Joe DiPrimaandClaude Opus 5
202ebbf84a
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>
BattleTech 4.11 (bt411)
A standalone Windows port of Virtual World Entertainment's arcade BattleTech (Tesla platform, release 4.10, ~1995–96), reconstructed on the shared RP411 Windows engine. The game boots, renders, and runs a single-player drive → animate → target → fire → damage → destroy loop across all 8 maps, with two-instance multiplayer entity replication working.
This repo is a clean, self-contained extraction of the BattleTech-specific work from the larger reverse-engineering workspace — engine + game + content + build, with nothing from Red Planet or the raw archive dumps. It builds and runs out of the box.
License: the game content (
content/) and the original binary are proprietary to Virtual World / the pod owner. This repository is private; do not redistribute.
Versioning
4.10 = the 1995 arcade release. 4.11 = this win32 reconstruction. Dev builds are
4.11.<build> where <build> is the git commit count — monotonic and zero-maintenance —
plus the short commit hash (4.11.311 (980c9cd)); a trailing + on the hash means the exe was
built from an uncommitted working tree. The stamp regenerates every build
(tools/btversion.cmake → build/btversion.h) and shows in the boot banner (btl4.log line 2)
and the window title. To identify any player's build, ask for the title bar or the top of their
btl4.log.
Layout
CMakeLists.txt one build: munga_engine lib + bt410_l4 game lib + btl4.exe
engine/
MUNGA/ shared 2007 sim/render engine (149 .cpp + headers)
MUNGA_L4/ Win32/D3D9 HAL + renderer + asset loaders (44 .cpp), incl.
our BT work: bgfload / L4D3D / L4VIDEO + the image codec
shim/ minimal ATL shim (USES_CONVERSION/W2A)
lib/ OpenAL32 / libsndfile import libs + runtime DLLs
game/
reconstructed/ the reconstructed BT game logic (mech, subsystems, HUD, app; ~47 .cpp)
original/BT,BT_L4 surviving original BT source + all BT headers
fwd/ header shims forwarding <NAME.hpp> -> the engine's NAME.h
btl4main.cpp WinMain launcher / entry point
content/ runtime data: BTL4.RES, VIDEO/, GAUGE/, AUDIO/, *.EGG, BTDPL.INI
context/ progressive knowledge graph — 18 on-demand topic files (routed by CLAUDE.md)
docs/ format specs + reconstruction ledgers + PROGRESS_LOG.md (full history)
reference/
decomp/ raw Ghidra pseudocode — source-of-truth for ongoing recon
ghidra_scripts/ the headless decomp exporter
glossary.yaml term / acronym definitions
phases/ restructuring / investigation logs
tools/ btconsole.py (MP console emulator), map/resource scanners
run/ run.cmd helper
CLAUDE.md knowledge-base ROUTER — identity, protocols, quick-lookup, conventions
Prerequisites
- Visual Studio 2019 BuildTools (MSVC v142, x86). The Community install on the original dev box was broken, hence the explicit BuildTools instance in the configure line below; adjust to your install.
- CMake ≥ 3.20.
- Legacy DirectX SDK (June 2010) — the engine uses
d3dx9/dinput/dxerr, removed from the modern Windows SDK. Default pathC:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft DirectX SDK (June 2010); override with-DDXSDK=<path>. (The installer may throw a harmless S1023 error — dismiss it; the SDK headers/libs install before the failing redist step.)
OpenAL/libsndfile import libs + DLLs are vendored under engine/lib/; the DLLs are copied next to
the exe automatically at build time.
Build (32-bit / Win32)
cmake -S . -B build -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A Win32 ^
-DCMAKE_GENERATOR_INSTANCE="C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/BuildTools"
cmake --build build --config Debug
Must be Win32 — the DirectX SDK link libs are Lib/x86. The link uses /FORCE: the 1995
headers define free functions/globals without inline/extern, so identical symbols appear in
many translation units (~124 LNK2005); /FORCE:MULTIPLE keeps the first. UNRESOLVED tolerates
a dead offline-tool factory in mech3.cpp that is never called at runtime. (Cleanup task: move
those definitions to single TUs + neutralize the dead factory, then drop /FORCE.)
Run
run\run.cmd REM boots DEV.EGG (grass / day)
run\run.cmd DBASE.EGG REM any egg in content/
The working directory must be content/ (the engine resolves BTL4.RES, VIDEO\,
BTDPL.INI, and eggs relative to cwd); run.cmd handles that. Maps available in BTL4.RES:
cavern grass rav polar3 polar4 arena1 arena2 dbase — switch via a copied egg's map= field.
Useful env-var flags (default OFF unless noted)
The authentic stack (gait, collision, real controls) is default-on; set =0 to fall back.
Debug/harness flags: BT_FORCE_THROTTLE=1 (auto-walk), BT_SPAWN_ENEMY=1 (spawn a target dummy),
BT_FORCE_FIRE=1 (auto-fire), BT_HEAPCHECK=1 (whole-heap validation — slow), BT_BSL=0 (legacy
texture decode), BT_DEV_GAUGES=1 (render the cockpit MFDs in a dev window), BT_LOG=<file>.
Interactive: WASD drive, A/D turn, Q/E torso twist, R/F torso pitch aim,
Space / 1-4 fire, X all-stop, V view, M control mode. An Xbox-type controller
works out of the box. All bindings are user-editable in content/CONTROLS.MAP (delete it to
restore the compiled-in WASD default; content/CONTROLS_NUMPAD.MAP is an alternate profile). The
complete env-gate table is in context/decomp-reference.md §6 (routed from CLAUDE.md);
controls/pad details in context/pod-hardware.md.
Multiplayer
Modern path (relay + operator console). Pods make ONE outbound connection to a relay/console, so internet play needs no per-player port forwarding and CGNAT-safe LAN discovery just works. Run the operator station:
python tools/btoperator.py # PySide6 GUI: build the mission egg (validated dropdowns),
# start the relay, watch pods arrive, assign seats, LAUNCH,
# end the timed mission, export player join.bat scripts
Players run one universal join.bat (internet, seat assigned by the relay) or join_lan.bat
(same LAN, auto-discovers the console) or play_solo.bat (offline practice) — see players/.
The pod waits patiently if the session isn't up yet. Full architecture, wire format, and the
D1 relay/UDP design: context/multiplayer.md.
Legacy mesh (two instances, one box), still supported:
instance A: btl4.exe -egg MP.EGG -net 1501 (BT_LOG=mp_a.log)
instance B: btl4.exe -net 1601 (BT_LOG=mp_b.log)
console: python tools/btconsole.py MP.EGG 127.0.0.1:1501 127.0.0.1:1601
-net <port> enables networked mode. Verified end-to-end: full entity/movement replication,
cross-pod combat + kills, per-pilot paint + callsigns, timed missions, 4-pod live sessions, and a
spectator/broadcast camera seat (hostType=1 vehicle=camera) with auto-directed coverage and
a live ranking window.
Status & continuing the work
The engine, renderer, audio, HAL, build, locomotion, collision, damage, render fidelity, the full
cockpit gauge / MFD system (every config binding resolves + every widget builds), and the
projectile / missile weapon families are done. Active fronts: per-subsystem polish (the gyroscope
integrator; the 0xBD3 message manager that gates the valve / status-message control routes) and
cross-pod MP combat. reference/decomp/ holds the raw pseudocode every reconstruction is verified
against.
Start with CLAUDE.md — it is the router into the progressive knowledge base: a quick-lookup
table pointing to the context/*.md topic files (loaded on demand), the evidence-tier and
convention rules, and context/open-questions.md for what's deferred / next. The complete
pre-restructure history is preserved verbatim in docs/PROGRESS_LOG.md; docs/*.md holds the
detailed running ledgers.