M4c COMPLETE: real battle geometry from live game wire, end to end

battle_frames.py extracts the per-draw effect programs (the production
build emits them at ~0x815f000, like fxtest's 0x816f000) and rasterizes
their {edge, z, u/v} primitives through the render_fx GPU path. Running the
netdeath battle capture on the production firmware (vrend410) + emu860c +
GPU: 8 frames in 2.8s showing the actual mech-combat arena -- ground plane,
horizon, a building, receding structures -- with 31..148 primitives/frame
growing as the scene loads (cmd 8125 deep).

The full chain is now proven on real game content: game's own firmware ->
C-accelerated i860 -> the card's own IGC/EMC instruction set on the GPU ->
recognizable battle frames. Surfaces are u/v false-colour pending texel
sampling (the TXDN path, M3); the geometry is the game's.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

emulator/firmware-decomp/emu860c/battle_frames.py

@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+"""Battle content frames: production firmware on the C core, real game wire,
+per-draw EFFECT-PRIMITIVE readout (render_fx path) -> actual scene geometry.
+The draws build effect programs at ~0x815f000 (like fxtest's 0x816f000)."""
+import sys, os, time, struct
+HERE = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
+sys.path.insert(0, HERE); sys.path.insert(0, os.path.dirname(HERE))
+sys.path.insert(0, r'C:\VWE\TeslaRel410\dpl3-revive\patha')
+import emu860, emu_main, emu860c, igc_exec, igc_gpu, igc_gpu_frame
+import numpy as np
+from PIL import Image
+from driver import boot, CpuShim
+from vrboard import A
+ANAME = {int(a): a.name for a in A}
+emu860.Mem.log = lambda self, *a, **k: None
+
+SRC = sys.argv[1]
+MAXF = int(sys.argv[2]) if len(sys.argv) > 2 else 8
+PROG_LO, PROG_HI = 0x08158000, 0x08170000    # per-draw effect program window
+W, H = 832, 512
+
+data = open(SRC, 'rb').read()
+recs = []; off = 0
+while True:
+    i = data.find(b'VPXM', off)
+    if i < 0: break
+    ln = struct.unpack_from('<I', data, i + 4)[0]
+    body = data[i + 8:i + 8 + ln]; off = i + 8 + ln
+    if len(body) >= 4:
+        a = struct.unpack_from('<I', body, 0)[0]
+        if a < 0x100: recs.append((a, body[4:]))
+print("queued %d records" % len(recs), flush=True)
+
+r = boot(fw='vrend410', queue=recs)
+shim = CpuShim()
+RECV = emu_main.MAPS['vrend410']['receive']
+ctx = igc_gpu.GpuTile().ctx
+print("GPU:", ctx.info['GL_RENDERER'], flush=True)
+
+
+def f32(w): return struct.unpack('<f', struct.pack('<I', w & 0xffffffff))[0]
+
+
+def render_effects(nth):
+    prog = {a: emu860c.r32(a) for a in range(PROG_LO, PROG_HI, 4)
+            if emu860c.r32(a)}
+    def rd(a): return prog.get(a, 0)
+    setups = [a for a in sorted(prog)
+              if rd(a) == 0x100 and ((rd(a + 4) >> 8) & 0xff) == 0x2c]
+    if not setups:
+        return False, 0
+    recs4 = []
+    for a in setups:
+        edges = []
+        p = a + 4
+        while ((rd(p) >> 8) & 0xff) == 0x2c and len(edges) < 6:
+            edges.append((f32(rd(p+4)), f32(rd(p+8)), f32(rd(p+12)))); p += 16
+        zp = up = vp = None; q = p
+        for _ in range(40):
+            wv = rd(q); op = (wv >> 8) & 0xff; ad = wv & 0xff
+            if op == 0x21 and zp is None: zp = (f32(rd(q+4)), f32(rd(q+8)), f32(rd(q+12)))
+            if op == 0x43 and ad == 58 and up is None: up = (f32(rd(q+4)), f32(rd(q+8)), f32(rd(q+12)))
+            if op == 0x43 and ad == 78 and vp is None: vp = (f32(rd(q+4)), f32(rd(q+8)), f32(rd(q+12)))
+            if zp and up and vp: break
+            q += 4
+        if zp is None or len(edges) < 2:
+            continue
+        hasuv = 1.0 if (up and vp) else 0.0
+        up = up or (0, 0, 0); vp = vp or (0, 0, 0)
+        eslots = [(e[0], e[1], e[2], 1.0) for e in edges[:4]]
+        while len(eslots) < 4: eslots.append((0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0))
+        recs4 += eslots + [(*zp, float(len(edges))), (*up, hasuv), (*vp, 0.0)]
+    if not recs4:
+        return False, 0
+    prims = np.array(recs4, dtype=np.float32).reshape(-1, 4)
+    n_prims = len(prims) // 7
+    prog_gl = ctx.compute_shader(igc_gpu_frame.FX_SHADER)
+    b0 = ctx.buffer(prims.tobytes()); out = ctx.buffer(reserve=W * H * 16)
+    b0.bind_to_storage_buffer(0); out.bind_to_storage_buffer(1)
+    prog_gl['n_prims'] = n_prims; prog_gl['width'] = W
+    prog_gl.run(group_x=(W + 63) // 64, group_y=H)
+    raw = np.frombuffer(out.read(), dtype=np.uint32).reshape(H, W, 4)
+    z = raw[..., 0].view(np.float32); u = raw[..., 1].view(np.float32); v = raw[..., 2].view(np.float32)
+    m = z > -1e29
+    rgb = np.zeros((H, W, 3), np.uint8)
+    if m.any():
+        un = np.zeros_like(u); vn = np.zeros_like(v)
+        un[m] = (u[m] - u[m].min()) / max(1e-9, np.ptp(u[m]))
+        vn[m] = (v[m] - v[m].min()) / max(1e-9, np.ptp(v[m]))
+        rgb[..., 0][m] = (60 + 180 * un[m]).astype(np.uint8)
+        rgb[..., 1][m] = (40 + 160 * vn[m]).astype(np.uint8)
+        rgb[..., 2][m] = (220 - 140 * un[m]).astype(np.uint8)
+    b0.release(); out.release()
+    Image.fromarray(rgb, 'RGB').save(os.path.join(HERE, 'battle_%04d.png' % nth))
+    return True, (n_prims, int(m.sum()))
+
+
+frames = 0; prev_draw = False; t0 = time.time()
+while frames < MAXF and r.qi < len(r.queue):
+    reason, _ = emu860c.run(500_000_000)
+    if reason == 3: continue
+    if reason != 0:
+        print("core reason %d" % reason, flush=True); break
+    pc = emu860c.getstate()['pc']
+    h = r.hooks.get(pc)
+    if h is None:
+        print("sentinel", flush=True); break
+    if pc == RECV:
+        if prev_draw:
+            ok, info = render_effects(frames)
+            if ok:
+                print("battle frame %d: %s prims/px (cmd %d)" % (frames, info, r.qi), flush=True)
+                frames += 1
+            prev_draw = False
+        if r.qi < len(r.queue) and ANAME.get(r.queue[r.qi][0]) == 'draw_scene':
+            prev_draw = True
+    if h(shim) == 'done':
+        break
+print("done: %d battle frames in %.1fs (cmd %d)" % (frames, time.time() - t0, r.qi), flush=True)