The user was right: a dead mech turns into a pile of wreckage. The authentic
1995 chain, recovered end-to-end:
kill -> the victim's per-mech DEATH ModelList ('blhdead'/'lokdead'/'owndead'/
'thrdead', .RES ids 22-25) -> its authored effects: 104 (the WRECK script) +
1007 (dnboom big explosion) + 1001 (ddthsmk rubble smoke plume) + a damage-
smoke burst (3/4/5/15).
Effect 104 = ExplosionScripts case 4 (part_008.c:2663, LIVE in the 1996 binary;
the "disabled" warning is case 6): loads the destroyed hulk + flamesml/flamebig
flame meshes with sweep flicker. Every mech ships its hulk (BLHDBR/MADDBR/
LOKDBR/... + GENDBR generic); the 1996 script hardcoded thrdbr.bgf (dev
shortcut) -- we use the victim's own.
Reconstructed as BTL4VideoRenderer::SwapToWreck: hide every segment mesh, hang
"<prefix>dbr.bgf" on the tree root (pending-swap if death precedes tree build);
routed from the engine's ExplosionClassID dispatch (effect 104 ->
BTSwapMechToWreck(explosion->GetEntityHit())). The kill now fires the
authentic 'blhdead' resource (manual 7+1 pfx calls removed -- the list carries
1007/1001 itself). Verified live:
[death] firing authentic death list 'blhdead' id=22
** effect_number = 104
[BTrender] wreck swap: victim -> 'blhdbr.bgf'
Follow-ups noted: mesh flames + hulk settle (cosmetic), DeathSplash.
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>
