Pause Cutscenes Using Nyrna: How It Works

Nyrna is a nifty little program that will suspend the game of your choosing. By using it, you can use it to suspend a cutscene, effectively pausing it.

Here is to get it working:

1. Download Nyrna from its download page.
2. Install it and follow the instructions.
3. Make sure Nyrna is opened with administrator rights (Right-click icon, run as administrator. Restart the program if already opened).
4. Start the game with cutscenes you want to pause.
5. Go into the options of Nyrna (cog window on the top right).
6. If you are pausing cutscenes to tab out, enable the option “Minimize / restore windows”. If you are pausing cutscenes for other reasons (more time to read, attending to children, …), make sure it’s disabled.
7. Scroll down and press the plus key below “App specific hotkeys”.
8. Select the game you opened in step 3 from the list, then select the hotkey for pausing/unpausing cutscenes. Use a hotkey that you don’t need inside the game you are running.

   If you are tabbing out of the game, also make sure it’s not a key you need to use often in your other windows. Nyrna overwrites the functionality of keys outside of the game as well. I first tried using the backspace key as a hotkey to tab out and reply to emails. Not the smartest idea unless you never typo.

9. All done! You should now be able to pause cutscenes whenever you want.

Does Nyrna Work on Every Game?

Unfortunately you can’t use Nyrna to pause cutscenes in every game, but it does work on the majority of games I tried. First of all, make sure you are running the program in administrator mode (see step 3 above). This will increase compatibility a lot, but not to 100%. Some games resist suspension, some games will keep running the cutscene even while suspended.

There is also a slight chance that the game will crash, so make sure to save often. On the games I tested, I suspended and resuspended them several hundred of times and crashed twice. Once was by stress-testing the program, the other was random.

Considering a large part of my tests were on Kingdom Come: Deliverance, not the most stable game and resource-heavy, I would say Nyrna is quite stable. But there is still some level of risk, so it’s better for me to be upfront about it.

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ELO Is an Acronym, Right? What Does It Stand For?

ELO is not an acronym that stands for anything. Instead, it refers to the inventor of the system, Hungarian-American physics professor Arpad Elo. Technically this means that the correct way to write the term is Elo ranking, without caps. But in recent years, ELO is the most recognized way of referring to this topic and this article follows that convention.

What Is the Original Purpose of ELO?

The original use of ELO was for chess matches. In chess, there are many levels of skills that are significantly different. Unlike many other disciplines, it is nearly impossible to beat an opponent of a different skill category through luck. A one-sided beatdown is not very fun, so it made sense to come up with a ranking system.

Are Ranking Systems Necessary in Gaming?

That is a heavily debated topic. The advantages are fair (or at least fairer) matchups, while the disadvantages are complaints from higher-ranked players. In less populated games, having a too strict ELO system may also lead to long waiting times.

Ranking systems are received better in some games than in other games. In Fall Guys, for example, higher-ranking players used to crushing the opposition did not like getting matched up with equally skilled opponents. In other games, such as Real-Time Strategy games, players are more receptive and even expect ranking systems.

Players often speak out against ranking systems for feeling too ‘sweaty’. Not having a ranking system at all, however, leads to many new players not sticking along for long. An alternative is to have both a ranked mode with a ranking system and an open mode (if a game’s population allows multiple modes).

Displayed Ranking vs. ELO (Sometimes Considered Fake ELO)

In some games, such as Hearthstone Battlegrounds, your displayed rank is not actually your ELO ranking in the system. Using that game as an example, your displayed rank is often a bit higher than your actual ranking. This allows players to get a sense of progression, even when their ranks stay relatively stable.

In each Battlegrounds season, your displayed ranking resets to 0. Your ranking behind the scenes stays the same, however. The lower your displayed ranking, the more it increases with each win and the less it decreases with each loss. This allows for even more perceived progression. Needless to say, this system has not only supporters but opposers as well.

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