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blog: add gamebridge post (#143)
* blog: add gamebridge post * blog/gamebridge: convert org mode to markdown * blog/gamebridge: make title more amusing * blog/gamebridge: add note about theoretical nintendo 64 emulator support in the future
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---
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title: "Gamebridge: Fitting Square Pegs into Round Holes since 2020"
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date: 2020-05-09
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series: howto
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tags:
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- witchcraft
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- sm64
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- twitch
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---
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# Gamebridge: Fitting Square Pegs into Round Holes since 2020
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Recently I did a stream called [Twitch Plays Super Mario 64][tpsm64]. During
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that stream I both demonstrated and hacked on a tool I'm calling
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[gamebridge][gamebridge]. Gamebridge is a tool that lets you allow games to
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interoperate with programs they really shouldn't be able to interoperate with.
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[tpsm64]: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/615780185
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[gamebridge]: https://github.com/Xe/gamebridge
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Gamebridge works by aggressively hooking into a game's input logic (through a
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custom controller driver) and uses a pair of [Unix fifos][ufifo] to communicate
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between it and the game it is controlling. Overall the flow of data between the
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two programs looks like this:
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[ufifo]: http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/fifo.7.html
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You can view the [source code of this diagram in GraphViz dot format
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here](/static/blog/gamebridge.dot).
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The main magic that keeps this glued together is the use of _non-blocking_ I/O.
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This means that the bridge input thread will be blocked _at the kernel level_
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for the vblank signal to be written, and the game will also be blocked at the
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kernel level for the bridge input thread to write the desired input. This
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effectively uses the Linux kernel to pass around a scheduling quantum like you
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would in the L4 microkernel. This design consideration also means that
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gamebridge has to perform _as fast as possible as much as possible_, because it
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realistically only has a few hundred microseconds at best to respond with the
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input data to avoid humans noticing any stutter. As such, gamebridge is written
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in Rust.
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## Implementation
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When implementing gamebridge, I had a few goals in mind:
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- Use blocking I/O to have the kernel help with this
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- Use threads to their fullest potential
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- Unix fifos are great, let's use them
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- Understand linear interpolation better
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- Create a surreal demo on Twitch
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- Only have one binary to start, the game itself
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As a first step of implementing this, I went through the source code of the
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Mario 64 PC port (but in theory this could also work for other emulators or even
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Nintendo 64 emulators with enough work) and began to look for anything that
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might be useful to understand how parts of the game work. I stumbled across
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`src/pc/controller` and then found two gems that really stood out. I found the
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interface for adding new input methods to the game and an example input method
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that read from tool-assisted speedrun recordings. The controller input interface
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itself is a thing of beauty, I've included a copy of it below:
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```c
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// controller_api.h
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#ifndef CONTROLLER_API
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#define CONTROLLER_API
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#include <ultra64.h>
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struct ControllerAPI {
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void (*init)(void);
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void (*read)(OSContPad *pad);
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};
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#endif
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```
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All you need to implement your own input method is an init function and a read
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function. The init function is used to set things up and the read function is
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called every frame to get inputs. The tool-assisted speedrunning input method
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seemed to conform to the [Mupen64 demo file spec as described on
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tasvideos.org][mupendemo], and I ended up using this to help test and verify
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ideas.
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[mupendemo]: http://tasvideos.org/EmulatorResources/Mupen/M64.html
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The thing that struck me was how _simple_ the format was. Every frame of input
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uses its own four-byte sequence. The constants in the demo file spec also helped
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greatly as I figured out ways to bridge into the game from Rust. I ended up
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creating two [bitflag][bitflag] structs to help with the button data, which
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ended up almost being a 1:1 copy of the Mupen64 demo file spec:
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[bitflag]: https://docs.rs/bitflags/1.2.1/bitflags/
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```rust
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bitflags! {
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// 0x0100 Digital Pad Right
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// 0x0200 Digital Pad Left
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// 0x0400 Digital Pad Down
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// 0x0800 Digital Pad Up
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// 0x1000 Start
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// 0x2000 Z
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// 0x4000 B
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// 0x8000 A
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pub(crate) struct HiButtons: u8 {
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const NONE = 0x00;
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const DPAD_RIGHT = 0x01;
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const DPAD_LEFT = 0x02;
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const DPAD_DOWN = 0x04;
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const DPAD_UP = 0x08;
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const START = 0x10;
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const Z_BUTTON = 0x20;
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const B_BUTTON = 0x40;
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const A_BUTTON = 0x80;
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}
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}
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```
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### Input
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This is where things get interesting. One of the more interesting side effects
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of getting inputs over chat for a game like Mario 64 is that you need to [hold
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buttons or even the analog stick][apress] in order to do things like jumping
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into paintings or on ledges. When you get inputs over chat, you only have them
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for one frame. Therefore you need some kind of analog input (or an emulation of
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that) that decays over time. One approach you can use for this is [linear
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interpolation][lerp] (or lerp).
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[apress]: https://youtu.be/kpk2tdsPh0A?list=PLmBeAOWc3Gf7IHDihv-QSzS8Y_361b_YO&t=13
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[lerp]: https://www.gamedev.net/tutorials/programming/general-and-gameplay-programming/a-brief-introduction-to-lerp-r4954/
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I implemented support for both button and analog stick lerping using a struct I
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call a [Lerper][lerper] (the file it is in is named `au.rs` because [.au.][au] is
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the lojban emotion-particle for "to desire", the name was inspired from it
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seeming to fake what the desired inputs were).
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[lerper]: https://github.com/Xe/gamebridge/blob/b2e7ba21aa14b556e34d7a99dd02e22f9a1365aa/src/au.rs
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[au]: http://jbovlaste.lojban.org/dict/au
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At its core, a Lerper stores a few basic things:
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- the current scalar of where the analog input is resting
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- the frame number when the analog input was set to the max (or
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above)
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- the maximum number of frames that the lerp should run for
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- the goal (or where the end of the linear interpolation is, for most cases in
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this codebase the goal is 0, or neutral)
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- the maximum possible output to return on `apply()`
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- the minimum possible output to return on `apply()`
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Every frame, the lerpers for every single input to the game will get applied
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down closer to zero. Mario 64 uses two signed bytes to represent the controller
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input. The maximum/minimum clamps make sure that the lerped result stays in that
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range.
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### Twitch Integration
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This is one of the first times I have ever used asynchronous Rust in conjunction
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with synchronous rust. I was shocked at how easy it was to just spin up another
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thread and have that thread take care of the Tokio runtime, leaving the main
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thread to focus on input. This is the block of code that handles [running the
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asynchronous twitch bot in parallel to the main thread][twitchrs]:
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[twitchrs]: https://github.com/Xe/gamebridge/blob/b2e7ba21aa14b556e34d7a99dd02e22f9a1365aa/src/twitch.rs#L12
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```rust
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pub(crate) fn run(st: MTState) {
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use tokio::runtime::Runtime;
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Runtime::new()
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.expect("Failed to create Tokio runtime")
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.block_on(handle(st));
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}
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```
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Then the rest of the Twitch integration is boilerplate until we get to the
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command parser. At its core, it just splits each chat line up into words and
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looks for keywords:
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```rust
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let chatline = msg.data.to_string();
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let chatline = chatline.to_ascii_lowercase();
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let mut data = st.write().unwrap();
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const BUTTON_ADD_AMT: i64 = 64;
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for cmd in chatline.to_string().split(" ").collect::<Vec<&str>>().iter() {
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match *cmd {
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"a" => data.a_button.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
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"b" => data.b_button.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
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"z" => data.z_button.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
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"r" => data.r_button.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
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"cup" => data.c_up.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
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"cdown" => data.c_down.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
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"cleft" => data.c_left.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
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"cright" => data.c_right.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
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"start" => data.start.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
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"up" => data.sticky.add(127),
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"down" => data.sticky.add(-128),
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"left" => data.stickx.add(-128),
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"right" => data.stickx.add(127),
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"stop" => {data.stickx.update(0); data.sticky.update(0);},
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_ => {},
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}
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}
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```
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This implements the following commands:
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| Command | Meaning |
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|----------|----------------------------------|
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| `a` | Press the A button |
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| `b` | Press the B button |
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| `z` | Press the Z button |
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| `r` | Press the R button |
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| `cup` | Press the C-up button |
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| `cdown` | Press the C-down button |
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| `cleft` | Press the C-left button |
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| `cright` | Press the C-right button |
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| `start` | Press the start button |
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| `up` | Press up on the analog stick |
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| `down` | Press down on the analog stick |
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| `left` | Press left on the analog stick |
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| `stop` | Reset the analog stick to center |
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Currently analog stick inputs will stick for about 270 frames and button inputs
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will stick for about 20 frames before drifting back to neutral. The start button
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is special, inputs to the start button will stick for 5 frames at most.
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### Debugging
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Debugging two programs running together is surprisingly hard. I had to resort to
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the tried-and-true method of using `gdb` for the main game code and excessive
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amounts of printf debugging in Rust. The [pretty\_env\_logger][pel] crate (which
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internally uses the [env_logger][el] crate, and its environment variable
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configures pretty\_env\_logger) helped a lot. One of the biggest problems I
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encountered in developing it was fixed by this patch, which I will paste inline:
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[pel]: https://docs.rs/pretty_env_logger/0.4.0/pretty_env_logger/
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[el]: https://docs.rs/env_logger/0.7.1/env_logger/
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```diff
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diff --git a/gamebridge/src/main.rs b/gamebridge/src/main.rs
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index 426cd3e..6bc3f59 100644
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@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ fn main() -> Result<()> {
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},
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};
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- sticky = match stickx {
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+ sticky = match sticky {
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0 => sticky,
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127 => {
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ymax_frame = data.frame;
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```
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Somehow I had been trying to adjust the y axis position of the stick by
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comparing the x axis position of the stick. Finding and fixing this bug is what
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made me write the Lerper type.
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---
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Altogether, this has been a very fun project. I've learned a lot about 3d game
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design, historical source code analysis and inter-process communication. I also
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learned a lot about asynchronous Rust and how it can work together with
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synchronous Rust. I also got to make a fairly surreal demo for Twitch. I hope
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this can be useful to others, even if it just serves as an example of how to
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integrate things into strange other things from unixy first principles.
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You can find out slightly more about [gamebridge][gamebridge] on its GitHub
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page. Its repo also includes patches for the Mario 64 PC port source code,
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including one that disables the ability for Mario to lose lives. This could
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prove useful for Twitch plays attempts, the 5 life cap by default became rather
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limiting in testing.
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Be well.
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@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
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digraph G {
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rankdir=LR;
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subgraph cluster_0 {
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style=filled;
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color=lightgrey;
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node [style=filled,color=white];
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controller_driver [label="controller\ndriver"];
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label = "game";
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}
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subgraph cluster_2 {
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style=filled;
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color=lightgrey;
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node [style=filled,color=white];
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vblank;
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input;
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label = "OS";
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}
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subgraph cluster_1 {
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style=filled;
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color=lightgrey;
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node [style=filled,color=white];
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input_thread [label="input"];
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internet_thread [label="internet"];
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state;
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input_thread -> state [label="apply\nlerp"];
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internet_thread -> state;
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label = "bridge";
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}
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controller_driver -> vblank [label="on each\nframe"];
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input -> controller_driver [label="when input\nis available"];
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vblank -> input_thread [label="when game signals\nvblank"];
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state -> input_thread [label="querying state"];
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input_thread -> input [label="send input to game"];
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}
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