Fade into the Winners Circle instead of cutting to it

The podium arrived as a hard cut: the race was still on screen one frame
and the stand was there the next. The race has its own fade-to-black
already, and it was being suppressed to keep the fade from blacking out
the podium behind it - which threw away the transition along with the
problem.

Now the two are sequenced. StopMission lets the race fade out as it
always did and posts the podium to itself for when that fade has landed
on black; the handler stands the finishers up behind the black and ramps
back in. The fade-in is the end-of-mission fade run backwards - the same
multiply on the fog colour and both fog distances, from nothing up to
what the Winners Circle asked for.

Timings: 0.7s of fade-out and black, then a 0.45s fade in. Both come out
of the 11 second hold, leaving about ten seconds of podium.
RP412PODIUMFADEIN sets the ramp.

Verified by measuring frame brightness across the transition. The race
falls away and the screen reaches black, then the stand comes up - and
with the ramp stretched to 3s to make it resolvable at a half-second
sampling interval, it climbs 71.8, 77, 78.7, 79.7, 80.5 rather than
stepping, so it is a real fade and not a cut arriving late.

The camera also comes down and tilts up across the tiers, which is how a
podium wants to be shot. It is a balance in both directions: drop it
further or tilt harder and the sky takes the top half while the winner's
spot slides off the bottom of the frame; tilt down instead and the shot
turns into a floor plan.

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

RP_L4/RPL4APP.cpp

@@ -29,7 +29,8 @@
 const Receiver::HandlerEntry
 	RPL4Application::MessageHandlerEntries[]=
 {
-	MESSAGE_ENTRY(RPL4Application, StopMission)
+	MESSAGE_ENTRY(RPL4Application, StopMission),
+	MESSAGE_ENTRY(RPL4Application, WinnersCircle)
 };
 
 Receiver::MessageHandlerSet& RPL4Application::GetMessageHandlers()
@@ -54,6 +55,16 @@ RPL4Application::SharedData
 		RPL4Application::GetMessageHandlers()
 	);
 
+//
+// How long to sit on black between the race fading out and the podium
+// fading in. The race fade is FADE_OUT_TIME (half a second), so this is
+// that plus a beat, to land on black rather than on the tail of it.
+//
+const Scalar winnersCircleFadeOutTime = 0.7f;
+
+// and how quickly the stand comes up out of the black afterwards
+const Scalar winnersCircleFadeInTime = 0.45f;
+
 RPL4Application::RPL4Application(
 	HINSTANCE hInstance,
 	HWND hWnd,
@@ -247,15 +258,16 @@ void
 	//   RP412PODIUMAIM       height of the aim point above the group
 	//
 	//
-	// Framed off the stand itself: close enough that the platform fills the
-	// crop rather than trailing off into sky, high enough to look down the
-	// tiers, and aimed slightly below the group so the tilt buys back the
-	// dead sky above the grandstand. Aiming above the group tips the camera
-	// up and walks the winner's spot off the bottom of the frame.
+	// Framed off the stand itself: down low and tilted up across the tiers,
+	// which is how you photograph a podium. It is a balance in both
+	// directions - drop the camera further or tilt harder and the sky takes
+	// the top half while the winner's spot slides off the bottom; tilt down
+	// instead and it becomes a floor plan. Pillarboxing to 4:3 is what lets
+	// it sit this close without the platform trailing off at the sides.
 	//
-	Scalar standoff = 33.0f;
-	Scalar height = 20.0f;
-	Scalar aim_lift = -2.0f;
+	Scalar standoff = 36.0f;
+	Scalar height = 12.0f;
+	Scalar aim_lift = 2.0f;
 	const char *tune = getenv("RP412PODIUMSTANDOFF");
 	if (tune != NULL && atof(tune) != 0.0)	standoff = (Scalar) atof(tune);
 	tune = getenv("RP412PODIUMHEIGHT");
@@ -307,6 +319,18 @@ void
 			<< std::flush;
 	}
 
+	//
+	// Everything is in place behind the black - bring it up.
+	// RP412PODIUMFADEIN sets the ramp in seconds.
+	//
+	Scalar fade_in = winnersCircleFadeInTime;
+	const char *fade_tune = getenv("RP412PODIUMFADEIN");
+	if (fade_tune != NULL && atof(fade_tune) > 0.0)
+	{
+		fade_in = (Scalar) atof(fade_tune);
+	}
+	dpl_renderer->StartPresentationFadeIn(fade_in);
+
 	DEBUG_STREAM << "WinnersCircle: " << placed << " placed; centre "
 		<< standCentre.x << "," << standCentre.y << "," << standCentre.z
 		<< " eye " << eye.x << "," << eye.y << "," << eye.z
@@ -331,19 +355,56 @@ void
 	// StopMission arrives twice: once from the console at the buzzer, and
 	// again from the player when the ending fade runs out - that second one
 	// is what actually retires the application. Only the first is the end of
-	// the race, so only the first stands anybody up.
+	// the race.
 	//
 	if (GetApplicationState() != Application::EndingMission)
 	{
-		DEBUG_STREAM << "WinnersCircle: mission stopped, standing the finishers up\n"
-			<< std::flush;
-		ShowWinnersCircle();
+		//
+		//-------------------------------------------------------------
+		// Don't cut straight to the podium. The race gets its own
+		// fade-to-black first - that fade is already running by the time
+		// this returns - and the Winners Circle comes up out of the
+		// black afterwards. Standing everyone up now would just fade out
+		// the podium instead of the race.
+		//
+		// FADE_OUT_TIME is half a second; a beat more than that lands on
+		// black rather than on the tail of the fade.
+		//-------------------------------------------------------------
+		//
+		Receiver::Message podium_message(
+			WinnersCircleMessageID, sizeof(Receiver::Message));
+
+		Time event_time;
+		event_time = Now();
+		event_time += winnersCircleFadeOutTime;
+
+		Post(LowEventPriority, this, &podium_message, event_time);
+
+		DEBUG_STREAM << "WinnersCircle: race over, fading out\n" << std::flush;
 	}
 
 	L4Application::StopMissionMessageHandler(message);
 	Check_Fpu();
 }
 
+//
+//#############################################################################
+// WinnersCircleMessageHandler
+//#############################################################################
+//
+// The race has faded to black. Set the stand up behind the black and fade
+// back in to it.
+//
+void
+	RPL4Application::WinnersCircleMessageHandler(Receiver::Message *)
+{
+	Check(this);
+
+	DEBUG_STREAM << "WinnersCircle: standing the finishers up\n" << std::flush;
+	ShowWinnersCircle();
+	Check_Fpu();
+}
+
 //
 //#############################################################################
 // MakeRegistry