Fire VISUALS wave: the authored firesmoke sheet, vertex-alpha effect cards, the case-4 wreck dressing

The "fireballs like the demo vids" arc, decomp/content-grounded end to end,
plus the live-play UX batch verified over the same sessions:

FIRESMOKE SHEET (the PFX fireball fix): every firesmokeN_scr_tex in BTFX.VMF
maps the SAME 64x64 tileable noise image bintA (variants differ only in SCROLL
rate) and firesmoke1_mtl colours it through the "fiery" ramp (0.3,0.1,0.1)->
(0.9,0.7,0.3).  The particle layer now bakes ramp(lum(bintA)) as its sprite
colour (noise detail in alpha) and SCROLLS it at firesmoke1's authored rate
via a texture-transform; the port's radial soft-edge mask moved to a second
CLAMPed stage so the WRAPPED scroll rolls flame through the sprite without
scrolling the edge away.  Old grit x radial bake kept as the no-BINTA fallback.
Impact hits, damage-band smoke and death booms all ride this layer.

AUTHORED TEXTURE SCROLL in the model path: the BMF TEXTURE records carry
SPECIAL " SCROLL u0 v0 du dv" (tag 0x2037); the draw path always supported
per-op scrolling (SetTextureScrolling) but the BGF loader never parsed it, so
every scrolling material rendered frozen.  Wired TexRef -> MatInfo -> batch ->
L4TEXOP.doScroll: the flame cards (flamebig/fire5) now roll fire noise.

VERTEX-ALPHA EFFECT CARDS (the "twisted drill bit of fire" fix): FLAMEBIG's
verts carry authored float RGBA -- white-hot base (1.0,0.99,0.97) -> dark-red
tip fading to alpha -0.2 (the DPL clamp convention).  The loader kept a flat
batch colour and drew it OPAQUE = a solid orange spike.  Corpus sweep: exactly
14 shipped BGFs carry vertex alpha, ALL effect cards (flames, MUZFLASH,
EXDISK_A/B/C, TMST_A/B/C, beam models, DECLOUDS).  Such batches now keep the
authored per-vertex gradient and route to the alpha-blend pass, unlit,
colour = texture x gradient, alpha = the vertex fade; sky objects excluded
(drawAsSky + alphaTest passes NEITHER pass filter -- DECLOUDS stays in the
sky pass).  MUZFLASH/EXDISK render correctly for free when the muzzle-model
work lands.

WRECK DRESSING (the 1996 ExplosionScripts case-4 transcription): pieces spawn
HIDDEN and reveal 0.25s after the boom (the InstanceSwitch delay, behind the
dnboom flash); flamebig hangs over the pile, Y-BILLBOARDED at the camera
(SetOffsetYaw + a camera-pos getter -- the dpl_SetDCSReorientAxes analog);
the MakeDCSFall settle arms at the reveal with the two authored rates (hulk/
debris -0.025 t^2, fires -0.01 t^2 -- the flames ride above the sinking pile
and die with it at burial).  EMPTY-PLACEHOLDER hulk guard: THRDBR.BGF is a
153-byte zero-geometry stub that "loads fine" -- vertex-count check now routes
it to the gendbr fallback (a Thor wreck was invisible).  Hulk content census
recorded: AVADBR==MADDBR==VULDBR geometry (palette-only prefix diffs),
RAPDBR==SNDDBR==STIDBR byte-identical -- wreck variety is materials + the
dressing, not unique piles.

LIVE-PLAY BATCH: muzzle resolve uses the named segmentIndex (raw +0xdc read
was layout garbage); forward launch frame (authored MuzzleVelocity +Z vs the
mech's -Z facing); dock-bottom single window (gauge strip appended below the
world viewport, 1100x600 default, BT_DEV_GAUGES_WINDOW=1 restores the separate
window); portrait sec surface unrotated CW; ammo counters live via typed
bridges (BTAmmoBinCountPtr/BTAmmoBinFeeding/BTWeaponAmmoBin -- raw bin+0x180
and a hand-rolled link walk were garbage); fourth fire key ('4' = Pinky);
panel/arc probes de-aliased (%61 prime).

KB: rendering.md (vertex-alpha card family + scroll), combat-damage.md (hulk
census + THRDBR stub), gauges-hud.md (ammo bridges).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

context/combat-damage.md

@@ -292,6 +292,19 @@ Full decomp map of the death path. Two tiers:
   `<prefix>dbr.bgf` on the tree root (gendbr fallback; pending-swap if death precedes tree build).
   Mesh flames + the settle motion are noted follow-ups; burning reads via 1001/1007 + the wreck-smoke
   re-arm. Verified: `[BTrender] wreck swap: victim -> 'blhdbr.bgf'`. [T2]
+  **HULK CONTENT CENSUS (2026-07-12) [T1, byte-diffed]:** the shipped `*DBR.BGF` set shares
+  geometry heavily — `AVADBR`/`MADDBR`/`VULDBR` are byte-identical EXCEPT the material-library
+  prefix (`avafx:`/`madfx:`/`vulfx:` — same shape, per-mech palette); `RAPDBR`/`SNDDBR`/`STIDBR`
+  are fully byte-identical (same md5). Distinct shapes: BLH (1537v), LOK, OWN, GEN (659v), the
+  AVA/MAD/VUL shape (1351v), the RAP/SND/STI shape, `MDBR` (90KB), `LDBR` (46v scatter). All are
+  the same authored style (gray `genNmedgry`/`blakskn` + orange `dam3orng` slump piles), so two
+  different mechs' wrecks legitimately read alike; the original's visual differentiation came
+  from the case-4 DRESSING (flamesml/flamebig flames + chunk/fireball stagger + the MakeDCSFall
+  torso-height collapse), which is still a follow-up. ⚠ `THRDBR.BGF` is a 153-byte EMPTY
+  placeholder (one zero-geometry patch, `btfx:sparkred_mtl`) — it loads "successfully" as an
+  invisible object, so the gendbr fallback (which only fires on load FAILURE) never triggers
+  for a Thor: a Thor wreck would show only ldbr debris. [T1 content; T4 whether the pod binary
+  special-cased it]
   ⚠ **The death-effects DISPATCH lives at the VICTIM's death transition** (`UpdateDeathState`'s
   movementMode→9 moment, task #42) — NOT in any shooter's fire path. It originally sat in the
   laser fire block's kill check, which a MISSILE killing blow (landing frames later in

context/gauges-hud.md

@@ -100,6 +100,17 @@ locked**. **RESOLVED 2026-07-12 [T2]:** deaths now tally per node from LOCALLY O
 own VehicleDead path counts its node), and `BTPilotDeaths` clamps the −2/−1 pre-acquire seed
 to 0 for display. Own row counts correctly as before.
 
+## Launcher-panel recharge dial — authentically STATIC [T1, writer census]
+The weapon panels' SegmentArc270 tick ring reads MechWeapon::rechargeLevel (+0x320).  A FULL
+writer census of the binary (all decomp spellings: `0x320) =`, `+ 800) =`, `[200] =`) finds
+exactly four writers in the weapon family: the ctor (@004b99a8, 1.0), the stream init
+(@004b8fec), ResetToInitialState (@004b96ec, 1.0), and the ONE live writer —
+`Emitter::ComputeOutputVoltage` @004ba738, reached only through the Emitter vtable.  Projectile
+weapons (MissileLauncher/autocannon) never write it: their dial draws full ONCE and never moves
+on the pod.  The launcher panel's live indicators are the AMMO DIGITS (AmmoBin::ammoCount via
+the complete-type bridges, 2026-07-12 — the old raw bin+0x180/0x18c reads were layout garbage),
+the jam/fire lamps and the eject wipe.  Do NOT "fix" the static ring — it is the authentic look.
+
 ## ConfigMapGauge (the weapon panel's regroup lamp column) — authentically DORMANT
 The per-weapon btjoy.pcc joystick image + 4 cm_* state lamps (off/other/only/both) showing,
 for each mappable fire button (Pinky/ThumbLow/Trigger/ThumbHigh), whether THIS panel's weapon

context/rendering.md

@@ -25,6 +25,18 @@ white blobs" bug (gate on `hasNormals`). [T2]
 Exception: cockpit-frame (`*_cop`) batches are pure-emissive constant colour (0.13,0.12,0.15),
 `BT_COP_FRAME` overrides — see [[cockpit-view]] (task #55; the old `BT_COP_RAMP_L` ramp-index
 approach is retired). [T2]
+**VERTEX-ALPHA EFFECT CARDS (2026-07-12) [T1 corpus-swept]:** exactly 14 shipped BGFs carry
+per-vertex float RGBA with alpha < 1 (tags 0x0082/0x008A, RGBA at +12, values OUTSIDE [0,1] —
+clamp): FLAMEBIG/FIRE5 (flames), MUZFLASH, EXDISK_A/B/C, TMST_A/B/C, BLUEBEAM/GREEBEAM/RED_BEAM/
+PPC, DECLOUDS — the EFFECT-CARD family. Their authored gradient (white-hot base → dark tip fading
+to alpha −0.2) IS the shading: drawn opaque with a flat batch colour they render as solid shapes
+(the wreck flame read as a "twisted drill bit"). The loader now keeps the authored per-vertex
+RGBA for any batch with vertex alpha < 1 (`BgfDrawBatch.vertexAlpha`) and L4D3D routes it to the
+ALPHA-BLEND pass, unlit, colour = texture × gradient, alpha = vertex fade (SRCALPHA/INVSRCALPHA).
+SKY objects are excluded from the routing (drawAsSky + alphaTest passes NEITHER pass filter —
+DECLOUDS must stay in the sky pass). Authored TEXTURE **SCROLL** (BMF TEXTURE tag 0x2037
+`" SCROLL u0 v0 du dv"`, e.g. firesmoke1 = 0.05,−0.331 uv/s) is now parsed and propagated to
+`L4TEXOP::doScroll` — scrolling materials (firesmoke flame cards) animate in the model path. [T2]
 
 ## The big render-fidelity fixes (dbase/desert matched to pod footage)
 - **Geometry:** CONN is a flat trilist (not fan); CONN+PCONN coexist — see [[bgf-format]]. Malformed