The pod's controls reach the game through the RIO serial board; on a
desktop that hardware is a keyboard shim of hardcoded GetAsyncKeyState
reads. New binding engine (game/reconstructed/btinput.cpp) maps PC keys
and an XInput pad onto the authentic channels through a user-editable
file (content/CONTROLS.MAP, community-suggested grammar, corrected):
key/pad -> button <addr> real buttonGroup emissions, mirroring the
RIO convention exactly (press a+1 w/ mode
mask saved, release -a-1 w/ saved mask;
L4CTRL.cpp:2470-2520) -- aux/preset banks,
hotbox, panic, reverse thrust all reachable
key/pad -> axis Throttle rate (lever), pedals/JoystickX
deflect (turn/twist) into the existing
virtual-controls integrators (feel, gait
detent, spring-centering all unchanged)
keypad pilot|external <n> keyboardGroup key values ('0'-'F')
pckey <char> any authentic 1995 typed hotkey
action <name> port dev controls (view, all-stop, ...)
Keys claimed by a binding are SUPPRESSED from the legacy WM_CHAR/KEYUP
feed -- ends the historic double-dispatch ('w' drove AND selected pilot
0; F5's key-up value 0x74 aliased to the 't' hotkey; letter key-ups fed
the developer fake-event dispatcher). Unbound keys keep their authentic
meaning. The dual-use 'V' is split: V = view toggle, B = look behind.
Default profile = WASD classic (compiled-in twin; delete the file to
restore). CONTROLS_NUMPAD.MAP ships the corrected community layout
(keypads are NOT buttons 0x50-0x6F -- that space doesn't exist; no
clickable cockpit exists so everything needs a binding; keyboard fire
buttons added; 0x36/0x37 are hotbox not 'config'; missiles moved off
Ctrl). XInput loads dynamically (1_4 -> 9_1_0), disconnected-pad
probing rate-limited; pad sticks write the axes as absolute positions
(the spring is physical), triggers/buttons per the file.
Verified live: bindings load (43), W and NumPad8 drive (speedDemand 0 ->
61.5), X all-stop (spd -> 0), aux-bank emission (D1 -> [input] 0x2f
PRESS/release under the numpad profile), suppression both directions
(posted 'r' reaches [keych], posted 'w' swallowed), full-keyspace
WM_CHAR+WM_KEYUP fuzz x3 survived with sim advancing, XInput graceful
with no pad, 2-node relay session un-regressed (full ladder + UDP).
Pad-in-hand testing still needs a physical controller.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
PLATFORM PROFILE (-platform pod|dev / BT_PLATFORM / run.cmd pod; default dev):
an env-preset selector, NOT a code fork -- it picks which environment the
existing video/gauge/input code reads. dev = single 800x600 window + keyboard
(the working build); pod = RIO input + (on real hardware) the multi-surface
gauges/MFDs, mirroring content/SETENV.BAT (the pod path -- FindBestAdapterIndices
/ SVGA16 -- is left untouched). The multi-surface needs the pod's 2 video cards,
so -platform pod does NOT auto-enable L4GAUGE on a dev box (stays bootable,
single-window). Also fixes a real engine bug: SVGA16::BuildWindows
PostQuitMessage'd on a CreateDevice failure but fell through to a null-device
deref (segfault) -- now breaks (inert on the pod).
GAUGE DEV-COMPOSITE, Milestone A (option B; opt-in BT_DEV_GAUGES, default OFF):
wake the (dormant) gauge renderer so its CPU-rastered pixelBuffer can later be
composited into the dev window, WITHOUT touching the pod SVGA16 output path.
SVGA16 does no per-surface D3D in this mode (a DevGaugeComposite() gate forces
the no-surface path + short-circuits Update/Refresh). Waking the never-exercised
gauge subsystem exposed 4 latent reconstruction bugs, each guarded:
SVGA16::Update / Refresh (empty mSurfaces[]), LBE4ControlsManager::MakeLinkedLamp
(NULL lamp manager), L4GaugeRenderer::NotifyOfNewInterestingEntity (garbage
warehouse chain). It now boots STABLY; the gauge reconstruction is incomplete
(shadowed lamp-manager + warehouse members) -- Milestone B (the composite pass)
will reveal whether the content is real. See docs/GAUGE_COMPOSITE.md.
Verified: default DEV un-regressed (combat DESTROYED, 0 crashes); pod path
untouched; BT_DEV_GAUGES boots stable.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <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>
