Found from the user's live 2-node demo: a Crimson MadCat went GREY in its own
view after a V (inside/outside) toggle, with NO new [paint] or
MakeMechRenderables line in the log -- so no rebuild, just a re-parse.
ROOT CAUSE: the per-pilot colour/badge/patch is applied by rewriting MATERIAL
NAMES while a BGF parses, and only while the substitution callback is installed
(SetupMaterialSubstitutionList .. TearDown, bgfload.cpp:15-18).
BTL4VideoRenderer::ApplyViewSkeleton re-parses every shown segment BGF on each
view toggle AND on respawn (that is what its fresh graphic-state read is for),
but did so OUTSIDE that bracket -> raw %color% placeholders -> unpainted
materials -> grey. Nothing caches the geometry (d3d_OBJECT caches only
textures), so every call re-parses. This is #38's mechanism: 'colors not
preserved on respawn' was never a replication or teardown bug.
FIX: re-install the substitution list around the reload, reusing the serial the
mech was BUILT with -- SetupMaterialSubstitutionList advances the global %serno%
per call, so a naive re-bracket would stamp a different serial and still resolve
the wrong names. MechRenderTree gains paintSerno (captured before Setup at
build); ApplyViewSkeleton installs/restores around the loop and logs it.
Rig-verified: the crimson MadCat stays crimson (yellow patch intact) across
repeated inside/outside toggles; each toggle now logs '[paint] color=red
serno=0' + '(paint serno 0)'.
ALSO -- corrections to yesterday's #44 name plate from the adversarial pass:
- kPlateARGB 0xFF808080 -> 0x80FFFFFF. BMAP.BMF tag 0x0027 is
dpfB_MATERIAL_OPACITY_TAG [T0 libDPL/dsys/PFBIZTAG.H], NOT a diffuse colour:
the materials carry NO colour tag at all, so the plate is the unmodulated
callsign raster at ~50% opacity, not a grey label. (Two independent
workflows converged on this.)
- the plate's K = 1/2.8 is NOT the hotbox's constant (2.8145) -- de-unified.
- the Lock attribute is HUD attr id 10, an int/Logical*, not a Scalar*.
- the PNAME pair split is the V half, not U (our per-player texture is one
128x32 cell, so the port quad samples v 0..1).
- retracted bgf-format's 'tag 0x0027 likely SPECULAR [T4]'.
KB: new reconstruction-gotchas section on the whole bug class (load-time-only
state must be re-installed on every RE-load, incl. the serno trap).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_0166KTsC7ADm7VXEi1HF1jNg
Reconstructed the last deferred piece of the 1995 reticle, decoded from the
Execute disassembly @004cdcf0 [T1]:
- selection: target_mech+0x190 (owning BTPlayer) -> player+0x1e0
(playerBitmapIndex), 1-based into the mesh table at this+0x2e8
- placement: re-placed every frame the aim moves -- scale 0.12 uniform,
translate (K*retPos.x, K*retPos.y - 0.08, -1.0), K = 1/2.8 (the x87 long
double @0x4cee64) -- so the label TRACKS THE AIM POINT, not screen centre
- visibility: the LOCK attribute (this+0x184, cached +0x188) AND an owning
player; reticle-off / simple-X also hide it
- art: the plate quad UV-addresses a shared 128x64 bitslice texmap whose
texels the pod OVERWROTE each mission with the egg's callsign rasters
(original source commented out at L4VIDEO.cpp:5682-5710) -- the baked
'PLAYER n' art in BMAP.BSL is only the shipped fallback. Material colour
is a neutral (0.5,0.5,0.5): grey-white, not phosphor green.
Port: same geometry in reticle units (0.224 below the aim point, 0.336x0.084)
drawn as the target's egg callsign texture through the reticle's own MapX/MapY
mapping, so it follows the world view in every layout and BT_SHOT captures it.
New: dpl2d_DrawTexturedRect, BTReticleTargetPlate, BTGetPlayerNameTexture.
Also: kRetCaret corrected 0.02f -> 0.025f (_DAT_004cd7f4 read from the binary;
the old value was a T3 guess, 20% small).
KB: gauges-hud + open-questions corrected (the chain was filed as deferred and
mis-attributed to 'the 3D marker'); TWO PNAME consumers now distinguished (this
plate, and CameraShipHUDRenderable's ranking window which shipped 2026-07-18);
new bgf-format section on the plate atlas.
Rig-verified: 2-node relay, BT_GOTO=enemy -> '[hud] name plate: bmp=2 tex=1'
and 'Boreas' rendered under the crosshair on the locked target. Solo clean.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_0166KTsC7ADm7VXEi1HF1jNg
The user caught the inversion (blocked viewports, see-through frames); the
answer came from the rasterizer board itself: an i860 disassembly of the
VREND.MNG firmware decoded the damageize handler (@0xf040f6f8) -- cmd 0x20
(vr_damage_action) writes the dpl_Punchize token triple onto the punch
geogroup's first three geometry chunks IN FILE ORDER:
chunk1 = the detailed window-aperture shapes -> an invisible per-pixel MASK
chunk2 = the coarse hull -> the ONLY colour-drawn geometry (where not masked)
chunk3 = byte-identical hull twin -> the damage-reset record, never visible
Visible canopy = hull-minus-apertures. Both earlier readings were wrong ways
around the same three chunks: dropping all punch left floating fragments (no
hull); hiding the duplicate pair hid the HULL and drew the MASK -- the exact
inversion observed.
Port: bgfload tags per punch patch {non-paired pmesh = mask (role 1),
first twin = hull (role 2), second twin = skip}; L4D3D DrawMesh runs
mask->stencil-1 (no colour/z-write, z-tested), hull->stencil-NOTEQUAL,
mask->stencil-0; device D24X8 -> D24S8 + stencil clear. The cut never
touches z, so later-drawn entities show through the apertures.
BT_COP_PLATES=1 disables (diag).
In-game, all 8 mechs on pure defaults: connected dark frames with clear
viewports -- thor (the footage mech) shows the central viewport + surrounding
frame exactly as filmed. Combat regression clean (kill + no NaN).
Arena textured punch uses the same firmware kit; the black-texel alpha path
there is a working approximation, flagged in the KB.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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>
