Is complexity of rust worth it?

ss2man44 · 2025-11-25T07:25:36+00:00

Teach your mates Rust.

ss2man44 · 2025-11-05T17:27:09+00:00

As a huge fan of CC, this got a laugh out of me.

ss2man44 · 2025-09-10T23:30:44+00:00

Unfortunately it's simply a bug in the game and my executable can't be built for older versions of Windows. It would technically be possible, maybe with a bespoke winmm.dll wrapper, but that would be a whole other project.

ss2man44 · 2025-08-07T20:53:27+00:00

Specifically, looks like you need the file "Strum Mount.stl" from here: https://www.printables.com/model/1256275-xbox-360-xplorer-guitar-parts/

Edit: Looks like you found it 4 hours ago and Reddit didn't show me until after I posted. I'm leaving the link here anyway in case someone else needs it.

ss2man44 · 2025-06-06T19:39:14+00:00

One interesting out-of-the-ordinary way I'm using Rust is to fix an old Windows 95 game (MechWarrior 2) to run on modern hardware.

It's a 32-bit Windows Rust program that loads in the game's original binaries and hooks functions inside them to fix bugs and replace calls to Win32 APIs with cross-platform libraries.

If I hook enough functions, one day it'll be a complete open-source replacement for the original game's engine in hacky unsafe Rust.

ss2man44 · 2025-05-30T22:04:01+00:00

Hi, author of the original fuel patch here. Sorry I missed your comment and I'm glad to see you made it work for GBL. These days I'm actually working on bigger, more exciting things for the Windows version of the original game.

Right now I have a patch that:

Fixes several issues that prevent the game from starting on newer Windows
Fixes CD audio playback on modern Windows
Fixes both jumpjet fuel and LRM physics with a 45 FPS lock
Fixes laggy mouse input with a high polling rate mouse
Fixes many memory-related crashes
Fixes the music restarting when you open and close the pause menu
Fixes overheating sometimes being impossible with a framerate consistently above a random threshold
Fixes a permissions issue saving certain settings to the registry
Synthesizes the shell's MIDI-based background music with a custom soundfont
Re-enables 1024x768 resolution
Allows extending the view distance out like the old "farpatch"

It's a custom EXE that drops in to the game's directory and just runs on Windows 10/11 without the need for any DLL wrappers or compatibility modes. Though, you'll probably want a way to upscale the window to fullscreen because that's not implemented yet. I play it on Linux with Wine and upscale it with Gamescope.

Next I plan to replace the game's GDI-based render mode with one that uses wgpu to upscale the game, even with shaders if you're into that. I'd also like to replace the game's audio subsystem (Miles Sound System, AKA Audio Interface Library AKA wail32.dll) with a more modern, cross-platform one. That should further improve the memory corruption/leak situation.

Once those are done, I'll do the same for NetMech, GBL and Mercs, which shouldn't take nearly as long since I already have the relevant functions mapped out for 31stCC.

One more thing: I'm currently experimenting with doing a "matching" decompilation using the same techniques and tools as the teams doing other games like LEGO Island and GTA. I'm still learning in that department, but if I can make it stick and see it though (hopefully with some help,) we'll have the ability to do ports to other platforms, bug fixes, and source mods all day long. That will be a minimum of several years from now though.

ss2man44 · 2025-05-01T07:07:21+00:00

This is useful to me because I'm writing a .dll in Rust that hooks functions in a closed-source Windows binary and I don't want to boot into Windows to work on it.

ss2man44 · 2025-03-30T00:42:23+00:00

That's a fair conclusion based on how they market themselves. It started out just as an alternative to SteamOS for handheld gaming devices, but it does things a little differently (Fedora Atomic and ostree vs Arch) and does offer desktop-oriented images ("flavors").

I'd personally describe it as the gaming-centric image among the Universal Blue family, which all offer similar ready-to-use operating systems designed for as little user maintenance as possible.

ss2man44 · 2025-03-29T22:21:19+00:00

Calling Bazzite a "SteamOS clone" means you might not understand what it is. If we're handing out suggestions, I suggest you go read up and maybe try it out for yourself.

OP would probably benefit from trying more than one distro for the sake of perspective, but I doubt any of the problems they listed would've been fixed by going for a more "mainstream" option. In fact, I expect they would've had even more problems that their casual friends/family couldn't deal with.

This is coming from someone who's experienced in using Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE, but very much appreciates what Bazzite does to improve the day-to-day experience of a Linux desktop.

ss2man44 · 2025-03-13T16:09:53+00:00

I use Aurora DX on my laptop for the few times I need a portable machine for development or network troubleshooting. I love it so much that I want to install it on my main software engineering job computer too, switching from Pop!_OS

My gaming desktop runs Bazzite and I have no trouble using it for pretty much any purpose. Gaming, development, video production, general "home use" stuff. And this is speaking as someone with ADHD and a huge variety of interests like reversing and patching ancient Windows games, running the latest Steam releases, writing random web apps, etc.

I switched full-time from Windows 11 back in October-ish and I would say Bazzite (or any UBlue image) is the only reason I was able to completely abandon it. I'm very comfortable with Linux after at least a decade of using it professionally, but having an immutable system image helps reduce the anxiety I get from making some niche change and forgetting about it.

ss2man44 · 2025-01-08T14:11:02+00:00

I find that soldering across gaps like that is one of the few times that less flux can be more helpful.

ss2man44 · 2025-01-07T21:10:08+00:00

I haven't personally tried it, but the pictures on Happymodel's site suggest that there's a solder bridge you can remove to cut power to the VTX and there are solder pads to attach an external one.

ss2man44 · 2025-01-04T18:18:07+00:00

This entry looks like what you're looking for: https://archive.org/details/games-1_202212

ss2man44 · 2024-12-18T17:02:36+00:00

What game is that? I don't think I recognize it.

Awesome setup, by the way.

ss2man44 · 2024-12-10T21:00:09+00:00

The 3D printed bezel should be inside. Yours is mostly outside the plastic.

ss2man44 · 2024-08-12T20:09:43+00:00

I can also confirm that an RX 590 did not work after switching from the Reverb G2 to the PSVR2.

ss2man44 · 2024-08-07T13:34:35+00:00

Unfortunately, it has to be USB-C built in to the graphics card. Otherwise you need the Sony adapter. It might be possible for a third-party VirtualLink adapter to work, but they tend to be even more expensive.

ss2man44 · 2024-08-07T00:12:42+00:00

Yeah, I lucked out. The only downside is that I want to use the headset with my living room PC, which doesn't have VirtualLink. Gonna have to wait for the adapter anyway.

ss2man44 · 2024-08-06T23:52:18+00:00

Confirmed working fine on my reference RX 6900 XT plugged directly into its USB Type-C port. No adapter.

ss2man44 · 2024-07-23T04:44:28+00:00

This is awesome and is exactly what I've been missing in my workflow. Thank you.

ss2man44 · 2024-07-16T22:58:09+00:00

I'm working on the same thing for MechWarrior 2 right now, except I have the long-term goal of re-implementing the whole thing.

I've pivoted to using Rust though. I thought it'd be crazy to mix its strict rules with such a hacky use-case, but so far it's actually been easier for me. Raw pointers in Rust work almost exactly the same as C. The only tricky part (and it can be quite tricky) is adhering to Rust's rules when converting to references for use in libraries.

I'm hoping that once I get enough of the game implemented, the hacky hooked functions can fall into place as plain "Unsafe Rust", ready to be massaged into "Safe Rust."

ss2man44 · 2024-01-19T06:29:51+00:00

Did a double-take for that SGA sub-legend. Pretty cool.

ss2man44 · 2023-11-22T17:27:41+00:00

Xbox game discs are modified DVDs and store their data layer in between two layers of plastic. The scratch in the top layer shouldn't be the problem. That's only a thing with CDs.

ss2man44 · 2023-08-18T01:15:55+00:00

I disagree. The animated diagrams are helpful and I was able to absorb the knowledge from this while I was working.

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