Steadier overlay while you play
Fixing the cases where the overlay flickers, jumps, or regroups text mid-scene — so position, size, and font stay put while you read.
Playto — Early Access
Development quest log
Last updated: August 26, 2026
This page tracks what we're building and what's planned next. It's updated with each release. Treat it as a guide — order and contents can change.
Have a request? Tell us on Discord or the Steam community.
Mission
Version 1.0 — leaving Early Access
- Reliability Just works on mainstream GPUs and drivers — stable capture, stable engines.
- Language quality Supported languages reach a consistent learning quality, documented openly. Language support page
- Core loop Capture → translate → save → review, complete and friction-free from first launch.
- UX A polished experience with nothing in your way.
The tag (●) on each quest shows which goal it advances.
What we're building right now.
Faster translation on busy screens
Reduce the delay between text appearing and its translation showing up, especially in fast-moving games.
Committed and queued. Not started yet.
Playto Cloud: official launch
Translation without a local model, for PCs that can't run one comfortably. Today it exists as a trial offered during setup; the official service adds a screen-aware mode that reads the screen as an image — using who's speaking and what's on screen to pick the right tone — alongside the current text mode.
Automatic text-region detection in window mode
Window mode learns where text appears on screen and focuses translation there. An earlier version was pulled back after real-play testing; it returns once it holds up in fast-scrolling dialogue.
Custom wordbooks
Create your own wordbooks across game profiles — collect words from any games into one place.
Direction is set; they unlock when earlier quests are done.
Every supported language at the same quality
Closing the quality gap between languages, including more reliable word definitions. Builds on the difficulty-tag and dictionary groundwork.
A deeper review experience
Better ways to retain the words you met while playing.
Browser support
Reading and learning from browser text, beyond games.
Furigana on the overlay
Readings above the Japanese text drawn over the game, not only inside Playto's own windows. Placement is the open question: next to the game's own text, an extra line of readings hides more of what you're playing. Whether that can be solved is what decides it, so there's no date.
Linux and Steam Deck support
Running Playto on Linux and Steam Deck. Needs platform-specific validation of the capture and overlay pipeline first, so there's no date yet.
Updates that have shipped.
August 2026
Hy-MT2 as the default translation model
A translation-focused model at about a quarter of the size of the current defaults, so first start on PCs without a dedicated GPU takes seconds instead of minutes. New setups only — existing choices stay as they are.
Keeps translating on PCs where the engine used to crash
A GPU-memory check before you start, and an automatic switch to CPU-safe mode after two crashes in a row — plus a built-in self-diagnosis that tests capture, recognition, translation and display and points at the step that stops.
Fix for blank lines in same-alphabet language pairs
When the correct translation is spelled the same as the original — "Menu" in English→French, or a shared kanji word between Chinese and Japanese — Playto treated it as a failure and kept dropping the line. These now display normally.
Manage logs and the wordbook in bulk
Select multiple entries in Log, Words and Sentences and delete them at once; swipe a log entry to save or delete it; copy original and translation with one click.
Game audio: lines appear while they are spoken
A spoken line now shows up in the Audio log as it is being said and grows in place, instead of appearing only after it ends. Lines that used to vanish under music are recovered more often.
Game audio transcription (beta, paid)
Playto can now hear the game as well as read it. Turn on Game audio per game and spoken lines are transcribed into the Log's Audio tab with translations, a replayable clip, and tappable words. Beta: lines under loud music and very short utterances can still be missed.
Multiple profiles per game
Keep several profiles for the same game — per playthrough or per language. When a game has more than one, Playto detects the running game and offers the matching profiles at start.
Manage downloaded models
Settings → Engine now shows which models are installed and how much space they take, lets you delete ones you no longer need, and cleans up leftovers from interrupted downloads.
More resilient downloads
A download that stalls now retries through alternate servers automatically, and a failure shows a contact link right on the error.
Automatic idiom detection
Idioms and set phrases are now recognized as single units in the Log and Sentences detail views, showing their real meaning instead of a word-by-word reading.
Steadier, faster text recognition
Fixed a set of issues where the first session could run on a weaker recognition engine. Reading interruptions are now rare and translations respond noticeably faster.
Log detail view improvements
The detail view now analyzes exactly the sentence you're looking at — difficult words, idioms and level — and no longer switches entries while new lines arrive during play.
Natural Japanese speech
Japanese read-aloud now uses a natural voice with proper pitch accent, as an optional download. Playback volume is evened out across languages too.
Chinese text-to-speech
Chinese can now be read aloud, covering Simplified Chinese, as an optional download.
Difficulty tags for more languages
Difficulty levels now cover Korean (TOPIK) and Traditional Chinese, alongside the languages that already had them.
July 2026
Scene Album — your session, kept as screens
When a session ends, the screens you actually read are collected into an album automatically. Sort them at the end of the session review, and the ones you keep come back in Daily Review as image cards — original screen first, translation on reveal.
Pinyin for Chinese
Chinese now shows pinyin readings above the characters in the wordbook and practice modes — the same reading aid Japanese gets from furigana.
Dutch, Swedish, and Traditional Chinese
Three more languages to read and learn from — 23 in total, each usable as a source or a target.
Save phrases from anywhere
Turn part of a line into a phrase card straight from the Log and Sentences, not only from session review.
Sentences on the forgetting curve
The Sentences you keep from gameplay now come back for review on the same forgetting curve as your words.
Add and import your own words
Add words by hand, or bring in a wordlist from a CSV or TSV file — then study them with the same review and practice modes.
Much faster first-time model downloads
The initial model download now comes from faster servers — first-time setup that took up to an hour now finishes in around ten minutes.
More accurate text recognition for European languages
Fixed issues where accented characters could be misread and real words silently dropped — affects all non-CJK languages.
Cleaner translation log
Fewer duplicated and fragmented lines in the log while you play.
In-app how-to guides
A searchable Guide tab built into the app, with step-by-step recipes for the common ways to play.
Redesigned first-run experience
One-screen setup, quick start, and a clearer download step with an intro video.
Phrase cards
Select a phrase from your session review, save it, and practice it like a word.
One-click game profile switching
Start a new game's profile in one click — no create dialog.
Anki export
Send your saved words and sentences to Anki as an .apkg deck.
Window mode
Translate a whole game window continuously, with a one-key overlay toggle.
Hold-to-peek
Show the translation overlay only while you hold a key.
Image storage manager
A clear size budget and automatic cleanup for capture images.
June 2026
Furigana everywhere
Reading aids across logs, wordbook, review, and exported Anki cards.
Broader GPU support
Vulkan engine and a CPU-safe fallback for AMD/Intel GPUs and older drivers.
Home redesign
See at a glance what's due, what you're learning, and what you've mastered.
Review reminders
Optional notifications so your saved words don't fade away.
Practice sessions
Bounded practice with a clear start, end, and summary.
In-app help
Short guides for the core concepts, right where you need them.
For the full change history, see the patch notes on Steam.