bpwhelan/GameSentenceMiner v2026.10.1

Release v2026.10.1

on GitHub

Downloads

Intel Mac builds are no longer provided. If you need GSM on Intel Mac, run it from source.

What's Changed

This release brings a desktop and overlay app redesign, a Magpie compatibility rewrite, saved clips for later mining, and much more.

Everytime I say I want to do smaller releases, I end up making bigger and bigger releases... Luckily I was able to slow down quite a bit the past few weeks and really refine some of the important stuff in GSM.

Changes at a glance

• Redesign the desktop and overlay apps.
• Basic OCR now uses local ScreenAI by default; Google Lens is an optional online scan.
• Save a line's replay clip from the Text Feed and return later to make its card. Thanks @trouni.
• Follow a VN-Guide walkthrough in a small companion that shows the current instruction and save reminders. GitHub.
• Keep a custom website available beside your game and show or hide it with a shortcut.
• Open a configurable quick-actions menu from controller or keyboard navigation.
• On Windows, optionally keep supported games rendering while unfocused and block their background controller input.
• Use automatic dictionary hover while clicks pass through overlay text to the game.
• Rewrite Magpie compatibility to improve text alignment, multi-monitor handling, popup interaction, and returning to the game.
• Choose whether a successful dictionary mine closes the popup; it stays open by default.
• Show in overlay when Text Intake is paused.
• Remove the silence left by GSM game pauses from replay audio when it matches a recorded pause. Thanks @trouni.
• Optionally mute a background game after a configurable delay and restore its audio when you return.
• Choose the audio adjustment step in Anki confirmation and optionally skip confirmation for unvoiced lines.
• Use one Anki "enabled" config.
• Toggle desktop notifications by event and use available card actions directly from notifications.
• Switch the live stats widget between the active game's current session and today's totals.
• Import game-linked reading sessions from Kizuna CSV exports.
• Keep mining while stats are paused, with a visible reminder that GSM would prefer if we were getting text.
• Filter repeated lines by default, with later opt-outs remembered.
• Update Hachidori to 0.3.0 and preserve imported dictionaries across overlay restarts and updates. Thanks @bee-san.
• Update bundled Yomitan to 26.10.12.0.
• Preserve full-resolution character portraits used by the dictionary.
• Respect the target language for overlay OCR and text layout, and keep dialogue together when dash characters are missing.
• Recover more promptly when overlay text appears after a scan and reduce unnecessary work while the overlay is idle.
• Avoid the failed page load when opening the Text Feed at startup.
• Restore OBS windows, respect scene rules, and close OBS cleanly while backing up settings.
• Use email and password for Tadoku sign-in, keeping your sync preferences.
• Exclude Linux's desktop portal from game-pausing targets.
• General Performance Improvements, background rendering fixes, and more.

Highlights

Desktop and overlay app redesign - "The Great Re-sloppening"

Find your saved games in a searchable list. Select one to check its capture and profile, launch the overlay, or open the Text Feed. Connection status stays beside your games. Use Add a game to capture another window, display, or capture card.

The capture tabs now share a consistent layout. Texthook / Agent keeps attachment, hook selection, and output together; Windows Speech has its own capture workspace. Desktop settings have search and sections for appearance, windows, updates, backups, and storage.

Shown with a sample game in GSM's UI preview.

Overlay settings now start with a Home dashboard. Reading, Capture & OCR, Interaction, Controller, Widgets & tools, and System group related options. Search works across categories, and you can navigate the category and section bars by keyboard.

OCR improvements

The OCR tab brings the selected game's capture areas, preview, and recent text together. Refresh a frame or enable live preview, show text boxes, and open the area editor. The activity feed shows captured text, skipped menus and ignored areas, repeats, and scans with no text.

Recognition, image/output options, text matching, shortcuts, and diagnostic tools have their own views. Quick capture buttons expose manual, menu, selected-area, and whole-window scans once OCR is running. The layout also adapts to narrower panes.

OCR capturing dialogue from Akai Ito.

Basic mode now uses ScreenAI locally on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It may need an initial download. For Google Lens, enable Use online scans for better accuracy under Recognition. Existing Basic profiles switch to local scans; an old Google Lens selection does not enable online scans automatically. Advanced engine selections stay unchanged.

GSM reuses text from a stable frame when possible, avoiding a second scan. Overlay OCR also follows your target language and adjusts sooner when text appears late.

Overlay Changes & Magpie compatibility rewrite

Magpie Compat has always worked for me, but now it's 1000x better. Shit feels so nice compared to how it was before.

Magpie text and stats now follow the scaled game image across monitors. Other windows hide only the areas they cover. Returning from dictionary or controller navigation restores the overlay without repeatedly taking focus. Popup hover and closing also follow the displayed cursor, including nested lookups.

Click through overlay text is on by default in automatic mode. You can hover for dictionary lookups while clicks continue to the game. Find the option on Overlay Settings Home or under Interaction → Mouse & text; turn it off when you want text selection or click-triggered lookups. Dictionary popup surfaces and toolbar controls remain interactive.

Mining keeps the dictionary popup open by default. Enable Close dictionary popup after adding a note under Interaction → Startup & behavior to close it after a successful save. Failed saves leave the popup available.

Clipping: save now, mine later (Contributed)

The Text Feed can now save a line's replay clip without immediately making an Anki card. Use the line's save-clip action, then open Show Saved Clips to return to it later. Saved clips live on disk, so they remain available after the browser history is cleared or the Text Feed is reopened.

Saved clips keep their dialogue context and original game details, even when you mine while playing something else. Replay the media, open its folder, or delete clips you no longer need. Saving requires OBS replay buffering and enough disk space for the videos.

And much more

VN Guide companion (Very niche)

Enable the helper under Overlay Settings → Widgets & tools → VN Guide. Add a game page from VN-Guide (GitHub) or a GitHub guide.json URL, then choose a route. Its current step appears near the game's top left. Guides are saved locally after downloading; your game text stays on your computer.

Choose a card with controls or plain text that lets clicks through. Show it continuously, when a choice is detected, or only when toggled. Save reminders stay with the next choice; future choices stay hidden. Use Back / Undo, Next / Done, or the step selector to correct your place. Updates are checked when opened and hourly, then wait for you to reload.

If you find yourself with extra AI Usage, Hop into making VN-Guide Guides for the games that you are playing! It's a pretty luxury feature, but it's super nice.

Shown with a sample route and choice.

Automatic following uses choice menus detected by overlay OCR. It can catch up to a uniquely matched choice within the next three choices, stops at load instructions, and keeps save reminders. OCR cannot verify your selection or save. Text hooks alone cannot detect choice layouts; use manual navigation or Always mode if needed. The guide stays available when manual mode hides the lookup overlay.

For other references, Widgets & tools → Custom page opens a persistent web page with its own show/hide hotkey.

Controller quick actions (Untested, feedback welcome)

While controller navigation is active, press Start to open quick actions; keyboard navigation uses Tab by default. Move with the D-pad or either stick, confirm an action, and cancel to go back.

The default menu lets you pause/resume text input, replay the last line's audio, show/hide furigana, and Translate & explain…. Choose and reorder actions under Overlay Settings → Controller → Quick actions. Add sentence breakdown, grammar, vocabulary, nuance, scene summaries, or a saved custom AI question. Explanations use your AI settings.

Windows game behavior

On Windows, try Game hook (experimental) on Home for the selected game. Enable it per game to keep rendering when you switch windows, block background controller input, or both. Supports XInput and DirectInput 8 gamepads. Use it only with offline games without anti-cheat; it won't run alongside detected Special K. Some games may still pause. Restart the game to fully remove the hook. See the game background hooks guide for setup and limits.

Audio, Anki, and notifications

• Replay audio removes silent gaps that match a recorded GSM game pause.
• Encode only the selected audio, rather than the entire replay.
• Anki confirmation lets you choose audio adjustment steps from 0.1 to 5 seconds; the default remains 0.25 seconds.
• Skip confirmation for unvoiced lines is optional and off by default. Keeping confirmation enabled lets you check audio that voice detection may have missed.
• If an overlay card has no matching captured line, GSM estimates its media timing and always opens confirmation. Use a text hook or the OCR tab for more accurate timing and stats.
• Leaving Anki confirmation restores controller navigation focus.
• Anki now has one enable switch. Previously disabled integration stays disabled.
• Anki retries wait for active collection operations instead of immediately colliding with them.
• Fix updating a grouped card while that card is selected in Anki's browser. Thanks @Musi57.
• Choose notifications for card updates, audio, screenshots, enhancement failures, errors, OBS warnings, and stats pauses/resumes. Card notifications also offer relevant actions.
• Optional background muting has a configurable delay, initially five seconds, so a brief focus change need not mute the game. Audio restoration is retried while the game is focused.

Reading totals and imports

The live stats widget can show Session or Today for the active game. Changing games or reaching a session break resets the session view while today's totals remain game-specific. Long idle gaps are capped, and pause/resume boundaries no longer leak into reading-time estimates.

Pausing stats collection keeps mining available when text relays are enabled. A visible warning reminds you that stats are paused.

Import Kizuna sessions through Database → Import External Stats → Kizuna Import. Character counts, lines, and reading time appear in your stats, heatmap, charts, and goals. GSM matches games by VNDB ID or exact name and recognizes duplicate sessions. Use Replace previous Kizuna imports when importing a complete replacement export.

Defaults and compatibility to check after updating

• Repeated-line filtering is now enabled by default, including for existing profiles. If you want repeats, disable it in Text Processing; subsequent opt-outs are saved.
• Basic OCR moves to local ScreenAI unless you explicitly enable online scans; Advanced selections remain intact.
• Tadoku now signs in with an email address and password. Existing sync preferences are retained; enter the updated credentials if sign-in is required.
• Hachidori is updated from 0.2.2 to 0.3.0. Its dictionary storage is preserved across overlay-only restarts, full restarts, and extension updates. (Might have issues with this update, but after this update you should be set)