Experimental · 0.8.1.0

This guide describes the experimental branch. For the current public package, see stable downloads. Experimental overview.

Helpy desktop app

Helpy's interface now lives in Helpy.exe, in its own Windows process. RuneSchema.Helpy.dll stays in Dragonwilds as the small game bridge. Menus and the application window stay in the EXE; the optional native compositor draws its shared GPU frames inside the game. RuneSchema's core runs the validated game operations behind that bridge.

This is part of the 0.8.1.0 experimental build. Keep its matching core, bridge and executable together; the complete runtime package includes all three. An independent app archive is also available for replacing a matching EXE.

Startup and the system tray

Settings uses two panels: choose a category on the left and edit its controls on the right. Helpy contains startup, shortcuts, performance and cache preferences; RuneSchema contains the core configuration editor. Your existing settings files and saved preferences remain in use.

The category column stays visible. Short tabs across the right panel group related controls, and each tab scrolls independently. Helpy has Display, Startup, Cache, Performance, and Saves tabs. Home's Quick settings opens the same controls, so changes apply in either place. Preference switches apply immediately unless labelled for the next launch. Checkboxes select rows or confirm an action; circular radio buttons choose one alternative.

The same tab styling is used in Players, World, Utilities, Journal and Diagnostics. Smaller windows wrap the tabs instead of truncating their names. Only the visible content group is evaluated; browsing display or performance preferences does not read character/world launch choices.

This layout follows Microsoft's settings guidance and NN/g's tab guidance: related groups, concise labels, an obvious active state, and shallow nesting. RuneSchema's minimal menu inside UE4SS is unchanged.

1. Install main.dll, RuneSchema.Helpy.dll and Helpy.exe from the same build. The packaged app belongs beside the bridge in RuneSchema/plugins/RuneSchema.Helpy/dll/. The running copy is staged into %LOCALAPPDATA%/RSDragonwilds/RuneSchema/<platform>/apps/<installation>/.
2. When the plugin is enabled, Start Helpy with Dragonwilds defaults to on. The default Start in system tray mode opens no application window.
3. Press the configured Helpy shortcut while its game has focus, or click the RuneSchema icon in the Windows notification area beside the clock.
4. In Home > Quick settings, select Open window at startup to show the app immediately instead. Startup preferences apply next launch.

Windows controls which notification icons appear directly beside the clock and which appear under its overflow arrow. The app respects that choice. Right-click the tray icon for Open Helpy or Exit Helpy. Its tooltip identifies Steam, Game Pass, Epic or Server. Explorer restarting restores the icon without restarting the app. These controls use the Windows notification-area API.

Close to system tray is enabled by default. X or Alt+F4 then hides the window while keeping its process available; the minimize button also returns to the tray. Uncheck it to make X exit. Exit Helpy in Quick Settings or the tray always quits. If Windows cannot create the tray icon, Helpy retains a minimized taskbar window so it remains reachable.

Plugin settings are stored in settings/settings.jsonc:

Setting	Default	Effect
enabled	true	Enable the game's bridge/plugin.
startWithGame	true	Launch the app with its game.
openOnGameStart	false	Show a window instead of starting in the tray.
minimizeOnClose	true	Return X/Alt+F4 to the tray instead of exiting.

The retired standaloneDesktop label is ignored; there is one UI host. Disabling the game plugin does not prevent manually browsing the app offline. Headless servers retain bridge functionality without attempting to show a UI on a non-interactive Windows desktop.

Use it with the game closed

Double-click Helpy.exe to open its assigned installation. Browse saved item names/pictures, manage profiles and caches, edit settings, change next-launch mod order and import mod ZIPs. Existing validation, expected-content checks and backups apply. Enabled installed add-ons determine offline mod-cache visibility. After changing add-ons elsewhere, use Mods > Refresh to reconcile it. Right-click a missing-folder row for Remove missing entry, or use Remove all missing entries. These stage load-order list changes; choose Apply for next launch to save them. Installed folders are retained, and a folder that reappears before applying requires a refresh.

Uncached native discovery, live appearance rendering, item delivery and teleporting need the connected game and retain their native validation. A saved reference never proves gameplay availability. The bridge does not transfer cooked assets or make an absent mod usable.

Use Helpy over the game

Open Settings > Helpy > Display > Window & overlay (also available in Home's Quick settings) and set the Game overlay switch:

• Disabled - regular window: normal desktop behavior.
• Enabled - game overlay: a transparent panel fitted to the attached game.

Use Native in-game presentation to keep Dragonwilds foreground while Helpy renders the panel in its own process. The bridge composites shared GPU textures into the game's DX11, DX12, OpenGL or Vulkan frame and routes captured input to Helpy. Your normal Helpy shortcut opens/hides it; Hide returns input to the game. Opening the native panel does not activate Helpy's desktop window.

Choose the panel size, interface scale and background opacity in the same section. Native and DirectComposition panels keep text and controls opaque while the background stays translucent. Panel size applies on the next opening; scale and opacity update immediately. Native mode keeps secondary panels inside the game surface. Open Helpy from its system tray icon to use desktop windows and authoring file dialogs.

Vulkan needs Overlay appearance & Vulkan > Vulkan startup adapter > Enable Vulkan startup adapter for this runtime, followed by a game restart. This opt-in registers a small per-user selector; only enrolled game executables load the full bridge. Remove the runtime's enrollment with the same button. A separate Steam/Game Pass install keeps its own bridge path. Neither this option nor renderer detection changes the game's chosen graphics API.

Disable native presentation for the regular desktop overlay. That path uses DirectComposition and a flip-model surface where available, with a legacy fallback. It fits the attached game while visible, checks geometry at most four times per second, and releases its topmost state when another app takes focus. It is useful in borderless/windowed games, including OpenGL and Vulkan. Exclusive fullscreen should use native presentation; desktop windows can require a focus or display transition.

Native frames use three shared textures and GPU fences; they are not copied through CPU image buffers or the JSON bridge. Hidden panels stop UI rendering. Prepared graphics hooks pass through without drawing, input capture, scene scans or recurring service requests. A stalled app heartbeat or full input queue releases capture. DX12 presentation verifies the queue through back-buffer transitions rather than guessing among active queues.

The current native adapters target SDR and a shared GPU between game and Helpy. HDR, separate Vulkan graphics/present queue families and mismatched adapters produce an explicit status instead of using an unverified path. Driver-specific interop extensions are required for OpenGL and Vulkan. See the adapter notes for tests and remaining live acceptance work.

Controllers and offline access

Controller navigation offers Automatic, Mouse & keyboard and Controller modes. Automatic mode follows the latest input. XInput controllers use the normal UI navigation: directional controls select, A/Cross confirms, B/Circle backs out of a popup or hides the panel, and shoulder buttons switch sections. Item cards, cart rows, search buttons and inventory cards participate in keyboard/controller navigation. Controller mode adds a footer with button glyphs.

Choose Xbox, PlayStation or generic glyphs. XInput does not identify a physical PlayStation model; use Steam Input/an XInput driver and choose PlayStation glyphs. Text entry and Windows file dialogs still use normal desktop input. Device discovery runs on startup/device changes; state reads run only while Helpy renders.

On its first normal launch, Helpy creates RuneSchema Helpy (Steam), RuneSchema Helpy (Game Pass), RuneSchema Helpy (Epic Games) or RuneSchema Helpy (Server) on the user's Windows desktop. Steam, Epic and server shortcuts point to that installation's plugins/RuneSchema.Helpy/dll/Helpy.exe. Game Pass uses its hosted AppData executable with the runtime folder passed explicitly: launching another EXE inside its Windows package can activate Gaming Services instead. Each shortcut keeps its runtime binding, so caches and tools work offline. Existing shortcuts are preserved. Removing a shortcut does not cause it to be recreated on every launch; smoke tests and authoring worker jobs do not create desktop links.

Click the RuneSchema logo at the top of the navigation rail to return to the welcome splash. Settings drafts, item carts and caches remain intact; Enter returns to Home.

Quick Start readiness

Select Quick Launch, choose a native character and world, and save the launch options before restarting Dragonwilds. Normal mode does not enter a world automatically. The visible launch status in Quick settings reports why automatic loading is waiting or could not arm.

The startup fallback checks at most twice per second for a ready local menu, including a menu that existed before RuneSchema's map callback was registered. The three-minute frontend deadline starts when Quick Start arms. Character and world names must resolve before selection changes. Once native loading is requested, it is not replayed. Hold Shift in the game to use normal startup; Shift presses in unrelated background applications do not cancel it.

Unsupported native signatures, conflicting standalone QuickLoad installs, ambiguous saves and unavailable contracts still leave the normal menu usable. Quick Start does not bypass those checks or change the separate Save Bypass setting. Live startup testing is required for each supported game build.

Server access with a world PIN

This is an opt-in experimental alternative to the existing host allowlists. Install matching RuneSchema, Registry Bridge and networking components on the host and client. Keep the actual gameplay content installed on both sides.

For the host:

1. Open Settings > Server access > Host configuration (this installation).
2. Enable Allow pin access and enter an 8–64 character PIN without spaces. Prefer a long, unique code and share it only with intended players.
3. Enable Allow client item grants, Allow client teleport, or both. Set the maximum item count per request.
4. Choose Save host settings, then restart the host/server normally.

The equivalent settings in the host's settings/settings.ini are:

[helpyAuthority]
allowPinAccess = true
accessPin = "replace-with-your-private-world-code"
allowClientItemGrants = true
allowClientTeleport = true
maximumItemCount = 100

The PIN is stored in the host's private configuration file, not encrypted by RuneSchema. Do not distribute that configured file or include it in a public mod ZIP/support report. PIN authentication uses the existing game connection; this feature does not add a separate encrypted transport.

For a player:

1. Join the world with your character.
2. Open Settings > Server access, enter the host's PIN, and select Connect to server. Check the server's response.
3. Use the ordinary item cart for your own character, or the map's teleport action for a selected position. The server validates and executes the request.
4. Select Disconnect to revoke this access. Reconnect after changing character/world, restarting the host, rotating its PIN or an hour of inactivity.

The client clears the entered PIN after submission and does not persist it. Item delivery also requires verified item network IDs for that connection: either matching audited item lists or a verified authority-order proof. An unrelated extra registry lane does not reject delivery. Teleport permission does not relax the separate building-placement identity guard. Five failed attempts temporarily block that peer for one minute. A shared failed-attempt budget also protects reconnects; disconnecting does not clear failed authentication attempts. Sessions are bounded and tied to native character/world identities. A PIN does not authorize other-player targeting, building placement, actor spawning or server settings.

Accepted means the server queued the command. Helpy waits for a correlated result before calling a delivery confirmed. A missing result times out after 60 seconds without retrying the operation. If it is unconfirmed, inspect the inventory or current position before making another request.

Remote delivery/teleportation still needs live authenticated production acceptance testing. Keep it disabled on a public server until you have checked your matching build and intended content in a test world.

Registry notification preferences

Under Settings > Diagnostics, routine registry activity is quiet by default. Handshake progress, completion and nonblocking content differences remain in the diagnostic history and logs. Enable Show routine registry synchronization notices to also display them as toasts. Actual blocked placements, unrelated warnings and errors remain eligible for notifications; no validation is bypassed.

For an advanced shortcut:

Helpy.exe --runtime-root "D:\Game\RSDragonwilds\Binaries\WinGDK\ue4ss\Mods\RuneSchema" --platform gamepass

Both game launches and opening the packaged Helpy.exe ask Windows Explorer to launch that AppData copy. Helpy therefore runs outside the game's Windows package and inherits the desktop environment instead of keeping the Xbox or Steam game session alive. Its runtime.json binds it to the original installation; a new game session reconnects to the existing app. Copying and launch work happen once on a startup worker, with no recurring file polling. Exit Helpy before replacing a running app with a newer build.

Platforms: steam, gamepass, epic, server. Game auto-launch supplies its platform; specify it for ambiguous custom paths. Each installation gets one app instance and its own local bridge, so Steam and Game Pass can run separately.

Optional Game Pass game log

Open Diagnostics > Evidence > Options, then find Game Pass game log. Hover (?) for the instructions and current limits. Save logging shortcut… creates a Windows shortcut to your assigned Game Pass installation with -log and -ABSLOG arguments. Close Dragonwilds normally, then use that shortcut for the next launch. Copy launch command provides the same arguments as a PowerShell command.

The intended output is %LOCALAPPDATA%/RSDragonwilds/RuneSchema/gamepass/diagnostics/RSDragonwilds.log. Helpy automatically reads that file in the Game and EOS streams when it exists, keeping it separate from a simultaneous Steam session. Existing native logs remain available as a fallback. Saving the shortcut does not change Xbox's normal launch settings, restart the current game or enable verbose polling.

The shortcut requests native logging; it does not guarantee that a game build will produce a file. Shipping builds can disable logging at build time. See Epic's argument reference and Microsoft's GDK launch guide.

Responsiveness and background work

Diagnostics > Evidence > Options > Log folder includes Keep logs in UE4SS (next launch). This saves logsInUE4SS in that installation's settings.ini. Restart both Dragonwilds and Helpy to write RuneSchema.log, RSDiagLog.jsonl and Helpy-Desktop.log beside UE4SS.log; RuneSchema session archives use ue4ss/logs/. Existing logs stay where they are. Disabling the option restores the usual locations on the next launch. No background copying or extra polling is added. Cache storage remains in platform AppData.

Game Pass logging shortcuts created after changing the option use the selected folder for RSDragonwilds.log. Recreate older shortcuts. Native logs from other launchers require -ABSLOG="<absolute ue4ss path>/RSDragonwilds.log"; the toggle does not change those launchers' command lines. EOS shares the native game log.

The pipe is local to the same Windows user, rejects remote clients and validates the server PID/install directory. Messages contain bounded JSON, not native pointers. The app waits on an update notification instead of issuing an empty read every 200 ms. It coalesces activity for 40 ms and drains bounded FIFO batches (up to 16 events and roughly 1 MiB, allowing one larger validated event). Small health checks and a fallback for older bridges remain. Waiting never holds the request lock, so explicit item/teleport requests can proceed.

Read-only calls try a real reply buffer first, avoiding the routine size-probe round trip. Mutations reserve their required buffer and are never replayed after an unknown outcome. Response buffers are reused. Reconnection clears stale live state while cached browsing remains available.

Visible cached pictures are read together on the file worker and installed in small, time-bounded UI batches without waiting for native discovery. Already resident pictures are reused immediately. Missing pictures use at most four queued bridge requests; the game still captures one uncached icon at a time within its existing work budget. Successful requests do not impose a 100 ms pause before queuing the next icon. Newly captured pictures stay in the runtime cache for later searches and launches.

Cached searches prioritize matching name prefixes, then wrap through the remaining records so alternate names are still considered. Family matching also recognizes native armour identifiers such as Armour T5 Head Splitbark. Existing cached family rows stay browsable while bounded live checks continue. If a saved catalogue has an outdated or missing disk index, its first fallback read rebuilds that index on the file worker for later searches and launches. The original catalogue and source ownership checks are preserved.

The UI defaults to 60 FPS, adjustable from 15 to 144 in Quick Settings. Existing explicit limits remain respected. Unfocused windows use 10 FPS; tray windows do not render. The application's presentation pacing is independent of game refresh requests and the game's own frame limit.

Page bodies ease into view over 160 ms, with the background and navigation staying in place. Home tile exits take 200 ms; navigation remains responsive. Sidebar rows have rounded hover feedback and a clear active-page marker. Windows' Animation effects preference disables these transitions; Helpy reads that preference at startup and when Windows reports a settings change. It does not poll the setting each frame.

The frame limiter keeps a steady deadline after a slightly late frame instead of adding that delay to every later frame. Focused windows use a high-resolution waitable timer when available, with the existing message wait as a fallback. Waiting yields the UI thread and wakes for input; it does not busy-wait or call timeBeginPeriod. Hidden windows keep their existing no-render behavior.

The application, taskbar, Alt-Tab and system tray use the RuneSchema logo, embedded at ten sizes from 16 to 256 pixels. It is available offline and needs no downloaded artwork. Windows identifies the executable as RuneSchema Helpy.

Item Cart retains the latest delivery outcomes for reordering, without keeping unrelated catalogue or snapshot fields from acknowledgments. Completed request queues remain bounded and consumed acknowledgments are removed. Renderer shutdown drains pending icon reads and frees item, map, preview and wiki texture records before destroying their ImGui context. Cached files stay available for the next launch.

Quick Settings includes Exit Helpy when the game closes, saved as "exitWithGame": true in the Helpy plugin's settings/settings.jsonc. It is off by default and applies immediately. When enabled, Helpy exits fully after its attached game or dedicated server process ends, even if closing the window normally sends it to the tray. Temporary bridge disconnects do not close it. Starting Helpy offline still works; the setting follows a process only after attachment. Windows' process-exit event shares the existing desktop wait, without adding game queries or a polling worker.

A completed imported-cache search with no matches now falls through to the bounded mounted-item search. An older base-game cache cannot hide a newer mod item simply because its imported index finished first. Results found live are queued for the existing learned cache; ordinary cache hits remain available immediately.

By default the app keeps its own rotating 2 MiB log at %LOCALAPPDATA%/RSDragonwilds/RuneSchema/<platform>/diagnostics/Helpy-Desktop.log. It retains one previous log and never writes into the game's log. Runtime Details can show the installed Vortex icon as a mod manager, not a runtime.

Repair RuneSchema

With the assigned game or dedicated server closed, open Tools > Utilities > Repair and press Repair. The console shows recent RuneSchema/UE4SS warning lines as context, then reports each bundled base file as valid or needing repair. Log text never selects files or runs commands.

Helpy downloads the full GitHub release ZIP matching the installed core version and verifies GitHub's SHA-256 digest before using it. It checks dlls/main.dll, bundled Lua loaders, modmenu.json and files shipped in RuneSchema.Helpy, RuneSchema.RegistryBridge, RuneSchema.QuestItems and RSNetworking. Missing or changed base files are replaced in full; already valid files are left alone. User mods, settings, saves, caches and other plugins are outside this repair scope. UE4SS itself is not replaced.

Previous files and a repair receipt stay in the job folder under %LOCALAPPDATA%/RSDragonwilds/RuneSchema/core/tools/cache-builder/. Open repair report & backups opens that folder. Failed replacement attempts roll back earlier writes; any rollback problem is reported with its backup path. The console retains a bounded tail in the interface and its full file on disk. An active repair uses the existing explicit worker; there is no recurring scan.

Repair refuses loaded/locked files, redirected paths, ambiguous packages and unverified downloads. If this exact version has no published release package, the console explains that and leaves the installation untouched. It does not downgrade an experimental build to the latest stable release. Run repair locally on the server if a network installation is missing its main DLL.

Validation boundary

The migration requires matching application and runtime components. Native item/map gameplay and representative game-FPS/server-jitter measurements remain separate release checks. GUI services from third-party plugins are not a general RPC API; the built-in tools and native inventory-mark service retain their specific adapters. Desktop Version and registry JSON SchemaVersion labels are informational; shapes, owners, budgets, storage formats and ABI contracts still receive validation.

Native overlay readiness and failures are recorded in RuneSchema.log as RS-OVL-001 (a visible frame was presented), RS-OVL-002 (presentation could not open), and RS-OVL-003 (bridge ready/attached). They are logged on state changes rather than per frame and are not duplicated into UE4SS.log. See the diagnostic reference for checks. A ready bridge alone does not confirm that a frame is visible.