TL;DR: I'm in the process of rebuilding Proxy Nexus. New version will run locally for better reliability, and include an image collection feature that enables anyone to package and share Netrunner card scans. The new version works in both the browser and as a desktop app.
I started this website while at university about seven years ago, while procrastinating school work. It was also around the time that FFG canceled the game, so it felt like the perfect time to build it. I never liked the quality of the codebase and felt like I could do better.
Right after graduating in 2021, before I started seriously applying for jobs, I spent 3 weeks rebuilding the site a second time. I felt so clever with the hosted server doing most of the work, with the file caching and the loading bar to show the progress. Now I can't stand looking at the codebase. There are so many things I'd do differently today. It might not be true, but I've always felt that the poor code quality has scared off anyone from making any large contributions.
For the past couple of years, I've considered rebuilding it again a 3rd time, but never found the motivation. Over the last few months I've been learning Rust, and I've become completely obsessed. There's only so much I can study before I need a real project to dive into. With my obsession with learning Rust, and the fact that people are still using Proxy Nexus despite the lack of updates, I finally found the motivation to rebuild it. Now, the two main problems I want to fix:
A bit over a month ago, I started building a command-line tool in Rust for making proxies. It's incredibly fast. Not only did I port over all existing functionality from Proxy Nexus, I started with a new core concept of "collections". As long as the card images follow a simple filename convention, the CLI can build a collection of scans and package them into a single file. These collection files can then be shared and imported by anyone. Not only does it greatly simplify management of scans, but I'm hoping it also powers the community to make and share their own collections of Netrunner proxies! I'll be releasing the file name spec soon.
The second goal is to run everything in the browser. Other proxy sites appear to do this, it's a simpler design. However, I want to maintain the same high-quality card scans, instead of pulling images from NetrunnerDB. This is where the Rust UI framework Dioxus comes in. Dioxus allows me to build both desktop and web apps from the same codebase. This means the entire pipeline, downloading images and generating PDFs or MPC zip files, runs in a browser or in a native desktop app.
While the desktop version will enable you to build and manage your own collections, the web version has a static collection that I can more easily manage. If you want your collection added, or when a new NSG set comes out, it'll be easy for me to add it!
While the CLI is mostly feature complete, the UI still needs work. The web version is live at rs.proxynexus.net, and the GitHub repository is at github.com/axmccx/proxynexus-rs. I've also uploaded three sets of images to my Google Drive. Try building collections, importing them, and generating proxies!
Once the UI reaches feature parity and the bugs are ironed out, this new version will replace the current Proxy Nexus site. If you give it a try, I'd really appreciate your feedback. Bug reports and feature requests are welcome on GitHub. If you'd like to contribute to the codebase, collections or idea, reach out and let's work together!
New card scan from reddit user PopTartNZ are now available on Proxy Nexus!
To support these new scans, I've rebuilt about 80% of the website to support multiple scan sources, along with other changes I wanted to make. By default, the new scans will be used and the site now implements what I'm calling "scan source priority". This setting can be changed in the new settings page. Proxy Nexus will priority the selected scan source and fall back onto others if a card scan isn't available. Why? PopTartNZ didn't scan every card (it is a lot of work after all). If a selected card is missing, Proxy Nexus will first try to find another printing of the card with the same name. For example, if you pick the Core set, Mimic isn't available. However, it's available in the Revised Core set, so that version will be used. If a card is not available in the source, then it will use the version from another source. If Proxy Nexus uses a card scan from another source, it will have a red border around it in the card preview area. This change also makes is much easier to support cards with other languages. There are a few German scans available, but if anyone would like to contribute more non-English scans, or with translating the site, please let me know!
The rebuild also includes a new Statistics page. It currently just shows the number of downloads per day, and a table of recent downloads. I may expand on this page in the future, to include things like "most downloaded card this month". Any suggestions welcome!
This rebuild also allowed me to fix a bunch of quirky behavior. For example, you can now edit the Card List text, and it'll try its best to preserve the alt art selection. Also, NISEI cards will no longer be included in MPC requests, and will simply be filtered out. On the more technical side, the server now has it's own worker process and each request is queued one at a time. I'm hoping this will help with server load.
There is also a new Settings page, where a few settings have been moved from the home page. These are saved to browser cookies.
For those who are interested, PopTartNZ and I will be adding some details on how the new scans were produced to the instructions page.
I will also be updating the github repo with instructions on how to self-host the project, to make it easier for anyone to contribute.
If you found this site useful, please consider making a donation to support this project.
A huge congratulations to NISEI for getting these new sets out! Excellent work! :)
Crazy, it's been over a year since my last update here. How time flies... We're also three days away from Proxy Nexus' two-year anniversary. When I started this project, I wouldn't have believed it would still be active two years later. Since NISEI can't direct people here themselves, I want to thank everyone who recommends this site.
If you'd like to support Proxy Nexus and help cover some of the hosting fees, consider making a donation to paypal.me/proxynexus.
If you'd like to support Proxy Nexus and help cover some of the hosting fees, consider making a donation to paypal.me/proxynexus.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has donated in support.
If you'd like to support Proxy Nexus and help cover some of the hosting fees, consider making a donation to paypal.me/proxynexus.
If you'd like to support Proxy Nexus and help cover some of the hosting fees, consider making a donation to paypal.me/proxynexus.
Thanks!!
Thank you all for your support and using this website. As always, I appreciate all feedback and suggestions. I can be reached on reddit at /u/axmccx, on various Netrunner Discord Channels, and at alexmccx[at]gmail[dot]com.
Hey everyone. I'd like to announce Proxy Nexus, a website I've been working on the last few days. It makes high quality proxies using /u/LepcisMagna's scans and images from the Downfall cards, unchanged from the print-and-play pdfs.
You can enter a card list, a decklist URL from NetrunnerDB or select an official set. When picking any of the three Core sets, you can choose between single set or a full playset. Also, whenever a flippable ID is selected (Sync and Biotech), the back images are also included.
Clicking "Download PDF" currently brings up the browser's print panel, which lets you save to PDF or print directly. Make sure all the cards have loaded beforehand and that the margins are narrow enough so that 9 cards fit per game.
I've made some enhancements to the scanned images. First, I applied the despeckle enhancement from Gimp to all images. I also use ImageMagick's mogrify tool to slightly brighten and enhance the colors of the cards. The command I used: "mogrify -modulate 105,105". Have a look here for comparison. I believe these enhancements improve the print quality significantly, but I'm open to feedback.
I'm open to suggestions on functionality and style.
I hope this makes it easier for newer players to get into the game and for others who are unable to find missing sets. Thanks for checking this out!