Migrate HyPrism desktop launcher from Electron to Avalonia 12

[freakdaniel]

Summary

This Draft PR migrates HyPrism from Electron.NET and React to a native Avalonia 12 desktop application on .NET 10

Electron required a separate frontend, an IPC bridge, duplicated contracts, and additional packaging logic

Avalonia replaces that boundary with direct C# service calls, native desktop integrations, one dependency graph, and headless UI testing

The new structure separates the launcher into three parts:

• HyPrism.Core contains UI-independent launcher logic
• HyPrism.Desktop contains the Avalonia application, views, styles, localization, and platform integrations
• HyPrism.LocalNode provides autonomous local authentication and game services

Type of Change

• Bug fix
• New feature
• Enhancement / improvement
• Documentation update
• Build / CI changes
• Other: Desktop platform migration with removal of Electron and the IPC bridge

Changes

Avalonia desktop application

• Replaced the Electron and React desktop shell with Avalonia 12.1.2
• Added adaptive layouts for wide and compact windows
• Added shared navigation, master-detail layouts, dialogs, popups, selectors, switches, segmented controls, and settings rows
• Added reusable wizard transitions for instance creation, profile creation, and download source setup
• Added a native startup loading screen and reusable Lottie animation handling
• Added smooth scrolling, deferred content loading, batched UI updates, and render-focused performance improvements
• Raised the Avalonia GPU resource cache limit to 256 MB
• Replaced JSON localization files with .resx resources for all supported languages
• Added native file picker, URI launcher, memory detection, GPU discovery, Discord Rich Presence, and remote image caching
• Added compiled bindings by default for safer and faster view binding

User-facing functionality

• Made Instances the primary launcher page and default landing screen
• Removed the unused Home/Dashboard page to avoid duplicating instance management workflows
• Removed customizable launcher backgrounds, including their settings, configuration field, assets, and screenshots
• Added the instance list, creation flow, reordering, installation, launch, cancellation, and deletion foundation
• Added a native news feed with article reading, rich content, image loading, caching, and external links
• Added the instance list, creation flow, reordering, installation, launch, cancellation, and deletion foundation
• Added navigation placeholders for instance-specific mods, discovery, worlds, console, and logs
• Added a native profile manager with offline and official profiles
• Added profile creation, editing, duplication, deletion, selection, reordering, folder access, and UUID copying
• Added profile and instance play-time statistics
• Updated OAuth sign-in through the system browser with a localized HyPrism callback page
• Added authenticated source availability checks and automatic mirror selection
• Added the graphics preference picker that lists detected graphics cards by name, defaults to the discrete card, and pins game rendering to the chosen card
• Added shared wizard transitions and the initial WizardScreen structure
• Added improved source setup and validation for URLs and manual mirror definitions

Core architecture

• Moved launcher behavior into the UI-independent HyPrism.Core project
• Removed the generated TypeScript API and the frontend IPC boundary
• Reorganized authentication, profiles, instances, downloads, versions, mirrors, mods, patching, launch, configuration, and logging into focused services
• Added dependency injection boundaries for platform-specific behavior
• Added operation-scoped progress reporting and cancellation
• Added game process tracking with launch, exit, failure, and recovery events
• Added recovery for games that continue running after the launcher closes
• Added play-time tracking for instances and profiles
• Added stable multi-profile storage with one selected profile identifier
• Added instance and profile change events so the UI no longer needs polling
• Centralized launcher version, request headers, User-Agent generation, cache paths, and log paths
• Normalized launcher JSON models to PascalCase
• Updated cache layout and per-instance data handling
• Added checksum validation for official Java runtime downloads
• Added GPU adapter discovery through lspci with a sysfs fallback for sandboxed Linux launches, and virtual/software adapter filtering
• Added per-adapter game launch pinning: DRI_PRIME=pci:<id> on Linux and the matching DXGI preference class on Windows, with legacy type-based preferences kept compatible

Local Node

• Added HyPrism.LocalNode as a dedicated process for autonomous authentication
• Added local accounts, sessions, cosmetics, skins, presence preferences, and compatible empty social responses
• Added HTTPS hosting through h.localhost
• Added certificate creation and trust handling
• Added macOS certificate trust support and HTTPS smoke-test coverage
• Attached Local Node lifetime to the active game process
• Replaced server archive modification with the DualAuth Agent flow
• Added isolated Local Node logging and request diagnostics

Packaging and CI

• Updated the launcher version to 4.0.0
• Added native publishing scripts for Windows, Linux, and macOS
• Added Windows ZIP, MSI, and setup executable outputs
• Added Linux DEB, RPM, AppImage, Flatpak, and tar archive outputs
• Added a macOS ARM64 DMG output
• Added separate build workflows for Windows, Linux, and macOS
• Added Core, Desktop, and Local Node test jobs
• Added a macOS Local Node HTTPS smoke test
• Updated release automation for native artifacts
• Added REUSE and SPDX compliance checks
• Added documentation validation and GitHub Pages deployment

Tests

• Split tests into Core, Desktop, and Local Node projects
• Added Core tests for authentication, profiles, instances, downloads, launch, mirrors, configuration, cache paths, and progress reporting
• Added headless Avalonia tests for layouts, navigation, responsive behavior, wizards, animations, settings, profiles, news, and startup
• Added visual tree and rendering budget checks
• Added render regression tests for the overlay modal, popup controls, note cards, and the GPU picker
• Added Local Node tests for HTTPS hosting, account storage, session behavior, and certificate trust

Documentation

• Replaced the previous documentation setup with Docusaurus
• Added aligned English and Russian documentation
• Documented the new Core, Desktop, and Local Node architecture
• Documented building, testing, localization, packaging, and Avalonia performance guidance
• Updated user guides for instances, profiles, mods, settings, download sources, and authentication
• Added an Avalonia migration status page
• Updated the README for the native application and new build process
• Removed documentation for the deleted IPC generator and Electron frontend

Removed legacy components

• Removed the React frontend and its npm dependencies
• Removed Electron startup code and configuration
• Removed the old launcher host
• Removed the IPC source generator and generated frontend contracts
• Removed obsolete services, models, manifests, and runtime configuration files
• Moved reusable assets into the Avalonia desktop project

Remaining parity work

• Implement every per-instance content page interface
  • Installed mods
  • Mod discovery
  • Worlds
  • Console
  • Logs
• Complete the settings interfaces
  • Complete the Downloads settings interface
  • Complete the Java settings interface
  • Complete the Network settings interface
  • Complete the Data settings interface
• Finish styling and layout consistency across all settings categories
• Complete WizardScreen controls, buttons, spacing, and shared visual style
• Implement the native onboarding flow
• Run full manual smoke tests on every supported platform
• Validate every release package through CI
• Add screenshots and recordings before moving the PR out of Draft

Testing

• Tested on Windows
• Tested on Linux
• Tested on macOS
• Added / updated tests

Local validation results

• Release build completed for all source and test projects
• Desktop tests passed
• Local Node tests passed
• Core tests passed
• Documentation content checks passed through the available Python command
• TypeScript type checking passed
• Docusaurus static export completed with PAGES_BASE_PATH=/HyPrism
• SPDX source header validation passed
• Complete manual launcher testing on Windows
• Complete manual launcher testing on Linux
• Complete manual launcher testing on macOS

Checklist

• Code follows the project's style and conventions
• Self-reviewed the complete diff before submitting
• No unintended build artifacts or local configuration files are included
• Documentation updated if needed

Documentation checklist

• User documentation updated
• Developer and architecture documentation updated
• Removed IPC and bridge behavior documented
• English and Russian documentation trees aligned
• Screenshots/recordings are attached to the docs
• English/Russian docs are human readable and related to their parent category
• The styling and visual design have been fully developed
• README updated
• Documentation content and type checks completed separately
• Docusaurus export builds for the /HyPrism base path
• Final spell-check and lint completed

Screenshots / Recordings

• Add wide layout screenshots for Instances, News, Profiles, and Settings
• Add a compact layout recording
• Add recordings of instance, profile, and download source wizard transitions
• Add platform-specific screenshots if visual differences are found