Both documents come from the ReSkate backend (GET /api/v1/legal/privacy and /terms, edited on its
Legal page), so a change reaches players without a release. Settings has a button for each, opening
a panel like the changelogs': title, version and date, the Markdown drawn as the README viewer draws
it, and a switch to the other one.
Each launch looks up the current versions (GET /api/v1/legal) in the background. One newer than
the player agreed to, or none agreed to yet, puts up an agreement over the home screen: a short
summary, a way into each document, QUIT and I AGREE, which saves the versions agreed to
(accepted_privacy_version, accepted_terms_version in the launcher's settings). A backend that
cannot be reached holds nobody up. Launches that skip the window (--no-gui, Discord joins) are
not asked.
The update check reads GitHub's release list either way (one call, as before) and notes whether a
pre-release newer than the latest release is there; the setting is offered only then, or while it
is on so it can be turned off. Unreachable GitHub keeps what the last check found.
Flipping "Install ReSkate updates" or "Test pre-releases" saves and checks again straight away, so
PLAY or the update button changes to match: updates off while one is offered goes back to PLAY,
pre-releases on offers the pre-release, off the latest release. A flip while a check is running is
checked as soon as it ends (each frame asks; it only compares two settings).
Settings > Launcher > "Test pre-releases" (off by default). On, the update
check takes the newest GitHub release that is not a draft and carries a
launcher.json, pre-release or not, in place of the latest full release:
a pre-release newer than the last release is installed, pinned by size
and SHA-256 as any release is. Turned off, the next check goes back to
the latest release, whose files then replace the pre-release's.
- The update notice says "Pre-release" for one, and the log names which
kind of release was taken.
- The changelog shows the release the setting picks, marked as a
pre-release, and is fetched again when the setting changes.
- --no-gui launches follow the same setting.
Changelogs. The launcher's main screen has a CHANGELOGS tile in the
bottom-left corner. It opens a panel with the newest GitHub release: its
tag, title, date and notes. The notes are the release's description, read
as markdown and drawn like a mod's README (headings, bullets, code, rules).
A release published without a description shows what its GitHub page shows,
the tagged commit's message, taken from the releases feed. Fetched once,
the first time the panel opens; "Open on GitHub" goes to the releases page.
Download total. On GET MODS, the bar for ticked mods now gives the size of
what installing them downloads: "3 mods selected / 1.27 GB to download".
It is the sum of each mod's newest version as Thunderstore lists it.
Discord joins. The command the game registers for Discord to start ReSkate
now passes --no-gui, so pressing Join with the game closed goes straight
into the game instead of stopping at the launcher window.
--no-gui with no other launch flags now starts the game with the launcher's
saved settings (window size, menu and console keys, loose files, GPU
diagnostics, Discord status, offline, log level, extra launch options), as
pressing PLAY does. With flags of its own it behaves as before.
Mod Options. The pause menu's "Custom Stuff" page is renamed "Mod Options",
in the menu, the READMEs and the comments.
Not tested in game: the Discord join with the game closed, and the renamed
page. The changelog panel has only been seen with the earlier API-only
fetch.
- The focus starts on PLAY when the launcher opens with a pad connected, and
on the open tab (GAME, MY MODS) when the pad opens Settings or the Mod
manager.
- List rows act as one item: up and down go from row to row in one press,
and a row's buttons take the focus only from the row (D-pad right).
- D-pad left and right between the rail and a list: ImGui looks to the side
only along a thin band through the focus and missed items level with the
gap between two rows, so a side move that finds nothing looks again across
the focus's full height.
- The left stick scrolls the panel under the pointer directly instead of
through wheel events, which queued behind the pointer's moves.
- On a Steam Deck (SteamDeck=1) the right stick gets a trackpad's feel: small
swipes move the pointer, and the glide after the thumb lifts is cut.
- The MODS tile shows the skate tool again, faded like the wheel on
SETTINGS. Thunderstore's mark is no longer drawn there
- The mod manager's Thunderstore button is laid out as a link sign, the
name, then Thunderstore's mark at the far end, so it is plainly a way
out to a website. The sign is drawn (a box with an arrow leaving its
corner); the name is no longer in capitals
- It keeps Thunderstore's green on its dark blue and its height
- The MODS tile shows Thunderstore's mark in its own green instead of
the skate tool, which stays as the fallback when the mark is not
built in
- "Open Thunderstore" in the mod manager is a branded button: the mark
and name in Thunderstore green on its dark blue, taller than the
plain buttons beside it
- The mark is a new asset, assets/launcher/icon_thunderstore.png,
embedded like the other tile icons
- A disabled mod's update is no longer asked about before PLAY or
counted on the MODS tile, and "UPDATE AND PLAY" no longer installs
it. A disabled mod does not load, so its update stays on the Mods
page, where it can still be updated by choice
A mod update was only visible on the mod manager's own page, so the
usual way to find one was a mod behaving oddly in game.
- PLAY carries a pill in its corner while Thunderstore has newer
versions: "1 MOD UPDATE", or the count. Dark on the blue tile, blue on
a grey one.
- Pressing it asks first, listing each mod and the version it would move
to, with three ways on: update them and play, open the mod manager, or
play anyway. Playing on the versions you have is a real choice -- a map
you are part-way through, an update you do not trust yet -- so it stays
offered, and taking it is remembered for the session rather than asked
again on every launch.
- Only from READY. INSTALL, DOWNLOAD, UPDATE and RETRY are untouched: a
mod update has no business standing between someone and a 14 GB game
download.
- The dialog re-checks as it draws. If the pending list emptied while it
was open, it launches instead of showing an empty box.
"Update them and play" launches when the install finishes, which is what
it says and what it did not do:
- The promise is only made if the install really started, so a refused
start cannot launch instantly with nothing updated.
- An update that failed stays on the page with the reason on screen and
logs why it did not launch. Starting the game on a half-updated mod set
is how the cosmetic crash in a30a838 happened.
- Leaving the page with BACK cancels it: that is a change of mind, not a
request to be launched into the game a minute later.
collect_install takes the result under the panel's mutex at the top of
the frame, so once installing is false the outcome is settled and the
error check is reading the real answer.
A mod the merge could not use was left out silently. The game started
without it, three minutes into a loading screen, and only ReSkate.log said
which one.
Merging before launch
- PLAY runs the merge the game would have run behind its splash, on the
launcher's worker, with the step and progress on the STATUS tile
(Phase::merging). The launcher links dingosdk_mods for it, which costs
about 600 KB of exe.
- When every mod merges, the launch goes ahead and the game's own
load_catalog finds the patch already built, so the splash is shorter
rather than the work being done twice.
- When mods were left out, the launch stops at Phase::mods_broken and a
dialog names each one and its first problem, with three ways on: switch
them off and play (which writes mods.json, so the next launch does not
rediscover it the hard way), open the mod manager, or play anyway.
- Mods built for another game version do not block. They already have
their own notice and message box, and blocking on them would stop play
after every Steam update.
- The launcher resolves -dataPath out of the extra-arguments setting, so
it merges against the root the game will read.
One SDK identity for both binaries
- Two places recorded "which ReSkate did this" as the module the code was
running in, which is ReSkate.dll in the game and ReSkateLauncher.exe in
the launcher now that both merge. merge_fingerprint hashes it, so the
game matched no stamp the launcher wrote and merged everything a second
time; sdk_identity keys the exclusions file, so each would have called
the other's exclusions stale.
- Both now name ReSkate.dll beside the running executable. Skate.exe and
ReSkateLauncher.exe sit beside it and launch.cpp enforces that, so the
two agree, and unlike the data root it does not move under -dataPath.
The value is unchanged from what the runtime computed before, so nothing
re-merges on upgrade.
Naming the mod
- In game, a mod left out of the merge altogether said nothing on screen:
only a mod that merged partially did, which is the lesser failure. Both
are named now.
- The MOD MANAGER tile says which mod did not load, in the detail line's
colour rather than a pill, clipped so a long name cannot run under the
tile's artwork.
- MY MODS carries a line naming them above the list, and NOT LOADED and
OUTDATED are badges on the row instead of words at the front of its
summary.
MY MODS reaches Thunderstore parity
- Rows carry the package's icon, the same one the store shows, through a
shared mod_icon(); a mod that never came from Thunderstore keeps the
placeholder.
- An update is a button on the row, not a badge you had to open the mod to
act on, and every row has Uninstall. Rows grew to fit, and "Remove" is
"Uninstall" throughout.
- No pill for a mod that is up to date: the absence of an update button
says it, and eight green pills said nothing eight times.
Fixes
- The install panel was drawn on the Mods page's own draw list after its
children, and ImGui renders a child after its parent, so it was painted
behind the mod rows along with its Cancel button: installs ran with no
sign of it. It is its own window over the page now.
- pump_icons, which uploads decoded icons, only ran on the store page, so
MY MODS showed placeholders until a visit to GET MODS uploaded them for
it. The page does it for both lists.
- The merge dialog's closing advice overlapped its buttons.
The mod browser was a 960x620 panel inside a 1180x680 window, reached from
a tile the same size as SETTINGS. People could not find it, and once they
did there was room for about six mods.
Window
- The design size is 1440x840. Everything is laid out in design units and
multiplied by g_scale, which now scales down when that would not fit the
screen's work area, so a small laptop or a high DPI no longer gets a
window running off under the taskbar.
- The MODS tile is MOD MANAGER: taller than SETTINGS, directly above PLAY,
with the pending update count as a pill on its subtitle line.
- background.jpg is 1920x1027, so the bigger window is not upscaling a
1280x720 photo.
Mod manager, a page rather than a panel
- begin_page fills the window and draws its own minimise and close, since
it covers the main screen's. BACK or Escape leaves it.
- A nav rail holds MY MODS and GET MODS (count badges, blue for the open
one), the install actions and BACK. Refresh sits with what it refreshes,
top right of the content.
- Every mod is a full-width row: icon, name, author, description, version
and downloads, with a blue INSTALL or UPDATE and a tick box on the right.
Ticking several installs them in one run.
- Clicking a row opens that mod's overview in a popup, replacing the
side-by-side details pane that halved the list's width.
- virtual_rows draws only the rows a scrolling child actually shows.
ImGuiListClipper cannot do this, as it assumes every row is a fixed
height.
- Installing is a centred panel over a dimmed page with the activity, a
striped bar and Cancel, instead of a progress bar in the footer.
Settings
- The same page and rail: GAME, DISPLAY, KEYS and ADVANCED are nav tiles
rather than a row of tab buttons, and the content keeps to a 760 px
column so the explanations stay a readable measure.
- The Steam sign-in, Steam Guard and QR dialogs stay centred panels. They
are prompts, not pages.
Status and failures
- The STATUS tile carries its state in a coloured edge and a pill (WORKING,
READY, ACTION NEEDED, PROBLEM), its headline is 22 pt over muted detail,
and the standing facts (game build, ReSkate version) sit under a rule
instead of competing with the live status as equal rows.
- Launcher::fail keeps the raw message for the log, and problem.h turns it
into a headline and the next thing to try. The injection and PE-identity
failures ("VirtualAllocEx failed", "Injected ReSkate.dll is not present
in the child module list") all become "ReSkate could not attach to
Skate", with the anti-virus and overlay advice that actually fixes it;
the Steam download, a missing or damaged ReSkate.dll, the content cache
and a shared menu/console key each get their own. Anything unmatched
keeps its raw text.
- A failed tile grows Open logs and Copy details. Copy details puts the raw
message and the versions on the clipboard, ready to paste into Discord.
Mesh streaming pool (fixes loading crashes on older GPUs)
- 1.0.0 forced MeshStreaming.PoolSize to 3.5 GiB on every card. An RX 580
crashed while loading with DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_RESET, and the oversized pool
is the likely cause. The pool is now a quarter of the largest hardware
adapter's dedicated video memory, capped at 3.5 GiB; cards of 6 GB or less
keep the game's own 520 MB. The card, its memory and the chosen size are
logged once at startup.
Remote players (busy servers)
- Transform interpolate is inline plain arithmetic: 22 -> 5.8 ns per joint.
It was 4% of a busy server's client frame, since every player within
200 m has the whole skeleton interpolated every frame.
- Players out of the camera's view and more than 8 m away are sampled at
20 Hz, like far players. Their position still updates every frame for
collision, sound and nametags, and a player coming into view is sampled
that frame.
Expression hooks (run for every expression the game executes)
- No profiler zones in the expression hooks: taking a sample switched them
on, inflating the very samples that measured the hooks.
- The throwdown lab pump does one sorted lookup of the running graph and
skips everything else for graphs it doesn't watch (graph_throttle gets
throttled_graph for this).
Settings and memory reads
- Script gameplay-setting and native-setting gets are served from small
per-thread caches, keyed on the asset/key address, its first 8 name
bytes and a new profile::Store::changes() counter, instead of a store
lookup each call.
- Per-frame reads in the client tick, native settings and population
controls use memory::peek instead of ReadProcessMemory.
- Script error logging probes each argument pointer once.
Launcher
- "Close the launcher when Skate starts" now hides the launcher and exits
when Skate.exe does, instead of exiting as the splash opens. Outside a
Steam library, Skate's protection closed the game (TerminateProcess 0x32)
when the launcher exited during startup; players confirmed turning the
setting off avoided it.
- STATUS tile warns when Steam isn't open or signed in that PLAY starts
offline as Unknown Player (hidden when Offline mode is chosen or while
launching).
- Setting description updated to match.
Startup interventions (20260929)
- exit_return 0x87755f2 -> 0x87fe7fb: the last LEA RSP,[RSP]; JMP stub
before the PUSHFQ / LOCK CMPXCHG routine, as 0x87367cf was in 20260908,
and the return address player logs show. Only enforced once a frame site
is armed; this build's protector has no equivalent rep stosb frame clear.
Client frame cost (profiled 2026-10-02)
- Transform interpolate is inline plain arithmetic (~1% of an MP frame).
- Script gameplay-setting and native-setting gets are served from small
per-thread caches keyed on asset/key address, name prefix and a new
profile::Store::changes() counter, instead of a store lookup each call.
- Hot-path reads in client tick, native settings and population controls
use memory::peek instead of ReadProcessMemory.
- Script error logging probes each argument pointer once.
AyeZeeBB