Pulsing the player's SimulationState (DropZoneAcquired->Translocated) to trigger
the translocation sphere regressed everything else that dial drives in our
reconstruction -- the camera flipped to inside-view, targeting/firing gated off,
shadow pass glitched. That dial is load-bearing; co-opting it was wrong.
Replace with a self-contained render one-shot: btplayer.cpp respawn calls
BTStartWarpEffect(dropZoneOrigin); the effect plays its own collapse->expand and
touches nothing but the render. No SetSimulationState, no DropZoneLocation write,
no per-entity renderable walk (the tree's BTTranslocationRenderable objects are
now inert). Scale capped 30/40 (authentic 100/150) so the sphere -- centred on
your own reinsertion -- doesn't envelop the camera; tunable via BT_WARP_SCALE.
Smoke-verified 2-node: warp fires on each respawn (collapse 31->5, expand ->35),
repeats, respawn cycle intact, no crash. Camera/targeting restored (state pulse
gone).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
BTTranslocationRenderable was a no-op stub; now reconstructed over the engine's
POVTranslocateRenderable: loads tsphere.bgf and runs a collapse-on-arrival /
expand-on-reveal sphere (scale 100->1 over 1.3s, then 1->150 over 1.0s, rotating)
keyed on the player's SimulationState dial. Drawn direct from the render loop by
BTDrawTranslocationSpheres (beside BTDrawBeams, PASS_ALPHABLEND) -- the same
accommodation the beams/reticle use.
The asset loads by FILENAME (tsphere.bgf), not through the RES table -- which is
why every resource-name search missed the effect for three rounds.
Trigger wiring: btl4vid.cpp MakeEntityRenderables builds the sphere for the LOCAL
player (the authentic wiring builds it only for replicants + a POV fade for self,
but peer player-attribute replication isn't wired -- on a replicant SimulationState/
DropZoneLocation read uninitialised). btplayer.cpp pulses SimulationState
DropZoneAcquired->VehicleTranslocated at respawn (a 1.4s flip timer stands in for
the engine's +1s drop-zone re-post) and writes the respawn origin into the
DropZoneLocation attribute.
Verified 2-node (BT_TLOC_LOG): on respawn the sphere collapses (~100->5) then
expands (->150) at the valid drop-zone origin, deduped to <=2 active, respawn
cycle un-regressed, no render errors. Visual appearance (colour/size) still needs
a live look; the authentic see-others'-spheres path needs player replication.
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>
STEP 1 -- target any peer mech: DONE + verified. A live-mech registry
(BTRegisterMech/BTDeregisterMech from the Mech ctor/dtor) collects
every mech -- player, dummy, and peer replicants. The boresight
world-pick walks BTGetTargetCandidates (all mechs != shooter, closest
ray hit) and the whole fire/damage block retargets from the solo
gEnemyMech to the picked hotTarget; missile/projectile validation
generalised via BTIsRegisteredMech. Verified one-box: instance A
enumerates B's mech as a live ReplicantInstance (20 zones, ownerID=3).
Solo un-regressed (pick->damage->kill clean, 28 hits + DESTROYED).
STEP 2 -- cross-pod damage: dispatch + engine reroute are CORRECT and
invoked with a valid owner, but the dispatched message doesn't reach
the master. Entity::Dispatch (ENTITY.cpp:244) reroutes a replicant's
msg via application->SendMessage(ownerID,...); BT_MP_FORCE_DMG proves A
dispatches at B's replicant with ownerID=3, yet B takes 0 STEP-6
damage. Corrects the KB's [T3] "Dispatch already reroutes": the reroute
FIRES; the break is downstream in the transport/delivery of a
dispatched entity-message (update records flow fine -- net-rx works).
Next MP task = that wire delivery. Diagnostics BT_MP_LOG /
BT_MP_FORCE_DMG retained.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The dummy spawned 120u along the player's forward with the SAME orientation,
so both mechs faced the same way and the player stared at its back (also why
first shots read as rear hits). Flip the enemy's yaw 180 deg about Y (engine
convention: Z basis = (sin y, 0, cos y) -> yaw = atan2(z.x, z.z) + pi) so the
two spawn face to face.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The "messageBoard" cockpit primitive (the secondary-MFD comm/status message ticker,
L4GAUGE.CFG:4913) was PROSE-ONLY (no bodies/methodDescription) -> parse-skipped. This
was the last unregistered gauge primitive.
Reconstructed byte-verified (Make @4cb678, ctor @4cb704, dtor @4cb788, BecameActive
@4cb7fc, Execute @4cb82c; vtable 0051bddc; sizeof 0xA4). THREE header mislabels fixed
(decode + adversarial verify): int enabled -> Entity* trackedMech (a pointer deref'd at
+0x190, set by SetSource not SetEnable); previousMessageId/previousNameId were SWAPPED
(BecameActive writes 0x9c=-1/0xa0=-2; Execute compares messageId vs 0xa0, name vs 0x9c).
Execute blits the strip cell (id -> (id&3)<<7,(id>>2)<<5) + sender name; methodDescription
= 4 params (rate, mode, btsmsgs.pcx, color). Registered in BTL4MethodDescription[].
DEFERRED / EMPTY by design (authentic for bring-up): the source is never bound (SetSource
has no recovered caller) AND the per-player status queue (StatusMessagePool, btstubs.cpp:62)
is a NULL stub -> no status messages exist -> Execute early-returns on the NULL source (safe
no-op == empty board). Data read via a BTResolveMessageBoard bridge in btplayer.cpp (a real
/FORCE-safe stub returning False; the raw mech+0x190/+0x1dc reads stay in the complete-BTPlayer
TU, dodging the databinding trap). The name-cell path is a marked structural simplification to
restore when the feed lands.
VERIFIED: the gauge parse-skip list is now EMPTY ([gskip]=0 -- every config gauge primitive
registered + built); BTResolveMessageBoard resolves (no /FORCE __ImageBase AV); combat TARGET
DESTROYED, no crash; gauge composite renders identically (300/77, clusters, radar un-regressed).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
RANK=-1: Player::DefaultFlags creates every player NonScoring (CalcRanking only
ranks IsScoringPlayer()==true, else -1), and the bring-up never cleared it. Call
SetScoringPlayerFlag() in DropZoneReplyMessageHandler's mech branch (a piloted mech
IS an active scoring combatant; the camera-ship branch stays non-scoring). -> RANK=0.
DEATHS runaway (climbed ~1/s, not the "1" first seen): @004c012c -- which our
MESSAGE_ENTRY binds as the VehicleDead handler -- is actually the drop-zone
RESPAWN-RETRY helper. The engine's RequestDropZone (PLAYER.cpp:400) posts a
2s-delayed VehicleDead(deathCount=-2) as a "did the drop zone reply?" timer; our
handler ++deathCount + RE-POSTED it UNCONDITIONALLY -> an infinite loop, because the
drop-zone handshake never "completes" in the bring-up (no console/drop-zone system).
Traced it to a pure boot artifact (13 fires with zero combat; the only VehicleDead
producers are the re-post + my kill-producer, and the kill fires AFTER the loop
starts). FIX (correct respawn-retry semantics): if the player already has a vehicle
the drop zone WAS acquired (the DropZoneReply created it), so the retry is moot --
return without counting a death or re-posting. -> DEATHS=0 in solo, loop gone.
Verified DBASE+dev gauges: the Comm roster shows KILLS=1 / DEATHS=0; the KILL log
reads killCount=1 deaths=0 score=164 rank=0; 0 crashes. (MP real-death DEATHS -- a
destroyed vehicle via the separate @004c05c4 path -- remains deferred per the plan;
solo never dies so the retry gate is correct there.)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The Comm roster + score gauges read 0 for 4 independent reasons (none was handler
logic -- the BTPlayer ScoreMessage/VehicleDead/ScoreInflicted handlers were already
reconstructed). Mapped by the scoring-feed-decode workflow; fixed all 4:
- NO PRODUCER: combat only dispatched Entity::TakeDamageMessage, never a scoring
message. Added producers (btplayer.cpp bridges, called from mech4.cpp): per-hit
ScoreInflicted at the beam (:2171) + projectile (:831) damage dispatch -> SCORE;
KillScore at the TARGET-DESTROYED edge (:2198) -> KILLS. senderMechID = the
VICTIM (so the local player is credited via the !=our-mech branch, not the
suicide-negate branch); dispatched to application->GetMissionPlayer().
- CROSS-FAMILY MECH OFFSETS: MECH_OWNING_PLAYER/TONNAGE/DAMAGE_BIAS read raw binary
offsets (garbage in our 0x638 Mech). MECH_OWNING_PLAYER -> Entity::GetPlayerLink()
(NULL for the ownerless dummy); tonnage/bias stubbed 1.0/0.0 (bring-up).
- NULL scenarioRole: the BTMission role registry has no WinTesla analog, so every
award path NULL-deref'd. CalcInflictedScore returns the neutral (damage+bias)
when scenarioRole==0; DamageReceived guarded.
- NULL-owner dummy: the KillScore sender-owner increment + StatusMessage now guard
GetPlayerLink() (the dummy has none) so a solo kill credits only the local player.
- DATABINDING: the PilotList read KILLS/DEATHS at raw offsets (pilot+0x27c/+0x200)
that don't match our compiled layout -> silent 0. Repointed to the compiled
members via bridges (BTPilotKills/BTPilotDeaths -> BTPlayer::GetKillCount/GetDeaths).
⚠ ROOT-CAUSE of the empty scoreboard: the PilotList SELECT-TARGET highlight did a
raw-offset deref (*(local+0x284) objectiveMech, then *(tgt+0x190)) that AV'd on our
layout -- caught silently by the SEH GuardedExecute, aborting Execute BEFORE the
KILLS/DEATHS draw. Replaced with BTPilotIsSelected (accessors + GetPlayerLink).
- SCORE persistence: PlayerSimulation's 10s flush zeroed currentScore (the binary's
console delta); now only flushes/zeros when a console host exists (solo keeps the
running score for the gauge + CalcRanking).
Verified DBASE+dev gauges (BT_SCORE_LOG): SCORE climbs +5.83/hit -> 164; on the
kill KILLS 0->1, and the Comm roster RENDERS KILLS=1 (screenshot). No crash.
Follow-ups (noted): DEATHS=1 is a pre-existing spawn/respawn-handshake artifact
(not from the producers -- the dummy's GetPlayerLink is NULL so no VehicleDead is
posted; confirmed killCount=1 not 2); RANK=-1 is CalcRanking's non-scoring mark
(Plasma serial surface, invisible on dev); MP VehicleDead/tonnage/role registry
remain per the plan. Diagnostics kept: BT_SCORE_LOG.
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>
