots tab.
3. Turn on Keep a slot per device and add the game's config or save folders. On Windows, write the full C:\Users\<you>\… path.
4. Save. The console gives the plugin write access to each folder you added.

A slot per settings preset gives one device a slot for each of its presets, like Docked and Handheld. The launch waits while the plugin swaps the files, up to two minutes; the device shows its launch screen meanwhile. When the game exits, the plugin saves the device's files into its slot and puts the PC's own back. A device's first launch starts from the PC's files.

It only swaps games a client launches from its library, never one already running, and only for paired devices. A folder that Steam Cloud syncs raises Steam's conflict dialog after a swap: track the game's config instead, or turn Steam Cloud off for that game. Details: the plugin's repository.

RTSS Frame CapCopy Anchor Link

Caps the game at the refresh rate the client streams at, through RivaTuner Statistics Server, and puts your own limit back when the stream ends. RTSS is a separate download; Punktfunk bundles none of it.

1. Install RTSS and turn on Start with Windows in its main window. RTSS enforces the cap inside the game, so it must be running when the game starts.

2. Install RTSS Frame Cap from Plugins, or run punktfunk-host plugins add rtss.

3. Let the plugin write RTSS's profiles. Once, from an elevated PowerShell:

   Copy Text

   icacls "C:\Program Files (x86)\RivaTuner Statistics Server\Profiles" /grant "*S-1-5-19:(OI)(CI)M" "*S-1-15-2-1251237843-3372458582-2949526732-893382375-1396029850-1946794802-2851191480:(OI)(CI)M"

   The first SID is the runner's account, the second the plugin's own sandbox; a write needs both. The console can't do this step: it never gives a plugin write access inside Program Files.

4. Start the stream, then the game. A game that was already running keeps the limit it started with.

Nothing capped? Open Diagnostics → Troubleshooting and pick the plugin:rtss source: each missing step is a FAIL line with the command that fixes it, and each stream start logs rtss: 120 fps for …. A per-game profile in RTSS overrides the cap. Details and the doctor command: the plugin's repository.