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arcattackandClaude Fable 5 7e49fb2284 Vehicle sweep: ALL 18 mech ModelList names certified playable

The egg generator's known-good list was just bhk1+madcat (the only two
ever exercised as egg vehicles); the operator roster therefore leaned on
those.  Swept every ModelList candidate as a solo egg vehicle: 18/18
boot a mission, spawn, and animate with no crash -- avatar, blkhawk,
loki, owens, sunder, thor, vulture and all short variants (ava1, lok1/2,
mad1/2, own1, snd1, thr1, vul1) join bhk1/madcat as first-class picks.
eggmodel now lists the canonical 8 first for the operator dropdown.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-07-18 13:46:55 -05:00

4.9 KiB

Raw Blame History

id, title, status, source_sections, related_topics, key_terms

title

status

source_sections

related_topics

key_terms

build-and-run

Build / Run / Debug — recipe, repo layout, env gates

established

PROGRESS_LOG.md §10a, §10a-bis; README.md

wintesla-port

decomp-reference

reconstruction-method

BTL4OPT

cdb

BTL4.RES

EGG

WinTesla

Build / Run / Debug

The one top-level CMakeLists.txt builds munga_engine (engine) + bt410_l4 (reconstructed BT game lib) + btl4.exe. Full recipe + repo-layout map: docs/PROGRESS_LOG.md §10a / §10a-bis + README.md. Env-gate table: decomp-reference §6.

Build (Win32 / VS2019 BuildTools — the DXSDK link libs are Lib/x86)

# configure once:
cmake -S C:\git\bt411 -B C:\git\bt411\build -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A Win32 \
  -DCMAKE_GENERATOR_INSTANCE="C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/BuildTools"
# build:
cmake --build C:\git\bt411\build --config Debug

Links DXSDK d3d9/d3dx9/dinput8 + OpenAL/libsndfile (engine/lib/). DXSDK June 2010 at C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft DirectX SDK (June 2010)\ (overridable -DDXSDK). [T2]
Linker uses /FORCE — tolerates header-defined globals + the dead offline-factory unresolved externals in mech3.cpp (Mech::CreateSubsystemStream references void*-signature CreateStreamedSubsystem for every class; never called at runtime). ⚠ /FORCE also HIDES real unresolved symbols as runtime AVs — see reconstruction-gotchas §6. [T2]
Editing an engine/ file rebuilds the engine lib automatically (one project). A NEW member on a DPLRenderer/d3d_OBJECT class needs the game objs that embed its layout recompiled — delete stale objs if layout-mismatch corruption appears. [T2]
⚠ Kill the running exe before rebuilding (taskkill //F //IM btl4.exe) or you get LNK1104.

Run

run\run.cmd [EGG]      # default DEV.EGG; cd's to content\ and runs btl4.exe -egg <EGG>

cwd MUST be content\ — the engine resolves BTL4.RES, VIDEO\, BTDPL.INI, eggs relative to cwd (the loadTables gotcha: L4VIDEO.cpp:849 fopen("VIDEO\\REPLACEMATS.tbl") is relative + unchecked → fread on NULL if cwd is wrong). Logs to btl4.log in content\ (or BT_LOG=<file>). [T2]
Interactive: WASD drive; weapon groups (keyboard, task #43) 1/Space = lasers, 2 = PPCs, 3/Ctrl = missiles; X all-stop; V cockpit/chase view. Default egg = DEV.EGG (map=grass, time=day). Swap mech via the egg's vehicle= — ALL 18 ModelList names CERTIFIED playable (2026-07-18 vehicle sweep): the canonical 8 (avatar, bhk1/blkhawk, loki, madcat, owens, sunder, thor, vulture) + the short variants (ava1, lok1/lok2, mad1/mad2, own1, snd1, thr1, vul1); each boots a solo mission, spawns, animates, no crash. The code path is mech-agnostic. [T2]

Debug (cdb x86)

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Debuggers\x86\cdb.exe". Pattern for a faulting stack (cwd = content): -g -c ".lines;sxe av;g;kp 24;q" with BT_ASSERT_TO_DEBUGGER=1. Debug CRT fills fresh heap 0xCDCDCDCD (uninit) + freed 0xFEEEFEEE — invaluable for "was this ever constructed?". BT_HEAPCHECK=1 = whole-heap validation every alloc/free (O(n²) at mission load — SLOW). To attach to a frozen abort dialog: cdb -p <pid> -c ".lines;~*kp 30;q". [T2]

Repo layout (bt411)

engine/MUNGA/ + engine/MUNGA_L4/ — the shared 2007 MUNGA engine + Win32/D3D9 HAL (carries our BT render/loader work: bgfload/L4D3D/L4VIDEO + the image codec). engine/shim/ (ATL), engine/lib/ (OpenAL/libsndfile), engine/rp/ (RP headers the audio HAL includes).
game/reconstructed/ — the reconstructed BT source (the bulk).
game/original/BT/ + BT_L4/ — surviving original BT .cpp + all BT headers (the include path).
game/fwd/ — ~186 forwarding shims (#include <EXPLODE.hpp> → ../../engine/MUNGA/<NAME>.h).
game/btl4main.cpp — the WinMain launcher.
content/ — the runtime tree (BTL4.RES, VIDEO/, GAUGE/, AUDIO/, eggs, BTDPL.INI). Run cwd.
reference/decomp/ — the raw Ghidra pseudocode (all/part_*.c) — the source-of-truth.
docs/ — the detailed ledgers (incl. PROGRESS_LOG.md, the full pre-restructure CLAUDE.md).
tools/ — btconsole.py, disas2.py, map/res scanners. context/ — this knowledge base.

Versioning (2026-07-18)

4.10 = the 1995 arcade release; 4.11 = this win32 reconstruction; dev builds = 4.11.<git commit count> + short hash, + suffix = built from an uncommitted tree (e.g. 4.11.311 (980c9cd+)). Stamped every build by tools/btversion.cmake → build/btversion.h (BT_VERSION_* macros); shown in the boot banner (btl4.log head) and the window title. Ask a tester for their title bar / btl4.log head to identify a build.

Key Relationships

Base: wintesla-port (the engine build recipe).
Verify loop: reconstruction-method; env gates: decomp-reference §6.

4.9 KiB Raw Blame History