Transmission from RustForge: The Workshop Update🎙️
RustForge has officially entered a new era. With the release of Version 5.0, I am moving beyond local painting and opening the doors to a global community. This update introduces the highly anticipated Steam Workshop Integration, transforming how you share, discover, and preserve your digital masterpieces within the Rust Community.
The core engine remains the fastest, but now, the world is your canvas!
This update also introduces full Steam Cloud support!
The Community Hub: Steam Workshop Integration
The highlight of v5.0 is the full integration of the Steam Workshop. You no longer need to manually swap files or hunt for inspiration in your downloads/pictures folders, or endlessly search online for something to paint.
Integrated Workshop Library: Browse thousands of community-created paintings directly within RustForge. Our new "Live Sync" library allows you to view thumbnails of images you have subscribed to, and allows you to directly load it into RustForge without ever leaving the app.
One-Click Publishing: Ready to show off your work? The new Workshop Uploader handles everything, automatic thumbnail generation, smart tagging, and metadata packaging. Just title your work, set a description, pick your tags, privacy setting, and hit Submit.
Smart Filtering: Use the new category-driven tagging system to find exactly what you need, from "Industrial Labels" and "Clan Logos" to "Anime" and "Realistic Portraits."
Full Steam Cloud Save Support
Take your settings to any of your machines, without having to manually move your settings file!
Steam Cloud: Automatically saves your settings file to the Steam Cloud Server. This ensures no matter what device you load Rustforge on, your settings will always follow.
CPU Compatibility Mode
Users with high-end hardware (Intel Ultra 9, 13th/14th Gen, or AMD Ryzen 3D V-Cache series) were reporting "Horizontal Banding," missed pixels, or dashed lines. This occurs because modern CPUs use Hybrid Architecture (P-cores/E-cores) or complex caching that can conflict with high-precision system timers, causing the bot's "heartbeat" to skip a beat. I have introduced CPU Compatibility Mode in General Settings
What it does: It reverts the bot to the default Windows timer heartbeat, preventing "interrupt clashes" that cause banding on high-end systems.
Automatic Priority Boost: To further support Hybrid CPUs, RustForge now automatically requests High Process Priority during painting. This signals the Windows Thread Director to keep the painting task on your Performance Cores (P-cores) and away from slower Efficiency Cores (E-cores). When to enable this: Enable this setting if your drawings have gaps, stripes, or "unpainted specks," even if you have a top-tier PC.
Pro Tip: If you have an Intel Ultra 9 or i9 and still see issues, ensure this mode is ON and your Windows Power Plan is set to "High Performance."
High-DPI GUI Overhaul
As the engine has evolved, the interface needed to keep pace. I’ve rebuilt the UI layout to ensure a pixel-perfect experience across all hardware configurations.
Adaptive Scaling: Whether you are on a standard 1080p monitor or a 4K display at 150% scaling, the new Table-Logic grid ensures your controls and checkboxes stay perfectly aligned and readable.
Refined Workflow: The Workshop tools have been tucked into a dedicated menu strip, keeping your workspace clean while ensuring that uploading your work is always within reach when your masterpiece is finished.
Safety & Compliance
With the power of community sharing comes the responsibility of keeping the Workshop high-quality and safe for everyone.
Integrated Legal Check: To protect our creators and the platform, every upload is now preceded by a one-click legal certification. This ensures all content remains compliant with Steam’s guidelines regarding NSFW and copyrighted material. You also agree to Steams TOS when uploading to the Workshop.
Privacy Control: Full support for Steam Privacy settings. Publish your work to the Public, keep it Private for your own collection, or share it exclusively with Friends Only.
Stability & "The Bridge"
Under the hood, I’ve refined the connection between the ThreadMod Engine and Steam’s networking layer.
Async Processing: Uploads and downloads now happen in a background thread with a dedicated "Processing" interface. This means the app remains responsive and stable while communicating with Steam’s servers, preventing any "Not Responding" hangs during heavy data transfers.