The first-person cockpit now shows by default and matches gameplay footage
(verified on the Madcat). Two decomp-verified reconstructions:
EYEPOINT (FUN_004579a8 + caller part_014.c:5525, FUN_004c22c4):
- eye offset = siteeyepoint GetBaseOffset (not GetSegmentToEntity, not the
upright hack), parented on the PARENT segment DCS (btl4vid.cpp)
- live view = affine INVERSE of the eye world matrix (L4VIDRND Execute) --
replaces the hand-rolled LookAtRH whose +Z-forward/+Y-up row guess aimed
some mechs into the canopy; combine order fixed to baseOffset * R
- chase camera basis + aim boresight re-expressed for the inverse convention
(row2 = back); boresight now derives from the view matrix (the stale rows
aimed the pick ray at the sky = no target, no discharge)
CANOPY (*_COP.BGF, dpl_Punchize geogroups):
- every shell is an open strut lattice (38-59% boundary edges, all 12 mechs);
rendered single-sided with per-face INWARD winding (l/r torso patches are
mirrored, so no global winding works) the struts are the dark frame and the
openings show the world
- frame colour = the 'softer' ramp near its dark end (texture-less unlit ramp;
BLXSKIN.BMF has no texture -- the old "punch texels" theory was wrong)
- scoped by filename (meshIsCop); wrong drop-punch + view-cut paths removed
- BT_FORCE_MODEL=<name> forces the player mech for per-mech bring-up
KB: new context/cockpit-view.md topic; punch split corrected in bgf-format;
gotchas 14 (LookAt axis guess) + 15 (per-patch edge namespaces); env gates +
eye/punch addresses in decomp-reference.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The death/respawn "blue whirlwind" (tsphere) now matches the original cabinet
photo (capture.png): a smooth spinning lavender vortex with a bright core.
Root cause of the long-standing "radial spokes" artifact was NOT the warp code
but a general engine bug: L4D3D::SetTextureScrolling computed its texture-matrix
offset as scrollDelta * absolute_time, which grows unbounded and collapses UV
float precision -> a smooth scrolled cloud shatters into grainy radial steps.
Wrapped with fmodf(..., 1.0f) (identical under REPEAT tiling, full precision).
This also cleans the scrolling bexp beam grit and any other SCROLL material.
Visual reconstruction (verified against the real 45-vtx TSPHERE.BGF bicone,
offline-rasterized then ported):
- view ON-AXIS (eye centred on the throat) + spin in place -> concentric rings
(decomp FUN_00453dc4 does spin-about-local-Z + submit; the port had stubbed it)
- bintA cloud through a WIDE lavender ramp at full contrast (drawn as SKY);
no geometry "bands", no log-polar twist, no off-axis tornado (all discarded)
- tessellate the 12-facet bicone smooth; isotropic + trilinear; ramp baked into
the texture and drawn SELECTARG1(TEXTURE) to avoid double-tinting
Env knobs (BT_WARP_*) default to the verified values; BT_WARP_SELFTEST/SELFSHOT
are an off-by-default visual-verification harness (backbuffer frame dump).
Docs: new context/translocation-warp.md (geometry/material/visual/lifecycle/env);
reconstruction-gotchas.md gains the accumulated-time precision-collapse bug class;
rendering.md / multiplayer.md / decomp-reference.md / CLAUDE.md cross-linked.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Death transition (mech4) now dispatches VehicleDead(-1) to the owning
player; BTPlayer::VehicleDeadMessageHandler restructured to the authentic
@004c05c4 three-way branch: -1 = death bookkeeping + sever playerVehicle
(wreck stays) + 5s re-post; >=0 = engine drop-zone hunt -> DropZoneReply
-> CreatePlayerVehicle (new mech); -2 = the acquire probe. Guarded on a
DropZones group so a zone-less mission stays dead instead of aborting.
Three latent bugs the respawn path exposed, all fixed:
- IsMechDestroyed latched on graphicAlarm>=9 alone; a later leg hit on the
wreck rewrites the alarm to 4/3, un-latching -> the death transition
re-ran (double kill/score, abort). Now latches on movementMode 2||9.
- Score handlers dereferenced the severed playerVehicle during the dead
window; guarded.
- The console score flush routed a NetworkClient::Message through the
player's Entity::Dispatch, which stamps entityID past the smaller struct
-> /RTC1 stack overflow. Sent via application->SendMessage instead.
- Renderer LoadMission re-entry (per viewpoint-make) re-read the env INI;
its light block Fail'd on stale sceneLightCount. Reset it in
DPLReadEnvironment so the respawn's second read is clean.
Verified 2-node self-drive: B killed repeatedly by A respawns each time
(wreck stays), ticks + reloads + takes fresh damage on the new mech, no
abort/hang across multiple death->respawn cycles.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
User report from the first live 2-window session: throttle worked, A/D turn
did nothing. [mppr] showed the input REACHING the mapper (stickX=-1) but
turnDemand=0 and controlMode = pointer garbage (73583232 / 217478632 --
different per instance), from frame 1, MP only (solo mode=0).
Hunted with a cdb hardware write-breakpoint (ba w4 armed at ctor time on
&controlMode, compiled offset +0x128 from the [mode-ctor] probe). Caught the
writers red-handed: MechControlsMapper::BuildPilotArray / FillPilotArray.
ROOT CAUSE -- a shrunk-span array: the binary reserves a FIXED 10-slot pilot
block @0x15C..0x183 ((pilotArrayBuilt@0x184 - 0x15C)/4 = 10); the recon
declared `Pilot *pilotArray[1]` ("variable length"), so every write past
slot 0 stomps the members declared after it. In MP, FillPilotArray wrote the
PEER's Player pointer into slot 1 = over controlMode -> the turn shaping
dispatched on pointer garbage -> turnDemand 0. MASKED in solo: the zero-loop
overrun wrote 0 there, and 0 == BasicMode. This was ALSO the real cause of
task #48's "turnDemand zeroes out in -net" observation (worked around then
with the direct goto-turn; attribution corrected in the KB).
Fix: pilotArray sized to the binary's own 10-slot span; ctor zeroes all
slots; BuildPilotArray clamps pilotCount to capacity (local + 9 remotes; an
8-pod game fits). Diagnostics kept (BT_MODE_LOG ctor probe; [mppr] line now
prints mapper/&mode).
VERIFIED: MP session holds mode=0 throughout, turnDemand flows nonzero, the
mech turns (heading -1.33) and closes on the peer; solo kill chain intact.
KB: new "shrunk-span array" gotcha (reconstruction-gotchas 5) with the cdb
ba-w4 recipe; multiplayer.md task-#48 note corrected.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Full cross-pod KILL now works: instance A (host 2) shoots B's mech (host 3)
dead over the network; B runs the death transition on its own screen. Verified
on a 2-node one-box run (BT_MP_FORCE_DMG on A): B's mech takes ~36 remote hits
of 12 and is DESTROYED, with wreck swap + explosion.
ROOT CAUSE (one bug): B's own MASTER mech was INVALID. Entity::Receive(Event*)
does `if(!IsValid()) event->Defer()` -- so a cross-pod-delivered TakeDamage that
arrived, resolved to B's real mech, and Posted, was DEFERRED forever; the handler
never ran. The reconstructed Mech::Make force-set ValidFlag only for replicants
(the P6 bring-up hack for the partial MakeReady handshake); a locally-created
master never got validated.
FIX (one line): Mech::Make now sets ValidFlag for the master too -- the
reconstructed ctor builds the mech synchronously, so it's safe. Nothing else
changed: targeting, the virtual victim->Dispatch, the replicant reroute, the
wire, receive, and id resolution were ALL already correct.
Two prior root causes were BOTH mis-diagnoses from the WRONG messageID:
Entity::TakeDamageMessageID is 18, not 21. Every earlier probe filtered
msgID==21, never matched a real TakeDamage, and mis-correlated the stray 21
hits' 3:19 / classID-48 against the real 3:22 hit -- inventing (a) a "cross-TU
Entity layout divergence" (disproven: offsetof identical in both TUs, sizeof
444, entityID@0x17C) and (b) a "localID corrupted on the wire". Both FALSE; the
id is correct end-to-end (3:22 = B's master).
- game/reconstructed/mech.cpp: validate master + replicant at Make.
- game/reconstructed/mech4.cpp: BT_MP_FORCE_DMG cleaned to a concise gated
2-node cross-pod reproducer (real virtual Dispatch path).
- context/multiplayer.md, reconstruction-gotchas.md: corrected root cause +
the validity-defers-cross-pod gotcha. Engine diagnostics reverted to clean.
Solo un-regressed (the solo enemy was already force-valid; the change only ADDS
ValidFlag). btl4.exe builds; full mission loop clean.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The 'can't kill the enemy / no visible damage' cluster, root-caused and fixed
faithfully:
- STEP-6 unaimed path was INERT: the cylinder table was 'cached' at Wword(0x111)
-- the recon ABSORBER bank (stores nothing, reads 0) -- so every unaimed hit
silently no-op'd. Promoted to the named member Mech::damageLookupTable
(binary this[0x111], was mislabeled ammoExpended). New gotcha class recorded
(reconstruction-gotchas §2) + sweep; 2 dead multiplayer branches logged.
- Fire path migrated off the stale vital-zone aim onto the completed STEP-6
unaimed dispatch (zone=-1 + beam entry point -> cylinder resolves the
exterior zone). No more invisible 1-shot kills; death via the authentic
cascade (~14 center-mass hits). Wreck stays TARGETED on kill (beams stop on
it); scoring latches off.
- SendSubsystemDamage AV fixed: unbound critical-subsystem plug guard (43
unbound plugs/mech logged as an open question -- the binding itself is a gap).
- RemakeEntity (render damage swap): the 1996 render state machine's missing
Remake state, reconstructed as an in-place SetDrawObj mesh swap keyed by each
segment's damage-zone graphic state (tree dtor doesn't cascade -> never
rebuild). Destroyed arms/guns visibly wreck (the only variants the RES
registers).
- BT .PFX particle layer (L4VIDEO.cpp): the 1995 explosion/damage effect layer,
unported since 2007 (DPLIndependantEffect/ReadPSFX/ExplosionScripts all
stubs). Parses the authentic VIDEO/*.PFX definitions via the [pfx_day]
psfxN mapping; premultiplied blending renders BOTH families from the same
data (additive-style fire + occluding smoke -- DDAM2 is 30% grey, DDTHSMK
ramps negative: impossible additively); depth-sorted billboards with a
radial-masked grit sprite; impact-frame orientation (.PFX offsets are
authored mech-local, -Z = out of the struck armor toward the shooter) for
weapon hits AND damage bands (via lastInflictingID, now maintained -- was
declared but never written). Both effect-number encodings route (raw dpl
<100 + WinTesla 1000+slot carried by the band resources). Death fires the
authentic dnboom (7) + ddthsmk smoke plume (1).
- Effects anchor at the impact point / damaged zone's segment, not the mech
origin (no more fire at the feet).
- Dev force-input gates BT_AUTOFIRE / BT_AUTODRIVE for headless fire-chain
verification; BT_PFX_ADD=1 flips the particle blend for A/B.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
