Achievement Watcher Next

Compatible sources

A source is one place AW Next can read achievements from: an official launcher’s local data, a Steam-compatible save file, or a console emulator’s trophy file. Every source is switched on or off individually in Settings → Sources.

_{Each source is a separate switch; the shield marks the official desktop libraries}

After enabling a source, refresh the library. Only libraries actually detected on this PC are shown.

Official platform libraries

These read the launcher’s own local data. They are marked with a shield in Settings.

Source	What AW Next reads	What it needs
Steam	Local appcache state, public-profile data, achievement schemas and cached product metadata	Steam installed, and your Steam profile set to public; connecting an account is optional
GOG Galaxy	The Galaxy client’s local databases, plus compatible legacy saves	GOG Galaxy installed
Ubisoft Connect	Native local data and legacy Uplay formats	Ubisoft Connect installed
Epic Games	Local installations, plus the games the account owns and their official achievement state once you connect an account	Epic Games launcher for local installs; an account connection for the rest
Xbox PC	Local Game Pass / Microsoft Store installs, plus the games the account owns and their Xbox Network achievement state	The Xbox app for local installs; an account connection for the rest

Steam, Epic Games and Xbox PC each have three settings rather than on/off: None, Installed (games on this PC) or Owned (the whole library that account owns). Owned lists games that are not installed here, which is what a PC with none of that store’s games installed needs; it requires the account connection below.

[!IMPORTANT] Steam only exposes your achievements while your profile is public. In Steam, open Profile → Edit Profile → Privacy Settings and set both My profile and Game details to Public. With either set to private, Steam returns nothing and the games appear with no progress.

[!NOTE] EA Desktop is deliberately different. It reads EA Desktop’s local achievement log for games that sit outside EA’s managed folders. It does not import your regular official EA library.

Connected accounts

Steam, Epic and Xbox PC can each optionally be connected from Settings, to read what the local files do not carry. Every token is encrypted before it is stored on this PC, and everything else works without any account at all.

Account	What connecting adds
Steam	Your real library, Steam Family titles included, so a private profile still lists the right games. Hide games no longer in your Steam library then removes the leftovers; a game installed on this PC or shared through Steam Family is never hidden. Sign-in happens on Valve’s own page.
Epic Games	Which achievements you have already unlocked, and with Owned the whole library the account holds - each game with its full achievement list, unlock state and rarity. Names, descriptions and rarity of an installed game work without it.
Xbox PC	Your Xbox PC library: unlock state and rarity from Xbox Network, cached locally afterwards. With Owned it also brings games the account has only played elsewhere.

A tile carries a small badge for what the connection established - bought on that store, shared through Steam Family, or no longer in your library - so the library says where a game came from rather than leaving you to guess.

Steam-compatible saves

AW Next reads the achievement and stats files written by Steam emulators - achievements.json, achievements.ini, achievements.bin, stats.ini and compatible layouts - from the locations those tools use.

That covers Goldberg and GBE Fork (the two AW Next can also install and repair), GreenLuma, LumaPlay, SmartSteamEmu, CreamAPI, the Nemirtingas emulators and scene releases writing a compatible layout. A game whose files are in a custom location can be added under Settings → Folders.

_{The folders AW Next checks on its own, and the ones you add - per-game saves or whole libraries}

Portable releases are the case worth knowing about. A CODEX/RUNE/CPY release normally writes to %PUBLIC%\Documents\Steam\<SOURCE>\<appid>, but a portable copy keeps that same tree inside the game folder, where nothing is looking for it. Adding the game’s own folder under Settings → Folders is enough: its steam_emu.ini (or cpy.ini) names the AppID, and the save tree is looked for beside it before the shared location. A game with no save written yet is still added, at 0%.

A release that ships no emulator config at all, or whose ini you deleted, works too: the save tree itself is read, since Steam\RUNE\<appid> carries the AppID in its folder name. The same layouts are probed one level below the folder you add, so pointing AW at your games library works as well as pointing it at one game.

When a folder cannot be used, AW says why: it holds a game but no readable unlock file, it holds nothing achievement related, or it is an EA app release. That last one never keeps achievements on disk - they live on the EA account and are read through the EA source - so no folder you add can make such a game appear. The message also names how many layouts were probed, so “nothing found here” is distinguishable from “not looked at”.

Two of these are a different shape and are handled separately:

• Goldberg SocialClub - the Rockstar / Social Club variant, with its own source switch.
• Uplay R2 - the Ubisoft equivalent of the Goldberg path, for compatible titles. It has no source switch of its own: the saves flow through the Steam emulator source, and its repair and loader tools live in Settings → Emulators → Ubisoft / Uplay R2. See Uplay R2 setup.

If a game using one of these shows no achievements, its Game Health panel names the missing piece - see Game Health and Goldberg / GBE setup.

Console emulators

Emulator	Console	Trophy / achievement file
RPCS3	PlayStation 3	TROPUSR.DAT beside the trophy list
ShadPS4	PlayStation 4	TROP*.XML, which holds the list and the earned state together
Xenia	Xbox 360	.gpd, which likewise holds both

Each one is watched live, so an unlock in the emulator raises a notification like any other.

All three let you move their data off the default path, and AW Next reads the same settings the emulator reads rather than assuming the default:

• RPCS3 - the trophy folder follows vfs.yml (including a $(EmulatorDir)-relative remap), a portable folder beside the executable, and RPCS3_CONFIG_DIR.
• ShadPS4 - recognised whether you point at the emulator, its user folder or game_data itself, and config.toml is read from either of the two places shadPS4 has kept it.
• Xenia - follows the storage_root and content_root in its config.

So a relocated RPCS3 virtual disk or a ShadPS4 data folder can be added under Settings → Folders directly, with no emulator executable anywhere near it.

Other sources

Source	What it is
Games for Windows LIVE	XLiveLessNess installs. Each profile’s unlock records are read, and the achievement list, its texts and its icons come out of the game’s own executable, so nothing has to be downloaded. Watched live.
FINAL FANTASY VII (2013)	That re-release predates Steamworks achievements and keeps its 36 unlocks in an 8-byte bitfield beside its saves, found in Documents without adding the folder by hand.
Import notification cache	Reads the background tracker’s own cache as an extra source of past unlocks.
Manually added games	A game added from a title and executable, with an optional platform and Steam AppID - see Advanced tools.

Steam metadata, without an API key

No Steam Web API key and no connected Steam account are used. Each game’s achievement list is fetched with a keyless chain: the official GetGameAchievements endpoint first (which carries hidden descriptions, icons and global rarity), then SteamHunters enriched with the SteamCommunity page, then SteamCommunity alone, and a browser scrape only as a last resort.

Results are cached per language in %APPDATA%\Achievement Watcher Next\steam_cache\schema, so local sources and previously seen games keep working offline.

Steam never announces when a game update adds achievements, so a cached list re-checks itself every 3 days and picks up anything new without ever removing an achievement already cached. To check immediately, use Settings → Advanced → Recheck achievement lists.

DLC and update achievements are tagged with the group that owns them (for example a Hearts of Stone tag) under the achievement title. The groups come from the same keyless lookup.

Sources you do not see

In Simple interface mode the Sources list folds away six niche rows - GreenLuma, LumaPlay, the two Nemirtingas emulators (the GOG and Epic save readers), Goldberg SocialClub and the notification-cache import - but only while a row is still enabled and no game in your library came from it. Switch one off, or own a game it detected, and its row comes straight back, so the interface mode can never hide the one control that would explain a missing game. Advanced always lists every source.

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Next: Notifications - choose how unlocks are announced.

Source-specific setup: Goldberg / GBE · Uplay R2 · Game Health

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