Operator caught me re-investigating a feature we already shipped today. Root
cause was a self-contradicting knowledge base, not just my compaction: the
§Modes entry still said "Remote relay -- KNOWN BROKEN: the LAUNCH button can
never enable in this mode", while §Mode-specific traps 60 lines later documented
the same thing as FIXED. Reading the summary line first is exactly what a
future session does. Swept: that was the only stale copy.
Now recorded once, authoritatively (context/operator-console.md §Parked relay +
remote console, and a sysop recipe in docs/OPERATOR_GUIDE.md):
* THE PRODUCTION TOPOLOGY the operator actually wants: the relay parked
permanently on the home machine so no player ever edits join.bat, with the
console dialling in from anywhere (cell internet is fine -- outbound only).
* The exact standalone park command, and why the control port is what makes a
GUI-less relay usable at all (backgrounded, it has no stdin).
* The COMPLETE remote command set as a table, read out of _ctl_command /
_ctl_get_mission / _ctl_set_mission: launch, stop, rearm|newround, get,
set (the six CONTROL_SET_KEYS, written to the relay's OWN egg, effective
next round), ping, plus the log stream and the roster re-issued at AUTH.
Written down so the next session reads instead of re-deriving.
* The hard limits: remote mode ATTACHES -- it cannot start or restart the
relay, cannot resize the roster, cannot edit callsign/mech/colour.
* Multiple operators ARE accepted concurrently (ctl_conns is a list, each
AUTHing independently), so hand-off is seamless -- but nothing arbitrates
two people pressing LAUNCH.
Two live hazards found while verifying, both new:
1. THE SECRET'S CWD TRAP. control_secret() opens a bare relative
"operator_secret.txt" and SILENTLY GENERATES A NEW ONE if absent, so the
live secret depends on the relay's working directory. This repo really has
TWO secret files with DIFFERENT values (repo root and content\) -- a remote
operator holding the wrong one fails AUTH as a CONTROL_AUTH_TIMEOUT drop,
with no "wrong password" anywhere. Documented in both files.
2. operator_secret.txt was untracked but NOT ignored -- one `git add -A` from
publishing a live credential. Now in .gitignore.
Also corrected a nearby overreach: "the console must STAY CONNECTED" is about
the console channel to the PODS; an operator GUI dropping off a parked relay's
control port is harmless and the pods never notice.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Replicates the RP412 cockpit line into BT411's own architecture -- porting the
geometry and keeping our renderers, so BT_SHOT single-frame verification stays
intact.
MODE RESOLVER. Where the secondary displays go was decided in TWO places with
duplicated precedence, and the boot banner read NEITHER -- it announced
"per-display cockpit windows" for every glass boot, surround included. The
split had also broken BT_COCKPIT=0: documented as the dock-bottom opt-out, the
profile block converted it to BT_GLASS_PANELS=1, so the docked strip was
UNREACHABLE under the glass profile. One resolver now, consumed by the banner,
the pad-panel decision and the window sizing; BT_GLASS_PANELS is explicit-only;
dock/window modes auto-raise BT_PAD_PANEL so the button field always has a home.
L4RIOBANK -- one button geometry. Both renderers carried their own copy and had
drifted: an MFD button was 156x138 reaching under the glass in the exploded
window and a 76x24 sliver entirely OUTSIDE the glass in the surround. One
module owns it now, both are consumers, placement stays per-renderer. The pod's
under-glass rule (RP412 L4MFDVIEW): reach half the glass in behind the display,
leave a lamp strip clearing the edge, paint buttons first and imagery over --
so the lamp reads as a bar and practically the whole display is the press
target. The strip scales off the display's SHORT axis (the map is portrait)
with a readable floor. Retired L4GLASSWIN's three local placers and seven
layout constants.
LAMP FLASH DECODE was wrong [T1]. BTLampBrightnessOf returned max(state1,
state2) and blanked on the alternate phase; RIO::LampState (L4RIO.h [T0]) says
solid shows state 1 and flashing ALTERNATES the two. Agrees only when one state
is Off -- true for the Panic lamp, which is why it survived -- but L4LAMP.cpp:252
commands flashFast + state1Dim + state2Bright, a dim->bright pulse that rendered
as a hard bright->off blink. Three copies existed (l4vb16.h, L4GLASSWIN,
L4PADPANEL), all three wrong; the two locals now forward to the one fixed inline.
THE COCKPIT SCALES. The fixed canvas was stretched into whatever the client
area was, so a window dragged to a different shape squashed the instruments (the
projection was aspect-corrected in task #20; the panels never were). Now one
uniform scale, centred, leftover black. D3D9 applies it as a Present
destination rect, which DISCARD forbids -- so the WINDOWED swap effect becomes
COPY when the surround is up and multisampling is off. The click mapping had to
follow (mapping against the full client drifts the hit test off every button by
the bar width), as did the world aspect (under a uniform scale it is the view
rect's own). -fit / -windowed-fullscreen: borderless over the monitor.
- ordering trap: the first WM_SIZE beats the device, so a -fit boot logged
aspect=3.14 and applied it on frame 1. The letterbox INTENT is decided in
btl4main; L4VIDEO only confirms or withdraws it.
PLAYER-TUNABLE DISPLAYS. BT_MFD_SCALE (+ _UL/_UC/_UR/_LL/_LR), BT_RADAR_SCALE,
BT_RADAR_POS (CENTER/LEFT/RIGHT/MIDLEFT/MIDRIGHT). The surround BANDS derive
from the resolved sizes -- that is why the sizes could not stay constants: the
band a display hangs in has to grow with it or the canvas clips it. 100%
reproduces the historical L276 R276 T223 B336 exactly. A corner map goes flush
to the CANVAS edge and the lower MFD slides beside it (measuring off the view
edge overlapped them by 232px).
MAP LEGEND GRID -- measured, not inherited. scratchpad/measurelegend.py over a
native capture: top 3, cell 102, pitch 107 of 640. RP412's map is 13 + 6x102 @
105 -- same cell height, different top and pitch, so its numbers do NOT
transfer. Our old even division had the pitch right by luck and sat 3px high of
the labels.
environ.ini. It was read ~300 lines into WinMain, AFTER the platform-profile
block had run its getenv()s -- so every setting the profile reads was silently
ignored FROM THE FILE and only worked as a real env var. It also putenv()'d
comments verbatim. Now loaded immediately after the first-breath line, comments
skipped, the real environment WINS over the file, and a fully documented default
is written on first run (the bindings.txt convention: untracked, so
extract-over-top never clobbers a player's settings).
VERIFICATION HARNESS (new, reusable): BT_RIOBANK_LOG=1 dumps every bank;
checkbank.py proves no address is SHADOWED (an address whose rect is covered by
earlier buttons is dead however big it looks -- the overlapping under-glass banks
make that a live hazard); clickbank.py posts a real click at every button centre.
Verified: 72/72 placed, 0 shadowed, 72/72 dispatched in BOTH modes, after a
resize, at 150%/135%, and at 75%+BOTTOMRIGHT; wide/tall drags and -fit
undistorted on a 3440x1440; exploded/dock/pod/dev un-regressed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
For the 8-player playtest. Damage authority is VICTIM-side, so no single
peer sees the whole match: every -net instance now writes a compact
machine-parseable matchlog_<date>_<time>_<pid>.txt (auto-armed by -net;
BT_MATCHLOG=1/0 overrides; solo silent), and at mission end a relay-mode
pod dials the relay game port (the seat-request throwaway-dial pattern,
envelope route -9) and streams the file back -- the relay saves every
peer's copy under matchlogs/ on the operator's machine, so testers send
nothing by hand. tools/matchcheck.py <dir> reconciles all of them:
damage claimed (FIRE/PROJ/SPLASH/RAM, shooter-side) vs applied (DMG,
victim-side authoritative), kill/death replication across observers,
PLAYER_DEAD counts, scores, version skew, replicant-application and
unattributed-damage anomalies, mid-mission disconnects.
Hooks at the authoritative sites: Mech::TakeDamageMessageHandler (DMG,
post-base, zone + post-application damageLevel), MechWeapon::
SendDamageMessage (FIRE), projectile impact/splash/collision dispatch
(PROJ/SPLASH/RAM), wreck entry (DEATH -- a ONE-SHOT latch at
MovementMode 9, NOT the transition: a replicant arrives at 9 straight
from the type-6 record header and never runs the transition branch),
BTPlayer vehicle/death/score handlers (VEHICLE/PLAYER_DEAD/SCORE), zone
crit cascade (CRIT), APP.cpp RunningMission (MISSION), L4NET host
handlers (PEER_UP/PEER_DOWN). Every line t=/w=/st=-stamped + fflushed.
Verified 2-node: mesh run pairs A's 22 FIRE 1:1 with B's 22 DMG (same
amounts, cylinder-resolved zones, ~200ms latency); force-damage kill run
logs 103 DMG + 3 DEATH inst=M + 3 PLAYER_DEAD across three respawn
cycles victim-side and the kill SCOREs shooter-side; relay-mode run
auto-uploaded BOTH peers' files at the mission-clock stop and matchcheck
produced the full report with exactly one (correct) anomaly -- the force
hook's claim-less damage, the unattributed-damage detector working.
Relay gained a route-specific 8MB cap for the upload frame (game frames
stay capped at 1600).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
33 master commits in (relay TCP/UDP + PySide6 operator console, CONTROLS.MAP
+XInput binding engine, camera seats, torso pitch aim, sign fixes, the 1995
manual, version stamping, 18-mech certification). Conflicts: .gitignore +
CLAUDE.md router rows (combined).
SEMANTIC RECONCILIATION (the one real overlap): masters btinput binding
engine (ungated, CONTROLS.MAP) and the glass PadRIO (gated, bindings.txt)
would both read the keyboard/pad in a glass+PAD session. btinput now joins
the stand-down convention: BTInputPoll yields (and BTInputSuppressKey claims
NOTHING, so authentic hotkeys flow) when an operational cockpit device owns
the input path -- BTRIODevicePresent, BT_KEY_BRIDGE force-override honored,
forced harness exempt. One input system per mode: btinput on pod/dev
desktops, PadRIO on glass. The mechmppr/mech4 bridge merges composed clean
(masters negate-once sign fix inside our device-gated bridge). The D1 relay
keeps its own raw sockets by design (an alternative LAN wire; Steam and
relay are separate modes).
Verified post-merge: all 3 configs build; glass boots with [input] binding
engine standing down + PadRIO owning input (30 ticks); pod forced-walk
speedDemand=61.501 with btinput ACTIVE; 2-node loopback MP full 31/31
mission, 76/76 ticks.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Clean, self-contained extraction of the BattleTech-specific work from the
reverse-engineering workspace -- engine + game + content + build, with nothing
from Red Planet or the raw archive dumps. Builds green (Win32) and runs the
single-player drive->animate->target->fire->damage->destroy loop out of the box.
Layout:
engine/ MUNGA + MUNGA_L4 shared 2007 engine, carrying our BT render/loader
work (bgfload/L4D3D/L4VIDEO: BSL bit-slice decode, LOD/ground/shadow
models) + image codec; the minimal rp/ headers the audio HAL needs
game/ reconstructed BT logic + surviving-original BT source + fwd shims
+ WinMain launcher
content/ full runtime tree (BTL4.RES, VIDEO/, GAUGE/, AUDIO/, eggs, BTDPL.INI)
docs/ format specs + reconstruction ledgers
reference/ raw Ghidra pseudocode (recon source-of-truth) + decomp exporter
tools/ MP console emulator + map/resource scanners
One top-level CMake builds munga_engine lib + bt410_l4 game lib + btl4.exe.
All paths relativized (186 fwd shims + ~437 CMake abs paths -> repo-relative);
DXSDK is the one external, overridable via -DDXSDK. Verified: builds to a
byte-identical 2.27MB exe and runs combat (TARGET DESTROYED, 0 crashes) against
the bundled content.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
CydandClaude Opus 5