The binding was in the zone ctor all along: Ghidra dropped the two arg
pushes @0049d0e1 (Slot::AddImplementation(subsystemArray[streamedIndex])),
making it read as a bare Resolve(). DZSlot stand-in -> engine SlotOf<T>;
SendSubsystemDamage rewritten to the recovered @0049c9a8 body (allotment
into the subsystem's OWN private zone; vital -> graphicAlarm 9); CriticalHit
-> real ApplyDamageAndMeasure; parentArtifactZone.Add revived (LOD damage
averaging); videoObjectFlag renamed vitalSubsystem (+0xE4). BT_CRIT_PROBE
diag added. Verified: 66 plugs bound/mech; probe-destroyed zone -> crits
damaged/DESTROYED, statusAlarm + destroyed-skin chain fire; MP kill + solo
un-regressed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three respawn-visual bugs the user saw, each grounded in the engine/decomp:
1. Warp = flat blue BLOB, not the demo's swirly blue/light-blue/white shimmer.
Ground truth (content/VIDEO/MAT/DAY/BTFX.VMF): tsphere_mtl = a SCROLLING bintA
texture (tsphere_scr_tex, SPECIAL SCROLL) + EMISSIVE {0.7,0.5,1} + RAMP "sky"
(dark-blue->white). The swirl IS the scrolling texture; the colour is the
emissive/ramp. Our draw did COLOROP=SELECTARG1/ARG1=TFACTOR, which REPLACES
every texel with one flat colour -> the blob. Fix: MODULATE the (bound,
scrolling) texture by a TFACTOR set to the authentic EMISSIVE hue (0xB380FF)
so the swirl survives and reads blue-white. DrawMesh's cached SetTexture
(L4D3D.cpp:1215) leaves our MODULATE ops standing since textured meshes drew
first. Additive glow, all state saved/restored.
2. First-person view BLACK on the dying/respawning mech until V. SetViewInside's
body-hide + '_cop' canopy suppression + viewSkeleton update were gated !wrecked,
and RebuildMechRenderables (respawn un-wreck) restored the full OUTSIDE torso
with no '_cop' rule -> the cockpit eyepoint ended up wrapped in opaque geometry.
Fix: factor the per-segment mesh selection into ApplyViewSkeleton(viewpoint,
inside) shared by SetViewInside AND RebuildMechRenderables, so respawn re-asserts
the inside skeleton + '_cop' hide; record viewSkeleton even while wrecked. Only
the mech the local camera views FROM gets the inside treatment (a replicant is
always outside).
3. OBSERVER never saw the peer respawn -- the peer's wreck sat forever. The wreck
appears incidentally via rising damage-zone replication -> MechDeathHandler::Tick
-> BTRemakeMechModel (one-way). The un-wreck+warp ran master-only in Mech::Reset.
Fix (reuses the existing damage channel, no stream-framing change): Mech::Reset
also ForceUpdate(DamageZoneUpdateModelFlag) so healed zones cross; Tick handles
the FALLING edge -- on a ReplicantInstance whose zone heals from destroyed, call
BTRebuildMechModel + BTStartWarpEffect once (wasWrecked latch). This is the port
analog of the binary's type-0 graphic-state -> ResetPose un-wreck hook
(Mech::ReadUpdateRecord case 0); the full Mech::WriteUpdateRecord death record
(type 6) is deferred (would touch the netcode framing).
Smoke-verified headless (2-node): victim respawns intact + warp; observer logs
"replicant un-wrecked + warp" at the peer's spawn point; no crash.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The respawn glitches (2 mechs, on-fire respawn, camera-inside, can't-control,
wreck-never-disappears) all traced to one architectural divergence: our respawn
SEVERED playerVehicle on death and CREATED a new mech, leaving the old as a
permanent wreck and building a duplicate viewpoint whose old render tree was
never torn down.
The authentic engine (FUN_0049fb74 + RPPlayer) REUSES the same mech entity: on
respawn Mech::Reset heals it and moves it in place. Implemented faithfully,
adapted to our layout (the 1995 raw offsets map to different 2007 engine fields,
so reset the equivalent named members, not the offsets):
- Mech::Reset (real, was a reposition-only stub): reposition + kill dead-reckon
(projectedOrigin/projectedVelocity/updateVelocity + our relocated gait
accumulators) so the replicant stops lerping to the death spot; clear the
death latch (movementMode=1, graphicAlarm=0); Heal every damage zone
(new Mech__DamageZone::Heal: full structure, intact skin); DeathReset
(vtable+0x28) every subsystem; ForceUpdate to broadcast.
- btplayer.cpp: VehicleDead no longer severs playerVehicle; the respawn re-post
gates on the mech still being dead; DropZoneReply resets the EXISTING mech in
place (heal+move) instead of creating a new one, then fires the warp. Warp
moved to the shared placement (initial drop-in + respawn).
Verified 2-node: mech entity ID stays 3:22 across 3 deaths (reused, not a new
3:32); each Reset logs alive=1, 20 zones healed, 33 subsystems reset; A sees ONE
mech (no wreck+new pair). Warp fires each respawn.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Fixes the "kills are invisible" report: a mech died only at the state level, with
no visible destruction on its body. Root cause: the per-zone damage-state
descriptor table (binary zone+0xd4) that drives destroyed-skins + explosions was
never built -- its loader (Mech__DamageZone::LoadCriticalSubsystems / FUN_0041e4a8)
was a no-op stub, and MechDeathHandler itself was a no-op stub. The surrounding
plumbing (the per-zone load loop over the type-0x1e resource, the death-handler
slot) was already correct. Whole pipeline is EXPORTED -- no stand-ins.
Reconstructed:
- Mech__DamageZone descriptor table (binary this+0xd4): un-stubbed
LoadCriticalSubsystems (FUN_0041e4a8/FUN_0042a748/FUN_0042a2c8) to parse the
real type-0x1e stream -- entry = [f32 DamageLevel][i32 EffectResource]
[i32 GraphicState][f32 TimeDelay], ascending by DamageLevel. Verified live:
6 entries/zone, first threshold 0.2, effect 26, across all 40 zones, no crash.
- The three lookups (FUN_0042a664 by-level / FUN_0042a5f4 crossing / FUN_0042a6c4
by-graphic-state) as Mech__DamageZone methods.
- The real MechDeathHandler (FUN_0042a984 ctor / FUN_0042aa2c Performance /
FUN_0042a9f4 dtor), replacing the stub: each tick it walks the zones and, as a
zone's damageLevel rises across a descriptor threshold, fires that entry's
explosion (binary +0xb8 & 4) and, on destruction, the Destroyed-graphic
descriptor's explosion (+0xb8 & 8), applying the descriptor's GraphicState (the
destroyed skin) to the zone. Runs for EVERY mech, so the enemy visibly falls
apart as it dies.
Integration: the binary ticks MechDeathHandler off the mech's Performance list
(mech+0xbc), which the bring-up drive override bypasses, so Mech::PerformAndWatch
drives Tick() directly (same approach as UpdateDeathState). Effect spawn uses the
established Explosion::Make port (BTSpawnDamageEffect) -- the authentic dispatch
(class-5 message -> the 0xBD3 SubsystemMessageManager effect manager) is unported.
Runtime: builds clean, boots clean, 42 descriptor tables load with sensible
byte-aligned data, no crash. Live effect firing is combat-triggered (verified by
the load + the wiring; the [deathfx] threshold-crossing log fires under BT_DEATH_LOG).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <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>
