api

An outline of how you can extract icons from Windows binaries and dump them into a local folder.

I’ve talked before about Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL) for .NET on this blog, but I feel like I should bring attention to another product that our team ships that is massively adopted in the community - MSAL Python.

As I was building OpenSpartan Workshop for Windows I needed the ability to convert a hexadecimal HTML color code to a SolidColorBrush object. Unlike with previous UI frameworks, WinUI 3 (which is what I use) doesn’t have a built-in construct for this kind of conversion. Naturally, I had to improvise.

As part of the work on OpenSpartan Workshop I needed the capability to convert a Xbox gamertag into its immutable identifier - the Xbox user ID, also commonly known as the XUID. My plan was to add the option for someone to find all the matches where they played with a specific player.

OK, look - I am not the one to tell you that you absolutely have to track your stats for a damn video game, but I am the kind of person that finds a certain fun in that, just like I find the fun in reverse-engineering the entire Halo Infinite API. There is a certain beauty in looking at your own numbers, even if they are for some meaningless, entirely made-up progression system.

Just yesterday the new build of Halo Infinite dropped. With this build, one of the biggest changes that graced us with its presence is The Exchange - a new virtual venue where a player can use a new in-game currency, Spartan Points, to acquire all sorts of already known cosmetics.

How I dove into the Halo Infinite AMQP API to dig for treasure - wait times for every single playlist available.

How to get your game build identifier without firing up Fiddler.

How to collect and aggregate MSAL metrics in the cloud with minimal code.

How to track your own Halo Infinite service record with the game REST API.

If you are building software on Azure, you’ve likely stumbled across the concept of managed identity. In layman’s terms, a managed identity is an automatically provisioned and managed identity resource that can be used to access other resources in Azure.

How to write API documentation that nobody can use, read, or use as reference.

If you’ve been following some of my recent work, you might’ve caught my latest blog post on enabling hidden game modes and maps in Halo Infinite. Well, clearly my curiosity got the best of me, because this post is very much a continuation of that story.

How to access hidden maps and game modes in retail Halo Infinite PC game builds with the build manifest.

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you probably already know that I spend inordinate amounts of time on reverse engineering the Halo Infinite API.