March Update: HyperOverlay, Performance Overhaul, and a Mountain of Polish

Hey everyone!

It's been about three weeks since our last update and the team has been busy — over 400 commits and 80+ closed issues across the board. This one's packed with brand new platform support, a smoother experience overall, and a ton of UI polish. Let's dive in!

Introducing HyperOverlay

We're excited to share HyperOverlay — a new plugin that adds loading screens and pause menus to your HyperSpin setup.

If you've ever launched a game and stared at a black screen while the emulator loads, HyperOverlay fixes that. It displays a clean loading screen with game artwork while everything spins up in the background, so the transition from wheel to gameplay feels seamless. It also adds an in-game pause menu you can pull up with your controller.

HyperOverlay is still a work in progress, so it's completely optional — you can enable or disable it anytime from the plugin settings. If you try it out, let us know how it works for you.

What you get:

• Loading screens — displays game artwork and info while the emulator starts up, so no more staring at a black screen
• Pause menus — pull up an in-game pause menu with your controller to resume, restart, or exit
• Game end screens — see a stats summary when you exit a game
• Controller and keyboard support — navigate everything with your gamepad or keyboard
• Multi-monitor ready — works across multiple displays for cabinet setups
• Save state management — browse and load your save states right from the pause menu

Performance

The first time you start HyperSpin, it should be significantly faster to load. The second time you start it, it should be almost instant. We completely reworked how games are loaded and cached so your library is ready to go the moment you launch.

Scrolling through large game lists is smoother too, especially if you've got thousands of games in a system.

Wii U Support

We've added full support for Wii U via Cemu.

What this means for you:

• Add any of these systems through the Add System wizard just like any other platform
• HyperSpin automatically detects your installed games — no manual game lists needed
• Games launch directly from your library with the right settings
• BIOS and firmware checks are built into the setup flow so you know if something's missing before you try to play
• Real game titles are pulled automatically (no more cryptic folder names in your game list)

Wii U support is further along and should be stable for most setups.

New Features

Spotlight Search

Spotlight search is now in HyperSpin with full controller support. Find any game or system instantly without scrolling through wheels — just start typing or use your controller to pull it up.

Zip File Progress

When HyperSpin needs to extract a compressed game before launching, you now get a visual progress screen instead of wondering what's happening. Temp files are cleaned up properly afterward too.

Advanced Controller Mapping

We've added modifier key support for controllers. If you've got a cabinet with limited buttons, you can now hold one button as a modifier to unlock additional actions on every other button — effectively doubling (or tripling) what your controller can do. For example, hold the Player 1 button and press Start to exit a game, or hold it and press another button to open the menu. Works with keyboards too.

Always on Top Marquee

The marquee display can now sit above everything on screen, including the taskbar. Perfect for dedicated marquee monitors on arcade cabinets.

RetroArch Bezels

BezelProject packs now automatically apply a system-wide default bezel to all your games — and per-game bezels still override when available. This also prevents touch controller overlays from appearing on arcade cabinets.

UI Polish

We knocked out a big batch of visual improvements:

• Category highlight in Add Systems updated to HyperSpin purple
• Add Extensions button is now more visible
• Update screen shows your current version vs. what's available
• Cache settings descriptions rewritten to actually explain what each button does
• Autoimport settings got a tighter layout with cleaner toggles
• Archive extraction now uses toggle switches instead of checkboxes
• Plugin screen buttons cleaned up and streamlined
• Contact link in License Settings now opens in your browser instead of in-app

Collections

• Right-click context menu on collection items — refresh, hide/show, and delete without navigating away
• Collections now update in real-time as you make changes
• Fixed the new collection creation flow

Games & Media

• List view is back — toggle between grid and list views

• List view context menu fully working again
• Editing a game's name now updates everywhere immediately
• Media tab only shows media for systems you actually have installed
• Media download labels now include the system name so you know what you're looking at

Platforms & Emulators

• BIOS status now rescans automatically when you visit the page or import files
• Systems list has a right-click context menu (Open, Edit, Hide/Show, Refresh Media)
• Platform Test button shows the correct system list now
• Advanced controller mapping support
• Plugin auto-updates now work for non-default plugins

Theme Builder

• Import a PSD with layer groups and they now show up properly as expandable folders in the layers panel
• Scale controls now accept decimal values
• Remix for themes now supports the new groups feature
• Added list views for collections, media, and projects in your profile

Fixes & Stability

Thank You

This was a huge push and the team really delivered. Massive thanks to everyone who's been testing, reporting bugs, and giving us feedback in the forums and Discord. Your input directly shapes what we work on.

Keep the bug reports coming — and if you get a chance to try any of the new platform support, we'd love to hear how it works with your setup.

— fr0stbyt3 & The HyperSpin Team