KB: decode the pod's RGB SPLIT -- one VGA port drives THREE mono MFDs
Answering 'how do the panels split RGB into 3 monitors' from primary sources rather than inference: - content/GAUGE/L4GAUGE.CFG (the authentic 1996 pod config) configures each gauge port with a bit-plane mask AND A COLOUR CHANNEL: Comm=red, Mfd2=green, Heat=blue on clut2 (the upper row); Mfd1=red, Mfd3=green on clut1 (the lower row, blue spare); sec/radar = full rgb, rotation 270 (the portrait CRT). Eng1/2/3 are the engineering-page twins on the same monitors, swapped in/out via reconfigure() with 'blank'. - L4GraphicsPort::BuildSecondaryColor (L4VB16.cpp) proves the mechanism at T0: it walks the palette entries owned by the port's bit group and writes exactly ONE component (RedChannel->Red, GreenChannel->Green, BlueChannel->Blue, AllChannels->whole triplet); BlankColor blanks the group. So one palettized framebuffer emits three independent pictures on the R/G/B analog lines, and the splitter feeds each line to its own mono monitor -- which is also what the '1280x480 horizontally spanned' MFD surface actually is: two VGA outputs x three channels. Port consequence recorded: the per-panel window path (BT_POD_SURFACES) is right for per-panel outputs but WRONG for splitter-wired glass, which needs a channel-composite mode (three planes -> one RGB image, pure primary tints). ExpandPlaneToBGRA already does the per-plane half. Open: how Nick's cart is actually wired. Also lands the pod bring-up scratch (ssh helper, layout cfg, launcher, firestorm repo browser). Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Joe DiPrima
co-authored by
Claude Fable 5
Claude Fable 5
parent
99956d54e3
commit
e0e9dcc292
@@ -184,6 +184,46 @@ All cockpit surfaces are bit-plane MASKS over ONE shared `SVGA16` pixelBuffer: `
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byte; `Heat`=0x4000, `Mfd2`=0x0400, `Comm`=0x8000, `Mfd1`=0x0100, `Mfd3`=0x1000; `Eng1-3` =
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engineering-mode alt planes; `overlay`=0x00C0 (shares the sec surface). See [[gauges-hud]]. [T2]
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## ⭐ THE RGB SPLIT — how ONE VGA port drives THREE mono MFDs (decoded 2026-08-06) [T0 engine source + T1 authentic pod config]
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The five monochrome MFDs are NOT five video outputs. Each VGA port's **R, G and B analog lines
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are split to three separate monochrome monitors**, and the software puts a different MFD in each
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colour channel of one shared palettized framebuffer. Mechanism, end to end:
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1. **Every surface is a bit-plane + a CHANNEL.** `content/GAUGE/L4GAUGE.CFG` (the authentic 1996
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pod config) configures each port as `configure(idx, port, rotation, bitMask, clut, COLOUR, palette)`:
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| port | panel | mask | clut | channel |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
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| `Comm` | upper right | 0x8000 | clut2 | **red** |
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| `Mfd2` (Engineering) | upper centre | 0x0400 | clut2 | **green** |
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| `Heat` | upper left | 0x4000 | clut2 | **blue** |
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| `Mfd1` | lower left | 0x0100 | clut1 | **red** |
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| `Mfd3` | lower right | 0x1000 | clut1 | **green** |
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| `sec` (+`overlay` 0x00C0) | secondary/radar | 0x003F | clut0 | **rgb** (full colour, rotation 270 — the physically ROTATED portrait CRT) |
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`Eng1/2/3` are the engineering-page twins of Mfd1/2/3: same monitor, second bit-plane, switched
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by `reconfigure(...)` giving one plane the channel and the other `blank`.
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2. **The channel assignment is literally a palette write.** `L4GraphicsPort::BuildSecondaryColor`
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(L4VB16.cpp) walks the palette entries owned by the port's bit group (`BitWrangler(byteMask,8)`)
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and writes ONE component: `RedChannel -> triplet->Red`, `GreenChannel -> ->Green`,
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`BlueChannel -> ->Blue`, `AllChannels -> the whole triplet`. `BlankColor` blanks the group
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(`BlankPalette()`), which is how a page swap silences the plane it replaces. The
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`*TransparentZero` variants skip colour 0 so zero reads as transparent for that group.
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3. **So the DAC output carries three independent pictures**, one per analog line, and the splitter
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hands each line to its own mono monitor. Three MFDs per VGA port; the pod's two MFD ports are
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the **1280x480 "horizontally spanned" surface** (2 x 640x480 halves) the Displays section
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describes — clut2 = the upper row (Comm/Mfd2/Heat), clut1 = the lower row (Mfd1/Mfd3, blue
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spare). The radar rides its own port in real colour.
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**Why this matters for the port [T2]:** our modern path renders each surface as its own
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mono-tinted window on its own Windows display (see §MFD PANELS ON REAL HARDWARE), which is right
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when every panel has its own output. **On splitter-wired glass it is wrong** — three monitors
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would share one Windows display and each would show only its channel's share of a single tinted
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image. Driving original splitter hardware needs a CHANNEL-COMPOSITE mode: extract three planes
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into ONE 640x480 RGB image with pure (255,0,0)/(0,255,0)/(0,0,255) tints, one window per VGA
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output. `SVGA16::ExpandPlaneToBGRA` already does the per-plane extraction with a tint, so the
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composite is a small addition. OPEN: which way Nick's crash cart is wired (Windows shows three
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separate 640x480 displays there, which suggests per-panel outputs via the Trigger 6 USB adapter,
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not a splitter) — settle it by eye before building.
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## MFD PANELS ON REAL HARDWARE — the bring-up path (2026-08-06) [T2 local / T4 on-pod]
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Nick's crash cart (pod hardware + Chrome Remote Desktop on a burner account) is the first chance
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to drive the real panels. **The 1995 display path is NOT the way in.** That rig spanned the five
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@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
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"""Browse the VWE/firestorm gitea repo (read-only) without cloning 10GB."""
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import base64, json, subprocess, sys, urllib.request
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sys.stdout.reconfigure(encoding='utf-8', errors='replace')
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_out = subprocess.run(["git","credential","fill"],
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input="protocol=https\nhost=mysticmachines.com\n\n",
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capture_output=True, text=True, cwd=r"C:\git\bt411")
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_c = dict(l.split("=",1) for l in _out.stdout.strip().splitlines() if "=" in l)
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AUTH = "Basic " + base64.b64encode((_c["username"]+":"+_c["password"]).encode()).decode()
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B = "https://mysticmachines.com/api/v1/repos/VWE/firestorm"
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def api(p, t=120):
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r = urllib.request.Request(B+p, headers={"Authorization": AUTH})
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return json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(r, timeout=t))
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def ls(path=""):
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try:
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return api("/contents/" + urllib.request.quote(path))
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except Exception as e:
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return []
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def raw(path, t=120):
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r = urllib.request.Request(B+"/raw/"+urllib.request.quote(path), headers={"Authorization": AUTH})
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return urllib.request.urlopen(r, timeout=t).read().decode("utf-8","replace")
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if __name__ == "__main__":
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cmd = sys.argv[1]
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if cmd == "ls":
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for e in sorted(ls(sys.argv[2] if len(sys.argv)>2 else ""), key=lambda x: x["type"]+x["name"]):
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print(f' {e["type"]:4} {e.get("size",0):>9} {e["path"]}')
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elif cmd == "cat":
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print(raw(sys.argv[2])[:int(sys.argv[3]) if len(sys.argv)>3 else 4000])
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def subtree(path, recursive=True):
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"""Full file list under a directory, via its tree sha (avoids the 1000-entry
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truncation of a whole-repo recursive tree)."""
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e = api("/contents/" + urllib.request.quote(path))
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# the dir's own sha comes from its parent listing
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parent = "/".join(path.split("/")[:-1])
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name = path.split("/")[-1]
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for it in ls(parent):
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if it["name"] == name and it["type"] == "dir":
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sha = it["sha"]
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break
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else:
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return []
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t = api(f"/git/trees/{sha}?recursive={1 if recursive else 0}&per_page=99999", t=180)
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return [(x["path"], x.get("size", 0)) for x in t.get("tree", []) if x["type"] == "blob"], t.get("truncated")
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@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
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#!/usr/bin/env bash
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# Run a command on the pod (bt411-pod, user 'user') over the tailnet.
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exec ssh -i ~/.ssh/bt411_pod -o BatchMode=yes -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no \
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-o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o LogLevel=ERROR -o ConnectTimeout=10 \
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user@100.107.167.96 "$@"
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@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
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@echo off
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REM BT411 pod launch -- runs from the game's content dir in the CONSOLE session.
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REM Started via schtasks /IT so the windows land on the REAL panels (an SSH
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REM session is session 0 with a dummy display and would render nowhere).
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cd /d C:\bt411\BT411_4.11.801\content
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REM glass cockpit, per-display windows, POD surface mode (bare 640x480 pictures,
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REM no on-screen button banks -- the cab's buttons are physical), sticky layout
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REM loaded from glass_layout.cfg beside this file.
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set BT_GLASS=1
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set BT_GLASS_PANELS=1
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set BT_POD_SURFACES=1
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set BT_GLASS_LAYOUT=load
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set BT_GLASS_LOG=1
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set BT_START_INSIDE=1
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set BT_LOG=podrun.log
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start "" ..\build\Release\btl4.exe -egg MP.EGG
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