Dynamic Colors, News & Statistics
These Aniki Helper features normally work in the background, but this page explains how to configure or repair them.
Dynamic Colors
Dynamic Colors generates an Aniki color palette from the selected game's artwork.
Enable Dynamic Colors
- Open Aniki Fullscreen.
- Press Start / Menu.
- Open Settings → Customization → Appearance.
- Select Choose theme color.
- Choose Dynamic Colors.
- Apply/restart if requested.
Which image does Dynamic Colors use?
The current Aniki Helper tries to use the game's Playnite Background Image first.
If no usable background is available, it can fall back to the game's Cover Image.
Supported image extensions include:
- JPG / JPEG
- PNG
- BMP
- WEBP
Very small images can be ignored; use normal game artwork rather than tiny thumbnails.
Older Aniki guides described an ExtraMetadata-folder-only system. That is no longer the current behavior.
Pre-load Dynamic Colors
To prepare colors before you browse the games:
- Open Playnite Desktop.
- Press F9.
- Open Extension settings → Generic → Aniki Helper.
- Open Advanced → Color processing.
- Enable Pre-load colors in background.
- Save.
This lets Aniki analyze artwork in the background and reuse the cached palette later.
It can make color changes feel more immediate while navigating.
On a very low-end system, background color analysis itself may briefly use resources, so test whether pre-loading helps your setup.
Dynamic Colors do not change
Check:
- Does the game have a Playnite Background Image?
- If not, does it have a usable Cover Image?
- Is the image a supported format?
- Is it a normal-size artwork file rather than a tiny thumbnail?
- Is Dynamic Colors selected as the Theme Color?
If you recently replaced artwork, reset the cache.
Reset the Dynamic Colors cache
Use this after replacing many backgrounds/covers or when colors are clearly stale.
- Open Aniki Helper → Advanced → Color processing.
- Use the color-cache reset action.
- Let Aniki rebuild the palettes.
Do not reset a working cache routinely.
Aniki News
Open:
Aniki Helper → Theme features → News
Enable or disable News
- Enable News if you want Aniki Helper to fetch articles.
- Disable it if you do not use the feature.
- Save.
When disabled, Aniki stops the News scanning/loading work.
Use custom RSS feeds
The current News settings support configurable sources.
For a source:
- enter the display name;
- enter the RSS feed URL;
- save.
An empty/invalid feed can fall back to Aniki's default source behavior.
Reset one News source cache
Use a source-specific cache reset only when that source is clearly stuck or outdated.
- Open Theme features → News.
- Find the affected source.
- Use its reset-cache action.
- Confirm.
You normally do not need to clear the cache every time you edit a URL.
Library statistics
Open:
Aniki Helper → Theme features → Statistics
Aniki uses library data for Profile/Hub statistics.
You can choose whether hidden games are included.
Monthly statistics
Aniki Helper keeps monthly tracking data used for information such as:
- playtime this month;
- games played this month;
- most played game.
Monthly Stats can be exported/imported from Advanced backup settings.
If the data is wrong or you intentionally want to start over, use the monthly reset/delete tools only after considering a backup.