The cart's display config was carried by a launcher .bat, so it only came up
right if the game was started one particular way. Move it into the file the
engine already reads before anything touches the environment.
content/environ.ini <- scratchpad/pod/podprofile.ini, merged idempotently
between markers by scratchpad/pod/mergeprofile.ps1
Two gates were missing for that to be enough:
BT_FIT=1 the env spelling of -fit, so the borderless main view does not
depend on one launcher's command line (shortcut, scheduled
task and autostart all have to produce the same rig)
L4PLASMA= NONE / OFF / 0 -> no marquee at all. Leaving it unset does
NOT work: the GLASS profile force-defaults it to SCREEN, which
drops a desktop plasma window on the cab's glass. The boot
banner now reports the live state instead of always claiming
"plasma window".
Also lands the bring-up engine work this depended on: monitor:<name|index>
layout binding (device-bound, not pixel-bound -- desktop rects move when a
display re-enumerates), ",bare" implying frameless, rotation-aware radar
surface sizing, BT_GAUGE_SEC_ROT accepting 0-3 (it silently forced 3 for
anything but 1), 180-degree ExpandPlaneToBGRA, and the BT_POD_CHANMAP /
BT_POD_IDENT / BT_POD_CHANTEST identification gates.
Verified on the cart, build 4.11.813, launcher carrying none of it:
[boot] environ.ini: 9 setting(s) applied
[boot] platform profile: GLASS (PadRIO; plasma off [L4PLASMA])
[cockpit] -fit: borderless 800x600
[glasswin] radar rotation 0 (none)
... all three surfaces on their intended \.\DISPLAYn
No [plasmawin] line in an otherwise-logging run = the ctor never ran.
KB: pod-hardware.md gains the ALPHA-MR section (mapping, the two wiring
deviations, the frozen profile, the session-0 remote-work traps) and its RGB
SPLIT "OPEN: which way is the cart wired" is now SETTLED -- it is splitter
wired, the composite is what lit it. glass-cockpit.md documents monitor:
binding, BT_FIT and L4PLASMA=NONE.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Rw7No5wLTpkaUgA3ANbtZZ
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>
Nick's crash cart is the first shot at driving the real MFD panels, so the
pieces the cab needs that the desktop glass path lacked:
- BT_POD_SURFACES=1 (L4GLASSWIN): crop every display window to its SURFACE
(MFDs exactly 640x480, radar 480x640 portrait), drop the on-screen RIO
button banks -- the cab's buttons are PHYSICAL, so drawing fake ones onto a
real panel is exactly wrong -- go frameless, and skip the Flight Controls
pad entirely (6 windows, not 7). Per-window ",bare" in glass_layout.cfg
for mixed rigs (idempotent with the global mode).
- Placement receipts: each window logs which PHYSICAL monitor it landed on
("[glasswin] 'Heat MFD' surface=Heat at X,Y 640x480 bare -> monitor
\.\DISPLAYn (...)"). Nobody can see 7 surfaces at once on a cab, and over
Chrome Remote Desktop you cannot see the panels at all -- the log is the
only confirmation the map is right.
- tools/podprobe.ps1: run-on-the-pod topology probe (no install/admin) --
GPUs, every monitor's virtual-desktop rect, EDID make/model, serial ports
(the RIO board), session type, plus a PROPOSED glass_layout.cfg assigning
the six surfaces to the non-primary monitors. Self-tested here (correctly
reports a single-monitor laptop and declines to map).
Local verify: 5 MFDs at 640x480 bare + portrait radar + Flight Controls
dropped, receipts printed. KB: pod-hardware §MFD PANELS ON REAL HARDWARE
(incl. WHY the 1995 path is not the route -- NVIDIA Horizontal Span is gone
from post-XP drivers and per-adapter exclusive fullscreen is fragile over a
remote session) + glass-cockpit env table.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- CLAUDE.md front + project-overview: census/re-export DONE (93.5% coverage,
41KB dark), polish list refreshed; the citation-policy warning rides the
front matter so it is unmissable.
- locomotion §CROUCH addendum: the re-export CONFIRMS the hand transcription
field-for-field, documents that Ghidra renders members as int-ARRAY indices
([0xfe] == byte 0x3f8 -- why offset-string greps of the export miss them),
and records the AIRBORNE AUTO-RISE branch the raw pass missed (+ its fix).
- decomp-reference §7: citation policy (@ADDR, never part/LINE -- old
citations resolve only against archive_2025export/), the array-index
gotcha, and the full re-export toolchain (ghidra_reexport.sh incl. the 8.3
short-path requirement, gapcensus, gapdiff).
- open-questions: the leads the re-export produced -- @0x4c0904 is the MASTER
BTPlayer Performance (team-by-name resolve + EndMission post + score
heartbeat; our @0x4c083c attribution needs a re-check) and the ~9KB
l4splr|btmssn cluster that stayed dark THROUGH the fill (no call/data
reference reaches it -- jump-table entry suspected).
- glossary: dark-region.
Section ordering fixed (addenda above Key Relationships); checkctx CLEAN.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Installed JDK 21 + Ghidra 12.1.2 (no admin, %LOCALAPPDATA%\bt411-tools beside
DXSDK/cmake; runner uses 8.3 SHORT paths because Ghidra's .bat expands
%JAVA_HOME% unquoted and the profile has a space).
New tooling: reference/ghidra_scripts/ExportGaps.java -- ExportAll's exact
output contract PLUS a gap-fill pass (force disassembly + createFunction at
E8 call targets outside functions, data->code pointers at a plausible
prologue, and the census's discovered starts; iterated to a fixpoint,
logged to gapfill_report.tsv). tools/ghidra_reexport.sh (headless runner,
'reprocess' mode) and tools/gapdiff.py (score two censused exports);
gapcensus.py now censuses any export dir.
Results: 6267 -> 6472 functions (+205 created in 2 rounds: 195 census
starts, 6 call targets, 4 data pointers; 56.1KB newly covered), ZERO
decompile failures. Dark real code 90.4 -> 40.8 KB (54.8% recovered);
game-side dark 53.1 -> 21.1 KB; regions 428 -> 321. EVERY historically
dark function now has pseudocode -- including @0x4c05c4 VehicleDead, the
absence that opened this issue.
VALIDATION: the new pseudocode confirms this week's hand reconstruction of
the crouch field-for-field (mapPosture/duckState/squatCapable/myomerEff/
novice gate/SetLegAnimation/ForceUpdate/stability alarm) -- and exposed one
branch the raw pass missed: AIRBORNE AUTO-RISE (mode 3|4 && legState 1 ->
forced squ), now implemented in mech4.cpp and re-benched un-regressed.
PROMOTION: the re-export is canonical reference/decomp/; the previous export
is preserved at reference/decomp/archive_2025export/ so old
`part_0NN.c:LINE` citations still resolve (addresses are stable across both;
line/shard membership is NOT -- cite @ADDR).
New lead recorded: @0x4c0904 is the MASTER BTPlayer Performance (team
resolution, EndMission console post, score heartbeat) -- our @0x4c083c
PlayerSimulation attribution needs a re-check. KB: source-completeness,
gotcha #20 (the rule is cheap now -- look it up), CLAUDE.md router/layout.
Log: phases/phase-04-gap-census.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
tools/gapcensus.py (deterministic): index-vs-.text interval math, export
cross-check, function-start discovery inside dark regions (E8 call targets +
data-section code pointers), pad exclusion, TU attribution, repo-citation
flags. Output: reference/decomp/GAP_CENSUS.md + gap_census.tsv.
Headline: .text 892KB, index covers 87.3%; 428 dark regions = 90KB REAL code
(indexed-but-unexported = 0 -- the gap class is purely 'never indexed').
Game-side dark ~54KB: 66 regions visited by past digs, 159 NEVER TOUCHED.
Validation: all six historically-bitten dark addresses (VehicleDead,
ToggleLamp, death tail, master-perf, myomer integrator, duck consumer) land
inside census regions; the two most-cited regions are the two that produced
the most reconstructions.
Top uncharted leads (spot-checked real code): the ~9KB l4splr|btmssn cluster
(dispatch-table state machine -- likely BTMission's unexported heart); the
613B btplayer hole before the ctor (mission-review id-0x18 sender suspect);
btl4app tails; heat|mechmppr + mechweap|btplayer boundaries. Full log:
phases/phase-04-gap-census.md. Re-export half deferred (no local Ghidra;
scripts ready). KB: source-completeness census section + CLAUDE.md lookup
row + decomp-reference tools entry; consult the census BEFORE any 'absent
from the export' claim (gotcha #20).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
crouch gate to the LIVE drive value
The myomer system was ALREADY COMPLETE (2026-07-31 seek audit): Performance
wrapper @004b8b9c, AvailableOutput @004b8ac0 (gear clamp x quadratic heat
degrade x (1 - zone damage)), and the master-perf chain walk + speedDemand
scale + turn freeze in mechmppr.cpp:990 -- the same @0x4a9cf2-0x4a9da4 bytes
the crouch dig re-decoded. The 2026-08-05 banners calling the feeder dark
were an export-gap-blind grep (named members, not offsets). Fixes:
mechmppr publishes the chain MAX into mech->myomerEffectiveness (the
binary's +0x79C home) so the crouch posture gate reads the live factor
(dead/overheated myomers now genuinely refuse squat/rise -- previously the
gate read a neutral 1.0 and never fired); the duplicate speedDemand multiply
in the posture block is removed (mechmppr's is the one application); banners
and locomotion.md corrected. Squat re-benched green on the live wiring.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The WIP's 'pose does not hold' was a chain of bench-instrument errors, not a
code bug: every capture ran in COCKPIT view (the pilot cannot see their own
legs; the eye-height residual masked as reversion). Joint probes prove the
park holds indefinitely (knee 1.138, root -2.219 steady); the 2-node bench
shows the observer's replicant fully crouched and held (duckmpA_031 -- the
type-3 state record carries it with zero new replication code); the second
scripted press (new BT_BTNTEST2 env) verifies RISE -> standing zeros.
MP button delivery confirmed mode-mask-clean (the one miss was round-start
jitter). Diags added, all BT_DUCK_LOG-gated: SetLegAnimation re-arm tracer,
1 Hz joint probe, RIO press mode-mask, BT_TREE_LOG topology dump, and the
squat-park log. RESIDUAL filed: pilot's own cockpit eye does not ride the
root drop (DPLEyeRenderable chain composition; cosmetic).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
SPOT.BGF decoded: a 7-vert cone from the mount, ~50u forward and ~35deg DOWN
(a ground-pool lamp, not an air beam), verts tinted cyan-white, material
class 'brighten' smuggling its additive factor in DIFFUSE.r (0.25) with a
warm emissive on the night page. The loader had never met the class -- it
drew as an opaque dark-red blob. Now: brightenFactor parsed (name-gated to
brighten*), batch -> L4DRAWOP.brightenAlpha, drawn in the blend pass as an
additive veil (dest += vertexRGB x factor), unlit. [T3] tint compose
(vertex cyan vs night emissive warm) noted in the draw branch -- field
eyeball accepted the current look.
BT_SPOT_SELF=1 (bench-only): builds the cone on the own-cockpit tree so the
BT_CAM=face view can inspect it solo. KB: view toggle is BACKTICK ('V' is
the rear-view hold since #68 -- the toggle skips bound keys); stale V-toggle
claims swept.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Reconstructs the dark-gap tail of Mech::TakeDamageMessageHandler
(@0x4a02f4-0x4a0890, raw disasm): the three id-0x16 score reports (kill to
the shooter's player / type-0 wire-fidelity / received to the victim's
player) and the BT 0x38-byte VehicleDeadMessage extension {killed-by player,
kill zone} dispatched from the death tail. Retires BTPostDamageScore /
BTPostKillScore and the per-hit inflicted credit (never existed in 1995:
@0x4c0200 is bound in no handler-table entry -- byte-scan receipt in
decomp-reference). Suicides now dispatch and the handler negates the award
(the #134 panic penalty). Collision divert falls through to the death tail
per @0x4a0375 (wall deaths respawn + blast; no score). ScoreMessage fields
renamed to decoded truth (vitalHit/zoneIndex/subsysID) + wire asserts;
console VTVDamaged points_transfered corrected (Round(award), not Now()).
Benches: scorekill.sh cross-node kill (kills=1 award=4.88, killedBy=2:1
zone=3, single death cycle), scoreself.sh suicide (type=2 award=-39.00
kills=0), deathblast2.sh re-verified (72 bursts at ~9u).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The desktop plasma window (L4PLASMAWIN, "BattleTech - Plasma") is created by a
different TU than the per-display panels, so it couldn't be a gWins[] entry and
sat outside the sticky-layout / ,noframe system. Add a tiny extern-window
registry to L4GLASSWIN so it rides the same glass_layout.cfg:
- BTGlassLayout_QueryWindow(title, rect, noframe) -- read a title's saved rect
and ,noframe flag (used by the plasma on creation, BEFORE sizing, since
WS_POPUP's frame extent differs from the framed tool window).
- BTGlassLayout_RegisterExtern(hwnd, title) -- register an externally-created
window so SaveLayout writes its line (with a last-known-rect cache so a
teardown before the save still preserves the line).
- BTGlassLayout_Save() -- public save trigger the plasma WndProc calls on
WM_EXITSIZEMOVE / teardown.
L4PLASMAWIN now reads its saved rect+flag on create (WS_POPUP when ,noframe,
position restored), registers itself, and saves on finished-drag/teardown. All
BT_GLASS-gated; the pod is untouched. The plasma blits directly every frame, so
it has no WM_TIMER focus-throttle.
Verified: Release links clean; drag wrote "BattleTech - Plasma=321,222,528,167",
reload with ,noframe brought it up WS_POPUP (WS_CAPTION absent) at 321,222.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The 08-03 zone rule (struck SEGMENT's SKL dzone, ALWAYS -> every aimed
torso hit = center torso) was wrong, and era players' pushback caught it.
Byte-level proof: MAD_TOR.BGF zone-tags the hull PER PANEL (dz_utorso x36,
dz_ltorso/rtorso x18, dz_dtorso x16, all four rear panels, searchlight);
the dpl hit result kept GEOGROUP granularity (dplHitGeoGroup, T0); and the
binary's segment->zone map @49db20 has NO runtime caller (raw call-scan:
sole caller = CreateStreamedDamageZone, load time) -- no segment-level
collapse mechanism exists. Oracle's night-10 'only LCT gets hits' audit
was the BUG's fingerprint, not the pod's design.
Fix: MechSegmentPick attributes the struck triangle to its draw op (index
range) and takes the op's .DZM-bound zone -- the #87 armour-darkening
bindings, the same authored patch->zone mapping that already paints the
panels -- with the segment dzone as the untagged fallback. ZoneAimPoint
now aims hull zones at their patch CENTROIDS (all hull zones previously
shared the chest cull-center), which also upgrades the zone walker.
Bench (2-node zone-walk vs spinning madcat, zonewalk_madcat.sh): every
hull panel resolves individually -- utorso 11/12 in-zone, no L/R
mirroring, all four rear panels register; misses are the panel facing the
shooter mid-spin (correct geometry, not misattribution). Victim applied
254 hits spread across every panel family. Was 102/102 hull aims ->
dtorso before the fix.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The binary's inside renderable build sets type A (=4, part_014.c:5077) and
its per-segment loop looks up EVERY segment's type-A mesh (FUN_00424084,
:5570) with no torso/cop filter -- the arcade drew all authored own-body
meshes (thor pod, owens legs). No opt-out exists in the binary.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three testers reported a black rectangle swaying with the footsteps in the
thor cockpit (Summoner = the thr1 label, same THX canopy -- no isolation).
Decode: the inside view is a PER-MECH AUTHORED type-A set, not the cop
alone (no fallback in EntitySegment::GetVideoObjectName -- authored data):
madcat/vulture/bhk1 = cop; sunder/loki/avatar = +tor; thor = +tor +MSL
(the shoulder pod, the reported rectangle); owens = +both legs +tshd.
The pod/leg pilot-facing surfaces use the SAME "<pfx>skin:blakskn_dz_*"
interior-structure material as the canopy frame, but the unlit frame
constant was keyed on the _cop FILENAME -- identical material rendered
(0.13,0.12,0.15) on the canopy and pure (0,0,0) on the pod/legs
([matlog]: owx_cop blakskn vcol=FF211F26 vs owx_lule vcol=FF000000).
Fix (bgfload.cpp): the frame-constant treatment keys on meshIsCop OR
material contains "skin:blakskn_dz_". mechfx:blakskn_mtl (tshd shadow
quads) deliberately excluded. Verified: zero pure-black px in the lower
view band across walk captures, the pod plate renders frame-toned and
blends with the bar at rest (the reported anomaly dissolves), owens legs
read as coherent structure, canopy/terrain un-regressed.
Diags added: BT_MAT_LOG=<stem> per-batch material routing dump (bgfload),
BT_HIDE_INSIDE_SEG=<substr> inside-mesh hide (btl4vid), [view] per-segment
inside-roster names. KB: cockpit-view.md exactly-one claim corrected +
the #91 section; bench scratchpad/night11/thorrect.sh.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Playtesters (all on the glass surround) reported the cockpit lighting
sometimes going slow or nonexistent while the 3D view stayed perfectly
smooth. The RIO serial/lamp stack is byte-identical to pod-proven Red
Planet (diffed L4LAMP/L4RIO/L4SERIAL), so the wiring was fine -- the defect
is the glass UPDATE CADENCE:
The lit buttons draw every frame (BTDrawCockpitPanels, reading
PadRIO::GetLampState), but the lamp STATE sweep that fills that store
(LampManager::Update -> AssertNewLampValue -> SetLamp) rides the gauge
renderer's FOREGROUND turn, which fires only once per full gauge cycle
(foreground->background->copy). The cycle can't reach the next foreground
turn until the throttled background gauge sweep drains the ~140-instrument
active list -- and that background task starves under MP load (issue #45,
"instruments freeze while fps stays healthy"). So the lamp sweep ran
~1x/second: buttons froze / flashes stalled while the view (a separate
per-frame foreground render) stayed smooth.
Fix: BTGlassSweepLamps() runs the lamp sweep EVERY frame on the dev/glass
composite path (L4VB16.cpp, in BTDrawGaugeInset), decoupled from the gauge
cycle. It is cheap -- deduped state pushes over ~72 lamps, no raster. The
pod never enters BTDrawGaugeInset (real gauge hardware), so its authentic
bandwidth-paced serial lamp cadence is untouched. BT_GLASS_LAMP_SWEEP=0
restores the authentic once-per-cycle behaviour.
Verified: Release links clean (only the 40 tolerated /FORCE externals);
glass surround boots and runs, lamp sweep pushes state (43 [lamp] pushes,
buttons lit), ~60 fps, no crash. The under-load win is structural (the
sweep is now an unconditional per-frame call); true MP-starvation repro
needs multiple nodes.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The gauge-alarm "condition" is a STATUS-FLAG BIT INDEX edge-scanned by
MechTech (bit 0/1 structure, 2 leak, 3 heat, 4 AmmoBurning, 5 Jammed,
6 !HasVoltage). Conditions 4/5 -> the engEject flash = the AMMO purge/unjam
invite (flashing the very key whose streamed function is EjectAmmo) --
never pilot eject; cond 6 -> the bus-switch invite; the PANIC lamp is the
sole pilot-eject indicator.
The destruction->stateAlarm(4) bridge is REMOVED as unfounded: alarms never
read stateAlarm; state 4 is the THERMAL BREAKER state produced by
GeneratorSimulation itself (byte-matched vs FUN_004b1f7c). And the binary's
crit distributor (@0049c9a8, read raw) touches nothing electrical -- a
generator destroyed in place keeps stale Ready voltage until any transition
recomputes output via (1 - damage) x rated. The port now matches that
subtlety exactly (verified: single-gen force-kill -> no bus invite, no arm,
silent unarmed keypad -- all authentic).
KB: the full bit table + invite semantics + electrical subtlety recorded in
decomp-reference.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The evaluator's "unexported caller" found by E8-scan: the Mech MASTER
PERFORMANCE (FUN_004a9b5c, in the 004a977x..004ab188 export hole) calls
EvaluateEjectPermission as its FIRST act every frame. Without that call the
port's ejectPermitted stayed at ctor-0 forever -- the panic-armed mode never
raised, so the PANIC lamp never lit and testers "never saw the option for
eject come alive". Restored at the top of Mech::PerformAndWatch (masters
only, like the binary).
Mislabel swept: mech+0x414 is ejectPermitted, NOT "missionReviewMode" -- the
mapper's @004d196c edge-watch arms PANIC mode 0x200000 from it (the real
review mode is the GLOBAL DAT_004fd550; btl4pb now reads that global, the
GetMissionReviewMode stub is retired, mapper member renamed
previousEjectPermitted).
Verified live: kill 4 generators -> "[eject] panic-arm mode ON" -> the
miniconsole Panic button lights dark->bright (pixel captures; the pad panel
shades it from the same PadRIO lamp state the pod's physical button uses) ->
BT_EJECT_AT press -> PUNCH-OUT -> respawn heals -> mode disarms -> healthy
presses REFUSED. BT_EJECT_LOG=1 logs the arm edges.
Note: no shipped gauge rides mode 0x200000 -- the 1995 eject indication is
the button lamp; the weapon-eng MFD "UNJAM/EJECT" is the ammo-jam indicator.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Re-read the material damage watcher RAW (@004573e4 ctor / @00457784
change-push): 16 floats snapshotted, damaged = pristine x 0.1 (literal at
the MakeMechRenderables call site, watching zone+0x158), linear lerp, 13
floats written back, then FUN_0048d4d4 -- which is "flush_material": a dpl
command-stream marshal (opcode 100) to the i860 division card. The
material->ramp->texel response curve was CARD firmware and is not in
BTL4OPT.EXE; logged as an open question (ask: firmware/DIV docs/period
screenshots).
Field reconciliation, measured live: one 25-pt hit (ERLG class) snaps a
77-pt arm 0 -> 0.3247 in a frame -- "a single missile leaves visible
armor damage" holds under the linear curve for heavy hits; 2-pt ERS creep
(the leg-audit weapon) is the invisible case.
Bench additions: BT_WALK_ZONES=<name-list> walker filter (concentrated
per-region audits, scratchpad/night10/legwalk.sh) + BindArmourDamage
ORPHAN inventory under BT_ARMOR_LOG (proved every drawn op is
zone-claimed on the full tree).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The binary's effect watcher (FUN_0042aa2c) raises
ForceUpdate(DamageZoneUpdateModelFlag) when a zone's damageLevel CROSSES a
band-descriptor threshold (FUN_0042a5f4, master-gated on entity+0x28 & 0xc)
-- that send is how every other pod's replicant learns zone levels
mid-fight. The port's band hub kept only the graphic-state branch, so an
observer's copy sat at 0.0 until destruction: no enemy hull darkening, no
doll movement, ever (the night-10 "no armour discoloration" report).
Restored the level branch with the already-reconstructed DescriptorCrossed
(@0042a5f4) + the master gate on both branches (mesh swap still runs on
every instance). 2-node verified: A-side armour watcher pushed 114 level
changes; every replicant peak matched the master's finals to 4 decimals
(dtorso 0.9321 == 0.9321).
Render path cleared separately (gotcha #23 discharged): BT_ARMOR_FORCE 0/1
A/B captures prove the tint renders (hull -> charcoal at 1.0). Solo
perception is the authentic economy: 2-25 pt lasers vs 68-185 pt pools.
Bench: zonewalk.sh node A now carries BT_ARMOR_LOG + BT_SHOT_EVERY (the
standing zone-replication receipt) + digest_walk.py; armorpx.sh is the
force-pair pixel rig.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The precision rig the operator specified: two nodes, target visible,
every zone aimed at deliberately through the REAL reticle/pick path.
* BT_SPIN_SELF=<deg/s> (target node): rotates the node's own viewpoint
mech in place (the BT_SPAWN_AT write pattern per frame) so every
aspect passes the shooter's boresight; the operator watches this
node's paper doll take the hits.
* BT_ZONE_WALK=<secs/zone> (shooter node): walks the target's damage
zones in order, resolves each zone's carrier segment's live world
position (BTResolveSegmentWorld + the new BTMechZoneSegAndName
bridge), SERVOS the torso twist + aim elevation until the centered
reticle ray (BTGetAimRay) points at the segment, fires 3 laser
pulses, advances. [walk] ZONE/FIRE/HOLD on A pairs with [dmghit]
zone/level lines on B.
* scratchpad/night10/zonewalk.sh: launch both + relay, map sed'd to
grass/day, NO kill timer -- the session stays up for observation.
Hard-won servo constraints (documented in test-harness.md so they are
never relearned): the ENGAGE GATE (ray live + range<150 + bearing<1.1;
outside it RELAX the twist -- servoing at the twist limit while the
goto marches is a limit-clamp fight that visibly shakes the mech, and
a 0.55 gate deadlocks against the goto's ~0.55 resting bearing); YAW
POLARITY -1 (the twist cell's angular sense is opposite atan2(x,-z)
world yaw -- operator-observed live, the SECOND witness for the #124
SelectSlice twist-sign flip) with a divergence watchdog that
self-flips; damped correction (gain .40, cap .025/frame -- the aim ray
lags the twist write a frame); and a one-shot approach PORT to 100u
off the target instead of a cross-map march.
First live run: walker cycles zones, settles, fires; the target's
luleg climbed 0.458->0.523 under its own aimed pulses -- aimed shot,
correct panel, damage consumed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
proven by the mech's own pods
The first fix (c5dfb00) negated x AND z. The operator challenged it:
'they couldn't hit rear panels AT ALL -- a 180 rotation couldn't explain
that' -- and a rotation would also have relocated rear damage, not
erased it, while the bench premise (the dummy faces its attacker) was
assumed, never measured.
The zero-premise probe (BT_ASPECT_TEST): four self-impacts at known
WORLD cardinals + one at each weapon's PHYSICAL MUZZLE position -- the
mech's own asymmetric geometry as the left/right anchor. Measured:
* WorldToLocal is a clean R(yaw), no hidden terms (yaws -30/150/40 deg
all consistent);
* our frame: RIGHT = +X -- SAME as the 1995 ring (W0/W7 = Right*) --
and FORWARD = -Z, flipped vs the ring's Front*-in-+Z-arc;
* under the pi rotation the pods CROSSED (left muzzle -> rtorso);
under z-negation every anchor lands its own side.
So: negate local z only, and -- since a reflection reverses angular
direction -- the SelectSlice torso-twist term flips sign with it
(twist was 0 in all probes; twisted-torso verify tracked on #124).
Anchor acceptance (fresh exe, third yaw): LRM15_1 left pod -> ltorso,
LRM15_2 -> right wedges, left/right arm muzzles -> larm/rarm, nose ->
front cells, tail -> rear cells, flank cardinals -> rgun / left wedges.
The BT_ASPECT_TEST probe + BTWeaponMuzzleWorld bridge stay as bench
scalpels.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Night-10's systematic targeting audit (rear panels unhittable from
direct fire, Owens left torso hitting the RIGHT weapon pod and vice
versa, missiles favoring the far side) measured down to one geometric
fact: the authored wedge ring puts the Front* cells in the +Z arc
(slice-name audit, bit-verified tables), i.e. the 1995 resolver frame
has mech-forward = +Z -- while OUR engine's entity frame carries
forward along -Z. Bench proof: a victim facing its attacker took
frontal beams at local z = -4..-10, theta ~270 deg, resolving the
REAR-named cells (zones 12/14/15) every time.
The two frames differ by a pi ROTATION about Y -- rotation, not
reflection, because the field flank observations CROSS (left->right)
rather than persist. ResolveHit now rotates the local impact into the
cylinder's frame (negate x and z; y untouched; handedness preserved so
the SelectSlice torso-twist add keeps its sign).
A/B (172 resolves, live missiles+beams on a facing victim): before
theta~4.7 -> rear zones only; after theta~1.42-1.59 -> utorso/dtorso/
ltorso/rtorso/arm -- the front-authored cells, with the per-burst
re-roll scatter intact.
NOT this bug: the "one band LOW" Y-axis half of the night-10 table --
that is #16 (pick-ray boresight parallax, code-confirmed, still open).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* SpecialCaseDeathPenalty restored to the engine ScenarioRole (SCNROLE.h/
.cpp) -- the 4.10-only role field the 2007 WinTesla source dropped
(record slot [1] after KillBonus, fail-hard read; role+0x20; the
DefaultRendererRate pattern). Its consumer decoded from the @004c05c4
export gap (@004c07cd, missing from the #52 reconstruction): every
death with advancedDamageOn hands the ENGINE base ScoreMessageHandler
(@0042da20 == PLAYER.cpp:138, a DIRECT call bypassing the BT type
Verifies) a type-1 award of -penalty. Wired verbatim. Shipped content
authors the key nowhere -> cost 0 in the field. NUANCE [T4]: the 1995
engine adds at Player+0x1c8, which no BT scoreboard reads (+0x278) --
the pod's cost may never have displayed; our single-cell port shows it.
* The eject console notice: FUN_004c198c IS the
ConsolePlayerMechDeathWithoutHonorMessage ctor (T0 BTCNSL.CPP survives
and is compiled) -- "death without honor" is the punch-out record.
BTPlayerEjectBookkeeping now sends it to the console host through the
same ConsoleClientID path as the VTVDamaged notify, then latches
suppressConsole: the eject notice REPLACES the death notify. Verified
two-node: "notice -> console host 1" fires on the ejecting node; the
relay-side delivery of client-5 traffic is a pre-existing question
shared with the never-observed VTVDamaged sibling (operator-console
workstream).
* Eject alarm-10 audio: resolved NEGATIVE -- the five Eject*.wav ship in
AUDIO/ but BTL4.RES references them nowhere (orphaned like the SQUAT
clips); wiring them would be a stand-in. Operator-optional deviation.
* RIO 0x38 panic control: deferred with the plumbing documented (the
glass Flight-Controls window already renders the 0x38 bank; consumer =
read buttonGroup[ButtonPanic] alongside the binding-engine edge) --
pod-hardware-only, untestable on this bench.
Two-node verify (fresh-exe rerun after a stale-exe trap): REFUSED
healthy, PUNCH-OUT after generator kill, death + wreck swap + smoke +
un-wreck warp all replicated on the observer, respawned mech refuses
again, console notice fired.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The button died twice before reaching game logic: no handler (0x19 was
unregistered) and no sender (the pod's panic was a control bit, not a
mappable). Both halves reconstructed from raw disasm -- the handler AND
its permission evaluator sat in export gaps.
@0049f854 EjectPilot: press-only; gated on ejectPermitted (@0x414) and
!IsDisabled; console eject notice (relay wire = tracked tail; the
suppressConsole@0x258 latch that prevents the death double-notify IS
wired); graphicAlarm -> 10, which kills via the >=9 predicate; then a
self TakeDamage {inflicting=SELF, zone -1, Explosive, amount =
ScenarioRole::killBonus}. Role layout byte-settled via the role reader
@00429bec dest offsets + the ctor record copy: +0x1c IS killBonus, +0x20
is the 4.10-only SpecialCaseDeathPenalty, +0x28 returnFromDeath (all
prior citations reconciled). KillBonus authors NOWHERE in shipped
content -> the charge is 0 and the ALARM does the killing: our bench
outcome is the pod outcome.
@0049fa1c EvaluateEjectPermission: eject only from a CRIPPLED mech --
bank coolant fraction < 0.05 | zero live generators | live weapons
below mech+0x448 (no exported writer: zero, clause inert) | leg-gimped
novice. A healthy mech REFUSES the button; no free resets.
Input: binding-engine "Eject" action -- Backspace / pad LeftThumb
(default profile + shipped CONTROLS.MAP). Bridges per the databinding
rule: weapon/generator/bank/player reads land in their complete TUs;
MechSubsystem gains the both-cells destroyed accessors (gotcha #22).
Bench scalpels: BT_EJECT_AT=<frame> (path-identical synthetic press),
BT_KILL_SUBSYS now takes a comma list.
Verified single-node: healthy press REFUSED (x2), four generators
killed, next press PUNCH-OUT -> death, wreck smoke, respawn; the
respawned mech refuses again (permission re-evaluates after Reset).
Death rides the normal damage/death chain, so MP replication is the
proven path. Tails tracked: console relay notice, RIO 0x38 panic
control, alarm-10 eject audio/canopy, SpecialCaseDeathPenalty consumer.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The open question under every heat bracket was what the 1995 sim does with
time. Answered at the byte level:
* FUN_0041c018 IS the arcade Simulation::PerformAndWatch: slice =
(till.ticks - last.ticks) / DAT_0052140c, stored, Perform(slice) --
VARIABLE-STEP in real SECONDS, line-for-line the WinTesla SIMULATE.cpp
body. Every dt-carrying reconstruction is unit-faithful; no tick/second
gap exists anywhere.
* The myomer heat term's ONE caller is the unexported MyomersSimulation
body @0x4b8b9a (E8-scan + raw disasm; export gap): once per Perform, raw
slice, gated measuredVoltage>0 only. The dt-less kinetic pulse therefore
fires at the FRAME cadence -- 28 Hz nominal, sagging under load
(emergent hardware, not a code constant).
* Mover velocity is u/s (dead-reckoner @0x421f7c: pos += vel x ticksD/28),
so the v operand is unit-faithful too.
The 0.5 "loaded-rate" witness bracket is RETIRED -- it modeled the sag as
a constant, wrong in exactly the reported scenario (open-field cruising is
a light scene; the pod held ~28 there). kSeekHeatCalib = 1.0.
Measured at the faithful rate (madcat cruise benches): recommended gear
equilibrates ~1450 -- inside the authored degradation band as a SOFT 20%
output governor (heatFactor = 1 - d^2/range^2), weapons untouched at
~110-150, ZERO jams, zero bay fires from movement alone; supercharge
~1770 (deep governor -- the manual's own expert-mode warning). That is
the authored system: degradeT=1000 is governor onset, failT=2000 the
cliff, and the coolant-loop controls are the player's lever.
New leads filed in open-questions: the climb term's gravity operand
samples 0 (bridge points at a dead cell); the engine Mover's own gravity
subtraction is per-frame dt-less (port impact unread); gait-noise phantom
acceleration feeds the accel term.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Byte-level audit of the entire damage chain vs the binary, all links exact:
zone stream reads (@0041df5c == engine DAMAGE.cpp), ctor normalization
(@0049ce50; constants 1.0/1e-4/0.5; shipped cells uniform 1/armorPts),
TakeDamage @0041e4e0, the BT override @0049c690 (vital/leg 1.0/0.5/0.0),
CriticalHit @0049ccc4 (0.5 fraction, 1.0 cap, authored-percentage cap),
cook-off chain (@004bc3fc per-salvo stamp / @004bd300 rounds x amount /
@004ac274 divide across the bin's plugged zones).
Measured kill route: 6 of 7 bench deaths were bay-fire detonations --
LRM15 bin 10 rounds x 50 = 500 into its ONE authored carrier zone
(content: madcat bins single-zone; 15 of 22 zones vital) -> one
application 0->1.0 -> instant death, armor bright everywhere else.
Field logs confirm dominance (Rajel 12 bay-fire events, ConnMan 10).
The mech that died conventionally ended 0.97/0.93/0.92/0.85 charred --
darkening accumulates fine when mechs live long enough.
Levers: the #96 heat economy (arms the bay fires) and purge training
(EJECT hold extinguishes -- wired, logged, manual-trained in the pod).
Also corrected a wrong KB address: FUN_0041e4e0 was labeled '.DZM res
compiler' in decomp-reference.md/rendering.md -- it is DamageZone::
TakeDamage (byte-matches DAMAGE.cpp:379); swept both files.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Two consumers of one impact, only one was ever verified: the victim gets
TakeDamage{amount=per-missile, burstCount=cluster roll} and applies it
burstCount times (armor was always right); the score post on the next line
sent the bare per-missile amount. An LRM10 salvo dealing 7-35 armor banked
3.5 points -- Rajel's "~3 points to score", to the digit.
Ground truth: the binary's score is the victim handler's tally (amount once
per applied burst @0x4a04da + crit bonuses) reported to the INFLICTING
player (the id-0x16 tail, deferred #45). The shooter-side stand-in now
posts amount x burstCount -- the identical figure handed to the victim, at
the identical one-post-per-TakeDamage granularity. Same pass:
* splash never credited score at all -- the binary tallies every
TakeDamage; now posted per splash victim (amount x falloff bursts);
* the bridge credited the LOCAL player for ANY registered hit -- AI-master
fire on the player, a dying mech's death-blast splash; now refused
unless the shooter IS the local vehicle (MP unaffected: only local fire
carries live damage on a node);
* direct-fire unchanged -- beams author burstCount=1 (emitter.cpp:355).
Verified per the harness doctrine: single-node field composition (madcat,
real fire, real enemy) 22/22 impact credits paired at damage x burst, zero
bare 3.33 posts; two-node replicant-victim run BOTH directions 31/31
paired across three missile authorings (3.33/2.0/5.0 per-missile) + 25-pt
ballistics, leftovers all burst-1 beam amounts. test-harness.md gains the
map=grass note (MP.EGG authors cavern/night; GOTO mechs shoot rock).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Audit of Cyd's hit-model artifact against THE BINARY (user mandate: not vs the
port). res29_scan.py parses the type-29 streams straight from BTL4.RES bytes:
18 streams / 8 distinct confirmed; the 7-wedge cells (BLH band 6, VUL band 4)
and the all-fixed BLH/OWN twist patterns are authored fact; every artifact
spot-check cell matched the raw bytes verbatim. Chassis->table resolved by
live-dump matching (MadCat and Avatar ride DIFFERENT same-zone-set tables).
Authored slice names fix the wedge orientation: FRONT = the +Z arc, W1|W2 seam
= dead ahead -- corrects the #92 comment's W6-frontal claim. Collision type-0
divert re-grounded at 0x4a0361/0x4a036d: rams never touch the cylinder.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
USER REPORT: "when you destroy a mech, it continues to smoke for a very long
time after the mech disappears... up to 30secs to a minute."
MEASURED (new [pfx] timed census with per-def particle attribution): the
death plume (psfx 1 DDTHSMK) was re-armed on a 10s cadence as a WORLD effect
(ownerTag=0) -- so neither the burial transition nor the respawn cleanup
(StopAllEntityEffects) could touch it. The last-armed window kept emitting
over the empty spot for up to 10s after the hulk vanished, plus 6+-2s authored
particle lives, and back-to-back windows stretched the visible tail to the
reported range. The re-arm itself is a marked PORT ADDITION [T3]; the binary
fired DDTHSMK once -- its 10s window + particle lives ended right around the
~17s hulk sink. The authored design: the smoke dies WITH the burial.
FIX: the plume is spawned ATTACHED (BTStartPfxAttached, tagged to the dying
entity -- it also rides the sinking hulk now), and the burial transition calls
BTStopEntityPfx alongside the respawn cleanup that already did. Verified over
a 175s run containing FOUR wreck events (the enemy kill + three player bay-
fire deaths): every plume's emission ends at its wreck's burial or respawn,
particles fade within ~8-11s, no orphan emitters remain.
THE COUPLING (user relay of Oracle: "prolonged smoke and explosion INCLUDING
SOUND... same lever?") -- CONFIRMED as a family: the binary's audio layer
times in FRAME COUNTS converted by the engine frame-rate global:
AudioTime::Seconds_To_Frames == fmul [0x52140c]=28.0; fadd 0.5; round
(@0x42c611, @0x42dd86 -- the 0x42xxxx cluster of the ~90 global consumers)
Our engine's DefaultRendererRate said 30: every audio duration, sequence
delay and compression window ran ~7% fast. Calibrated to 28 [T1]. NOT yet
explained by this: a truly SUSTAINED/looping explosion sound (7% is not
"prolonged") -- the effect stop-path trace stays open on #114/#51.
Tooling: BTPfxParticle carries defIndex; [pfx] census (BT_PFX_LOG, 2s) prints
emitters + particles PER EFFECT SLOT with a timestamp; wrecksmoke.sh.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Oracle isolated it: "standard mode still having heat and leaks only occurred in
steam not in solo. Sauron and Lynx did not have the issue but Conn Man, Rajel
and myself did." The night-9 logs close the case:
affected (Oracle/ConnMan/Rajel): [exp] experience=2 heatModelOn=1
clean (Sauron's std sessions): [exp] experience=1 heatModelOn=0
CAUSE: the glass front end's JOIN layout trimmed the menu to "the mech list +
the JOIN button; everything else is the operator's call" -- and the experience
selector's hidden default is 2 (veteran). So HOSTS got whatever they picked
(Sauron hosted the lobbies all night -> his standard landed), while every
JOINER launched as veteran regardless of anything they did -- which is why
Oracle's cycling-the-settings experiment changed nothing, and why solo (full
menu) never showed the problem. heat >= veteran, hence "standard but heating".
DESIGN CONFIRMED BY THE USER before fixing: experience is PER-PLAYER by the
original design -- the sysop set each user's tier and mixed-experience matches
were legal. Architecture already supports it end to end: each node's master
player reads its OWN egg's experience (btMission+0xE4 -> BTPlayer @004c0bc8),
so per-node choice IS per-player choice.
FIX: the join layout gains the GroupExperience selector (the selection->egg
write path is the pre-existing host path, field-proven). Also: the front end
now prints "[fe] pilot experience=<x> (join|host/solo)" at launch, so every
future field log answers this class of report without asking anyone.
VERIFICATION BOUNDARY, stated plainly: builds both configs; the write path is
shared with the host flow which the field already exercises; the visible
selector + the [fe] line need one join-mode launch to eyeball, and the field
re-test is Oracle running a standard steam match as a JOINER and seeing no
heat.
Tooling note recorded in test-harness.md: bash-heredoc python collapses one
backslash level even single-quoted -- a "\n" arrives as a real newline and
replaces silently no-op. Build backslashes from bytes([92]); verify replaces
by length delta, not by the script saying "fixed". (This burned four edit
rounds tonight and several earlier C2001 hunts.)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Frame-rate testimony from the morning follow-up, now on record beside the bytes:
* Oracle, asked if the pod frame rate was rock solid: "I think I could do as
well with a flipbook"; heavy fights "would turn to a slide show".
* Lynx (original era): "RP had a target frame rate of 30FPS. It wasn't hard
coded or locked. BT never had a locked frame rate in 1st release
testing... coming from 3.0, where 20FPS was a miracle."
* The engine pacer's own design agrees: fixed budget + background fill + NO
overrun catch-up (APPMGR.cpp, T0) = "target 28 but allowed to slip", with
the 18.2065 BIOS fallback anticipating degraded timing.
Also settles epilectrik's open confirmation ("frame rate is advancing at least
some of the subsystems -- i have to fully confirm that"): ALL of them --
UpdateManager::Execute runs every interesting master every frame,
Entity::PerformAndWatch runs every executable subsystem per entity tick, no
throttle at any layer. The crisp rule: CADENCE is frame-linked for
everything; only terms missing a dt multiply are rate-SENSITIVE.
Corollary worth keeping: a choking 486 generated LESS heat/s exactly during
the biggest fights -- the slideshow was mercy. Veteran memory of seek-4
endurance encodes the LOADED rate, which is why bracketing by their consensus
is the correct instrument rather than a concession.
Follow-up filed in the KB: sweep the reconstruction for OTHER dt-less per-tick
accumulators (known: particle trail density, rendering.md; the 15-sample
heatFilter window is rate-dependent smoothing, benign). Each found one should
normalize against the same 28-nominal/bracketed-effective pair.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
epilectrik: "the issue seems to be related to a tick rate that advances the
heat accumulation... i need to trace out what the clock origin was." Traced.
THE CLOCK ORIGIN [T1]: the DOS binary keeps its engine frame rate in the
global DAT_0052140c, set once at startup:
0x401ace: mov [0x52140c], 0x41E00000 = 28.0f (nominal)
0x401ada: mov [0x52140c], 0x4191A6E0 = 18.2065f (BIOS-tick fallback)
The DOS main pushes it straight into the ApplicationManager ctor (0x401189:
push [0x52140c]), and ~90 sites across the image fmul/fdiv by it -- it is THE
per-frame<->per-second conversion scalar of the whole 1995 engine. The engine
executes every interesting master every frame and every executable subsystem
every entity tick (UPDATE.cpp / ENTITY.cpp, T0 -- no throttle at any layer),
so subsystem Performance cadence == this rate: the pod's myomer tick was
NOMINALLY 28 Hz. My previous 30 Hz reference (the i860 BOARD frame) was
wrong by 7%, not the 2x the veterans hear.
THE RESIDUAL IS EFFECTIVE RATE, NOT NOMINAL: Oracle, on the halved build,
still asks "If you could please halve the myomer heat rate again. We will
bracket to something reasonable." A 486 host missing beats halves the real
Performance cadence without changing any constant -- and the 18.2 fallback
existing at all says slow paths were expected. Statics cannot settle the
in-pod effective rate, so his bracket is the right instrument:
effective default = 28 [T1 nominal] x 0.5 [T3 testimony calib] = 14 Hz
BT_MYO_HZ=<hz> still overrides absolutely for bracketing
the resolved rate now logs under BT_MYO_LOG, tier tags inline
Measured (Owens, seek 4, flat out): peak T 1007 -> ~640, degradation never
reached -- the halving Oracle requested, delivered as one auditable knob
instead of a silent constant edit.
KB: decomp-reference.md gains the DAT_0052140c section (~90 consumer sites --
whenever the decomp shows an unexplained mul/div by _DAT_0052140c it is
per-second<->per-frame at 28); btl4main.cpp's "30 = pod authentic" pacer note
corrected (30 kept deliberately for display smoothness, the divergence now
documented). Candidate follow-up recorded: the frame-rate-dependent particle
trail density (rendering.md) should normalize against the same 28, which may
bear on Ronin's smoke-density report (#114).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
User mandate (2026-08-02): "do tests like this from now on" -- after the #110
grind bench, where the field composition (peer fire destroying an arm over the
wire) replaced the constructed proxy that had let #86 be called fixed while
players kept hitting it.
The topic carries two halves on purpose:
DOCTRINE -- what counts as VERIFIED:
1. reproduce the REPORTED scenario, not a convenient adjacent one
2. scalpel hooks (BT_SELF_DAMAGE_ZONE / BT_KILL_SUBSYS / BT_FORCE_*) locate
defects; they support a "fixed" claim only with proven path-identity to
the field composition -- and the field composition still gets run
3. MP symptom -> two-node proof (master-side correctness says nothing about
what a peer sees)
4. visual symptom -> pixel proof (gotcha 23)
5. coverage claims need the axis enumerated and measured (all gates, all
chassis), because per-chassis behaviour lives in authored data
6. an unexplained extra effect in a passing run means the run has not passed
MACHINERY -- the bench_common.sh contract (summarized, file = source of truth),
single-node and two-node skeletons (relay, ports, affinity, fire cadence,
GOTO_STOP standoff), process hygiene (stale-node taskkill first, never
double-background, teardown kill order, stale-exe tells), and log-reading rules
(capped diagnostics are not evidence of absence; alarm lines are not trends;
name the actor at every refusal; field logs have no gates set -- spawn-time
summaries ungated, per-frame traces gated).
Routed: Quick Lookup row, CLAUDE.md reasoning step 4, build-and-run parity
section, reconstruction-method Key Relationships. checkctx CLEAN.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Lynx: "You can destroy an upper arm, and the gun pod is intact and can still
fire." Conn Man's audit: three chassis, both arms, reproducible. And the user
is right that this family was claimed fixed before: #86 gated fire on the
WEAPON's own destruction and was verified by destroying the weapon directly
(BT_KILL_SUBSYS) -- the field scenario was the ARM ZONE dying with the weapon
subsystem healthy, which that bench never reproduced. Oracle's 693-night "I can
still fire destroyed energy weapons" was almost certainly this mechanism.
ROOT CAUSE -- a silent stub. Mech__DamageZone::RecurseSegmentTable @0049cad4
was transcribed faithfully... against three local shim types whose iterators
unconditionally return NULL:
struct SegmentIterator { DZRef *Next() { return 0; } };
struct SegTableX { SegmentRecord *operator[](int) { return 0; } };
The cascade fired on zone death (bench: 72 [cascade] lines), "descended", and
touched nothing. Every line read correct; none of it did anything.
THE REAL WALK (decomp re-read, FUN_0049cad4): iterate the mech's segment table
(mech+0x300, vtbl+0x34 GetNth) to this zone's segment, then
destroySiblingsOnDestruction (Wword 0x68): recurse every other zone on the
SAME segment (seg+0xD0), setting graphic state 2 (Gone)
descendOnDestruction (Wword 0x67): recurse every zone on every CHILD
segment (seg+0xE8 -> child+0xD0) -- the arm takes the gun
The engine ALREADY HAS both structures: EntitySegment::damageZoneTable @0xD0 /
childIndexTable @0xE8 (TableOf is 0x18 -- byte-identical to the decomp offsets),
populated at stream time by JMOVER.cpp:373 [T0]. The stub was never necessary.
Implemented with the engine iterators via two new read accessors on
EntitySegment (SEGMENT.h); the binary's asymmetry is reproduced as-is (the
sibling loop checks graphic state != 1, the child loop does not; re-hits on a
1.0 zone re-run the cascade -- idempotent in effect).
VERIFIED (ava1, self-damage to one zone, autofire everything):
dz_rarm -> [cascade] zone 9 -> zone 17; AFC100 + AmmoBinAFC100 + Condenser6
ForceCriticalFailure'd; "[ammo] AFC100 -> NoAmmo (gate1): destroyed=1";
torso LRM5/SRM2 keep firing (correct)
dz_larm -> [cascade] zone 2 -> zone 6; PPC + Condenser4 force-failed;
"[emitter] 'PPC' fire REFUSED (destroyed=1)" x4998 -- the emitter gate now
logs refusals BY NAME (the FIRED line never named its weapon, which is how
#86's verification gap survived)
regression smoke: frame time 7.13/7.20ms, 0 asserts, 0 cascades in ordinary
combat (they fire only on genuine zone deaths)
Authored data (now dumped under BT_DMG_LOG): descend=1 on exactly the four arm
zones (ava1: 2/6/9/17), destroySibs=0 everywhere -- so legs/torso behavior is
untouched by this change.
KB: combat-damage.md cascade section; reconstruction-gotchas #26 (the
silent-stub trap: a shim that returns EMPTY converts a reconstruction into
fiction that reads correct -- shims must Fail() loudly or log their emptiness).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Oracle (674): "missile appear to register hit explosions twice, once where
target was and again where the target is". Rajel (693): "once where the mech
was when I fired and on the expected impact".
MECHANISM, measured on two nodes (BT_PROJ_LOG "DET at" now logs EVERY contact
detonation, including damage-0 rounds, which were invisible before): the
replicant salvo mirror pushed rounds with NO entity handle at the FROZEN
fire-time aim point, and the pool's contact test is proximity to p.targetPos --
so mirror rounds "contacted" the empty air where the target USED to be and
detonated there, on every peer, every salvo (45 salvos -> 234 frozen-point
air bursts in a 200s bench). The true impact appears at the live position
(the shooter's own homing rounds on his node; the victim's damage reaction on
peers) -- two sites per salvo, exactly as reported.
THE BINARY'S MODEL (CLASSMAP, Missile flight-entity cluster): missiles are
ENTITIES with authoritative/GHOST Performance variants (Projectile
PTR_LAB_005129e8 / 005129f4) and their own WriteUpdateRecord (@4bef4c, slot 7)
-- peers ran ghost missiles updated from the wire and saw the TRUE trajectory.
One explosion, correct place, every node. The frozen-point mirror is the port
infidelity (the entity Missile itself stays blocked by the documented 2007
Entity-base mismatch; mislanch.cpp:301).
FIX: the MissileLauncher update record now carries the locked target's EntityID
(salvoTargetID; EntityID::Null = point fire). The mirror resolves it on the
receiving node via HostManager::GetEntityPointer (engine T0, an index-socket
Find -- NULL-safe on any ID), refuses non-mechs via BTIsRegisteredMech, and
pushes the mirror rounds WITH the handle -- they re-lead on the live local
replicant exactly as the master's own rounds do, and detonate at the true
position. Guards: record-length gate (a short record from an older build has
no ID field -- its tail would be garbage and must not resolve) + Null check +
registered-mech check.
VERIFIED (two nodes, 200s, missile autofire both ways):
* every record arrives len=52/52 with sane aims ([mlrec] diag)
* 22/46 salvos resolve (tgtID=3:22 -> the victim's local master) and their
mirror rounds home: the frozen-air DET population fell 234 -> 102, the
live-homing population rose to 155/207 per node
* the unresolved remainder is BENIGN and correct: EntityID::Null point fire
plus hostID=-1 LOCAL entities -- i.e. the victim's WRECK, which autofire
keeps shooting after the kill; a wreck does not move, so the frozen aim IS
its true position
Downstream expectations: Ronin's smoke-screen (#114) should drop by ~the mirror
half, and the audio census (#32) loses the duplicate Static3DPatchSource
explosion sounds on peers -- both to be read from the next field logs.
Also in this commit: [projectile] DET diagnostic (every contact detonation with
position/damage/handle/aim), [mlrec] record-arrival diagnostic (len/recID/
subsys/counter/aim, capped 200), scratchpad/night9/mp_double.sh.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The reopen said "the pool fills and never returns a source". The 30s census in
the SAME field logs disproves it: free returns to ~227-230 between bursts and
reuses climbs ~20/s all session. free=0 on the failure line is true by
DEFINITION at the instant of a failed acquire -- the third instance of the
counter-sampling trap (live=256-vs-6, then hsparm greps, now this), read off the
alarm line instead of the trend line.
WHAT THE LOGS ACTUALLY SHOW
* The pool cycles; release-on-stop exists and works (the engine steal loop).
* During firefights CONCURRENT demand exceeds 240 and the priority steal loop
services each new sound by killing an old one -- continuously through
combat (failures spread across every decile of every combat session).
* Idle standing demand is ~13 sources. My "each component holds its SourceSet
to entity teardown, ~20-25 per mech" narrative was wrong.
* The raw ACQUIRE FAILED line count (6.8k-19k per log) is NOISE: the steal
loop retries after every failed attempt, so lines accumulate per EVENT and
most events still play via a steal. True drops were never counted.
CHANGES
1. Census now carries steals= and drops= (drops = the steal loop ran dry and
the sound NEVER played) plus a per-class drop histogram
("[audio] dropped by class: {class 1005 x4v: N} ...") -- all ungated, so
the next field logs are decisive instead of suggestive.
2. The ACQUIRE FAILED print is rate-limited to 1/30s and now names the
requesting class + voice count. 19k-line log spam distorted this triage.
3. BT_AUDIO_SOURCES=<n> now raises the POOL cap too (it previously raised the
AL context budget while the pool stayed at 240, making the field
experiment impossible to run).
MEASURED (9 mechs, missile autofire, 150s)
* cap 240: peak 130 sources, 0 fails -- demand tracks SHOOTER count, not mech
count; one shooter cannot saturate. A 6-shooter lobby pins 240.
* cap 48 (BT_AUDIO_SOURCES=64): saturation reproduced -- census
steals=223 drops=455, histogram names the classes.
* Dominant field requester (requested=4) = class 1005 Static3DPatchSource:
world-placed effect sounds, i.e. EXPLOSIONS. 1001 DirectPatchSource x1v
dominates drops at low cap; 1002 Dynamic3DPatchSource x3v present.
CONSEQUENCE FOR THE FIX ORDER: #84's stale-aim double detonation duplicates
exactly the saturating class on observer nodes. Fix#84 FIRST, then re-read the
field census; only if it still saturates does the budget experiment
(BT_AUDIO_SOURCES with frame time measured) become the play.
KB: the wrong night-9 entry in open-questions.md replaced with the corrected
diagnosis; gotcha candidate noted -- an alarm-line counter is not a trend.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
CONFIRMED FIXED and closed: #95 (missile salvo damage), #97 (leak gauge 3 levels),
#98 (loop-6 lamp), #99 (leak alarm audible).
#95 deserves a note: a tester reported "LRMs still doing 3.3 damage", but that is
the PER-MISSILE figure. 382 impacts across three 693 logs show the cluster being
delivered correctly -- LRM20 3.25 x burst 5..20 (total up to 65), LRM15 3.33 x
3..15, LRM10 3.50 x 2..10 -- and those burst ranges match the binary's
Random(n)+n/4 roll exactly.
#32 REOPENED. The pooling change removed the alloc/free churn (the ~10% frame
time is real) but every 693 field log still shows
ACQUIRE FAILED (requested=4 live=240 pooled=240 free=0 ...)
19,182 fails (Sauron) / 15,333 (Rajel) / 6,818 (Ronin), high-water 225 of 240,
starting ~1% into every session. `free=0` is the diagnosis: sources are never
returned. This is precisely the risk flagged when the fix landed -- retention,
not pool size. Players called audio "fine" the same night; the log disagrees.
#84 still present, but the surviving explosion is a DIFFERENT mechanism from the
bundled one that was fixed: "where the mech was when I fired" is the stale
fire-time aim point already recorded as an open in rendering.md, i.e. an MP
visual, not the message-manager path. Needs a two-node bench logging the
OBSERVER -- the earlier two-node run verified damage delivery but never the visual.
New: #108 ghost mech (peer never sees the death; shots still register, so it is a
visual/replication desync, the inverse of #94), #109 panic/eject, #110 arm
parent/child linkage (gun pod survives its mount -- three chassis, both arms;
parentArtifactZone exists but only drives LOD), #111 death warp bubble shown to
peers, #112 AFC shotgun spread (may be authentic Ultra-AFC burst), #113 LRM burn
duration, #114 missile smoke as a smoke screen, #115 hot box, #116 Standard-vs-
Expert heat gating, #117 per-chassis cockpit bounce.
⚠ A MEMBER OF THE ORIGINAL TEAM IS NOW TESTING -- "Ronin" (log user torak). He
worked on the 1995 game and has played the pods recently. Treat his pod
comparisons as primary evidence above reconstruction inference. First two
contributions recorded in the KB: per-chassis cockpit bounce was deliberate, and
NARC likely shipped as data without an implementation.
⚠ Conn Man ran the OLD build (.674) for all seven of his sessions, so his reports
are not evidence about 693. His arm-linkage audit is still valuable -- nothing in
693 touched that path.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Answering "did you check the decomp or disassembly?" -- I had not. I had checked
the authored data (BTL4.RES) and the MUNGA engine source and called it authentic
on source lineage alone. Now verified in BTL4OPT.EXE:
same sources compiled in : d:\tesla_bt\munga\AUDSEQ.CPP / AUDWTHR.CPP strings
object factory : @00466184 case 0x4b -> alloc 0x5C -> ctor @0043ccec
vtable : 0x4ead48
ReceiveControl : @0043d3a4 -- switch on control IDs 1 / 2 / 9 / 12,
which is exactly our enum Start / Stop / Idle / Tempo
Stop case : @0043d3ca -> unconditional call StopSequence @0043d2d4
StopSequence : tests only its OWN isRunning (+0x28) then the Chase
loop -- NO refcount, NO awareness of other leak sources
Structurally identical to engine/MUNGA/AUDSEQ.cpp. So the arcade behaved the same
way: with 19 subsystems sharing one alarm sequence, any one of them clearing its
leak silences the alarm while the others still leak. AUTHENTIC -- do not "fix".
(The tempo bound check could not be used as an anchor: Verify() compiles out of the
retail build, so the AUDSEQ.CPP assert strings are present in .data but unreferenced
by code and invisible to the decomp export -- gotcha 21 again. The object-factory
route via the numeric ClassID is what actually located the class.)
Recorded in context/gauges-hud.md with the full chain and the address table, so the
next person does not re-chase it or "fix" it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The KB asserted as [T1] that "burstCount is cosmetic for zone damage". Half of
that is byte-verified (DamageZone::TakeDamage @0041e4e0 really does ignore it);
the other half was an inference that inherited the [T1] tag and then justified
task #62's salvo-lead design -- which silently divided every missile salvo by its
missile count (gitea #95).
Corrected in both places it appeared (combat-damage.md:334 and :884): the CALLER,
Mech::TakeDamageMessageHandler @0x4a0423-0x4a04d8, applies TakeDamage burstCount
times and re-rolls the struck zone per burst. burstCount = number of
applications; load-bearing for missile cluster count, splash falloff and the gyro
bounce. Also records that the arcade Missile dispatches DIRECTLY at the victim
rather than through the message manager (whose consolidation drops burstCount).
New gotcha 24: a verified fact, over-generalised, becomes a wrong design premise.
Detection smell -- a "cosmetic/unused" claim about a field other code still
computes carefully. Nobody spends instructions randomising a decorative value.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Player testimony worth keeping out of the issue tracker alone:
* SENSOR PANEL model, from VGL Lynx -- the last major system without one.
Sensor damage flickers the HUD (corroborated by period footage), degrades
radar/map, affects the searchlight, and possibly the hot box. Gitea #105.
* COOLANT LEAK severity is a THREE-level display (1/2/3 triangles + alarm);
we only ever produce the lowest. Our leak rate is a continuous scalar, so
either the banding is missing or the magnitude never leaves the bottom band.
* MYOMER heat calibration is CHASSIS-RELATIVE: a Thor sustains seek 4
indefinitely, a chicken-walker cooks in under a minute. That spread is the
acceptance test -- a uniform "too hot" indicts the drive-heat coefficient
rather than the sink capacities.
* RAM damage: the binary's internal-only collision divert MATCHES what players
observe (gyro/myomer damage, coolant leak, NO armor damage, grinding inert).
May be working as intended; awaiting a player ruling. Gitea #103.
* MP stability: 5-player match, no stalls or lag spikes -- bounds how often the
carried cross-fire-stall / silent-node-crash opens occur.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
