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Releasing

Maintainer notes for cutting a new version of Trueforce For All.

Releases are built locally. The plugin csproj references SimHub's redistributable DLLs by hint path under $(SimHubPath), so a CI runner without SimHub installed can't compile it. There is no GitHub Actions workflow for releases. The build, tag, and draft-release flow below is the whole process.

The csproj <Version> is the single source of truth for the release. It populates the assembly version, which is what the in-panel header readout, the diagnostics block, the changelog dialog, and the auto-updater all read at runtime. The installer build picks it up via the TRUEFORCEFORALL_VERSION environment variable (step 6 below); set that to the same value.

If you edit EULA.txt or LICENSE, bump #define LegalRevision in installer/TrueforceForAll.iss. The installer records the revision each user agreed to and skips the license + EULA pages on a later update only while it still matches; bumping forces those pages to be shown (and re-accepted) once after the text changes.

For each release:

  1. Bump <Version>X.Y.Z</Version> in src/TrueforceForAll.Plugin/TrueforceForAll.Plugin.csproj. This drives the assembly version, the in-panel header readout, the auto-updater's "current version," and the User-Agent it sends to GitHub.

  2. Update README.md if any user-visible feature changed (especially the supported-games or wheels tables, install steps, known limitations).

  3. Changelog / What's new:

    • The GitHub release notes are the canonical "What's new" source. The in-app What's-new modal fetches and renders the published release body (RenderReleaseNotes), so notes can be fixed post-release without a plugin update. A normal fix/hotfix release needs no EffectChangelog entry.
    • EffectChangelog.cs has two separate jobs:
      • Badge registry (KnownEffectIds): when the release adds a new effect, append its ID here (append-only, match TrueforcePlugin.SectionKind names). This is what fires the per-section "NEW" badge on upgrade. Required for a new effect, irrelevant otherwise.
      • Offline changelog (Versions): the structured fallback rendered when the GitHub notes can't be fetched. Optional. To populate it, just mirror the release's GitHub notes into a ChangelogVersion (one ChangelogEntry per note); set EffectId on any entry that is a new effect so it also fires the badge.
    • A new effect's Enabled default is a case-by-case call. Default-off is the safe baseline (the NEW badge surfaces it without changing how the wheel feels on upgrade); an effect most users will clearly want can ship on instead (the rev limiter does). Either way, keep its CarOverride slot nullable (= use global) so existing presets and per-car overrides inherit the chosen default with no migration.

  4. Hardware-validate any new telemetry source or game-detection change on the rig before tagging.

  5. Commit the version bump (plus any README / changelog changes) to main and push it.

  6. Build the installer locally. TRUEFORCEFORALL_VERSION must be set to the release version before invoking iscc; the Inno Setup script reads it at compile time and falls back to 0.1.0-dev (which ends up in Add/Remove Programs and the installer filename) when it's empty:

    dotnet build src\TrueforceForAll.Plugin\TrueforceForAll.Plugin.csproj -c Release
dotnet publish src\TrueforceForAll.LoopbackHelper\TrueforceForAll.LoopbackHelper.csproj -c Release -r win-x64
# confirm installer\vendor\USBPcapSetup.exe is present
$env:TRUEFORCEFORALL_VERSION = 'X.Y.Z'  # same value as the csproj <Version>
# ISCC location varies by install mode: system-wide installs sit under
# "C:\Program Files (x86)\Inno Setup 6\ISCC.exe"; per-user installs (the
# default if you opted into "Install for me only") sit under
# "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Inno Setup 6\ISCC.exe".
& "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Inno Setup 6\ISCC.exe" installer\TrueforceForAll.iss

    The artifact lands at installer\output\TrueforceForAll-Setup.exe.

  7. Create a draft GitHub release targeting the version-bump commit on main, and upload the installer:

    gh release create vX.Y.Z installer\output\TrueforceForAll-Setup.exe `
    --draft --target main --title "vX.Y.Z: <description>" --notes-file notes.md

    Title and notes conventions (consistent since v0.1.19):

    • Title: vX.Y.Z: <description>. Description is sentence case (first word plus proper nouns / acronyms capitalized, the rest lowercase, e.g. "Diagnostics improvements", "Xbox G923 FFB resolver Hotfix"). Capitalize "Hotfix". Keep the vX.Y.Z: prefix even though GitHub also shows the tag.
    • Body: group notes under markdown section headers (### Bug fixes, ## Diagnostics, and so on), never a bare bullet list; the in-app modal renders ### / ## as gold section headers. Lead each bullet with a bold one-line summary, then the detail.
    • Don't use --generate-notes; write the notes by hand to these conventions.

  8. On GitHub, open the draft, give the notes a final read, tick "Set as the latest release," and Publish. Until you publish, the auto-updater and the in-app What's-new won't see it (/releases/latest and the modal both skip drafts).

  9. After publishing, reload the plugin in SimHub on a test machine to confirm the update banner appears and the installer downloads, and that any new-effect badges plus the "What's new" banner surface as expected.