Unrelated to anything in this post, I just found this Gauntlet solution genuinely cool and satisfying.
Greetings, Hard Chip players!
Big toolbox update time! 🎉 This one might look a little more "under the hood" at first glance, but it sets up a bunch of future goodies. I shipped a brand‑new complete community-made localization (Italian 🇮🇹, thanks to ir_trevi 🙏), spun up the external wiki (once more with help from the community), rewired the online validation stack into shiny headless containers, shaved build times, gave the UI a sprinkle of quality, and tightened a few challenge cheeses. Let's tour the highlights of versions 0.1.7.104 - 0.1.7.111.
1. NEW Online Wiki (hardchip.wiki.gg)
The old static Reference finally burst out of its window and moved into the open world: hardchip.wiki.gg is live. Faster updates, community eyes, and less waiting for a patch just to fix a wording nit. The in‑game modals you already opened still work (the one used during the tutorial), but the beating heart of knowledge now lives on the web.
The new external wiki hub replacing the old in‑game static Reference
Feel free to contribute to anything you find that is missing and you think would help!
📚 Changelog (wiki related):
NEW Reference replaced by a new online wiki (legacy help modals still accessible)
MI Wiki update texts
MI Wiki update texts (website links)
TSL Update wiki texts and typos
2. NEW Italian Localization & Translation Passes
Benvenuti! Italian is fully in. Not a half‑pass, the whole thing—menus, gameplay strings, UI bits. While doing that, I vacuumed lingering duplicate keys, normalized resource files, and improved the sync script so future language tweaks are painless. Now the localization repo is the source of truth for localization. Small fixes landed for FR/DE/RU as collateral polish. Thanks again to our community member ir_trevi for his massive contribution to make this happen!
Fully localized UI with Italian
🌍 Changelog:
NEW Italian localization
NEW Verified Italian translation
MI Italian settings
MI Import new language from localization repo
MI Update Italian in the updates section
TSL Italian finalized
TSL Italian, French, German corrections and missing strings
TSL Duplicated keys removed
MI All resx files formatted and from the localization repo
MI Sync English out fix/Script to synchronize English back
DEV Localization synchronisation script
FIX Italian unselectable after the welcome screen
FIX Custom language charset bundling crash
TSL Loss float keys and Photomode uses them
TSL HC/Steam name translations
MI Typos / TSL Typos cleanup
3. UX & Interface
Lots of paper cuts gone. Helper tooltips no longer wrestle the camera. Terminals finally scroll (big multi‑line dumps are readable). You can fast‑skip the intro with a click too now. Photomode shows float/loss stats. New tips introduce IO placement. It's the kind of quiet UX sweep that just makes building feel smoother.
Graphs without "holes"
🧩 Changelog:
NEW Tips for input/output placement and interleaving options
UI Add float/loss in photomode
UX Helper floating tooltip always on top & disables camera inputs when shown
UX Scrollable terminals
UX Intro can be skipped by mouse click
UX Disabling photomode & export in report window when showing last checked with no prior validation
UX Connection status icons are green or red in the report window
FIX Always showing the outdated tooltip
FIX Bucket holes when calculating graphs
4. Challenge Balancing, Anti‑Cheese
Cheese patrol out again. A few sneaky tristate/stepping oddities got sealed, grading nudged to make early brute‑force less rewarding and clever minimization more satisfying. Added consistency checks so edge timing races don't silently skew a score. Cleaner, fairer leaderboard data going forward.
🧪 Changelog:
GRD NAND harder
GRD OR revised
GRD NOR revised harder
GRD for 3bit majority function
FIX Cheese tristate
FIX Cheese stepping
FIX Short consistency cache issue (race condition) + test case
5. Online Validation & Scoring Infrastructure
The validation brain is mid‑migration to a headless container stack: Score ingest pieces, cache sync layers, and health/resiliency guards coming online in slices. It already runs in a safe read‑only mode while I finish this. Goal: faster turnaround, fewer mysterious hangs, and a solid foundation for future competitive cycles. Note: Now some parts of Hard Chip's code run in Linux.
New headless validation server
🖥️ Changelog (core infra & services):
SRV Score ingest endpoint
SRV Phasing out old scores API part 1
SRV Online validation headless validator
SRV Online validation Score cache sync
SRV Online validation Submissions cache sync
SRV Validation run report
SRV Handling file failure
SRV Test connections / active connections commands
SRV Resiliency logic & error handling runtime
SRV Permission issues addressed
SRV Removing magic numbers & using build configuration for dev experience
SRV Necessary splashscreen (service boot splashscreen)
SRV Score ingest & cache sync items reinforcing integrity
MI HeadlessValidationRunnerOrchestrator tests
MI Running tests on release
MI Headless orchestrator & tests (consistency)
MI Validation tools / Challenges Runner helper
MI Tools admin rewrite clients
MI Admin tools restoring reviewer & score stats tabs
MI Path helper for admin
MI Challenges Runner helper class / Validation tools
MI HCData Functions
MI Helper (support tooling)
SRV Skip first submissions if already validated
SRV Online validation part run headless validator (duplicate log alignment)
MI Dockerization + full Linux containerization for the server
MI Splitting Admin and Admin.Core to avoid linking to the content project
MI HardChip.Core framework retargetable
MI Dependencies are not built with the solution now (selective build)
MI Tests expansion & running on release
6. Build, Performance & Pipeline Optimizations
Ship faster, test sooner. Asset/data splits, shrink rebuilds, packaging is less brittle, and selective dependency builds keep the IDE from melting. Not flashy on screen, but it means more feature time instead of coffee‑watching compile bars.
Improved build & validation pipeline for faster iteration
⚙️ Changelog:
MI Splitting assets/data build for faster build times
MI Build process copy fix & release packaging build process restored
MI Script for dev setup
MI Script to synchronize English back (localization pipeline tie‑in)
MI Running tests on release (continuous validation)
MI Tests targets frameworks adjustments/test files setup
MI HardChip.Core retargetable (also under infra but performance-adjacent)
MI Code Cleanup
MI Dependencies isolated from solution build
MI Looping command for validation (docker ready)
MI Splitting Admin / Admin.Core (faster partial rebuilds)
MI GZiper and tests
7. Quality of Life Improvements & Bug Fixes
Smaller but important stability and correctness improvements are landing alongside the headline features:
PERF ILoopRunner: new Task‑based implementation (avoids busy shutdown issues)
FIX Crash: tentative select segment while copying
FIX Crash on twice status on the material bank1 at first
FIX always showing the outdated tooltip (UX noise)
This update was a foundation pour: scalable validation, a living wiki, a new language, smoother UX, less Cheese. Not the flashiest fireworks yet—but it unlocks faster iteration for the next.
If you spot a stray mistranslation, a wiki link that 404s, or a validation hiccup, ping me on Discord! It helps tighten the loop.
Your feedback continues to drive Hard Chip's development. Join our Discord server to share your thoughts, report any issues with the new features, or suggest ideas!
Thank you for playing Hard Chip 🙏. Stay tuned for more exciting updates and features in the coming weeks!