README: corrections from review

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

README.md

@@ -1,37 +1,75 @@
-# Red Planet 4.12
+# Red Planet 4.12 — the Steamification
 
-**Red Planet** is the VWE pod-racing game built on the in-house **MUNGA** engine
-(Win32 / DirectX 9, `MUNGA_L4` platform layer). The **4.12** line is the
-consumer port: a version of Red Planet that can be **sold on Steam** and played
-over **internet multiplayer**, without cockpit-pod hardware.
+**Red Planet** is VWE's pod-racing game: eight-player VTV races on Mars,
+originally played from inside VWE Tesla cockpit pods. This repo is the
+third life of that code:
 
-Forked from [RP411](https://gitea.mysticmachines.com/VWE/RP411.git)
-(the arcade/cockpit 4.11 line) with full history preserved.
+| Generation | What it was |
+|------------|-------------|
+| **Red Planet 4.10** | The original game, running on the **Tesla 1** pod platform (DOS-era MUNGA engine, serial RIO cockpit hardware, operator console, batch-file relaunch between missions) |
+| **Red Planet 4.11** | The **Win32 port** of 4.10 ([RP411](https://gitea.mysticmachines.com/VWE/RP411.git)) — DirectX 9, WinSock TCP, TeslaConsole/TeslaLauncher session control; still runs in pods, still a LAN |
+| **Red Planet 4.12** | **This repo: the Steamification of 4.11** — the same engine, the same wire protocol, the same missions, made distributable on Steam and playable over the internet with no cockpit hardware |
 
-## Goals
+The architecture is deliberately conservative: the VWE's design survives
+intact, with each pod-era dependency replaced by a consumer equivalent
+behind the engine's existing seams.
 
-1. **Steam distribution** — Steamworks integration, SteamPipe builds, store-ready packaging.
-2. **Internet multiplayer** — take the engine's LAN-era WinSock networking online
-   (NAT traversal, matchmaking, latency tolerance).
-3. **No cockpit required** — keyboard / mouse / gamepad input and on-screen
-   replacements for the pod's RIO panel and plasma display, drawing on
-   [vRIO](https://gitea.mysticmachines.com/VWE/VRIO.git).
-4. **Self-hosted sessions** — in-game race setup/join replacing the operator-driven
-   [TeslaConsole](https://gitea.mysticmachines.com/VWE/TeslaSuite.git) flow.
+| Arcade (4.10/4.11) | 4.12 replacement |
+|--------------------|------------------|
+| RIO cockpit board (serial) | **PadRIO** — virtual RIO from XInput pad + keyboard, fully rebindable (`bindings.txt`, vRIO profile format) |
+| Seven physical displays | **Single-window cockpit** — all displays composed on a locked 1920×1080 canvas around the viewscreen, with the real button banks lamp-lit and clickable |
+| Pod button lamps | On-screen lamps, plus an **RGB keyboard mirror** (Windows Dynamic Lighting) |
+| TeslaConsole operator | **In-game front end** — race setup menu builds the mission egg locally; an in-process console marshals every race (missions still only end on a console stop, exactly as designed in 1994) |
+| TeslaLauncher relaunch-per-mission | **Single binary** — menu → race → results → menu in one process |
+| WinSock TCP LAN mesh | **NetTransport seam** — the deterministic pod mesh unchanged, running over plain TCP (LAN/dev) or **Steam Networking Sockets** (FakeIP + Steam Datagram Relay) |
+| Site network / fixed IPs | **Steam lobbies** — lobby owner is the console; members exchange FakeIPs and loadouts as lobby data |
 
-See [docs/RP412-ROADMAP.md](docs/RP412-ROADMAP.md) for the plan and the
-Steam-multiplayer logistics.
+**Status: it works.** Release
+[v4.12.2](https://gitea.mysticmachines.com/VWE/RP412/releases/tag/v4.12.2)
+carries the first verified end-to-end internet build: three machines, three
+Steam accounts, lobby → mesh → marshaled five-minute race → deaths and
+respawns → timed stop → results on every machine → rematch from the same
+lobby.
+
+## Playing
+
+Grab the release zip (or run `pack-dist.ps1` on a build). Single player:
+run `start-windowed.bat` — the game boots into the race setup menu. Steam
+multiplayer: see
+[docs/STEAM-3-MACHINE-TEST.md](docs/STEAM-3-MACHINE-TEST.md) (until RP412
+has its own AppID it runs under Spacewar, 480).
+
+The two config files beside the exe are self-documenting: **environ.ini**
+(every engine option, commented) and **bindings.txt** (every key, pad
+button, and axis; written with the full default layout on first run).
+Default controls: numpad flies (8/2/4/6 stick, 7/9 pedals, 0 trigger),
+Shift/Ctrl throttle, Alt reverse, arrows look, Space fires, letter rows
+are the MFD button banks as printed on the panel. **Alt+Q** aborts a
+mission.
 
 ## Building
 
-Unchanged from 4.11 for now — see [BUILD.md](BUILD.md)
-(VS 2005/2008 + DirectX SDK June 2010, `Release|Win32`, output `Release\rpl4opt.exe`).
-Toolchain modernization is a roadmap item.
+**VS 2022 (v143)** + DirectX SDK June 2010 + the vendored Steamworks SDK
+(`extern/steamworks_sdk_164`) — see [BUILD.md](BUILD.md). Solution
+`WinTesla.sln`, configuration `Release|Win32`, output
+`Release\rpl4opt.exe`.
+
+## Documentation
+
+| Doc | Contents |
+|-----|----------|
+| [docs/RP412-ROADMAP.md](docs/RP412-ROADMAP.md) | The original plan and workstreams |
+| [docs/RP412-FRONTEND-DESIGN.md](docs/RP412-FRONTEND-DESIGN.md) | TeslaConsole analysis, the egg format, the console protocol, and the Steam mapping — with status notes as each layer landed |
+| [docs/STEAM-3-MACHINE-TEST.md](docs/STEAM-3-MACHINE-TEST.md) | Multiplayer test procedure, Steam Input notes, the abort key |
+| [BUILD.md](BUILD.md) | Toolchain and build steps |
+
+Dev tooling: `tools/two-pod-test.ps1` races two pods on loopback,
+marshaled by a console feeder speaking the arcade Munga protocol.
 
 ## Related repositories
 
 | Repo | Role |
 |------|------|
-| [RP411](https://gitea.mysticmachines.com/VWE/RP411.git) | Upstream arcade source (this repo's base) |
-| [VRIO](https://gitea.mysticmachines.com/VWE/VRIO.git) | Virtual RIO panel + vPLASMA display — input bindings and display emulation to fold in |
-| [TeslaSuite](https://gitea.mysticmachines.com/VWE/TeslaSuite.git) | TeslaConsole / Launcher / vPOD — the arcade session-control stack 4.12 replaces (and a reference for the Munga control protocol, TCP 1501) |
+| [RP411](https://gitea.mysticmachines.com/VWE/RP411.git) | Upstream: the Win32 arcade port this repo Steamifies (full history preserved; remote `rp411` for cross-pulling fixes) |
+| [VRIO](https://gitea.mysticmachines.com/VWE/VRIO.git) | Virtual RIO panel + vPLASMA — source of the bindings format, the cockpit layout, and the keyboard lamp mirror |
+| [TeslaSuite](https://gitea.mysticmachines.com/VWE/TeslaSuite.git) | TeslaConsole / Launcher / vPOD — the arcade session-control stack 4.12 absorbed (and the reference implementation of the Munga control protocol, TCP 1501) |

RP_L4/RPL4.CPP

@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpCmdLine
       fclose(file);
    }
 
-   DEBUG_STREAM << "Red Planet 4.12.1" << std::endl << std::flush;
+   DEBUG_STREAM << "Red Planet 4.12.2" << std::endl << std::flush;
    DEBUG_STREAM << "L4CONTROLS=" << getenv("L4CONTROLS") << std::endl << std::flush;
 
 #ifdef RP412_STEAM

RP_L4/RPL4LOBBY.cpp

@@ -665,6 +665,10 @@ int
 	gCallDone = False;
 	SteamMatchmaking()->AddRequestLobbyListStringFilter(
 		kLobbyTagKey, "1", k_ELobbyComparisonEqual);
+	// the default lobby search is distance-filtered (roughly same
+	// region) - RP412 races are worldwide
+	SteamMatchmaking()->AddRequestLobbyListDistanceFilter(
+		k_ELobbyDistanceFilterWorldwide);
 	SteamAPICall_t call = SteamMatchmaking()->RequestLobbyList();
 	gCalls.listResult.Set(call, &gCalls, &LobbyCalls::OnList);
 	if (!WaitForCall(15000))

pack-dist.ps1

@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 # ============================================================================
-#  pack-dist.ps1 — assemble a runnable Red Planet 4.12 package into dist\
+#  pack-dist.ps1 - assemble a runnable Red Planet 4.12 package into dist\
 # ============================================================================
 #
 #  Collects everything the game needs at run time:
 #    - Release\rpl4opt.exe (+ .pdb for crash debugging)
 #    - game data from assets\RP411 (AUDIO, GAUGE, VIDEO, INIs, RPL4.RES,
-#      TEST.EGG) — but not the arcade launch scripts or the old 4.10 exe
+#      TEST.EGG) - but not the arcade launch scripts or the old 4.10 exe
 #    - libsndfile-1.dll beside the exe; OpenAL32.dll copied from the system
 #      when installed, with oalinst.exe included as the fallback installer
 #    - a desktop environ.ini (PAD;KEYBOARD controls, on-screen plasma)
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ start rpl4opt.exe -windowed -res 1920 1080
 "@
 
 Set-Content -Path "$dist\README.txt" -Encoding ascii -Value @"
-Red Planet 4.12.1
+Red Planet 4.12.2
 =================
 
 Run start-windowed.bat (or: rpl4opt.exe -windowed -res 800 600 -egg TEST.EGG).
@@ -223,7 +223,7 @@ $size = (Get-ChildItem $dist -Recurse | Measure-Object Length -Sum).Sum
 Write-Host ("dist ready: {0:N1} MB" -f ($size / 1MB))
 
 if ($Zip) {
-    $zipPath = Join-Path $root 'RedPlanet-4.12.1.zip'
+    $zipPath = Join-Path $root 'RedPlanet-4.12.2.zip'
     Write-Host "zipping to $zipPath..."
     Compress-Archive -Path "$dist\*" -DestinationPath $zipPath -Force
 }