First launch went straight to a Host/Join card picker with no
framing. Replaced with a two-phase onboarding:
WelcomeView — branded intro with the wordmark, three feature
bullets (2 min setup, free, works with regular Rec Room), and one
big "Get started" button. Dismissed via AppState.WelcomeSeen.
SetupView — multi-step wizard with a STEP X OF N indicator:
1. Host vs Join card picker (self-advances on click)
2. Rec Room install (shows auto-detected path with a green "we
found it" banner; Pick... overrides)
3. (Host only) Server name + WHO CAN JOIN radios
4. (Host only) Photon AppIds — "Open setup walkthrough" launches
the existing PhotonWizard, or paste fields below for advanced
users; live status line confirms when AppIds are set
5. Done card with Finish button
Join mode hops 2 -> done since it doesn't need server config or
Photon. AppState.SetupComplete gates entry; future launches skip
the wizard and route directly to HostView / JoinView. Existing
state files get auto-migrated on load (Mode set + RecRoomPath
populated = WelcomeSeen + SetupComplete backfilled to true, then
flushed). Settings -> "Re-run setup" clears the flag for users
who want to walk through again.
- RecRoomPicker.Detect: scan common manual-install paths (Documents/Recnet/dist, Downloads, C:\Games, etc.) on first run; never touches Steam libraries per policy
- RecRoomVersionDetector: three-signal cascade (version.txt -> PE timestamp -> file size) maps install to a manifest branch so version dropdown defaults correctly
- CloudflaredInstaller: download latest cloudflared-windows-amd64.exe from GitHub releases to %LOCALAPPDATA%\DorkNet on first host; resolves side-by-side -> cache -> PATH -> download
- LocalNetwork.GetLanIp + AppState.HostingMode (Internet|LocalNetwork) + Host view "WHO CAN JOIN?" radio: LAN-only mode skips Cloudflare entirely for families on one network
- OnHostStart branches on HostingMode; status text reflects local IP vs public tunnel URL
Initial v0.1 (commit df9dac0) used PhotinoNET wrapping WebView2 + HTML/JS,
but rendered as a blank window on first run — WebView2 + file:// URI
quirks. Switching to native WPF: built into the .NET 9 Windows SDK
(no NuGet), single-file self-contained publish, instant window open.
All Backend/*.cs orchestration logic carried over unchanged (they're
UI-framework-agnostic). Replaced:
- Program.cs (PhotinoNET bootstrap) -> App.xaml(.cs) + MainWindow.xaml(.cs)
- ui/index.html + style.css + app.js -> MainWindow.xaml (XAML views) +
App.xaml resource styles
- Backend/MessageBridge.cs (JS<->C# router) -> direct method calls in
MainWindow.xaml.cs code-behind
RecRoomPicker now uses Microsoft.Win32.OpenFolderDialog (added in .NET 8)
instead of WinForms FolderBrowserDialog — keeps the project WPF-only.
Backend files needed explicit 'using System.IO;' since the WPF SDK
doesn't include it in implicit usings.
Single-download .NET 9 self-contained launcher for hosting / joining
DorkNet servers. Reads versions.json from main to discover supported
client builds, fetches the matching server binary + client patcher
from GitHub Releases per branch, manages the server subprocess +
Cloudflare quick-tunnel, and wraps it all in a PhotinoNET window.
Code layout:
- Program.cs PhotinoNET window + message bridge bootstrap
- Backend/ AppPaths, AppState, VersionsManifest,
ReleaseDownloader, ServerProcess, ClientPatcher,
Tunnel, RecRoomPicker, JoinCode, MessageBridge
- ui/ index.html + style.css + app.js (no build step)
- RELEASES.md GitHub Releases artifact contract per-version
branches must publish to
Per-version branches need to ship two release assets per tag:
- dorknet-server-{version_key}-win-x64.zip
- dorknet-clientpatch-{version_key}.zip
(see launcher/RELEASES.md for the full naming + arg contract)
Photon AppIds, JWT secret, and the picked Rec Room path stay
per-machine; the launcher never bundles them.
Alexa