Apex Network Optimizer - Update v1.4.0

This major update completely overhauls the internal Netty pipeline, resolving game-breaking TCP disconnects, eliminating severe CPU bottlenecks, and patching multiple direct memory leaks. Coupled with smart traffic prioritization, this release delivers rock-solid server and client stability.

🛠️ Key Improvements

• Critical TCP Stream Stability: Fixed a catastrophic bug in the Backpressure and Traffic Shaping handlers where full queues would silently drop packets, corrupting the TCP byte stream. The mod now correctly utilizes native Netty watermarks to handle network congestion without causing "Corrupted Frame" or "Bad packet id" disconnects.
• Zero-Overhead Packet Resolution: Completely rewrote the ApexPacketIdResolver. Previously, resolving a packet ID caused massive CPU and Garbage Collection (GC) spikes by allocating throwaway buffers. This is now handled via an ultra-fast O(1) concurrent cache, instantly removing the mod's biggest performance bottleneck.
• Smart Traffic Shaping: The traffic smoothing engine now features a dual-lane priority system. Critical packets (movement, chat, interaction) use a "Fast Lane" and are never blocked by bulk data.
• Ironclad Memory Safety: Patched multiple severe Native Direct Memory leaks in the Entity Metadata Packer, String Table Compressor, and Zstd Decoder. All Netty ByteBuf allocations are now strictly guarded with try-finally blocks to guarantee memory is released even if an exception occurs.
• Bit-Packing Stability: Fixed issues with corrupted packed frames causing disconnects. The decoder now safely handles invalid frames without breaking the connection.
• Thread-Safe Dictionary Management: Resolved a multi-threading race condition in the Zstd Dictionary Manager. By implementing an atomic, immutable state record, the server is guaranteed to properly sync dictionary hashes with authenticating clients without handshake mismatches.
• Asynchronous Pipeline Integrity: Fixed Netty Promise handling across the Bundle Encoder and Traffic Shapers. The network pipeline now accurately tracks and routes asynchronous success/failure signals, preventing dropped futures, silent network failures, and hanging connections.
• Experimental Features: "Traffic Smoothing" and "Bit Packing" are disabled by default to ensure maximum stability out of the box. Enable them in the config to test these advanced features.
• Build Improvements: Upgraded to Gradle 8.12 for better Java 21 compatibility and faster builds.

📈 What to Expect

• Eliminated Random Disconnects: Players will no longer be randomly kicked for protocol errors, corrupted packets, or stream desyncs during heavy bandwidth bursts.
• Buttery Smooth Server Ticks: By eliminating the packet-resolution bottleneck, servers will experience drastically lower CPU usage on network threads and a massive reduction in GC stuttering.
• Long-term Server Uptime: With the direct memory leaks fully sealed, servers can now run indefinitely without creeping RAM usage or sudden native OutOfMemoryError crashes.
• Stable Connections: Fixes to bit-packing and prioritized traffic shaping prevent the "slow chunk loading" feel, ensuring that your most important gameplay actions register instantly.